The disappearing middle class

I will outsource this to James Fallows, who is quoting a German executive who, get this, was an Indian by birth--born in Madras (Chennai) ... aahh, the circular universe we will live in... the name of this executive, Bharat Balasubramanian, is such a typical Tamil brahmin name that maybe dad will tell me that he is some nth cousin or soemthing :)

"I will state that there will be a polarization of society here in the United States. People who are using their brains are moving up. Then you have another part of society that is doing services. These services will not be paid well. But you would need services. You would need restaurants, you would need cooks, you would need drivers et cetera. You will be losing your middle class.

"This I would not see in the same fashion in Europe, because the manufacturing base there today can compete anywhere, anytime with China or India. Because their productivity and skill sets more than offset their higher costs. You don't see this everywhere, but it's Germany, it's France, it's Sweden, it's Austria, it's Switzerland.... So I feel Europe still will have a middle level of people. They also have people who are very rich, they also have people doing services. But there is a balance. I don't see the balance here in the US."