With the Bush tax cuts set to expire at the end of December, there has been much talk about what to do. Republicans, of course, want to make the tax cuts permanent. Democrats, President Obama included,want to see the tax cuts expire for the rich, and make them permanent for the poor.

What needs to be realized is that our country will not see the kind of wealth we experienced over the past 50 years for at least another generation. There has been talk of American plutocracy and an aristocracy, and for good reason. As I’ve written before, if you didn’t cash in while the going was good, chances are you didn’t deserve to. With the economy on the verge of a double dip, it shows how further economic restructuring is necessary. This means a large removal of the quondam “middle class” into the lower body of society. The one-time “upper-middle class will become the upper class, eventually edging into the elite aristocracy (upwards of $250,000), or a much smaller middle class that will persevere as small business owners and entrepreneurs ($80-$100,000).

By extending the tax cuts, this new class structure will more easily emerge, and we will not be fooling ourselves. We will then be able to reform taxes in another few years, when the economy is on a better footing, and people are more sure of where they stand.