Middle Class

Mark Alan Hughes wrote provocatively about what he sees as Philadelphia's need to attract more "rich" citizens (OpEd, Nov. 13). But citizenship in a city, a state or a country is not just a cost/benefit analysis. It is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify contribution and reward, even by class. The rich certainly pay more in taxes than they receive in direct benefits from the government. But this analysis ignores the more important rules governing wealth accumulation, like capital gains, inheritance, tax shelters, etc. The middle/working classes also pay more than they get out of this civic contract, and are certainly the most pressed.

Panama's middle class is leading a fast-spreading but peaceful revolt to drive military strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega out of politics and end years of military dominance here. The campaign has gathered steam since June 7, when Noriega's former second-in-command, Col. Roberto Diaz Herrera, accused him of complicity in crimes ranging from drug-running and political murder to electoral fraud. Since then, discontent has found noisy expression in huge car caravans that have converged on Panama City's main thoroughfares three times a day. While car horns blared, people waved white handkerchiefs and banged pots and pans.

Even as the Senate prepares to pass a sweeping tax-revision bill this week, many Democrats are voicing increasing discomfort with the bill's treatment of the middle class. Most plan to vote for the massive overhaul of the tax code, which would eliminate a host of deductions, exclusions and tax shelters and raise corporate taxes by $100 billion to pay for a simplified two-rate tax structure. But the concerns of these Democrats are likely to grab center stage when House and Senate conferees sit down to work out a final version of the bill next month.

A subsidized housing project intended to bring the middle class back to Camden is in danger of losing its federal funding, delaying indefinitely one of the city's grand plans to transform its image as a monolith of the poor. John J. Sheridan, the original developer for Mickle Commons, a plan for 45 Colonial-style townhouses in South Camden, has not been able to secure $2.9 million in private construction financing, city officials said this week. The Department of Housing and Urban Development had approved a $675,000 grant for the project but had given the city until Sept.

Gliceria and Aniceto de Guzman locked the door behind them and headed off to work early one morning last week, the very picture of middle-class Manila. But their middle-class appearance is deceptive. Life for people like them is hard - and those who plotted this month's coup against President Corazon C. Aquino knew that better than anyone. The de Guzmans, both 33, live in a crowded neighborhood of narrow streets and open sewers, where squatters shanties fill empty lots between the larger, permanent homes.

AMERICAN WORKERS ARE LAZY In response to your excellent series on the economy, I would like to shed different light on the picture. As a man who has hired and fired hundreds of people in my career, as well as having been laid off twice myself, I can say that, as a broad generality the average American worker is lazy, inefficient, prone to dishonesty, disparaging of his job and employer. American workers are a pain in the neck to utilize and manage, and they have contributed in large part to their own demise in corporate America.

In 1984, the last time Republicans convened in Texas, Nelson Bunker Hunt erected an air-conditioned tent big enough to hold 1,800 people who attended a barbecue at his Dallas ranch. Eight years later, Hunt is bankrupt. The Texas economy is humbled. The United States is in recession. And, befitting the mood of the '90s, the Republican National Convention is a more muted production. Limousines, ball gowns, tuxedos and other trapping of conspicuous consumption are in short supply, part of a calculated strategy by convention planners to portray the Republicans as a party of the people.

It has helped expand the federal budget deficit, threatened to topple state budgets, and earned the dubious distinction of being one of the nation's fastest-growing entitlement programs, with an annual price tag exceeding $150 billion. Under the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Medicaid is on the congressional cutting board, with some budget hawks going so far as to suggest dicing it up into 50 separate state programs and ending its status as an "entitlement. " Yet even as they seek to curtail Medicaid's growth, members of Congress are coming face to face with a little-known but politically explosive reality: Most people, including members of Congress, think of Medicaid as part of the welfare system, the part that finances health care for the poor.

Vice President Bush yesterday portrayed himself as the great economic friend of the middle class and criticized his opponent's call for "economic patriotism" as pure protectionism in disguise. In an address to the Executives' Club of Chicago, the Republican presidential candidate reiterated his opposition to any increase in taxes and his contention that the federal budget can be balanced through a "flexible freeze" on spending. Although it was billed as a major speech on economic policy, Bush's remarks were general and contained little, if anything, in the way of new proposals.

The megachurch is becoming a center of life for many middle-class African Americans. The trend toward huge, fast-growing, high-tech churches that began more than 20 years ago in predominantly white congregations spread to black churches about a decade ago. In the last couple of years, the number of such places of worship has surged to several hundred nationwide. Experts believe that they are now the fastest-growing type of American church. Although they are similar to white megachurches in size, the reasons for their growth are different.