As the world divides more dramatically between the very rich and the very poor with fewer and fewer people in between, certain companies are thriving.  Manufacturing for the rich is still highly profitable.  This hit home when the CEO of Bayer said recently that Bayer’s new anti-cancer drug would cost $69,000 a year, over forty times the annual income of an Indian.  Of course, remarked CEO Marjin Dekkers, this new drug was not developed for poor people.

In the US with attrition high in the middle class, manufacturers have given up making products that appeal to the average family, and are now pitching mostly to the upper end of the income scale.

How many companies will fail as they manufacture out of their comfort zone?  Can any healthy economy survive without a middle class?  Conventional wisdom says that the rich can only spend so much of their money and the poor can’t spend at all.  Without the middle, the flow of goods and services becomes sluggish as best.