Oh come on, that's what a lot, if not most, people have been calling it since it was announced.
Other than that, nothing you write contradicts the Guardian article (in fact, it more or less confirms it), and they're linking to some very public sources.
This is kind of weazily response that only marginally addresses the "wtf is going" question raised by the article, and on top of it tries to discredit the messenger. The latter is really in poor taste.
Yeah... the thing is, some of us have had a higher standard than that for generations and are now being sucked into the abyss of corruption under the flag of the EU.
The big difference is that in much of Western Europe, the combination of social security, healthcare, pensions, social housing, eduction costs, public transport etcetera means you don't rapidly fall out of the middle class even if you lose your job.
As a result, there's much less talk about the "decline of the middle class" in Europe. There has been no dramatic change.
You mean "buy from".
This is Google's core business. And I don't consider the NSA more creepy than Google's other customers.