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A Lost Decade Into The Great Middle Class Poverty?
By EconMatters
In yet another sign that the Great Recession cuts deep and long--the number of Americans living below the official poverty line reached 46.2 million, the highest in 52 years since the Census Bureau started tracking the figures in 1959. The overall poverty rate also climbed to a 17-year high at 15.1%, which means 1 in 6 Americans are living below poverty line largely due to the high unemployment and underemployment rate. The official poverty line for 2010 is defined as an annual income of $22,314 for a family of four, and $11,139 for an individual.
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| Chart Source: The Census Bureau |
The Census Bureau's annual report released on Tuesday, Sept. 13 gives a very grim snapshot of American households in 2010. As the U.S. economy expanded 3% in 2010, and corporations reported good profits, the gains are not trickling down to workers. The median household income in 2010 dropped to $49,445, which is virtually unchanged from the level in 1997. Overall, household income has fallen by 6.4% since the recession began in December 2007. (Ok, who was the one declared that the recession "officially" ended in June 2009?)
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| Chart Source: The Economic Policy Institute |
Moreover, income inequality across households also increased between 2009 and 2010. According to CNNMoney, adjusted for inflation, the middle-income family only earned 11% more in 2010 than they did in 1980, while the richest 5% in America saw their incomes surge 42%.
NYT quoted Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard University that
“This is truly a lost decade. We think of America as a place where every generation is doing better, but we’re looking at a period when the median family is in worse shape than it was in the late 1990s.”
But the worse news is that experts are saying this year is unlikely to get any better. There are quite a few factors and triggering events that could push even more families and individuals over the poverty edge this year.
The Census Bureau estimated that new unemployment benefits passed in 2009, which extended payment-period up to 99 weeks for laid-off workers, helped 3.2 million stay above the poverty line. Social Security kept about 20.3 million, seniors as well as working-age adults receiving disability payments, out of poverty.
But as the government stimulus money largely dried up, the 99-week unemployment benefit is due to run out this year if not extended. Some in Congress have proposed cutting social programs, while state and local governments are cutting jobs and budgets at an accelerated pace.
The nation's unemployment rate has hovered around 9% for more than two years. The total number of unemployed has grown to more than 14 million as of August 2011. Based on the estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, the jobs gap is estimated to be 11.1 million as of July 2011, and the pace of new jobs came to a screeching halt in August, which basically suggests downward income mobility.
All these events partly supports a separate analysis by the Brookings Institution that at the current rate, the recession will have added nearly 10 million people to the poor by the middle of the decade (which is only about 4 years away).
As if the U.S. has not had enough problems of its own, the potential Euro Zone sovereign debt crisis, if not contained, could pose as a potential threat of another global Lehman-like financial crisis. U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner already went for an unprecedented meeting with Euro Zone finance ministers as talk of a potential Greek debt default and pressure on Italy could roil Europe's banking sector as well as its economy.
While President Obama is pressing the bloc's big countries to show leadership, the U.S. actually is in dire need of extraordinary leadership with a sharp strategic focus to turn the country around. That, unfortunately, is something we have witnessed neither in the current Administration, nor in the handful of future presidential candidates.
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Ron Paul is no superman, but he's closer to it than any of the others. If you won't vote for him, then give it to Obama and help get this trainwreck over quickly.
That actually would be a smarter thing to do.
Go ahead and rip the band-aid off and fight the infection before it gangrenes and you lose eveything.
Voting for Obama just might be the best rebellion idea short of armed rebellion.
Of course....as the Who sang.....
Meet the New Boss.....same as the Old Boss.
All I can say is DUH. And ship all the jobs to China. Who's bright idea was that?
So someone start a class-action lawsuit to get a judgement from the courts on this : Constitution vs. Vested interests
Proverbs 22:22-23 (New Living Translation)
"Don't rob the poor just because you can, or exploit the needy in court.
For the LORD is their defender. He will ruin anyone who ruins them."
Proverbs 23:10-11
"Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you."
Psalm 94 (KJV)
O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.
Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.
LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?
[How long] shall they utter [and] speak hard things? [and] all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.
They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.
Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard [it].
Understand, ye brutish among the people: and [ye] fools, when will ye be wise?
He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?
He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, [shall not he know]?
The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they [are] vanity.
Blessed [is] the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;
That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.
For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.
Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? [or] who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?
Unless the LORD [had been] my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.
When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.
In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.
Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?
They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.
But the LORD is my defence; and my God [is] the rock of my refuge.
And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; [yea], the LORD our God shall cut them off.
More history to depress you all.......
"All the perplexities, confusions, and distresses in America arise, not from defects in the Constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, as much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation." - John Quincy Adams
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." - Abraham Lincoln, from a November 21, 1864 letter to Colonel William F. Elkins
"But if in the pursuit of the means we should unfortunately stumble again on unfunded paper money or any similar species of fraud, we shall assuredly give a fatal stab to our national credit in its infancy. Paper money will invariably operate in the body of politics as spirit liquors on the human body. They prey on the vitals and ultimately destroy them. Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice." , George Washington in a letter to Jabez Bowen, Rhode Island, Jan. 9, 1787
"Congress [not private banks] shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof." - Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution.
"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance." - James Madison
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power of money should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs." - Thomas Jefferson
"The bold effort the Second National Bank of the U.S. had made to control government and the distress it has wantonly produced are but premonitions of the fate that awaits the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution or the establishment of another like it." - Andrew Jackson
"The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution. I am an enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but coin. If the American people allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson.
Again.... the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
AGAIN !!!!..... the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
AND AGAIN!!!!!!........ the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
And one more time for good measure.....
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.....in response to an inquiry into Shay's Rebellion.
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Sam Adams
Americans are dumb sheep that are brainwashed by Al Waleed/Rothschild TV. They own all the networks. Do the research. Al Waleed = Saudi Arabia. He is an aerrand boy for his uncle the King. TV was the best tool for manipulation ever invented. Until the sheep shut it off for good - they will remain serfs.
An individual making $8500 a year in Ohio is far more wealthy than a guy making $25k.
The guy making $25 doesn't qualify for a single governmnt program. The guy making $8500 qualifies for everything. Free healthcare, subsidized housing, subsidized utilities, Snap, EIC, and a host of other programs that can add up to over $100k in benefits per year.
In many cases those that are defined as living in poverty actually live much better than members of the low half of the middle class.
You'll see more brand new cars in East Cleveland than my middle class neighborhood. My poor uncle makes $12 an hour and will never tak a government handout because he doesn't believe in it. It pains me to see him struggling while a welfare case eats 20oz steaks every night.
There is true poverty in America but the idea that those who make up the bulk of the statistic live in anything that resembles poverty is a fallacy. The new welfare projects make my home look like a West Virgnia shack.
Do you also write longer-form fiction?
the term "middle class" is one of the most misused in the english language. The term used to have conotations with: "comfortable, have a house, can support a family, enjoy holidays and luxuries, doesn't need to get hands dirty, can employ other people, play golf, have a decent car, eat in nice restaurants...etc etc
Likewise, "working class" used to mean: works for a living, organised labour, chimney sweeps, soot, charles dickens, getting hands dirty, effort, hard work, struggle, community, going to sports matches
I'm from London, 28 years old, and told constantly I'm middle class. I live in a rented room that costs a third of my salary (transport and food take up around another 25%). Meenwhile families from packistan, somalia, poland, uganda, and 3rd generation uk families who have never woked a day get free houses, healthcare, education, and money, big screen TVs, food, and never get their hands dirty - these people are called "working class", the disadvantaged. So in the new paradigm - the middle class gets their hands dirty, does all the work; while the working class do no work and sit around making babies for profit...
Poor people are the ones who work 60 hours a week just to get by.
yes, the ones who get buy without working on government handouts have their time free - they're less phsically and mentally abused. "working class people" are now better off than "middle class people"
And yet your poor ol uncle like you will do nothing about it other than bitch and moan and occasionally, uselessly vote for some useless yahoo who says he can make it morning in America again.
Unless you and your poor ol uncle pick up the gun and do something about it.....I would suggest you get fired or take an even lower paying job to get all those government benefits the other folks are getting.
In fact, it just may be the best form of rebellion. Imagine if the 10's of millions of middle class got themselves fired or otherwised qualified for benefits you could finally sink the whole stinking carcass that once was called America.
And then we could finally reboot.
But that's probably too radical for you and your uncle and the whole mass of uselessly bitching American Middle Class.
Your forefathers fought and died with the gun against the tyranny of King George.
If you will not honor that memory against an even more pernicious, widespread tyranny of our own Government the least all you could do is hop on the Government bandwagon and bring it down from the shear weight of the increased debt load.
You want to destroy the crony government and the corrupt banks....that would be one way of doing it.
And none of you would have to be labeled a terrorist and go to jail....much less die.....like our Founding Fathers and the original Patriots did...for you.
Agreed. Collect unenjoyment. Drain the Beast's funds.
now im not pro union... but when i was a kid there were alot of union jobs... guys working overtime like it was nothing...
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boats, wives, houses, families, jobs.... INDUSTRY.... nice guys
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these days seem like theres less wives
Silent Weapons For Silent Wars...
WalMart killed the non-publicly held merchant class of America.
Federal Reserved killed bank certificates of deposit by loaning funds so cheaply direct to banks which they did not do before the mid-90s. Most who had amassed enough capital to buy CDs could no longer obtain even a 2% rate so had to "invest" in markets that were no longer more than daytrading auction houses. The various tech and other crashes from the mid-90s onward were a means of capital confiscation bringing ruin to those who thought the stock markets were still what they had been in the 60s before the 70s horse-lattitudes set in.
The Real Estate Fraud perpetrated via collateralized securities which were not done with sufficient professionalism or fiduciary duty to preserve mortgagees title integrity was the capper on the ruination.
Ruin-Nation.
Nothing by accident.
No bad luck or simple stupidity.
Nobody could screw things up so completely unless they totally intended upon doing so from the very outset.
Middle-Class is ruined. Those who think they're exempt because they've been smarter or worked harder, or whatever are in denial. The one fact of life you can't change is: You Can't Do Business With People Who Don't Have Any Money...
you can't do business with people who don't have any money.
brillent
i have just posted almost the excat same on another site, it was good to see the echo here, maybe folk will wake up and see itt soon, but i doubt it, it's all self interest and never mutual self interest. henry ford must be laughing at us now
They are controlled by TV. They turned all their power over to TV. It is all the same and controlled by the elites. Until tens of millions shut it off for good - nothing will change. It will never happen. Anyone who tries to change it is destroyed by the media. See the Tea Party.
Too big to fail keeps partying on... Until thier gps leads them to the wrong side of the tracks.
Those are sobering statistics. No wonder the Fed is trying to pump the stock markets. That is the only way those elitist shills know how to create "wealth" for the wealthy in this country... whilst the middle class chokes on higher food and energy prices with their diluted US Dollars.
100% FUBAR.
Finally, somebody understands how the elitist transferred all the money from the middle class to themselves.
And dam, don't tax those billionaires who were millionairs a decade ago.
One needs to know. Yachts cost alot of money to fuel up and maintain.
Fuck Pulling the plug on Grandma, (heard that somewhere), just don't plug her in. Problem solved.
We are "Worse than Japan now." Unless, we reinstate the middle class. America has nothing.
Yo....so what. In America even the poor people are FAT, so shit can't be all THAT bad. Plus we got cable, WWF, iphones, Eminem, ipods, tattoos n' shit. So stop the hatin'.
I wonder how many more people actually live in poverty in the U.S.
If you add in all the people who have dropped out of sight and are not
counted including many of the mentally ill who roam the streets and
if you adjusted the income for real inflation, not massaged numbers
that are reported, I believe the % of people living below the poverty
level is much higher.
But if you own a fridge and live in a flat with a window you're rich, right?
Agreed. Which inflation statistics were used?
The BulLShit or shadowstats?
Was the povery line taken from a more realistic time, and adjusted for inflation too? Or is that taken from the government's?
By the way, the dole in Australia is ~$13,000 (~250/w). Check it for yourself: centrelink.gov.au
62% of previous income for a maximum of 52 weeks plus if you can find 36 hours work a month you are allowed to keep that money anything over 36 hours is deducted from your dole payments
i was laid off for three months but i had a part time job and it was not painful but you think hard about what happens after the 52 weeks
Also the implication is a little misleading.
Each recession shows a drop, and then a rally.
The first recession on the chart lasted about 5 years and dropped around 7%.
Looking at that graph, One would expect the 'norm' to take over. The recession will therefore end in 2013, and rally strongly to 2018.
Of course, we all know the fundamentals are totally different now.
Worse yet, think about all the military who return to nothing and kill themselves.
It is shameful when we have more rich bastards here than the world deserves.
To think, Lloyd Blankfein got paid a 100 million dollar bonus on the back's of taxpayer bailouts. (In just one year alone)
Where the hell is the outrage and clawbacks. They want to bust labor's contracts, then start busting Banker's contracts
from the likes of Lehman, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Shitty bank and the likes.
They auctioned off Bernie Madoff's crap. How about doing it to those I listed.
The crime is the same. And not one of them are in Jail. They make the idiot from Tyco look like a angel.
Have you not heard of crime with out punisment? It is well know that the rich can get away with murder. Just watch the motion picture Chicago, and look at the Kennedies or O.J. Simpson. It's not right, but it is the way it is in the USA.
Son sit still and quiet, fold your hands nicely and listen..........
IT'S CALLED THE AMERICAN WAY.....
Got it?
Don't lump the rich who actually create jobs,services, and tangible goods to those damned Wall Street bankers. If someone created a company that provides useful goods and services that betters the world, then they deserve to be rich. There are very few rich people in Cambodia, Latvia, and Zimbabwe. Would you rather we be more like them? Yes, throw the criminal finance people in prison, but don't throw productive people under the bus like Prezdent Zero constantly does in his tirades
I not talking about people who create jobs. But don't lump the rich elitist, (fraudulently lumped as job creators), who should get their asses taxed off for not creating jobs.
The tax cuts of the Bush era lost over 6 million jobs. That experiment was a total failure. The problem with our America is the middle class has been so squeezed they can not afford to buy stuff. All extra cash goes for food and gas. These people have NO DEMAND for growth to occur.
Exactly how did " the rich who actually create jobs,services, and tangible goods ", get their original loans to start those businesses....hhmmmmm...??
"Those damned Wall Street bankers."
They sure as hell didn't print their own money now did they. They all from the very beginning of their little paper routes as a kid, learning the ropes of what it takes to provide a service, to work for one's self...to save up and invest, to then start a business....they all from the beginning accepted in their own little hands a rectangular piece of fabric known as a Federal Reserve Note......printed up by a Banker....circulated the world over....by "damn Wall Street Bankers"
And speaking of the Federal Reserve....that's an unconstitutional bank. So every one who has ever started a business, creating tangible goods and is not a damn Wall Street banker is still a whore for taking illegal fiat currency, printed up by an illegal bank and loaned out by damn Wall Street bankers.
Nobody is clean in this game. Nobody.
Venture Capitalist provided the money at the start. Later part of the company is sold to the pubic in the form of stock.
And Venture Capitalisst got all of their rectangular pieces of fabric fiat known as Federal Reserve Notes from the Federal Reserve...an illegal and unconstitutional banking cartel.
Once again....nobody's clean in this fetid system.
And to your very valid point rocker about the shame of having out brave military men and women come back to a country in complete shambles...
read this bit of history and weep....for it began at the beginning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays%27_Rebellion
Shay's Rebellion actually inspired Thomas Jefferson to pen his famous words where he stated "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
In other words, Jefferson supported armed and violent rebellion by impoverished and unjustly prosecuted soldiers against their own country.
Shortly after Shay's Rebellion came the push for a stronger Federal Government and the centralization of its power. In the words of George Washington...the problem with the Articles of Confederation was "no money". 4 mont's after Shay's Rebellion was put down, the Constitution was created and the following year was ratified.
And the rights of the States, of individuals living in those states, and indeed, the rights of the entire country began to be suffocated by the centralization of power by the Federal Government. And to think we spent TRILLIONS of dollars defeating the worse form of central planning....namely Communism.....when we have allowed the Constitution to do an American version of the centralization of power since 1787.
Not to mention the centralization of money creation through a Federalized Banking Cartel known as the Federal Reserve......which by the way...according to Supreme Court after Supreme court challenge and Congress after Congress and President after President is deemed...."CONSTITUTIONAL."
Now....if this info did not depress you enough....have a gander at the history of another rebellion against our early Federal Government over the collapse of a Ponzi Scheme mainly due to real estate and fiat currency.
Namely the Whiskey Rebellion...
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whiskey_Rebellion
The conflict was rooted in western dissatisfaction with various policies of the eastern-based national government. The name of the uprising comes from a 1791 excise tax on whiskey that was a central grievance of the westerners. The tax was a part of treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton's program to centralize and fund the national debt.
Read that again.,.,....."CENTRALIZE AND FUND THE NATIONAL DEBT."
BY THE CREATOR OF THE FIRST FEDERAL BANK (THE FORERUNNER OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE) ALEXANDER HAMILTON.....THE TIMOTHY GEITHNER OF HIS TIME !!!
The American Dream.....indeed....the universal dream of freedom.....was doomed from the very beginning by the elites and the financiers and the bankers.
And you bozos think that Ron Paul can turn it all around........ROTHFLMAO !!!!!!!