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Half The Country Makes Less Than $27,520 A Year And 15 Other Signs The Middle Class Is Dying
Submitted by Michael Snyder of THe Economic Collapse blog,
If you make more than $27,520 a year at your job, you are doing better than half the country is. But you don't have to take my word for it, you can check out the latest wage statistics from the Social Security administration right here. But of course $27,520 a year will not allow you to live "the American Dream" in this day and age. After taxes, that breaks down to a good bit less than $2,000 a month. You can't realistically pay a mortgage, make a car payment, afford health insurance and provide food, clothing and everything else your family needs for that much money. That is one of the reasons why both parents are working in most families today. In fact, sometimes both parents are working multiple jobs in a desperate attempt to make ends meet. Over the years, the cost of living has risen steadily but our paychecks have not. This has resulted in a steady erosion of the middle class. Once upon a time, most American families could afford a nice home, a couple of cars and a nice vacation every year. When I was growing up, it seemed like almost everyone was middle class. But now "the American Dream" is out of reach for more Americans than ever, and the middle class is dying right in front of our eyes.
One of the things that was great about America in the post-World War II era was that we developed a large, thriving middle class. Until recent times, it always seemed like there were plenty of good jobs for people that were willing to be responsible and work hard. That was one of the big reasons why people wanted to come here from all over the world. They wanted to have a chance to live "the American Dream" too.
But now the American Dream is becoming a mirage for most people. No matter how hard they try, they just can't seem to achieve it.
And here are some hard numbers to back that assertion up. The following are 15 more signs that the middle class is dying...
#1 According to a brand new CNN poll, 59 percent of Americans believe that it has become impossible for most people to achieve the American Dream...
The American Dream is impossible to achieve in this country.
So say nearly 6 in 10 people who responded to CNNMoney's American Dream Poll, conducted by ORC International. They feel the dream -- however they define it -- is out of reach.
Young adults, age 18 to 34, are most likely to feel the dream is unattainable, with 63% saying it's impossible. This age group has suffered in the wake of the Great Recession, finding it hard to get good jobs.
#2 More Americans than ever believe that homeownership is not a key to long-term wealth and prosperity...
The great American Dream is dying. Even though many Americans still desire to own a home, they are losing faith in homeownership as a key to prosperity.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans, or 64%, believe they are less likely to build wealth by buying a home today than they were 20 or 30 years ago, according to a survey sponsored by non-profit MacArthur Foundation. And nearly 43% said buying a home is no longer a good long-term investment.
#3 Overall, the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen for eight years in a row, and it has now dropped to the lowest level in 19 years.
#4 52 percent of Americans cannot even afford the house that they are living in right now...
"Over half of Americans (52%) have had to make at least one major sacrifice in order to cover their rent or mortgage over the last three years, according to the “How Housing Matters Survey,” which was commissioned by the nonprofit John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and carried out by Hart Research Associates. These sacrifices include getting a second job, deferring saving for retirement, cutting back on health care, running up credit card debt, or even moving to a less safe neighborhood or one with worse schools."
#5 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 36 percent of Americans under the age of 35 own a home. That is the lowest level that has ever been measured.
#6 Right now, approximately one out of every six men in the United States that are in their prime working years (25 to 54) do not have a job.
#7 The labor force participation rate for Americans from the age of 25 to the age of 29 has fallen to an all-time record low.
#8 The number of working age Americans that are not employed has increased by 27 million since the year 2000.
#9 According to the government's own numbers, about 20 percent of the families in the entire country do not have a single member that is employed at this point.
#10 This may sound crazy, but 25 percent of all American adults do not even have a single penny saved up for retirement.
#11 As I noted in one recent article, total consumer credit in the United States has increased by 22 percent over the past three years, and 56 percent of all Americans have "subprime credit" at this point.
#12 Major retailers are shutting down stores at the fastest pace that we have seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
#13 It is hard to believe, but more than one out of every five children in the United States is living in poverty in 2014.
#14 According to one recent report, there are 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity right now.
#15 Overall, the U.S. poverty rate is up more than 30 percent since 1966. It looks like LBJ's war on poverty didn't work out too well after all.
Sadly, it does not appear that there is much hope on the horizon for the middle class. More good jobs are being shipped out of the country and are being lost to technology every single day, and our politicians seem convinced that "business as usual" is the right course of action for our nation.
Unless something dramatic happens, it is going to become increasingly difficult to eke out a middle class existence as a "worker bee" in American society. The truth is that most big companies these days do not have any loyalty to their workers and really do not care what ends up happening to them.
To thrive in this kind of environment, new and different thinking is required. The paradigm of "go to college, get a job, stay loyal and retire after 30 years" has been shattered. The business world is more unstable now than it has been during any point in the post-World War II era, and we are all going to have to adjust.
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... and the number one indicator of a family vulnerable to bankruptcy is double income parents with kids. Someone gets sick or loses their job, or someone in the family gets sick ( kid or grandparents ) so a parent quits their job to look after them and the game is over for them.
Cue markmotive's link (comment 4828834 above) to The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class.
http://www.planbeconomics.com/2014/06/the-coming-collapse-of-middle-class.html
Elizabeth Warren, is that you?
Look at the bright side. You live in a more 'diverse' nation where strange people speaking foreign tongues are living next door so you do not need to travel to see exotic cultures. Afghanistan and Somalia are just down the street. You may have never met really rich people before either when you had a middle class income. You stayed in your own income class but if you lost your decent paying job you might well be serving really wealthy people dinner now or mowing their lawn and you can speak to them briefly to see if there is anything else you can do for them.
I missed going to english speaking Subway restaurants. lol
The poverty we see has been orchestrated by the movement of Open Markets and Free Trade and the policy of Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Bill Clinton.
The biggest internal mistep has been TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS. Trickle down has made a few families very very wealthy. It has been a disaster for the rest of us.
Too bad the US citizentry has no sense of history.
We need a new FDR. ANd we will not get that. We are fucked.
if your assertion is that free markets lead to poverty, that's the biggest bunch of BS i've heard, there is no basis whatsoever for making such a claim.
the wealth of the middle class has been siphoned off by a crapitalist (crony-capitalist) system, where big government steals money from the public through taxation, inflation, and favoritism/protectionism, and funnels it to the owners of this country. this it the action of the government, it is absolutely *not* free market, it's the opposite.
and, yes, reagan, bush, and clinton have all been a part of that.
and no, "we" don't need FDR - government is the problem, not the solution.
So, where government funnels & extorts our wealth to benefit the "owners" of the country, you contend we ought get government out of their way?
There are corrupt cops in the department taking kickbacks from the mafia, so, let's close the whole department, let the mafia go on?
The government of my government is my enemy.
no, i contend we get the government out of *our* way.
you go ahead and keep living your life as a govenment slave if you wish, but i will always support free and sovereign people in charge of our own lives.
I agree, and so did the founding fathers.
The problem, as stated in the Constitution, bribery is a high crime listed along with treason.
However, bribers have found a way around that, by stating it's isn't bribery, instead the SCOTUS was convinced that "money is free speech".
Whether it be unions, corporations, eccentric billionaires, or insidious non-American extremist influences hiding in the anonymity of SuperPAC's, the rule of law isn't being decided via Constitutional Democracy.
The government of my government is my enemy.
You nailed it, Milton!
Think is these thing are NOT a free market:
Just Orwellian double speak. These trade agreements used the words Open and Free, but are/were in fact anything but. These agreements were all about favoritism and protectionsim.
Generally other countries were given freedom to flood our markets with their products while blocking our products from competing in their markets with high tarrifs and such. Exceptions to the rule of course, like sugar, which we pay more for than anyone else in order to protect US sugar producers.
Sounds like your saying "If only this, If only that..."
Face it. We live in the real world, not is some theoretical construct. In our REAL world of 2014 it is the corporations and the Super Wealthy Elite who dictate those trade deals. Money talks.
The goal of all trade deals is to pit workers against workers over the whole globe. It is the case today that workers are pitted against workers and wages are declinging ALL OVER THE WORLD. This is how the elites maximize profit. Free trade no matter how "FREE" is inevitably a recipe for wealth consolidation and lower wages for those who work. This is well documented.
It is not rocket science. There is no magical principle that will somehow keep the well connected power players from taking your raise from you. There is no magic! Stop the wishful thinking!
Your call for more free trade as the solution has no basis. Capitalism dictates the efficiency of paying workers as little as one can get away with. Wages, thankfully, are sticky...but the trend is clear.
We are on a race to the bottom. Welcome to the Plutocracy.
I'm an atheist. I don't believe in destiny or magic.
The globalization is just a way to pit workers against each other on a grand scale.
It is a race to the bottom. Stop dreaming, stack. What you see is what you get.
The internet and computers are magic, so if you can read this you should believe.
I feel sorry for this in the beginning, but when I am reminded of all the racist comments made on ZH towards asian, I give you guys 2 middle fingers. I don't like corrupt govt, but I don't like u racists very much either! let em suffer!
Racists paint with a broad brush. "All X-people are X."
You are painting with a broad brush.....is there a difference?
i see enough racists and no one saying anything about it. that is all i need to know to make a judgement. i don't want to support or help these type of people.
Thank you for verifying his supposition.
I find it odd that the people that scream "RACISM!!!" are he very same one that are he most racist. Until I lived in India, I had no idea what real racism was about. Me, an ethnic white Southerner, was lower than whale shit according the the socio-cultural norms of northern India. Lower than the lowest caste. It didn't prevent them from kissing my ass, constantly trying to get money from me though.
Here in the US, the assholes that scream "RACISM!!" have the most to gain from keeping that lie alive. We do have racism here in the S, but it isn't what the media would have you believe. When there is a federaly mandated quota system to hire an arbitrary number of certain kinds of people at the expense of qualified, experienced people that would do the job better----you have a problem.
Jethro http://starvingthemonkeys.com/
SC:
?????? You shouldn't smoke and type.
last thing I want is to be "equals" with scumbags like you. You deserve to be underneath the heel of the rich.
Speaking strictly from an ethical point of view, anyone who voluntarily participates in the US "economy" is either a dupe or a whore.
That's just MHO of course.
I've been duped into being a whore. How do I escape?
The immigration laws don't help matters much. Let everyone pile into the U.S. and live 10 -15 people to a household, legal or not. That seems to be the trend these days.
This is some scary ass shit. Whats worse is that the bulk of the people in this category have no idea why and a skewed belief as to who's to blame.
Many see it as personal failure and shrink in shame.
Ultimately capitalism will be the perfect propaganda tool for advancing socialism in the United States.
Capitalism can also be a tool to advance Fascism & Social Darwinism, as exemplified by Hitler/Musollini.
For every extreme there is an opposite.
After 9/11, extremist acts of evil allowed a police state extreme, now we're battling against own government to acknowledge the 4rth amendment....I can't make a phone call or send Emails without worrying about what I say.
Society is like a teen driver who grabs the wheel, petrified by fear after missing a tree, but continues to grip that wheel as the car veers to the other side of the road.
If you're obsessed with only one side of an argument, you cause more harm going to the other extreme.
Wall Streeters and those in Washington DC area doing fine....
get connected to the money machine....the US government
Can I buy equities with an EBT card?
I want to increase my household wealth at the Wall Street casinos.
Creating jobs in a mature market should be required to pass a certain "taste" test. It should be pointed out that while America is creating jobs it is costing a huge amount. I'm referring to the massive government deficit which I feel is the fuel driving our still rather weak growth. Is it sustainable, and just as important are these the right kind of jobs and will they last?
When a job that falls outside the description of government worker fails to make economic sense it becomes a form of working welfare with the taxpayer picking up the tab. We as a country and as a society have paid dearly for each unsustainable job created through government incentives and partnerships, because of the nature of many of these jobs we might even call them temporary. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/04/creating-real-jobs-remains-proble...
Yet 80% are chirping:
In U.S., Standard of Living Index Climbs to Six-Year High http://www.gallup.com/poll/170999/standard-living-index-climbs-six-year-...
Last month, 80% of Americans said they were satisfied with their standard of living, while 20% said they were dissatisfied. This results in a net current satisfaction score of 60, a new high.
Rather shocking numbers for a globocop state, especially considering $8.5 trillion is unaccounted by the Pentagon for since 1996... and US having about 1000 military 'sites' in the world...
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/pentagon/#article/part3
well, we all know that the ussa are phucked...
Which Middle Class ?
when you make the middle class hungry, irritable and can demonstrate almost 100% mind control over them, all you need to do is start a WOAR to end all Woars and you have yourself enough motivated bullet stoppers to make it viable..........this has an ending, been sayin it for years......and it will be flagged draped with flute players bandaged and wandering out of the mist to tug on patriotic heart strings
"One of the things that was great about America in the post-World War II era..."
Pardon me if I don't see the greatness in war. "War, huh good God What is it good for?"
The "benefits" of post-war periods don't last forever, and in fact don't last very long at all unless a country gets involved in or promotes war after war. Because the piper gets paid in the forms of dead kids (my father) and endless mounting costs of endless war materials, there's no real recovery-to-peace. If there IS war after war, eventually a country gets what we have here now - plethora of killing machines, a controlling military-industrial complex, and a society addicted or numbed to conflict, killing people of other nations because they can't stop us.
Contrarian says this portends well for the future.
This is the Hoax and Chains the American middle class overwhelmingly voted for......
Trusting the Socialist Semite democrat Media to pick your presidential candidates and your President has it's consequences!
Yet everyone is walking around with a smart phone, has cable television, and a car payment that amounts to half of their rent payment. I'm sorry but the biggest problem is not the money people generate, it's how they spend it. People just don't understand the value of a dollar
People aren't forced to think about consequences; government makes the rest of us rescue the ones that make bad decisions. Also, when a big-dollar sale is made to someone who can't pay, it shouldn't be the public that pays but the vendor.
What is the "American Dream" exactly for regular folks - living large like Ralph and Alice Kramden?
I’m in Michigan and can tell you about one group of people who are living ‘the dream’ - from my point of view – Detroit Pensioners.
Detroit Pensioners ran the city into the ground, squandered all the resources and were overall poor stewards of anything they touched, yet get a bailout and will receive full pensions.
Real nice. And if you mention these facts they’ll label you as a jealous racist.
all of this is the result of globalization; more and more people and less and less jobs thanks to "progress". More and more competition between people from all the surface of the globe.
We are animals as a result it means more stress. IT cannot get better, it can only worsen as the world ppulation increases. How to control population growth? wars, famines. First econonies need to collapse then people will throw thesmelves at each others throats for ressources. It s cyclical.
In this jungle there are always people at the top and, the others. And everyone wants to get at the top! This is the game, comedy, of life. The same stuff is happening in other animal species.
all of these conditions DO NOT exist in San Antonio, Texas....we welcome all who are ready, willing and able to work with a safe, affordable, friendly city that offers a positive alternative to the rest of the USA.....probably the best place in the world to start a business or pursue a profession...
other cities worth consideration are
Austin, Texas
Shreveport, Louisiana
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Lubbock, Texas
Midland-Odessa, Texas
and I am sure there are others....