Posted on 04/22/2014 10:49:40 AM PDT by C19fan
The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction.
While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.
After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good post, I think you’re spot on.
The bullish effects of all the “fake” govt created money are concentrated in a lot of coastal areas.
To the upper class.
Into a secure government job with those top shelf benefits and lottery style retirement pensions.
There’s an element of fashionability even on the coasts. For instance in NC, some beaches and islands on the Outer Banks are thriving with rebounded second home resale prices, and some are not. Depends upon who likes to go there. The northeasterners in general and DC crowd in particular love the northern OBX. Doing well. Same with Ocracoke, limited supply helped keep it from bottoming too badly as well. But elsewhere there are still foreclosures and screaming bargains to be had. Those are the historically middle class beaches.
The person who observed the “Eating” out in the NE not being impacted, isn’t getting the picture right.
I live in the wealthiest part of NJ. Yes, those chains are PACKED, but not by people who work for a living to pay our insane mortgages and property taxes. No, those places are packed with immigrants and welfare kings/queens, who worry about nothing and spend their free money on those places and Xboxes and nice car leases.
Trust me. You don’t want to eat in their company anyway. For us hardworking upper-middle classers, the choice is eat in, or eat out at the high-end. In my case, I’m lucky if we can do the high-end once every two months. Mostly we have to buy all our food in at costco and make good use of the freezers. Again, its the ridiculously inflated home prices and the insane property taxes that do it.
And no, I’m not looking for sympathy of any kind. I am hardly in the worst spot, although the same socialist policies are making it almost impossible for us to break through to the next tier, we’re frozen for now, on a downward trajectory in the medium term.
I live in N. Idaho. Closest “big” city is Spokane, WA. The timber and mining industries that used to be the main employers in this area are shadows now. Medicaid and SSI are the only growth “industries”. We are fortunate to have been spared the invasion of illegals like southern Idaho.
Most of the higher end real estate is being purchased by retiring out-of-staters and Canadians.
An example of what’s being called the middle class:
A small town city manager has been getting over $200,000 per year and says that he can’t afford medical insurance for any less. That’s not a middle class. It’s something else.
The explanation is math. There’s 311 million people in this country, not everybody is effected by the downturn. I’ve gotten 3 significant raises during this whole thing, I’m doing better than ever. Most of the folks at my job are in a similar boat (except for the occasional random layoff our corporate masters throw at us to remind who’s really in charge), our subsection of the company is in smooth shape because the subsection of the market we’re in is recession proof (4% annual growth over inflation since the 80s, good economy or bad our market always grows).
Other subsections of the world things aren’t so smooth. But you always have to remember recessions are really built on a small number of people. Even with the really ugly charts projecting projecting 25% un/underemployment that still leaves 225 million people NOT in a household in that boat. For a lot of folks recessions happen to other people, I’ve always ridden them out smoothly, most of the people I know are riding this one out well, but it wasn’t always that way, we’ve learned lessons and caught some lucky bounces.
They want us to live like Europe? Like these leftist idiots have ever experienced a worker’s life in Europe.
Entrepreneurship is virtually nonexistent due to their banking system. I don’t think I could live a life of quiet desperation like my cousins.
I travel around a bit. Even in your area. Outside of the financial services areas, the East just seems rundown. Now it isn’t worse than before, but I do see more empty storefronts than before. If you go outside the mega cities, I see a lot more desperation. In my area the two major employers are cutting back, and there are no jobs to replace them. People often can’t move. Heck there was an article about the rise of 50 something’s moving back in with their parents.
So things are spotty, but what I see is a growing sense of desperation. People no longer expect to make it
They want subservient underlings, and just enough of them to keep the greens mowed and the limo polished up.
That's the source of all those "don't take the immunization injections!" rumors.
Hey, snap to! (All together now ....) It's Bush's fault!!
</s>
Do the so-called poor here "earn" ANYTHING? Or are they simply on the dole? How about Europe?
American imports from China: 440 billion cost last year.
Chinese imports from America: 122 billion cost last year.
America needs jobs. Jobs. Jobs.
Bring back jobs from China.
what about 3d printing, those jobs will disappear.
Years ago there were companies that did envelope stuffing for mass mailings. Now we have machines that wiped that industry out.
Those machines are going away because of email.
Event lawyers who used to do high volumes of mailing have their court docs all done by email.
The only industry now in the US is the creation of feminized pot heads.
The metropolis in DC to Boston isnt doing that bad due to an increase in federal spending.
automation is making many industries efficient. Look at Amazon. That's why retail is being decimated and most malls are dead or dying out in this country
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.