Posted on 08/21/2014 8:10:45 PM PDT by Nachum
Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,
The 30 statistics that you are about to read prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class in America is being systematically destroyed. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a staggering pace. Yes, the stock market has soared to unprecedented heights this year and there are a few isolated areas of the country that are doing rather well for the moment. But overall, the long-term trends that are eviscerating the middle class just continue to accelerate.
Over the past decade or so, the percentage of Americans that are working has gone way down, the quality of our jobs has plummeted dramatically and the wealth of the typical American household has fallen precipitously. Meanwhile, we have watched median household income decline for five years in a row, we have watched the rate of homeownership in this country decline for eight years in a row and dependence on the government is at an all-time high. Being a part of the middle class in the United States at this point can be compared to playing a game of musical chairs. We can all see chairs being removed from the game, and we are all desperate to continue to have a chair every time the music stops playing. The next time the music stops, will it be your chair that gets removed?
And in this economy, you don't even have to lose your job to fall out of the middle class. Our paychecks are remaining very stable while the cost of almost everything that we spend money on consistently (food, gas, health insurance, etc.) is going up rapidly. Bloomberg calls this "the no-raises recovery"...
Call it the no-raises recovery: Five years of economic expansion have done almost nothing to boost paychecks for typical American workers while the rich have gotten richer.
Meager improvements since 2009 have barely kept up with a similarly tepid pace of inflation, raising the real value of compensation per hour by only 0.5 percent. That marks the weakest growth since World War II, with increases averaging 9.2 percent at a similar point in past expansions, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data compiled by Bloomberg.
There are so many families out there that are struggling right now. So many husbands and wives find themselves constantly fighting with one another about money, and they don't even understand that what is happening to them is the result of long-term economic trends that are the result of decades of incredibly foolish decisions. Without middle class jobs, we cannot have a middle class. And those are precisely the jobs that have been destroyed during the Clinton, Bush and Obama years. Without enough good jobs to go around, we have seen the middle class steadily shrink and the ranks of the poor grow rapidly.
The following are 30 stats to show to anyone that does not believe the middle class is being destroyed...
1. In 2007, the average household in the top 5 percent had 16.5 times as much wealth as the average household overall. But now the average household in the top 5 percent has 24 times as much wealth as the average household overall.
2. According to a study recently discussed in the New York Times, the "typical American household" is now worth 36 percent less than it was worth a decade ago.
3. One out of every seven Americans rely on food banks at this point.
4. One out of every four military families needs help putting enough food on the table.
5. 79 percent of the people that use food banks purchase "inexpensive, unhealthy food just to have enough to feed their families".
6. One out of every three adults in the United States has an unpaid debt that is "in collections".
7. Only 48 percent of all Americans can immediately come up with $400 in emergency cash without borrowing it or selling something.
8. The price of food continues to rise much faster than the paychecks of most middle class families. For example, the average price of ground beef has just hit a brand new all-time record high of $3.884 a pound.
9. According to one recent study, 40 percent of all households in the United States are experiencing financial stress right now.
10. The overall homeownership rate has fallen to the lowest level since 1995.
11. The homeownership rate for Americans under the age of 35 is at an all-time low.
12. According to one recent survey, 52 percent of all Americans cannot even afford the house that they are living in right now.
13. The average age of vehicles on America’s roads has hit an all-time high of 11.4 years.
14. Last year, one out of every four auto loans in the United States was made to someone with subprime credit.
15. Amazingly, one out of every six men in their prime working years (25 to 54) do not have a job at this point.
16. One recent study found that 47 percent of unemployed Americans have “completely given up” looking for a job.
17. 36 percent of Americans do not have a single penny saved for retirement.
18. According to one survey, 76 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
19. More than half of all working Americans make less than $30,000 a year in wages.
20. Only four of the twenty fastest growing occupations in America require a Bachelor’s degree or better.
21. In America today, one out of every ten jobs is filled by a temp agency.
22. Due to a lack of decent jobs, half of all college graduates are still relying on their parents financially when they are two years out of school.
23. Median household income in the United States is about 7 percent lower than it was in the year 2000 after adjusting for inflation.
24. Approximately one out of every four part-time workers in America is living below the poverty line.
25. It is hard to believe, but more than one out of every five children in the United States is living in poverty in 2014.
26. According to one study, there are 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity.
27. Ten years ago, the number of women in the U.S. that had jobs outnumbered the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps by more than a 2 to 1 margin. But now the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps actually exceeds the number of women that have jobs.
28. If the middle class was actually thriving, we wouldn’t have more than a million public school children that are homeless.
29. If you can believe it, Americans received more than 2 trillion dollars in benefits from the federal government last year alone.
30. In terms of median wealth per adult, the United States is now in just 19th place in the world. Average: 5 Your rating: None Average: 5 (3 votes)
.....and yet the politicians want to pass immigration reform to allow more illegals to take American jobs.
My husband and I sure are feeling the struggle.
Praying.
31. It seems one can make a decent living making a list of 30 items and submitting it to Zerohedge every week or two.
Sister, you are not alone. We are all praying.
and the big corporate cronys are pushing Obama to break the law and establish 800,000 additional “guest worker” Visas by executive fiat
more of the American citizens at the bottom if they are still working will be pushed out of work, again
Ferguson Mo., your “friend” in the WH wants to screw you again
Barack never did love them. They are just useful fools to him.
This whole idea of "strengthening the middle class" is annoying, as if we need the government to pigeonhole us into a 'normal' life with a mortgage, kids, and 2.5 credit cards in our wallet.
I actually happen to live that exact classification (except for the credit cards), but I chose it.
With technology, a global economy, telecommuting, and the coming weaker emphasis on a university education, everyone in this country has the resources to live life on their own terms, provided they avoid debt, graduate high school, and don't have kids out of wedlock. I think that type of freedom is a threat to a lot of people, including those who drone on and on about the shrinking "middle class".
The headline seems true enough, but, as befits Zero Hedge, most of the list is juvenile leftist drivel that proves nothing except that there’s a rarity of thinking skills.
Like ‘diversity’, ‘middle class’ isn’t something that needs to be created by the government. Diversity and a middle-class are the natural result of living in a relatively free society.
Hold up! I was too busy listening to Michael Medved telling me how it is better than it was and isn’t that bad.
Of course I know that life may be better ow than it was sixty years ago, it sure as hell is worse than it was six years ago and a damn sight worse for most!
I’m on complete agreement; I think the “mortgage, kids, and 2.5 credit cards in our wallet” way of life is dying out and to be blunt, I’m okay with it. The major reason the middle class ‘way of life’ is dying out is because people keep creating problems for themselves that interfere with what would normally be a smooth progression to adulthood. It has also made things difficult for those who can’t fit in to that kind of lifestyle or classification. It also stratified society in a huge way.
Student debt and the expectation of a posh desk job are the main issues. In the past, the middle class consisted of tradespeople and were the types that were very hardworking with their hands and industrious, who were often much better off in regards to ready money in their hands than most of the titled/connected upper class.
Yet, for some odd reason, the middle class has viewed trade as lower class and working with one’s hands as ‘common’ and for that reason, the middle class are now snotty about even the most basic way of making a practical living. So yeah, they’re shrinking, but not because of just a lack of jobs, but a lack of being interested in honest hard work. For some reason being in debt, but living well is considered the main priority, not making a real living and working at honest work.
So now, since so many are going to college and getting completely useless degrees and an impractical education, graduating with a mountain of debt and zero skills or even a basic ability to spell. Yet, appearances are what matters. This is why our country is such a mess of a nation.
I believe we’re going to go back to a class structure where if you want a middle class lifestyle, you’re going to have to learn a real trade and put off university. Which makes sense and certainly is more of a reality than what it has been for the past couple of decades.
To be honest, the way things are right now don’t suit me at all either and I look forward to the day when people start leading more singular lives based on ability, connections (not difficult to get in this online world), and of course, your willingness to take responsibility for your life.
Avoiding debt is common sense and as for kids out of wedlock, having to take a more individual approach will end up being normal, so people will likely think twice before doing that. High school, I agree, no matter how bad, just go through it. Graduate and bail out of town if you hate it.
The sources and authorities that provided the figures they use are loosely cited, if at all. Believe I saw the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but no footnotes, the New York Times for statement #2, some ‘Bloomberg’ and of course the 30 assertions which apparently expect you to accept what they say, because they say so.
Yeah—lefty, loosey.
One thing I've witnessed is some women (otherwise middle class) deliberately choosing single motherhood: getting pregnant or adopting. No husband in sight.
I would rather shovel manure all day than sit in a corner office and/or drive an hour each way in traffic to sit in a cubicle.
I'm hoping that more people take the Peter Thiel approach and go from grade school to some sort of trade, military, or just plain getting out into the world. If you aren't going to be an engineer, physician, lawyer, or any of the other half dozen highly specialized fields, you don't need a university education out of the gate.
The middle class system of creative mortgages, Samsung TVs financed at 0% interest by Best Buy, and a "college fund" needs to end.
"Save the middle class!" is the new "Do it for the children!", and I don't trust any politician that pimps it:
WHOO HOO. Obamanomics.
You know what is really depressing. A large majority of people in this situation are mad at Obama for “not doing enough” to help them. They want more socialism.
The only advice I can offer anyone is to be flexible in location and learn a trade. I have been incredibly lucky to have dropped out of college in favor of a tech school. I was on the verge of a masters degree in Industrial Design at Fresno state (where I had the great privilege of having Victor David Hanson as a professor) but ran out of money. Rather than incur the debt to finish I went back and became a certified welder and machinist at the technical school.
By wearing out a lot of shoes, eating ramen, and scraping every penny I could in to savings to buy a couple machines I have built up a fantastic manufacturing business. I still drive a 25 year old car but pay my guys a very good wage.
I wish I had a solution. Well, I DO have a solution, but I’m just one tax paying chump who has no say in the federal government.
Here’s a scary thought to all you Freepers. When you fly on a certain aircraft manufacturer’s aircraft,,, my parts are keeping you in the air.
I’m beginning to wonder just what it is these fools are thinking. Middle class young women don’t have the resources to live the kind of single motherhood life that they see celebrities do. Fools fools fools. These women are setting themselves up for major failure. At some point I hope that single motherhood is no longer indulged or socially acceptable (outside of divorce or widowhood).
Horrendous how being child-free as a single young woman is becoming a rarity.
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