Posted on 04/03/2014 2:55:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
According to stunning new numbers just released by the federal government, nine of the top ten most commonly held jobs in the United States pay an average wage of less than $35,000 a year. When you break that down, that means that most of these workers are making less than $3,000 a month before taxes. And once you consider how we are being taxed into oblivion, things become even more frightening. Can you pay a mortgage and support a family on just a couple grand a month? Of course not. In the old days, a single income would enable a family to live a very comfortable middle class lifestyle in most cases. But now those days are long gone. In 2014, both parents are expected to work, and in many cases both of them have to get multiple jobs just in order to break even at the end of the month. The decline in the quality of our jobs is a huge reason for the implosion of the middle class in this country. You can't have a middle class without middle class jobs, and we have witnessed a multi-decade decline in middle class jobs in the United States. As long as this trend continues, the middle class is going to continue to shrink.
The following is a list of the most commonly held jobs in America according to the federal government. As you can see, 9 of the top 10 most commonly held occupations pay an average wage of less than $35,000 a year...
Overall, an astounding 59 percent of all American workers bring home less than $35,000 a year in wages.
So if you are going to make more than $35,000 this year, you are solidly in the upper half.
But that doesn't mean that you will always be there.
More Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing day.
Just consider the case of a 47-year-old woman named Kristina Feldotte. Together with her husband, they used to make about $80,000 a year. But since she lost her job three years ago, their combined income has fallen to about $36,000 a year...
Three years ago, Kristina Feldotte, 47, and her husband earned a combined $80,000. She considered herself solidly middle class. The couple and their four children regularly vacationed at a lake near their home in Saginaw, Michigan.
But in August 2012, Feldotte was laid off from her job as a special education teacher. She's since managed to find only part-time teaching work. Though her husband still works as a truck salesman, their income has sunk by more than half to $36,000.
"Now we're on the upper end of lower class," Feldotte said.
There is a common assumption out there that if you "have a job" that you must be doing "okay".
But that is not even close to the truth.
The reality of the matter is that you can even have two or three jobs and still be living in poverty. In fact, you can even be working for the government or the military and still need food stamps...
Since the start of the Recession, the dollar amount of food stamps used at military commissaries, special stores that can be used by active-duty, retired, and some veterans of the armed forces has quadrupled, hitting $103 million last year. Food banks around the country have also reported a rise in the number of military families they serve, numbers that swelled during the Recession and haven’t, or have barely, abated.
There are so many people that are really hurting out there.
Today, someone wrote to me about one of my recent articles about food price increases and told me about how produce prices were going through the roof in that particular area. This individual wondered how ordinary families were going to be able to survive in this environment.
That is a very good question.
I don't know how they are going to survive.
In some cases, the suffering that is going on behind closed doors is far greater than any of us would ever imagine.
And often, it is children that suffer the most...
A Texas couple kept their bruised, malnourished 5-year-old son in a diaper and locked in a closet of their Spring home, police said in a horrifying case of abuse.
The tiny, blond-haired boy was severely underweight, his shoulder blades, ribs and vertebrae showing through his skin, when officers found him late last week.
You can see some photos of that poor little boy right here.
I hope that those abusive parents are put away for a very long time.
Sadly, there are lots of kids that are really suffering right now. There are more than a million homeless schoolchildren in America, and there are countless numbers that will go to bed hungry tonight.
But if you live in wealthy enclaves on the east or west coasts, all of this may sound truly bizarre to you. Where you live, you may look around and not see any poverty at all. That is because America has become increasingly segregated by wealth. Some are even calling this the "skyboxification of America"...
The richest Americans—the much-talked about 1 percent—are a cloistered class. As the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz scathingly put it, they “have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live.” The Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel has similarly lamented the “skyboxification” of American life, in which “people of affluence and people of modest means lead increasingly separate lives.”
The substantial and growing gap between the rich and everyone else is increasingly inscribed on our geography. There have always been affluent neighborhoods, gated enclaves, and fabled bastions of wealth like Greenwich, Connecticut; Grosse Pointe, Michigan; Potomac, Maryland; and Beverly Hills, California. But America’s bankers, lawyers, and doctors didn’t always live so far apart from teachers, accountants, and small business owners, who themselves weren’t always so segregated from the poorest, most struggling Americans.
Nobody should talk about an "economic recovery" until the middle class starts growing again.
Even as the stock market has soared to unprecedented heights over the past year, the decline of middle class America has continued unabated.
And most Americans know deep inside that something is deeply broken. For example, a recent CNBC All-America Economic Survey found that over 80 percent of all Americans consider the economy to be "fair" or "poor".
Yes, for the moment things are going quite well for the top 10 percent of the nation, but that won't last long either. None of the problems that caused the last great financial crisis have been fixed. In fact, they have gotten even worse. We are steamrolling toward another great financial crisis and our leaders are absolutely clueless.
When the next crisis strikes, the economic suffering in this nation is going to get even worse.
As bad as things are now, they are not even worth comparing to what is coming.
So I hope that you are getting prepared. Time is running out.
Teachers make less than $35k?
$12K net pay abut 1200 in taxes
$30K net pay about 4000 in taxes
2013 tax tables
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040tt.pdf
Since teachers are MOSTLY public sector employees, I would guess that this list DOES NOT INCLUDE them. It only includes PRIVATE sector employees. That is why teachers aren’t on this list.
Sorry, that's not what the report title says and it's not what the report says.
From the report:
--Five of the 6 largest occupations in the public sector were teaching occupations: elementary school teachers, except special education; middle school teachers, except special and career/technical education; secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education; teacher assistants; and substitute teachers. Over 75 percent of employment in each of these occupations was in the public sector, and for each, over 95 percent of their public sector employment was in local govern- ment. Other occupations with a large share of employment in local government included firefighters, police and sheriff's patrol officers, and water and wastewater treat- ment plant and system operators.
Teachers aren't in the table because it would spoil the little yarn they are trying to spin. Ditto law enforcement and government bureaucrat (yes, that is an occupation).
Dave Stockman’s book (utterly depressing but likely very accurate) says the number of “breadwinner” jobs peaked in the US in 1998 and has declined since.
I think it’s the way the data is categorized.
Teachers are divided into categories none of which by itself is large enough to be on the list.
(just my guess)
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm
This is the same kind of revelation as “half the people earn less than the average income.”
Sounds shocking until you realize the median household income is over $50,000. The median is the score at which 50% lie above and 50% lie below. So 50% of all households have incomes of $51,000 or more.
I pray he’s adopted by someone who loves him.”
His mother who reportedly has not been allowed to see him for two years is trying to gain sole custody. Stepmother is a legal assistant, apparently knows how to circumvent and use the laws has been very instrumental in this regard. Father is in prison where he belongs. Stepmother is out on very small bond but I think CPS took custody of her six children. She is currently pregnant with number seven. Not sure what is going to happen to that child. Stepmother did file for divorce from boy’s bio father yesterday though.
Stepmom should also be in prison IMO.
That is an interesting chart. The main thing it reinforces to anyone that understands the difference between “net” and “gross” is the large amount of money consumed by government. In my case, it knocks me down about ten percentile points.
I read the post and was wondering the same thing. What the heck does flat out abuse have to do with income? These folks were monsters, but what proof does this author have that they’re monsters due to income? Bizarre correlation.
Average wage of K-12 teachers in the US is $57K. It is rather location-dependent, with higher-paid teachers in higher-cost areas.
Since teachers are MOSTLY public sector employees, I would guess that this list DOES NOT INCLUDE them. It only includes PRIVATE sector employees. That is why teachers aren’t on this list.
RE: Dave Stockman’s book (utterly depressing but likely very accurate) says the number of “breadwinner” jobs peaked in the US in 1998 and has declined since.
You don’t even have to buy the book, you can read two of his articles online saying the same thing:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-11/david-stockman-born-again-jobs-scam
Great links, thanks.
True, but the problem is, there aren’t empty jobs out there for producers just waiting to be filled. People are taking service jobs because they are available. If there were jobs to be had for production of goods, people would fill those jobs.
What strikes me as interesting is that median earned income (i.e. excluding interest, dividends, cap gains, etc) is under $30K. I had thought it was a lot higher, around the $50K mark.
You could get by fairly well a mere 5 yrs ago before Obama and company managed to inflate basic necessities more than 100% in just his term.
Mr. Feldotte is one lousy truck salesman.
Dear God, what a mess. These stories p*ss me off.
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