[C19fan]

Just to clarify the report looks at disposable income, takes out taxes and puts in transfer payments, as the basis of comparison. Canada around a decade ago under the previous Liberal gov't started a major economic reform program including large cuts in gov't spending that would of made the NY Slimes scream bloody murder. It seems Canada's economic policies continued under the Tory Harper gov't is a success. In terms of US, another data point about the need for the GOP to look at what is called Reform Conservatism of politicians like Sen Lee of Utah. What I think of the now fetish of policy driven by marginal tax rates for the top 1% and responding to what the Chamber of Commerce wants needs to be replaced. Yes another data point that Open Borders Jeb Bush and others of his ilk need to see. Flooding the country with more low skill immigrants will be the death blow to any chance of natives who do not have an Ivy League degree to achieve something of a middle class lifestyle.

[GeronL]

Huge success story for the Leftists in this country. Champagne is flowing as they celebrate

[Blood of Tyrants]

That is what decade after decade of socialist policies will do.

[SamAdams76]

I hate coming across as a spoilsport but my observations continue to belie the data I keep getting fed with respect to the so-called shrinking of the middle class and the decline of our standard of living in general.

For example, I deal with massive traffic jams on a nearly daily basis getting to and from work. As my territory covers most of the Northeast, I experience constant rush-hour gridlock from southern New Hampshire all the way down to Long Island/NYC area. If the traffic is this bad now, I'd hate to see what it would look like if we ever attained full employment.

In an economic downturn, one of the first things people cut back on is eating out. Yet I'm not seeing that. All the restaurants are slammed just about every night. And on Friday and Saturday nights, you are likely going to spend at least a full hour waiting for a table if you don't have a reservation. I'm not talking fancy restaurant either, but the down-market casual eating joints like Longhorns, Applebees, Olive Garden, Chilis and Buffalo Wild Wings. Those places are madhouses replete with screaming kids in high-chairs and raucous college-age kids at the bar. Now wouldn't you think that if our standard of living was in decline, that you would see these places start to shutter up and close down? Instead, here are HELP WANTED signs in most of these places.

I can go on and on. Yes, a lot of retail stores are closing up but that's a function of more consumers deciding to purchase their goods online. Go ahead and sit on your front lawn some sunny afternoon and see all those big brown trucks lumbering buy. Those are UPS trucks laden down with boxes of merchandise from Amazon.com; NewEgg; and Ebay, etc.

I want to believe but somebody please explain my observations to me. Am I living in some kind of fantasyland?

[Noamie]

The ignorant comments on that site make me cry just a little.

[SoFloFreeper]

Way to go Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Wasserman-Schultz, Trumka, Clinton, and Sulzberger.

[Little Ray]

Could this possibly be because there are now more people receiving benefits than working full time?

[Snickering Hound]

[mojito]

Boo hoooooo, the NYSlimes cries crocodile tears. The left has always hated the middle-class, and always was out to destroy it.

Now they have succeeded. We are a nation of dependents now, just like the left always wanted.

But sanctimonious smarm and hypocrisy from the Slimes is a little much, even for them. They could at least cheer this news, since they have worked so hard over the decades to achieve precisely this outcome, instead of writing some obnoxiously insincere piece feigning their concern.

[tanknetter]

So, in part, what you are saying is that austerity measures, which Liberals here in the US have claimed can’t, won’t, have never and never will work ... worked for Canada???

And as a result their middle class is, today, better off than our own?

Can someone please send that info to Paul Krugman, along with a handgun, a single bullet and a note telling him that he really should “do the right thing”?

[JSDude1]

THANKS OBAMA!

[lentulusgracchus]

Flooding the country with more low skill immigrants will be the death blow to any chance of natives who do not have an Ivy League degree to achieve something of a middle class lifestyle.

But that's the whole point, don't you see? Who wants to feed those worthless "native-born" s.o.b.'s and their greedy, grubby kids? Let them dig ditches! Let them craaawwwwwlll for their betters!

[mikeus_maximus]

So, where should I move?

[RedMonqey]

(Illegally) importing the underclass from other countries and either have them competing with native born citizens or worse, immediately put on welfare is no way to increase the nation’s wage averages..

Where are the unions’s voice on this?

[familyop]

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.

[familyop]

The situation in the States is far worse than that. Most of the publications on the matter are smokescreen propaganda for foreign and downscale investors. The USD will fall much further, and Canada, a net energy commodities exporter, shouldn't try to follow it to the bottom. Oil and other energy commodities will continue to go sky high, by the way. U.S. producers are exporting refined products much more now, and there will be hundreds of millions of new drivers and other uses of energy products in developing countries during the years to come.

Leviathan (Uncle Sam employs more people than you think)
National Review ^ | 02/03/2011 | Iain Murray
"...nearly 40 million Americans employed in some way by government."

About "70 million" people are receiving good incomes but are also steeped in debt and can't borrow more for big ticket items. Meanwhile,...

More Than 101 Million Working Age Americans Do Not Have A Job
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3005481/posts

Heavy Hitters: Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2014
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php

American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $60,949,129 [Democrat] 81% [Republican] 1%”

National Cmte to Preserve Social Security & Medicare $10,414,606 [Democrat] 82% [Republican] 17%

[JimRed]

The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.

Do the so-called poor here "earn" ANYTHING? Or are they simply on the dole? How about Europe?

[Cringing Negativism Network]

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.