Or We’ll Lose the Whole Middle Class

Wolf Street ^ | 20 Sep 2016 | Wolf Richter

[Sgt_Schultze]

Economic recovery, but not for the “Invisible Americans”

Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO at Gallup, who presides over endless surveys of American consumers and businesses and knows a thing or two about them, has a message for the media and the political establishment that seem to be clueless: this meme about the recovering economy – “It was even trumpeted on Page 1 of The New York Times and Financial Times last week,” he says – “I don’t think it’s true.”

In an article posted on Gallup’s website, he made his case:

The percentage of Americans who say they are in the middle or upper-middle class has fallen 10 percentage points, from a 61% average between 2000 and 2008 to 51% today.

Ten percent of 250 million adults in the U.S. is 25 million people whose economic lives have crashed.

What the media is missing is that these 25 million people are invisible in the widely reported 4.9% official U.S. unemployment rate.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Gallup may be realizing why their results may not reflect the likely turnout.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Young people are realizing that they are less likely than their parents to reach middle class.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Here’s hoping their liberally-indoctrinated reflexes don’t kick in this November. Some may realize that a business builder would be more advantageous to their future than a business regulator.

[Alberta's Child]

The important angle of this story -- in the context of a national election -- is that it reflects perception, regardless of whether that perception is realistic.

Personally, I don't really care how many people consider themselves "middle class," "upper middle class," etc. There has to be some objective way of measuring this, and a self-assessment is probably the least reliable mechanism for this. The average person rioting on the street in Charlotte last night has a standard of living that would have made Andre Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and even Sam Walton envious.

[Little Pig]

There’s a lot more than just those 25 million that are “invisible” in the 4.9% unemployment rate. The headliner “unemployment rate” that the media uses has been so tortured and manipulated that it really has no relevancy to the facts on the ground anymore. It makes for a great soundbite, and is very useful for portraying the state of the economy as rosy, due to its official-sounding nature. The problem is that people are starting to really grasp the disparity between what the mainstream media is saying and what is really happening, particularly with reference to their job.

I wish someone would dredge up Pelosi’s comment back during the Bush terms, where she points to a sub-5% unemployment rate and labels it the “worst economy”. If it was bad then, it’s just as bad now (actually worse, because the number now is even less accurate).

[roadcat]

I think a lot of people that think they are in the middle-class, actually are in the lower-class. They just don’t want to admit it.

[Alberta's Child]

I saw a quote from a European sociologist (I think) who described the American mindset perfectly:

"Nobody in America thinks they're poor. They all just think they haven't struck it rich yet."

[Chewbarkah]

The government’s unemployment figures are always much lower than what Gallop hears from real people they poll. I think Clifton’s comments are an attempt to explain why so many are fed up with the government and its media propaganda wing. The game is rigged to enrich and perpetuate the 1%, in and out of government. Clifton knows it. We know it. Things will not change without drastic action.

[econjack]

What irritates me is how the gov’t “redefines” things to their own benefit. For example, the cost of distillate fuels is no longer figured into the Cost of Living. Of course, my SS check depends on that statistic. Since this clown took office in 2008, I’ve had a 0.2% increase in my SS check. Am I really supposed to believe that CoL costs have only increased by two-tenths of one percent since Obozo took office? Yet, transfer payments (e.g., welfare, ADC, food stamps, etc.) have risen 31% during the same time. When I retired I figured out that I needed to live to 137 to breakeven on SS. Now it’s more like 150 years old. Now he want to give even more to a bunch of illegals. This crap has got to stop.

[roadcat]

I wish someone would dredge up Pelosi’s comment back during the Bush terms, where she points to a sub-5% unemployment rate and labels it the “worst economy”.

All leftist liberals are liars and hypocrites. If you dredge up their lies, they ignore them. For instance, Obama saying Bush increasing the national debt during his terms in office being "criminal"; then Obama increases the national debt far beyond that to an amount greater than all the previous presidents combined. They don't care that they lie, it's in their nature to create false narratives and statistics.

[Brian Griffin]

“economic recovery”

The economy is changing.

Detroit is never going to get a large percentage of its lost jobs back.

The building trades at the low-end have mainly been taken over by immigrants.

China is now the manufacturing colossus of the world.

[Brian Griffin]

2009 0.0
2010 0.0
2011 3.6
2012 1.7
2013 1.5
2014 1.7
2015 0.0

https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/colaseries.html

We have a bunch of liars in DC.

My estimate is that the cost of living is up about 60%.

Theirs is about 9%.

[roadcat]

Yet, transfer payments (e.g., welfare, ADC, food stamps, etc.) have risen 31% during the same time.

I didn't realize that! 31% while we get nothing on SS while Medicare increases negate SS COLAs. Too bad seniors can't lobby for food stamps, Obama-phones, free housing, etc. We deserve it more for having worked all our lives paying taxes to fund the gimme-dats.

[rb22982]

Eh, my cost of living is up probably 15% since 2009 +-5%.

[henkster]

The “American Dream” means many things to many different people, but it generally meant; work hard, do right, live comfortably, and live better than your parents and leave a better world for your children. For the millenials that dream is dead. It is, and they are to blame for a good chunk of it because they don’t have the “work hard” component.

In the history of civilization, America has been an anomaly, because the American Dream was attainable to so many who sought it. For most of human history, society consisted of three tiers: one-tenth of one percent of hereditary aristocracy, who ran everything and lived in luxury. Then there was about 10% literate “scribes” who served the aristocracy and made the society work. They were allowed to create the wealth and touch a little bit of it, but were not allowed to actually own it. Finally, there was everyone else; a mass of mostly ignorant and illiterate people who were more or less seen as expendable things rather than people. They tilled the soil and in times of war, were the fodder for the army.

The America of old was not like that; we had mass education, where literate, and prosperous. But not anymore. It is the deliberate plan of the globalists to return us to that “state of nature” that so long existed. The real American Dream among the millenials to translate their parents middle class status into the 10% scribe status, because once you fall into the “masses,” you aren’t getting out of that pit.

[Brian Griffin]

“I think a lot of people that think they are in the middle-class, actually are in the lower-class. They just don’t want to admit it.”

Class is mainly a social measure.

Your lot are actually not lower class, but working poor.

[Robert DeLong]

How to Compare Your Income to Others (Without Being Rude) [Using 2013 Census Data]

Being middle class certainly doesn't feel like middle class anymore, that's for sure.

[Brian Griffin]

“Too bad seniors can’t lobby for food stamps, Obama-phones, free housing, etc.”

My assets will go below the food stamp eligibility level at about age 62.

I already have an Obama-phone. You can get one if your household income is below 150% of FPL (if no one else in the household has one).

Housing won’t be free, but senior housing at about 30% of your income is available. Seniors need to get on a waiting list. My friend in DC had to wait about two years.

[wastoute]

Pelosi etc.al. used to love to claim most of America was “one paycheck from the poorhouse”. Of course it was not true at the time but now it is true you certainly don’t hear them say so.

[roadcat]

Class is mainly a social measure.
Your lot are actually not lower class, but working poor.

I think it is actually lower class when one can't get ahead of their debts and can't enjoy the nicer things in life. I am middle-class, debt-free, retired and comfortable while living in my home that is better than my parents' home. My adult kids are having a tougher go at life, having to work hard and trying not to get into debt while raising their kids - I consider them to be middle-class. Others that are working poor with a huge debt-load that can't be surmounted, I would call lower class. I have relatives in that situation who have lost their homes during the Obama reign. They have certainly fallen into the lower class.