The middle class is going away. I've been saying that for years. Now here's an article that says the same thing. From the article -
• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• for the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.
There's more in the article. Including over 5000 comments, with wingers from both sides ranting at the other.
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6 comments:
I'd be interested to see a statistical analysis of this data over time. I think some of these have been true for quite some time (50+ years) but have not been publicized.
And I think reading the comments would just piss me off - better to just live in ignorance :)
If there is no more middle class and I have a government job, does that mean that I've finally made it to the "Upper Class"?
If so, it's not what I thought it would be.
D - The comments that were flying back and forth could have a tendancy to raise to ol' blood pressure.
J - We're all going to be moving in with you rich guys pretty soon.
Since it's widely known that I have no class, this doesn't bother me as much as it might. I did like the snarky comment about "wingers from both sides ranting at the other." Much of the time, the comments are more instructive (and scary) than the articles.
vw: syoff - Sy's not working today.
Since I'm definitely not in the upper class, I guess that will put me in the low class, Which sucks. The world is so imbalanced.
RW - So you'll be keepig company with the rest of us.
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