« John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy (May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963)Chicago: "The National Capital of Police Repression" »

22 Statistics That Prove That The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America

July 22nd, 2010

Michael Snyder

The 22 statistics that you are about to read prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. 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 blinding pace. So why are we witnessing such fundamental changes? Well, the globalism and "free trade" that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects. It turns out that they didn't tell us that the "global economy" would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations. The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor pools over the last several decades, but middle class American workers have increasingly found things to be very tough. The reality is that no matter how smart, how strong, how educated or how hard working American workers are, they just cannot compete with people who are desperate to put in 10 to 12 hour days at less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the world. After all, what corporation in their right mind is going to pay an American worker ten times more (plus benefits) to do the same job? The world is fundamentally changing. Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the big global corporations are making massive amounts of money. Meanwhile, the American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new "global" labor pool.

What do most Americans have to offer in the marketplace other than their labor? Not much. The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job. But today, U.S. workers are "less attractive" than ever. Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States.

So corporations are moving operations out of the U.S. at breathtaking speed. Since the U.S. government does not penalize them for doing so, there really is no incentive for them to stay.

What has developed is a situation where the people at the top are doing quite well, while most Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to make it. There are now about 6 unemployed Americans for every new job opening in the United States, and the number of "chronically unemployed" is absolutely soaring. There simply are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.

Many of those who are able to get jobs are finding that they are making less money than they used to. In fact, an increasingly large percentage of Americans are working at low wage retail and service jobs.

But you can't raise a family on what you make flipping burgers at McDonald's or on what you bring in from greeting customers down at the local Wal-Mart.

The truth is that the middle class in America is dying - and once it is gone it will be incredibly difficult to rebuild.

The following are 22 statistics that prove that the rich are getting much richer and the poor are getting much poorer in America....

#1) According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans"always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

#2) The number of Americans with incomes below the official poverty line rose by about 15% between 2000 and 2006, andby 2008 over 30 million U.S.workerswere earningless than $10 per hour.

#3) According to Harvard Magazine, 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

#4) According to that same poll, 36 percent of Americans say thatthey don't contribute anything to retirement savings.

#5) A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.

#6) According to one new survey, 24% of American workers say thatthey have postponed their planned retirement ageinthe past year.

#7) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which representeda 32 percent increase over 2008.

#8) Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

#9) For the first time inU.S. history,banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.

#10) 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, thatratio hasexploded tobetween 300 to 500 to one.

#11) One study found that as of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.

#12) The bottom 40 percent ofincome earnersin the United States now collectively own less than 1 percentof the nation’s wealth.

#13) Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.

#14) In the United States, the average federal worker now earns about twice as much as the average worker in the private sector.

#15) An analysis of income tax data by the Congressional Budget Office found that the top 1% of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.

#16) In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.

#17) More than 40% of Americans who actuallyare employedare now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.

#18) 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.

#19) This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.

#20) Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.

#21) According toone new study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United Statesare living below the poverty line in 2010 -the highest rate in 20 years.

#22) According to Professor Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley, the gap between what the top 10 percent of Americans earn per year and what the rest of usearn has been widening sharply for the last 30 years. His measurements show that the top 10% percent of Americans now take in approximately 50% of the income.

-###-

By Michael Snyder http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/22-statistics-that-prove-that-the-middle-class-is-being-systematically-wiped-out-of-existence-in-america

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • By Richard Turpin, World BEYOND War Isolation has not prevented Kiribati from suffering the depradations of colonialism, militarism, and capitalism. David Swanson asked me to write about Kiribati after I wrote to him to point out Costa Rica is not the…
  • by Tracy Turner The preceding nuclear pollution article, "Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster: 2024 Aftermath, Risks, and Insights, " examined the millennial-spanning consequences of nuclear disasters like Chornobyl and Fukushima, atomic testing, and…
  • By David Swanson, World BEYOND War I do see a problem with justifying the U.S. Civil War while recognizing the damage done by of regrettable dreams of vengeance... I wasn’t going to read The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates because I’m doing what I can to…
  • By Kathy Kelly, World BEYOND War The Biblical Book of Job chronicles a string of catastrophes relentlessly plaguing the main character, Job, who loses his prosperity, his home, his health, and his children. Eventually, an agonized Job curses his own…
  • LifeSiteNews The president-elect praised the former Democratic congresswomen and said she'll bring a 'fearless spirit' to the intelligence community as a member of his cabinet. President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he would nominate…
  • Paul Craig Roberts There’s many a slip between cup and lip I have been speaking with MAGA Americans and, as I suspected, there is little comprehension of the vast impediments to renewal. The swamp that Trump is to drain is entrenched and…
  • PDF's for Einstein, Dr. Rosaly M. C. Lopes, Darwin, Lorenzo Langstroth, Marie Curie, Shakespeare & Many More! by Tracy Turner Shakespeare, Curie, Orwell, Hemingway, Dostoevsky, Lopes, Einstein Dr. Rosaly Lopes Director of the Planetary Science…
  • RT.com Speaking just one day after the Republican candidate's US election victory, the Russian president explained Moscow's position on a range of global issues Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed pressing global issues at Sochi's annual Valdai…
  • The Pretender's Magic is their diversity in musical range. Mystifying the sultry blues of "Blue Sun" to the punk-infused anthems like "Brass in Pocket," the band slips into these heterogeneous grooves with greased skids. Chrissie's wide-ranging influences pair with The Pretenders, evolving while retaining core elements of its personality. The eclectic portfolio will consistently deliver a "new" live surprise. Sorry, but there is no raucous Lynyrd Skynyrd "Play Free Bird" here. Everybody has a favorite, many favorites. The diversity of the songs makes every new and old fan curious to learn more about one aspect or another of the band's expression.
  • By Joe Granville When the formula is calculated, it yields a very small probability—around 1.45 × 10⁻¹⁴, or 0.00014%. This result suggests that, mathematically, Trump's victory is extremely unlikely under these assumptions. A centrist in the Tea Party,…
November 2024
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

  XML Feeds

powered by b2evolution
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi