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The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction.

While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.

After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.

The numbers, based on surveys conducted over the past 35 years, offer some of the most detailed publicly available comparisons for different income groups in different countries over time. They suggest that most American families are paying a steep price for high and rising income inequality.

Although economic growth in the United States continues to be as strong as in many other countries, or stronger, a small percentage of American households is fully benefiting from it. Median income in Canada pulled into a tie with median United States income in 2010 and has most likely surpassed it since then. Median incomes in Western European countries still trail those in the United States, but the gap in several — including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden — is much smaller than it was a decade ago.

In European countries hit hardest by recent financial crises, such as Greece and Portugal, incomes have of course fallen sharply in recent years.

The income data were compiled by LIS, a group that maintains the Luxembourg Income Study Database. The numbers were analyzed by researchers at LIS and by The Upshot, a New York Times website covering policy and politics, and reviewed by outside academic economists.

The struggles of the poor in the United States are even starker than those of the middle class. A family at the 20th percentile of the income distribution in this country makes significantly less money than a similar family in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland or the Netherlands. Thirty-five years ago, the reverse was true.

LIS counts after-tax cash income from salaries, interest and stock dividends, among other sources, as well as direct government benefits such as tax credits.

The findings are striking because the most commonly cited economic statistics — such as per capita gross domestic product — continue to show that the United States has maintained its lead as the world’s richest large country. But those numbers are averages, which do not capture the distribution of income. With a big share of recent income gains in this country flowing to a relatively small slice of high-earning households, most Americans are not keeping pace with their counterparts around the world.

“The idea that the median American has so much more income than the middle class in all other parts of the world is not true these days,” said Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist who is not associated with LIS. “In 1960, we were massively richer than anyone else. In 1980, we were richer. In the 1990s, we were still richer.”

That is no longer the case, Professor Katz added.

Median per capita income was $18,700 in the United States in 2010 (which translates to about $75,000 for a family of four after taxes), up 20 percent since 1980 but virtually unchanged since 2000, after adjusting for inflation. The same measure, by comparison, rose about 20 percent in Britain between 2000 and 2010 and 14 percent in the Netherlands. Median income also rose 20 percent in Canada between 2000 and 2010, to the equivalent of $18,700.

The most recent year in the LIS analysis is 2010. But other income surveys, conducted by government agencies, suggest that since 2010 pay in Canada has risen faster than pay in the United States and is now most likely higher. Pay in several European countries has also risen faster since 2010 than it has in the United States.

Three broad factors appear to be driving much of the weak income performance in the United States. First, educational attainment in the United States has risen far more slowly than in much of the industrialized world over the last three decades, making it harder for the American economy to maintain its share of highly skilled, well-paying jobs.

Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 have literacy, numeracy and technology skills that are above average relative to 55- to 65-year-olds in rest of the industrialized world, according to a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international group. Younger Americans, though, are not keeping pace: Those between 16 and 24 rank near the bottom among rich countries, well behind their counterparts in Canada, Australia, Japan and Scandinavia and close to those in Italy and Spain.

A second factor is that companies in the United States economy distribute a smaller share of their bounty to the middle class and poor than similar companies elsewhere. Top executives make substantially more money in the United States than in other wealthy countries. The minimum wage is lower. Labor unions are weaker.

And because the total bounty produced by the American economy has not been growing substantially faster here in recent decades than in Canada or Western Europe, most American workers are left receiving meager raises. Lots more, plus charts and links at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/upshot/the-american-middle-class-is-
no-longer-the-worlds-richest.html?_r=0

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
Obama's " Mission Acvomplished ".

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
The rich getting tax breaks has no bearing on how much the middle class make.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
The rich getting tax breaks has no bearing on how much the middle class make.

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
It's much easier to whine and complain like little bitches about other people's wealth than to actually strive to attain it for yourself.

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Originally posted by Niki2:
Mikers, I can save you a lot of time. Essentially: Don't bother. With several people here--Rap on top of the list--they live, think, breathe in their own little bubble; no thought is EVER necessary, just "it's all The Left's fault". No amount of facts, figures, graphs, links or authoritative cites will ever make a dent.

It's why I'm not here much anymore. Why waste the time? Eventually almost everybody gets tired of

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Originally posted by MIKER:


The fact that the middle class has been in decline since 1970 is a well established fact. Where the money is going is a well established fact. To many get caught up in whining about who is to cause. I would suggest that since the top .01% is getting it all that they are responsible.

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Originally posted by MIKER:
Yep. look how they don't respond to this thread. That will change when the thread can be turned into a character assassination, or they will let it pass by entirely.

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Originally posted by G:

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Originally posted by MIKER:
Yep. look how they don't respond to this thread. That will change when the thread can be turned into a character assassination, or they will let it pass by entirely.

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Hate is pulling their strings.

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
It's much easier to whine and complain like little bitches about other people's wealth than to actually strive to attain it for yourself.

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Originally posted by Niki2:

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Yeah I get that. I watched as they talked amongst themselves and tried to put me into a category (box) so they would know how to respond to me. Hostel or friendly, left or right. To have varying opinions is to be schizophrenic, to misspell words is a sign of ignorance about the topic?

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Okay, you've about got it. As to "I am beginning to believe the RWDT is no place for me", I really hate to say it, 'cuz new voices are lovely and people who can communicate intelligently are REALLY lovely, but you're probably right. Used to be lots and lots of people here...now it's down to just a few of us die hards who seem to have some kind of compulsion of continuing to come here periodically, don't ask me why because I couldn't say. I used to spend HOURS here, posting facts, figures, cites, trying to have conversations, 'cuz I love communication and debate...now I pop in every morning at the same time as a few other (mostly husky/urban mushing/book swap) cites I follow, and generally pause when I get the urge to respond to something, think "why bother?!" and go away. It's pretty much an exercise in futility...which is sad.

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