22 Statistics: The Middle Class is Shrinking by canttakesky

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22 Statistics: The Middle Class is Shrinking

POSTED BY: CANTTAKESKY
UPDATED: Sunday, January 2, 2011 08:23
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Friday, December 31, 2010 4:42 PM

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

http://www.businessinsider.com/22-statistics-that-prove-the-middle-cla
ss-is-being-systematically-wiped-out-of-existence-in-america-2010-7?slop=1#slideshow-start

Quote:
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.

The 22 stats follow in images beginning with this one:

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I don't know if these stats are credible. But they seem consistent with the characteristics of a Depression.

Can't Take (my gorram) Sky
------
Everything I say is just my opinion, not fact.

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Friday, December 31, 2010 9:38 PM

DREAMTROVE

its not that the stats arent credible, its that they arent relavent

the situation is bad, but so is the data from the article.

americans do not compete with garment workers in bengladesh because americans dont make garments for export and havent for decades, perhaps centuries

the number of millionaires reflects the falling value of the dollar, not the growth of a wewlthy class. of the people i know with assets over a million, all but one would lose tbeir homes and file for bankruptcy if they quit their jobs. no, sorry, make that two. point being its no longer rich. rich.people dont have to work. thats sort do of my working definition.

the number of people below the poverty line increases because they move they line. im below it.

the number of people receiving food stamps is an increase in govt spending, americans seem less.likely to be starving than when i was a kid.

but some of the stats are indicative of the collapse of the american economy

the reality is that the americans are.dumber, lazier, and just less dedicated than the indians or the chinese to say nothing of.japan and korea. lets face it, were a nation or alcoholic drug using slobs, were political morons who sit around and watch tv, and we have been for decades.

theres no reason why such people should have a bettet standard.of.living than the chinese, and now we dont.

the onlu reason we did was that we used our military to create an empire based on puppet govts and international debt created from things like lend lease. we used that empire to steal everyones resources and enslave their populations.

what has happened to us is the same as happened to the USSR, the cost of maintaining that empire now exceeds the economic benefit of doing so.

rather than abandon empire when this happens, society divides into two classes: a beneficiary class which receives the spoils of that empire, and a serf class which provides the economic.and manpower needs for maintaining it.

see, if the recipient and payer are not the same.person. through judicious application of tyranny, enterprises whixh are on balance unprofitable can continue.

and while everyone is busy failing to pay the bills, international bankers.come in and.rape the earth

this thing needs a.keyboard

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Saturday, January 1, 2011 2:16 AM

CANTTAKESKY

Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
rather than abandon empire when this happens, society divides into two classes: a beneficiary class which receives the spoils of that empire, and a serf class which provides the economic.and manpower needs for maintaining it.

That is one of the best summaries I've ever heard. Thank you.

Can't Take (my gorram) Sky
------
Everything I say is just my opinion, not fact.

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Saturday, January 1, 2011 11:12 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Quote:
the number of millionaires reflects the falling value of the dollar, not the growth of a wewlthy class

I call bullshit on that one, in my opinion. If that were true, the AMOUNT of wealth the very wealthy class has wouldn’t be so humongously more than other classes by percentage.

I fully agree with the quote CTTS mentioned, both in the fact that the more the division in wealth, the unhealthier the empire (and eventually helps lead to its collapse) and the fact that as an empire dies, attempts to keep it going are seen in the increase of disparity. But I disagree with a goodly number of your other statements.

Doesn't shifting the value of the "poverty level" also reflect cost of living, as in inflation? I don't know, but if you use a set amount to determine poverty, that amount would HAVE to change with time, it seems to me.

Quote:
americans seem less.likely to be starving than when i was a kid

I view that as perception; starving isn’t a good measure of poverty. If you want to compare the number of charities who FEED the poor to what they were, that would be more accurate. If you want to compare the number of homeless, same. We don’t necessarily consciously allow people to starve in this country, but the number who would without government assistance or soup kitchens is higher, I would bet, than it has been before. The reason, currently, that we don’t have the number of “tent cities” as during the OTHER Depression is that the government helps more, as far as I can see.

Unfortunately, I cannot disagree with

Quote:
the reality is that the americans are.dumber, lazier, and just less dedicated than the indians or the chinese to say nothing of.japan and korea. lets face it, were a nation or alcoholic drug using slobs, were political morons who sit around and watch tv, and we have been for decades.

On the other hand, I think one has to point to those utilizing these facts to create somewhat of a “slave” situation and/or a greater discrepancy between the classes also comes into it. The recent use of people’s ignorance which helped cause our current situation counts, in my opinion, as does government support of the wealthy and big business.

Quote:
the cost of maintaining that empire now exceeds the economic benefit of doing so.

Yup. But

Quote:
and while everyone is busy failing to pay the bills, international bankers.come in and.rape the earth

is only completely true if you posit that “everyone” is failing to pay the bills because they’re lazy, dumb or less dedicated. I don’t agree with that.

We, too, have slipped from middle class to at least lower-middle class, possibly even lower. We're hanging onto THAT by the skin of our teeth, and I'm guessing will drop below poverty level when Jim finally quits.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Saturday, January 1, 2011 12:10 PM

DREAMTROVE

CTS

Thanks

Niki

To clarify a couple of points.

1) I was typing on a cell phone, so I was overly brief.

2) By "everyone failing to pay the bills" I meant that the collective efforts of the serf class, while funding empire, actually fall short of the cost of empire, in the late stage of this malignant imperialism, and so international predators swarm in to rape the target country in the name of covering some of the lacking expenses of empire. This happens to third world countries in debt even more, but it also happens to large empires like ours when they are in debt. It's endemic to international debt.

3) When I was a kid, it was a foregone conclusion that black people were destitute, now it is not. That's an improvement. I agree with the articles *conclusion* that the US is sinking as an economy, overall, but I think a lot of their specifics are not well thought out and do not support the thesis.

4) The devaluation of the dollar is a reality. I would consider myself poor. I think someone with a million in assets is probably living at the same standard of living as a middle class family from the 1950s. This is largely due to a decrease in the dollar.

Consider some numbers.

A house in the city, or low crime suburb, in an area that has jobs, often now around $500,000. In 1950 that was closer to $10,000

Tuition plus expenses for a four year education at an Ivy League or similar reputable institution, $250,000. For a common state school, more like $100,000

New car, around $25,000-$30,000

Tax creep.. No economics discussion is complete without a creep, and this one is that the devaluation of the dollar in real world terms accelerates faster than the change in tax brackets. If you were to make the income necessary to own your own home and send four kids through college under Regan, you would probably be paying between 0-15% of your income in taxes. Now you would be paying much closer to 50%.

This means your income might have to be twice what it would have otherwise been in order to live in a manner that Frank Capra and John Hughes might have depicted to us as "Middle Class" today than you would at points past.

Under the new tax laws, the top tax bracket will be 50% federal, 20% FICA and 10% state, to say nothing of property, county, town and village, sales, or other prorietary taxes on fuel and purchases. If we can simplify the equation for the sake of time, because I don't have a lot of time to spare, I would say this:

The govt. will undoubtedly grant a number of tax incentives and breaks to home owners and people who put their children through college, etc. All of the lesser taxes that everyone will pay will end up exceeding what they get back from these rebates and deductions, but for simplicities sake, let's call it even.

Now say you're a contractor, which I just read some 80% of middle class + jobs are these days, and you have a salary, combined, of over 250k, saying that both parent work at high paying PhD level jobs, and probably each at more than one... Say each has a professional 60-80hr/wk job, and also a teaching job, so they can each make $150k, giving us 300k. then you will be paying:

50% Fed income tax.
20% FICA
10% State
=80%

This give them $60k. Half of that off the top goes for their mortgage. Then they have kids in college. If they're a typical 1950s middle class family, the kids are 2 years apart, so 2 kids are in college at any given time. Assume that the kids then take a break to work before going grad school, which they will need to do to become the 100 hr/wk wage slaves that their parents are, and that this starts probably with some sort of prep school, then rather than 8 years, it goes on for 24 years, during which time the mortgage is still owing, to say nothing of the cost of rent for the kids, and their mortgages, etc, for which they will ultimately have to enter into a similar Faustian bargain.

So, at a minimum of 50k a year in education costs, and the cost of the family health insurance plan, $13375 today, project that to go up astronomically, given the devaluation of the dollar, and the fact that now you are forced to buy the product, but for now, let's assume it's static.

So, in between now and the time that the children are able to support themselves in a middle class lifestyle, which is 24 years after their entry into prep school, so from first to last, around 40 years, our family will pay out:

600,000 million in health insurance
1.2 million in education
1.1 million for a fixed 5% low interest mortgage on a standard 30 year, if they're lucky enough.

Assume they also buy 4 cars minimum at base $25,000 assuming no inflation, so add another $100,000

36,000 on food, and throw in normal 14,000 in bills, is 50,000, so a total of 2,000,000 in overall expenses assuming no inflation.

That's 5 million with no adjustment for inflation.

Of course there will be inflation, and it is unlikely that their salaries will be able to keep pace with it, but even if they don't, if their salaries will keep up with expenses at all, they will outpace the scheduled reframing of tax brackets.

This means that the collective 40 year income after tax is a maximum of <2.5 million or less than half of their middle class expenditures.

Notice that this was done at a minimum, no one was sent to a fancy college, everyone went to state school, no luxury cars or houses were bought, save the need to be near their four jobs and commute to them.

If this family were to inherit only a million dollars to fund their middle class lifestyle, they would end up losing their home, their car, and being fined for falling behind on insurance. Child services might even come for them for that..

So, no. These people are not rich. The rich are those who do not have to work, who will never have economic worries.

Lastly, don't assume that govt.. is always accurate in its economic assumptions. If it were, it would not be between 14 trillion and 94 trillion in debt with no real clear bead on which.

Welfare programs and poverty levels are set under the *auspices* of accuracy, but really they are set by policy. At the moment, both are particularly generous, which is a recognition by the govt. that the economy has failed. If the economy were doing well, there would be no need for either.

Now here's a sobering thought. Do the above analysis for a minimum wage worker in a 15% federal, 5% state tax bracket, also paying 20% contractor FICA, NOT owning, but renting at $800ish, or $10,000 a year.

$14,500 * 2, both parents work 29,000

-40%

17,400

-rent

$7400

-food, budget, family of four $100/week

$2400

They're over income, they won't get medicare, but they can't afford the family policy, so they'll have to pay the obamacare fine, $750*6, -$4500

-$1900

and bills, I've paid them a lot, about 6,400/year

-8,300.

Uh Oh. someone has to get a second job again.

Uh oh, that pushed us up a tax bracket.

43.5k -15%-10%-20%

Now we have 24,000. Not enough. Both parents need two jobs. 80 hrs/week each

60,000. -25%-20%-10%

27,000 -10,000 rent -5,000 food, -6,000 bills, and now they can have a car, to get to work. two of them, beaters run about 2,000 a year to maintain, so -4,000, we have $2,000 left over! We still can't afford health insurance, our jobs don't come with them, and we will have to pay the find. Damn. -2500. Kill one of the cars, we'll work something out. 500, kill bill, like the internet or telephone.

Now our kids can go to high school, and not college and get minimum wage jobs like ours, for 80 hours a week.

It's a damned sucky economic system.

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Sunday, January 2, 2011 8:23 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Ah, DT, thanx for clarifying. In that respect, I don't disagree at all. Actually, I don't disagree with points 2 & 4 completely. When it comes to #3, I've done enough reading over time and seen enough signs, and when I look at history, I DO believe we are cesing to be an "empire" and have been for a long time now.

The rest was too long for me to get through, but I'm guessing the point was about the shrinking dollar. Given I already agree with that point, I'd probably agree with the rest.

I fully agree that someone making $1 million is probably living in about the same relative comfort as a middle-class person in the 1950s. But the disparity is FAR more than that, and those making a billion (and more) are still so wealthy it is hard for me to conceive of how they live. Personally, I was in favor of the tax cuts extending to those making up to $1 million for exactly that reason.

In part, I resent this tax-cut extension because I know that precisely the intention was put it in place "for ten years" and it'd most likely exist in perpetuity. Given our economic situation, it makes NO sense to me to expand the debt to those who are making incredibly more than everyone else; again, in part because I don't accept that they "worked" to earn that much, but rather got "entitlements" and assistance from the government to get there (I posted about that elsewhere). Shrinking dollar notwithstanding, the situation is, in my opinion, unsustainable.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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