America without a middle class

Incomes may have stagnated, but Americans still enjoy one of the highest living standards in the world, and have the richest middle class. Kings never had what a typical American teenager has these days -- iPhone, Car, laptops, etc.

Would it be better if someone with money were to leave the USA so they could keep it? Cause the way things are going, we'll end up like another Mexico

There's a new company that has taken the last two years to come up with a way to provide sensibly priced homes with very low utilities, low insurance, low food, furnishings, clothing, etc. and high savings & investment opportunities targeting the middle class. Don't know their background but they claim to have come up with a way to jumpstart housing & get people back to work and they launch in January. Sounds like they might do what the government can't do. Name is Amerisus which stands for something. Guy that runs it seems to be doing everyhing right by pulling in some 50 corporations to make it all happen. Would I like to buy some of their stock.

America is the New Australia? Health care an everyday Luxury? Where?!

The Middle Class isn't disappearing, not exactly. It's following the outsourced jobs so they're overseas. Retired people who had a decent portfolio also, they went to other places. America got more immigrants and Muslims. It's a lot like a game of Chess.

And when Americans get overseas and come to find out the American military umbrella is keeping their taxes low and health care a walk-in luxury any day they want it, there isn't much reason for them to return home they have a new home now.

America is the New Australia => melting smut Incorporated. With no offense intended toward today's Australians, just using it as a reference.

"Religion" used to be considered a major enemy amongst some on Current but actually it seems it is being replaced by a widespread and catching belief in Destiny, pre-destination that says nothing that happens to us in this life matters. It must be part of some all-inclusive master scheme of things that needs to happen... for each of us to reach the next stage of existence.

This new belief threatens to make everyone docile & accepting of anything & everything that happens to us "in this life". To me this is little more than an expansion of Dialectics (NOT Dianetics). Dialectics is like religion without God, except this latest movement of the masses seems to be reaching for the highest level of dialectics where we are all a part of one single God. We are God, they say, and it has the potential of wrapping atheists together with evolutionists and spiritualists and everybody else wavering or weak in their faith.

We may as well all sit down on a lily pad and wait for the great Cosmic Will to do what it intends to do anyway.

"In the boom of the 1960s, for example, median family income jumped by 33% (adjusted for inflation). But the boom of the 2000s resulted in an almost-imperceptible 1.6% increase for the typical family."

You can't call an increase in income a bad thing.

"By the early 2000s, families were spending twice as much (adjusted for inflation) on mortgages than they did a generation ago -- for a house that was, on average, only ten percent bigger and 25 years older. They also had to pay twice as much to hang on to their health insurance."

No one was forced to buy a house they couldn't afford. The 2x increase in insurance costs is ridiculous though.

The "middle class" is almost non existent when 1% of the population owns some ridiculous amount like 95% of the wealth.

There is a very bright side. If the overages paid to the middle class are taken and distributed evenly into & across the people below them, then all those people are raised up to a much improved Standard of Living. That would mean the total elimination of any lower classes in America... because he is transferring 35% over to the other column and helping 60%.

That's a Net Gain in anybody's ledger.

Instead of a family having two chickens and two cars, everybody has either two chickens and eggs or two cars. There will be no survivors. Plus health care for everyone, which will help prevent diseases from reaching the middle class I mean elite class. So you see, Obama and his money czar are correct to be doing what they're doing.

Sure, all former socialist countries have had a few problems but not a US Socialist State. We can forge a New Nation, indivisible, where all men and women have every necessity of Life & Health. Just you wait til he gets his hands wrapped around Energy. Obama possesses the paradise formula. Quit fighting the change get with the advanced programme people.

Is anyone really shocked by this? It has been happening slowly for 30+ years.

Because money is necessary, to go anywhere in politics, in large amounts (you must be loaded!!!!) the middle and lower class are not represented well, and thus the rich minority can keep themselves rich! We need to correct this party system bullshit......and don't even get me started on the damn Electoral College system.......

there is all ready a dieing middle its mostly just supper rich and really poor in the united states ill take a long ass time before we have a middle class again instead of upper middle class and lower middle class

You mean the middle class still exists??

Imagine?

America is the greatest nation on Earth. Average income is truck driver wages. After deregulation of the trucking industry in 1970 or so I had this really dang good idea I would go to truck driving school and make some big money. I finally managed to scrape the money together with Mom working, the wife working 2 jobs and me working nights, and somehow we did it with just one car driving all over Richmond Virginia.

Out of school I didn't get hired right away, but all of a sudden an opening came up at E. R. Carpenter Co. at 2400 Jefferson Davis Highway and I was In Like Flint. Big Money come on down! They hired me to drive 2nd seat to complete my training. I was paid 2nd seat pay below 4 cents per mile.

hahahahahahahaha I never made it to "Middle Class" because of deregulation. What is happening to all you guys happened to me in 1975. I guarantee you swabs you ain't gonna like it. When your kid wants a toy the answer is no. And no vacation. I didn't make enough money for one so we never had one.

You DEFINITELY are not going to like living my life.

The economy is in a pickle and it is sour!

Thank you for these facts and figures, it really hits home when you see things like "One in eight Americans is on food stamps"
This is simply stuff you never see in the news, and is extremely frightening, I'd love to know what the figures are for Britain! but i guess we are all just on the dole!
So soon we will be split into two groups, those struggling to eat each day, and Billionnaires!
Well I for one can't wait to see the revolution when it comes!

The measure of unemployment is a sham and a joke. Unemployment, underemployment and discouraged workers should all be summed up to show the real suffering of the country. Just because the failures of the nation are swept under the rug in statistical splitting of hairs doesn't mean it's working. Good article.

http://current.com/items/89801783_why-i-left-nyc.htm
Well, NYC is already well on it's way to existing without a middle class. To live "within your means" in manhattan, and by "live" I mean to have YOUR name on a mortgage OR a lease in this popular little borough, you must be either rich or poor. Middle class families cannot get into the projects because they earn too much, but cannot afford to spend $3000/month to rent a tiny two bedroom apartment.

If you took all the student subletters and hipster transients out of Manhattan and focus on those how have considered it their "home" throughout their lifetime, you'd be left with a bunch of poverty-level families, starving artists, and rich people.

It doesn't paint a pretty picture... as the Bowery Bums watch billion dollar hotels go up where their homeless shelters used to be. When the middle class becomes the lower class, those already living in real poverty truly lose all their options. You find yourself in a place that proudly values real estate over humanity. If this obnoxious mentality overtakes America in light of those statistics up there, the new America might be a pretty horrible place to live...

Workers of the world unite!

Unions are great, in most of western europe all businesses can't do anything unless the unions agree. The workers, and students can shut down a country in the name of labor. They're time hasn't gone, and in the US its sad to see how weak they have become. It says a lot about the state of this country, as the unions went so did the american socialist, the anarchist, the thinkers, the real progressives, the people who were the real revolutionary class and kept the establishment on edge. Now the workforce is made up of desperate centrist packed with debt who are less educated than their grandparents to even consider a real alternative. Social programs are a joke, and the country is toying with selling public services to privatized companies. I doubt this was accident, the eroding of this class, this thinking was planned, marketed and sold to people, and this is what we have a plutocracy were libertarians seem like the radicals, wtf?
Making money for a few never benefits the state, keep that in mind.

As for the declining middle class things will get worse, actually much worse. As each "crisis" hits along comes with inflation, longer hours, workers willingness to do more for less and no social safety net. A worker in the US can't just walk off the job because he needs the job to provide healthcare, food or education to his children, whereas a european worker could do so, and not worry about "needing" a job to exist. I think some who've never even glanced at a psych class would say this means european workers are un motivated, but this is completely wrong. The american worker is working out desperation/ survival and is far more vulnerable to the whims of the manufacturer which would correlate with the lower life expectancies of americans vs western europeans. Those who are doing better (the upper middle class), know how lucky they are and wont even question the unethical nature of our system. Why should they they're making x amount of dollars at company b, so why ruin their plan. Its quite sad. Knowing my history I already decided that I'll moving back overseas before I get married or start a family, I would never want any child to grow up in country where they desperately needed a job or the basic and higher needs are left to chance.

GEE!!! yet another azzclown telling us what we already know,,, everybody's hip to complain, whine, snivel, about the state of everyfuckingthing,,, it ain't like we don't know the goddamn questions already,,, how about some answers to these problems? ? ?

fuckthis

oooohhhh i had to edit this after i read the post by diabolical44....

strong unions huh? ? ? you know what man, it's great if you're the union worker(speaking from experience), not so, if you're not. back in 97,98 i was a sheet metal mech. working on the upgrade to the ontario apt. in calif. we were "on the clock" 50 hours a week, whether we had something to do or not. i was getting paid $26.65 hr to do damn near nothing except watch the glaziers hang glass, then myself and five others(two other apprentices. and two journeymen) would probably expend two tubes of calk around the metal. we'd go through maybe a box(12 tubes) a day. talk about shit,,, that was probably about $150 bucks an hour doing what could have been done by an apprentice and a laborer, but.... due to "union contracts", that is what was called for, and since it was a gov't job, "who gives a fuck, we're getting ours". once again,,,,

fuck this

The game is rigged. Wage slaves and a declining middle class. Slaves to the HMO's and drug companies as well. My copay's are killing me. Went to the US post office yesterday. Good service, fair rates and they pay their employee's well. Better all around than private enterprise. Now if this socialist program can work, what about our health care system? Recovery is a myth and the "recession" is a depression and it ain't over, baby.

I believe the New America will never resemble the old one. Those days are over and they ain't coming back. No manufacturing, no expanding property value, skyrocketing educational and medical costs, better educated foreign influx, a nation of sheep. Our children are being groomed to be the perfect conforming consumers or weapons of our corporate masters.

The American dream, two young semi professional technicians hook up and buy an overpriced mediocre home and live happily ever after, if neither get sick and they are not among the 50% of couples who end up divorced. The rest of you can work hourly for $10 to $15 and wave tiny flags around on the fourth of July. Used to be a term used, I believe it was Commonwealth, referred to politics, the nation and the social contract.

we need to rebuild a strong union movement to rescue the middle class. unions and the new deal built the strongest middle class we ever had, and gave America the most prosperous times it ever saw in the 1950's and 60's, before Nixon and then Reagan busted it all back to the gilded age. We need to regain what was lost. It is not too late, but the clock is ticking. Ten Years from now we could be the equivalent of a Latin American nation. the rich keep getting richer, and the middle class goes down. it is the American dream in reverse. One income can no longer support a family of four or five. not even close. our families are being destroyed as a result. we are moving towards slavery. and have no doubt that is the goal for the powers that be.

the pie is growing disproportionately. in the mid 1970's the average business executive made roughly 40x that of the average employee of his company. today, the average executive makes well over 500x that of the average employee of his company. that tells you all you need to know. the money is being concentrated at the top of the food chain. thats trickle down economics for ya. thank you Mr . Reagan. fucking bastard.

Most depressing article I read in a while. Doesn't suprise me, nobody looks out for the Middle class,Its social programs for the poor and tax breaks for the rich, all payed for by taxes on the middle class!

And people say we have a consumer driven economy. HA!

If it was consumer driven, the consumers would have choice! If you gotta choose between rent, and eating, you're going to buy whatever is cheapest, no matter what. No luxury to make "ethical purchase decisions."

Policy needs to lead the way to a stable economy.

There will always be classes. The only reason people are saying this is due to the recession. The dollar is inflated so it's giving people the false identity that they have more money than they actually do have. The rich are staying somewhat stagnant, but I'm sure once this whole thing rolls over completely they'll be rolling in cash. The middle class will need more money to stay middle, and the lower class will remain there.

What is this world coming to...

This doesn't paint a pretty picture. Any sort of recovery will take a long time to help those unemployed and economically stricken people. Will anything change or will the rich get richer and more got poorer?