[THS] US Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

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


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

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, and by 2008 over 30 million U.S. workers were
earning less 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 that they 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 that they have
postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

#7) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which
represented a 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 in U.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, that ratio has exploded to
between 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 of income earners in the United States now collectively
own less than 1 percent of 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 actually are employed are 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 to one new study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the
United States are 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 us earn 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.