Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world. But now America's middle class seems to be vanishing at a blinding pace.....
At least that is the outlook from the Business Insider which recently published 22 statistics that "prove" the American middle class is being systematically being wiped out.
Here is a brief rundown of the most alarming statistics pulled together by Business Insider:
1) 83 percent of all US stocks are in the hands of just 1 percent of the population.
2) 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck. This is up from 43 per cent in 2007.
3) 66 per cent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
4) For the first time in US history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans combined.
5) 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 and 500 to one.
6) The top 1 percent of US households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
7) The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our total national income.
8) Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
9) There are now 6 unemployed Americans for every new job opening.
10) The average federal worker now earns 60% more than the average worker in the private sector.
Why is this happening? A lot of it is related to what I discussed in last week's article and the abnormal growth of the financial sector.
The growth of the financial sector and government together have, like weeds, strangled the growth in the once-vibrant sectors of the US economy. For instance, sectors like manufacturing...I have yet to see anywhere around the world a healthy economy that does not have a vibrant industrial and technology backbone.
Sadly, the elites in the government and financial sectors continue grabbing more and more of the no-longer growing US economic pie, starving the other key economic sectors.
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"83 percent of all US stocks are in the hands of just 1 percent of the population." Finally someone brings this up!
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting statistics: Only four banks control 60 percent of money in the United States.
However, it seems that our buddies on Wall Street are taking a pay cut of $10 million down to $40 million. Makes me sick.
This is what happens when a whole culture --like ours in America-- brainwashes people about how wonderful it is to be rich.
ReplyDeleteTV has been especially bad about this and still is. I think we will eventually wind up with a second American Revolution some day over Fair and Equal Distribution of Wealth-- and i think it may be just beginning !! We all need to wake up to what is happening and act in our own best UNITED interests. Or else we and our future children may not survive.