On the radio this morning, I heard a speech by Robert Reich, basically
promoting his latest book, Saving Capitalism For the Many, Not the
Few.
Speaking in Seattle, Reich has some very interesting statistics on
this subject. While I find much of what Reich says to be true, I do
not agree that we can save Capitalism. Nor do I believe it ever
worked for the majority. But it is worth hunting down and listening
to.
Carl Jarvis
On 10/25/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Snyder writes: "We just got more evidence that the middle class in America
is dying. According to brand new numbers that were just released by the
Social Security Administration, 51 percent of all workers in the United
States make less than $30,000 a year. Let that number sink in for a
moment."
Food service worker Reginald Lewis Sr. speaks at a rally for striking
service workers in Washington, D.C. (photo: Good Jobs Nation)
Goodbye Middle Class: 51 Percent of All American Workers Make Less Than
30,000 Dollars a Year
By Michael Snyder, Washington's Blog
24 October 15
e just got more evidence that the middle class in America is dying.
According to brand new numbers that were just released by the Social
Security Administration, 51 percent of all workers in the United States
make
less than $30,000 a year. Let that number sink in for a moment. You can't
support a middle class family in America today on just $2,500 a month -
especially after taxes are taken out. And yet more than half of all
workers
in this country make less than that each month. In order to have a
thriving
middle class, you have got to have an economy that produces lots of middle
class jobs, and that simply is not happening in America today.
You can find the report that the Social Security Administration just
released right here. The following are some of the numbers that really
stood out for me.
-38 percent of all American workers made less than $20,000 last year.
-51 percent of all American workers made less than $30,000 last year.
-62 percent of all American workers made less than $40,000 last year.
-71 percent of all American workers made less than $50,000 last year.
That first number is truly staggering. The federal poverty level for a
family of five is $28,410, and yet almost 40 percent of all American
workers
do not even bring in $20,000 a year.
If you worked a full-time job at $10 an hour all year long with two weeks
off, you would make approximately $20,000. This should tell you something
about the quality of the jobs that our economy is producing at this point.
And of course the numbers above are only for those that are actually
working. As I discussed just recently, there are 7.9 million working age
Americans that are "officially unemployed" right now and another 94.7
million working age Americans that are considered to be "not in the labor
force". When you add those two numbers together, you get a grand total of
102.6 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.
So many people that I know are barely scraping by right now. Many families
have to fight tooth and nail just to make it from month to month, and there
are lots of Americans that find themselves sinking deeper and deeper into
debt.
If you can believe it, about a quarter of the country actually has a
negative net worth right now.
What that means is that if you have no debt and you also have ten dollars
in
your pocket that gives you a greater net worth than about 25 percent of the
entire country. The following comes from a recent piece by Simon Black.
Credit Suisse estimates that 25% of Americans are in this situation of
having a negative net-worth.
"If you've no debts and have $10 in your pocket you have more wealth than
25% of Americans. More than 25% of Americans have collectively that is."
The thing is- not only did the government create the incentives, but they
set the standard.
With a net worth of negative $60 trillion, US citizens are just following
dutifully in the government's footsteps.
As a nation we are flat broke and most of us are living paycheck to
paycheck. It has been estimated that it takes approximately $50,000 a year
to support a middle class lifestyle for a family of four in the U.S. today,
and so the fact that 71 percent of all workers make less than that amount
shows how difficult it is for families that try to get by with just a
single
breadwinner.
Needless to say, a tremendous squeeze has been put on the middle class. In
many families, both the husband and the wife are working as hard as they
can, but it is still not enough. With each passing day, more Americans are
losing their spots in the middle class and this has pushed government
dependence to an all-time high. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 49
percent of all Americans now live in a home that receives money from the
government each month.
Sadly, the trends that are destroying the middle class in America just
continue to accelerate.
With a huge assist from the Republican leadership in Congress, Barack Obama
recently completed negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Also
known as Obamatrade, this insidious new treaty is going to cover nations
that collectively account for 40 percent of global GDP. Just like NAFTA,
this treaty will result in the loss of thousands of businesses and millions
of good paying American jobs. Let us hope and pray that Congress somehow
votes it down.
Another thing that is working against the middle class is the fact that
technology is increasingly taking over our jobs. With each passing year,
it
becomes cheaper and more efficient to have computers, robots and machines
do
things that humans once did.
Eventually, there will be very few things that humans will be able to do
more cheaply and more efficiently than computers, robots and machines. How
will most of us make a living when that happens?.
The robopocalypse for workers may be inevitable. In this vision of the
future, super-smart machines will best humans in pretty much every task. A
few of us will own the machines, a few will work a bit. while the rest will
live off a government-provided income. the most common job in most U.S.
states probably will no longer be truck driver.
For decades, we have been training our young people to have the goal of
"getting a job" once they get out into the real world. But in America
today
there are not nearly enough good jobs to go around, and this crisis is only
going to accelerate as we move into the future.
I do not believe that it is wise to pin your future on a corporation that
could replace you with a foreign worker or a machine the moment that it
becomes expedient to do so. We need to start thinking differently, because
the paradigms that worked in the past are fundamentally breaking down.
So what advice would you give to a young adult today that is looking toward
the future?
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not
valid.
Food service worker Reginald Lewis Sr. speaks at a rally for striking
service workers in Washington, D.C. (photo: Good Jobs Nation)
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/10/goodbye-middle-class-51-percent-of-al
l-american-workers-make-less-than-30000-dollars-a-year.htmlhttp://www.washin
gtonsblog.com/2015/10/goodbye-middle-class-51-percent-of-all-american-worker
s-make-less-than-30000-dollars-a-year.html
Goodbye Middle Class: 51 Percent of All American Workers Make Less Than
30,000 Dollars a Year
By Michael Snyder, Washington's Blog
24 October 15
e just got more evidence that the middle class in America is dying.
According to brand new numbers that were just released by the Social
Security Administration, 51 percent of all workers in the United States
make
less than $30,000 a year. Let that number sink in for a moment. You can't
support a middle class family in America today on just $2,500 a month -
especially after taxes are taken out. And yet more than half of all workers
in this country make less than that each month. In order to have a thriving
middle class, you have got to have an economy that produces lots of middle
class jobs, and that simply is not happening in America today.
You can find the report that the Social Security Administration just
released right here. The following are some of the numbers that really
stood
out for me.
-38 percent of all American workers made less than $20,000 last year.
-51 percent of all American workers made less than $30,000 last year.
-62 percent of all American workers made less than $40,000 last year.
-71 percent of all American workers made less than $50,000 last year.
That first number is truly staggering. The federal poverty level for a
family of five is $28,410, and yet almost 40 percent of all American
workers
do not even bring in $20,000 a year.
If you worked a full-time job at $10 an hour all year long with two weeks
off, you would make approximately $20,000. This should tell you something
about the quality of the jobs that our economy is producing at this point.
And of course the numbers above are only for those that are actually
working. As I discussed just recently, there are 7.9 million working age
Americans that are "officially unemployed" right now and another 94.7
million working age Americans that are considered to be "not in the labor
force". When you add those two numbers together, you get a grand total of
102.6 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.
So many people that I know are barely scraping by right now. Many families
have to fight tooth and nail just to make it from month to month, and there
are lots of Americans that find themselves sinking deeper and deeper into
debt.
If you can believe it, about a quarter of the country actually has a
negative net worth right now.
What that means is that if you have no debt and you also have ten dollars
in
your pocket that gives you a greater net worth than about 25 percent of the
entire country. The following comes from a recent piece by Simon Black.
Credit Suisse estimates that 25% of Americans are in this situation of
having a negative net-worth.
"If you've no debts and have $10 in your pocket you have more wealth than
25% of Americans. More than 25% of Americans have collectively that is."
The thing is- not only did the government create the incentives, but they
set the standard.
With a net worth of negative $60 trillion, US citizens are just following
dutifully in the government's footsteps.
As a nation we are flat broke and most of us are living paycheck to
paycheck. It has been estimated that it takes approximately $50,000 a year
to support a middle class lifestyle for a family of four in the U.S. today,
and so the fact that 71 percent of all workers make less than that amount
shows how difficult it is for families that try to get by with just a
single
breadwinner.
Needless to say, a tremendous squeeze has been put on the middle class. In
many families, both the husband and the wife are working as hard as they
can, but it is still not enough. With each passing day, more Americans are
losing their spots in the middle class and this has pushed government
dependence to an all-time high. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 49
percent of all Americans now live in a home that receives money from the
government each month.
Sadly, the trends that are destroying the middle class in America just
continue to accelerate.
With a huge assist from the Republican leadership in Congress, Barack Obama
recently completed negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Also
known
as Obamatrade, this insidious new treaty is going to cover nations that
collectively account for 40 percent of global GDP. Just like NAFTA, this
treaty will result in the loss of thousands of businesses and millions of
good paying American jobs. Let us hope and pray that Congress somehow votes
it down.
Another thing that is working against the middle class is the fact that
technology is increasingly taking over our jobs. With each passing year, it
becomes cheaper and more efficient to have computers, robots and machines
do
things that humans once did.
Eventually, there will be very few things that humans will be able to do
more cheaply and more efficiently than computers, robots and machines. How
will most of us make a living when that happens?.
The robopocalypse for workers may be inevitable. In this vision of the
future, super-smart machines will best humans in pretty much every task. A
few of us will own the machines, a few will work a bit. while the rest will
live off a government-provided income. the most common job in most U.S.
states probably will no longer be truck driver.
For decades, we have been training our young people to have the goal of
"getting a job" once they get out into the real world. But in America today
there are not nearly enough good jobs to go around, and this crisis is only
going to accelerate as we move into the future.
I do not believe that it is wise to pin your future on a corporation that
could replace you with a foreign worker or a machine the moment that it
becomes expedient to do so. We need to start thinking differently, because
the paradigms that worked in the past are fundamentally breaking down.
So what advice would you give to a young adult today that is looking toward
the future?
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
