BDx13
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Articles like this scare the shit outta me
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-u.s.-middle-class-i...
If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
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lifeisabitch
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lots of hot wind with no real substance to that article...
where did he gather his facts?
anyone can pull statistics out of their asses...
now do I agree with what he was saying oh hell yeah...
I know IRL very few people who are not struggling right now, paycheck to paycheck...
I know a large amount of people who are ready to work, and or go back to school and can't find a job or get a break...
yes the middle class as we know it are being destroyed one household at a time.
and it's all because of our instant gratification fast food disposable culture we created for ourselves...
no one saves, no one is patient, and everyone wants the get rich quick scheme....
there is too much to be said about this... I think I'd rather take a nap
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JawnDiablo
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Being unemployed at the moment, I don't like some of the shit I see in that...but at the same time I can't let myself get consumed by figures and
percentages about everything.
I'm only concerned about me and my family. I think there are a lot of positives coming to me real soon. Has to be.
if not, well I get to see Sheer Terror in a few weeks, in MY town.
beat that?
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random
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BD, if it makes you feel better, I'll try to dismiss a lot of these statistics that supposedly "prove" something.
• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
Not terribly surprising. Few Americans own much - if any - stock beyond whatever they might have in a 401(k). And unless you have a lot of time to
devote to it, you probably shouldn't be investing in stock on your own. Bonds are a much safer option in general, and MUCH, MUCH SAFER if you don't
pay a ton of attention to the stock market.
Also, most of the "net worth" of rich people that you read about is really about stocks. It's not that they have millions (or billions) in the
bank... it's that they would have those millions (or billions) if they sold all their stocks. This is also why you see billionaires' net worths
fluctuate a ton... their net worths depend on the value of the stocks they hold.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
Yup, this happens in a "crisis" or "depression." It's not good, but it's not at all reflective of a general trend in the economy. Shit, the 43% in
2007 is a much worse sign, since things were still going pretty well back then. It's also a sign that Americans don't plan for retirement very
well... or at least don't realize they do. Living "paycheck to paycheck" when you're working, have a 401(k), and paying in to Social Security isn't
terrible and doesn't mean that people aren't saving for retirement (though I'm sure many with 401(k)'s don't think about it as saving for retirement).
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
Misleading, and I'm not even sure I know what it means (which is a bad sign for the statistic).
Let's say there's 10% income growth among all Americans. People making $10,000 last year are now making $11,000 (10% more than last year). People
making $100,000 are now making $110,000. So, we've seen 10% growth, which adds up to $11,000 dollars. But the guy making $100,000 took $10,000 of
that $11,000... which is 91% of all the new income!!! But they both saw the same growth rate in their income.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
Again, keep in mind that many are paying into Social Security. Some probably forget about their 401(k)'s. And a lot of Americans never have kept
much for retirement - mostly the poor. So it's not even clear how this hints at a shrinking middle-class. It would be helpful to see past savings
rates and compare them to the current one. Though, in fairness, the "current" rate should be lower since we have higher unemployment today due to a
recent financial crisis.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
Again, not true, as most have paid into Social Security and will draw it (as long as it still exists) when they retire. What this really means is
that 43% of Americans don't have $10,000 in the bank or, if they do, don't consider this to be their "nest egg." And I'm still not convinced most
people who have retirement plans actually have a clue about what that retirement plan is worth.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
BULLSHIT!!!!!!!! This would mean that at least 24% of American workers though about their retirement age in the last year, and I don't buy that for
one fucking second. I believe that 24% of people who were surveyed claimed that they postponed their retirement age in the last year.
Actually, fuck it. I don't believe 24% of the population has a planned retirement age beyond "as soon as I can."
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
Yes, in a financial crisis largely caused by retarded people buying houses they can't afford (for themselves or hoping to flip the house), you should
see a lot of bankruptcies as the bubble bursts. If you didn't see these bankruptcies, it wouldn't be a crisis.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
As before, a housing bubble was a major cause of the current economic situation. The fact that it's a bubble should indicate to you that housing
prices were artificially inflated and far higher than they should have been. So... not much information here.
• 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.
Again, housing crisis. When people default on a mortgage, the bank takes over ownership of the house. This isn't a big concern now. It's a big
concern when, after the economy recovers, this fact is still true (but, in all likelihood, it won't be).
• 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.
This doesn't say dick about the middle class. It says something about the rich and the poor. Still fucked up, but provides little evidence about the
middle class, which was the point in all these statistics.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
Again, not surprising.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
Still not surprising. Think about the handful of billionaires in the US, and then think about how many minimum-wage workers it takes to equal that
net worth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
On the surface, this looks super fucked up in a financial crisis. But... during a crisis, you need to have the best people on board. One way of
preventing them from jumping ship is to offer a bigger bonus. And if you think this guy is the one who kept you profitable while Lehman Bros.
collapsed, you probably want to pay him a shit ton of money to keep your own business from going under. I doubt these bonuses were a reward as much
as they were an attempt to save the company's ass and keep your handful of useful higher-ups from jumping ship (to a failing company that would have
offered even more money).
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
Probably due in large part to unions. A large number - maybe even most - federal workers are unionized. The unionization rate in the private sector
is below 10%.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
So what? Still doesn't say shit about middle class. And if you go back to the example above about how a 10% increase in everyone's wealth mostly
goes to the rich guy, you'll see why this number isn't so surprising.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
I have two bachelor's degrees, a masters degree, should get a second masters degree in December, and working on a PhD. I can get a job in the US
within 4 weeks... at a fast-food restaurant. To get something I claim that I'm "qualified" for will take much longer. Many people refuse to apply
for jobs because those jobs are "beneath" them. Well, welcome to long-term unemployment, asshole.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
Long-term trend. It's a big part of why, if they wanted to, other countries could seriously fuck the US. The US basically doesn't produce anything
anymore, so you'd all be totally fucked if other countries jacked up prices or refused to export to the US.
• or 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.
Percentages are a better indicator here. Let's say you have 3% of the population on foods stamps, but the population grows from 100 million to 101
million. Well, you went from 3 million on food stamps to 3.03 million on food stamps. Same rate of people on food stamps, but the actual number has
grown. Combine that with the increased unemployment due to a financial crisis (that we should recover from soon), and you can see where these numbers
are coming from.
• 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.
Nope. Garment factories in the US are gone. And the Chinese garment worker isn't running a cash register in Target. Hoping to retain American
manufacturing is a dream that's been dead for a long time.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
Again, we usually have a pretty high rate here, but it should be higher in an economic downturn. Also, I have a hunch that poor people in the US have
a higher number of kids, on average, and wealthier people. That trend alone can help explain that (inexcusable) number of kids we have in poverty in
the US.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
OK. Some probably became millionaires by betting against the market. Many were already millionaires but now have fewer millions, so you probably saw
few people become ex-millionaires.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.
I'm surprised it's 10% and not lower. We had a thread a while back on what it meant to be in the top 10% of income earners in the US, and I think it
meant you made something like $120,000+.
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wez138
Senior Member
Posts: 651
Registered: 12-1-2009
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Mood: TMMB's.
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I used to be middle class until the teacher moved me.
Living a life kept shut by a dream,
I'm reaching out to grasp my reality.
Hands of time wrap tight around my neck, and hit me so hard,
leaving me eyes black.
staring at a ceiling,
wondering why i never left,
penning words in a notebook,
wondering why haven't slept.
sanity is tapping in a cell
inside my fucking head.
begging for redemption
after hearing what was said.
the nights, they will not sleep
cause the days, have played for keeps.
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Six66Mike
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Mood: Dead Hearts
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| Quote: | Originally posted by lifeisabitch
lots of hot wind with no real substance to that article...
where did he gather his facts?
anyone can pull statistics out of their asses... |
It was largely sourced from the Business Insider page he referred to in the 2nd paragraph which cites it's own sources from a variety of places
including reliable news sources and journals.
The middle class has been vanishing from the world, there's either very poor people desperate to save money or very wealthy people with no financial
worries. I've just moved from 1 house paying $350/week to now paying $380/week because it's all we could find at the cheap end of the market. The
price of groceries in Australia are rising faster than anywhere in the modern Western world. Last year they even showed how it would be cheaper to fly
to New Zealand, get your shopping & fly back to Australia than it was to drive to your local market & shop.
I think the gap is growing higher & higher in the US but Australia has to be up there as well, though the welfare system here is slightly better you
only get $200/week which doesn't begin to cover rent even in cheaper cities like Adelaide.
Hopefully in the next year or so I'll be well & truly under government debt for the student loan I'm taking out but working in some killer IT job
being one of those worry free rich assholes 
A lot of people ask me what kind of music I like. I love "soul music". My "soul music" isn’t a style, genre or niche. It’s music that is genuine. It’s
a painful lyric, a dirty bassline, it’s a harrowing vocal, it’s feedback, it’s an anthem, it’s a love song, it’s anarchy. I’ve got my personal
favourites but in the end it doesn’t matter who or where it comes from... so long as it’s good and it's real.
- Paul Morris, music director at 97.7 HTZ-FM
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spyderdog
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Registered: 2-21-2010
Location: PHOENIX, ARIZONA
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Mood: my own dumb ass band....yeah im like that
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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Industries-Find-Surging-nytime...
its totally getting to be class war time
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