Middle class grow fearful about their prospects »
Posted By TechnologyExpert 1 year, 7 months ago in Business & FinanceGrowing numbers of middle-class Americans say they are not better off than they were five years ago, reflecting economic pressures amid growing debt, a study released Wednesday shows. Their short-term assessments of personal progress, according to the study, is the worst it has been in almost half a century.
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I am Editor-in-Chief at Alice Hill's RealTechNews (http://www.realtechnews.com). I also have my own blog (Tech-Ex) at http://TechnologyExpert.Blogspot.com. Finally ...
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mdual1 year, 7 months ago
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I grew up middle class and still am and one thing I know is that today's "middle class" is just trying to pretend they're rich and can't sustain it. EVERYONE I know leases a car, maxes their credit cards to buy designer, nobody owns a darn thing, it's all borrowed. This is just stupid and pretentious.
I drive a mercedes, bought it used, five years old but looks new and drives like new and cost less than a new jeep. I don't need new car smell so this luxury I can afford.
Government needs to be in the business of running the country and not the business of subsidizing lifestyles.
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DanmLiberalsComment removed: Retracted by user18 Replies
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ETproductions1 year, 7 months ago
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In 1929 before the Great Depression, the concentration of wealth (all assets including money, property, stocks, etc.) in the hands of the richest 1% reached a high of 50%. One percent of the people owned 50% of everything here. The middle class was in shambles. By 1933 when Hoover left office, the Republicans had held the Presidency for all but 12 of the past 44 years.
The Great Depression brought some equity back to the distribution of wealth and a long run of Democratic rule. The top 1% retained between 25 and 30% of the nation's wealth during that time.
Beginning with Nixon in 1969, the tide began to turn again. By the end of George W. Bush's term in 2009, the country will have again been under Republican rule for all but 12 of the past 40 years. And concentration of wealth is back to near 50% in the hands of the elite 1%.
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ETproductions1 year, 7 months ago
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Real income has been stagnant for 8 years while inflation has roared ahead unchecked. Good paying manufacturing and technology jobs have been flying offshore to be replaced with low paying service-sector work offering no health care. Nearly 1/5th of Americans are without any health care now, and another large block are under-covered or have plans that routinely cancel coverage for anyone who gets seriously ill.
If McCain wins and makes the Bush tax advantages for the very wealthy permanent, there will soon be no more middle class. America will have been reduced to third world status like so many banana republics to our South.
The very wealthy will either remain in heavily guarded enclaves here or move on to better climes like Dubai or Switzerland or the French Riviera.
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libsRfunnyComment removed: Hard Banned1 Reply
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newbie0420Comment removed: Hard Banned14 Replies
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nikkibabe1 year, 7 months ago
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If this is true, Americans are really dumb idiots who deserve it. If not, how can a sane person explain that John McCain is neck and neck with Democrat Obama? All he is offering is 4 more years of Iraq war and rest of Bush policies.
Unless all sane voters (except hardcore neo conservatives) take the upcoming election as a "revolution" in the making, the middle class is doomed.
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TOD3961 year, 7 months ago
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Have you looked at what Obama is truly offering? He will put the final nail in the coffin if he enacts all of his spending plans. There is no magic answer for the mess the US economy is in. One man or even one administration doesn't wield the power to bring down the economy. There are other factors that are beyond the control of government that explain why the economy is down. It will take the united effort of maybe 200 to 250 million US residents to change the course. The problem is, that everyone else thinks it is up to everyone else.
The government is not responsible for financial prosperity. Prosperity is NOT your birthright!
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newbie0420Comment removed: Hard Banned2 Replies
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jordan111 year, 7 months ago
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Of course you know that democrats can't. CONS filibuster every GD piece of legislation. A filibuster requires a greater number of votes to break. Democrats don't have that greater number of votes. Too bad those damn voters don't get off their sorry butts and start electing decent Congress people.
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quackpot1 year, 7 months ago
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Just be patient, Commodore. After the next election, the democrats will have enough of a majority to be able to fix the damage caused by seven years of republican out-of-control spending and welfare for the ultra-rich programs.
Until then, we will have to survive with the Administration plan (Secretary of Treasury Paulson's plan) to solve the financial crisis by lining the pockets of Wall Street tycoons with $200 billion of newly printed money (to be obtained via the Federal Reserve System in return for worthless Wall Street paper).
Happy yachting.
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nikkibabe1 year, 7 months ago
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Those who complain about Democrats in Congress are ignorant of the fact that it is 50-50 split in US Senate. A party needs a 65-35 majority to push through legislation especially with a President whose only line is "my way or no way".
With religion, faith, abortion and gay & lesbian twists that control elections in this country, there is hardly any chance for a "REAL" candidate with solid economic & foreign policies to get elected. Does such a candidate exist?. Hard to tell.
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simonsez1 year, 7 months ago
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"The analysis did not measure wealth directly. It looked at taxes on capital gains, dividends, interest and rents. Income from securities owned by retirement plans and endowments was excluded, as were gains from noncorporate assets such as personal residences.
This technique for measuring wealth has long been used in standard economic studies, though critics have challenged that tradition.
Sounds to me like a typical government measurement. If you don't include personal residences in the mix, you don't have anything remotely close to accurate. For most of us, that is the source of our wealth.
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ETproductions1 year, 7 months ago
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Not so. There are two separate metrics discussed. One is income. That excludes real estate. But with the burst of the real estate bubble, if that were included, it would further depress the lower income levels, who have most of their net worth in property.
But the 50% projection comes from two separate studies of wealth. That includes cash, stocks, property, businesses owned, retirement plans, endowments. It is MUCH harder to get at all that data. Hence the most recent study available was from 2003. But again, projecting that study forward with the impact of Bush's tax advantages to the massively wealthy, the wealthiest 1% now own somewhere around 50% of everything in the country. And they are increasing their hold on wealth at a very rapid rate.
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