Thursday Failure – The Middle Class Is Dying In America

Here’s why the economy isn’t recovering:

According to the latest PEW Poll, the middle class has gone from 61% of the population to less than 50% of the population in the past 4 decades and, even worse, now make 33.8% less income share than they used to. The bottom 30% make the same 9% of the national income they made back in the 70s – so the poor are still poor but the middle 61% used to split 62%, so 30% for 30% of the middle class. Now, 50% split 43% or 25.8% for 30%.

That means that we now have double the amount of people (70M) making the same 9% of all income in the lowest bracket (the fastest growing group!) and we have 50% more people in the middle class fighting over a pie that has shrunk 33%. Who has gained from all this? Do you really need to ask? The upper class ($125,609/yr to join this club), has grown from 20M to 50M working people and their share of the income has grown from 28% to 49% – all at the expense of the 190M people who are less fortunate.

That’s why you (and most of my readers are in the “Upper Class“) thing “everyone” is doing better – because 50M people is probably everyone you usually associate with. Middle Class people make $41,869 a year – how far away from your salary is that? Can your family live on $41,869?  If so – you must be middle class and thank goodness you have that skill because I don’t even think my kids (13,15) could live on that!  

As you can see from this handy chart – the average American family cannot live on $41,869 because the average family spends $50,486 AFTER TAXES and that’s with a magical $17,115/yr house and $2,929 health care. So the average family has to have two working parents and, of course, the average family just slips further and further into debt each year and it never gets paid off because they sure don’t get raises that keep up with inflation, do they?  

My kids (not to brag) are both honors students but that’s in part because we spend more like $1,000/yr on books, not $100 and we have spent way more than $1,000 on tutors and other educational experiences and we’ve gone on trips that have broadened their horizons and they’ve had the best health care (my oldest daughter was premature) and we drive the safest cars – these are all the tiny ways that the rich are able to give their children every advantage in life over the kids who have just $100/yr to spend on books, etc.