22 Statistics That Prove The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America

22 Statistics That Prove The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America

The 22 statistics that you are about to read prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.

So why are we witnessing such fundamental changes? Well, the globalism and "free trade" that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects. It turns out that they didn't tell us that the "global economy" would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations. The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor pools over the last several decades, but middle class American workers have increasingly found things to be very tough.

The reality is that no matter how smart, how strong, how educated or how hard working American workers are, they just cannot compete with people who are desperate to put in 10 to 12 hour days at less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the world. After all, what corporation in their right mind is going to pay an American worker ten times more (plus benefits) to do the same job? The world is fundamentally changing. Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the big global corporations are making massive amounts of money. Meanwhile, the American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new "global" labor pool.

What do most Americans have to offer in the marketplace other than their labor? Not much. The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job. But today, U.S. workers are "less attractive" than ever. Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States.

So corporations are moving operations out of the U.S. at breathtaking speed. Since the U.S. government does not penalize them for doing so, there really is no incentive for them to stay.

What has developed is a situation where the people at the top are doing quite well, while most Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to make it. There are now about 6 unemployed Americans for every new job opening in the United States, and the number of "chronically unemployed" is absolutely soaring. There simply are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.

Many of those who are able to get jobs are finding that they are making less money than they used to. In fact, an increasingly large percentage of Americans are working at low wage retail and service jobs.

But you can't raise a family on what you make flipping burgers at McDonald's or on what you bring in from greeting customers down at the local Wal-Mart.

The truth is that the middle class in America is dying -- and once it is gone it will be incredibly difficult to rebuild.

[url=http://www.businessinsider.com/22-statistics-that-prove-the-middle-class-is-being-systematically-wiped-out-of-existence-in-america-2010-7]Source[ /url]


22 Statistics That Prove The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4992ceff8a0b.jpg[/atsimg]

I know I know... tell me something I didn't already know! Well just thought I'd share this because it points towards a lot of things we've all been thinking.

Everyone knows how bad the economy is, but this article goes into it a bit more and explains in detail how we are forced to fight (middle class citizens) for jobs now. I mean, yes we've always had to try to 'one up' someone to get a job before or 'get lucky' but nowadays you literally can apply to 30 places and be 'lucky' enough to get 3 job interviews.

And the problem we have with immigrants getting across the boarder, and our government not policing certain areas anymore is becoming more of a problem than ever before those immigrants are used for cheap labor, and as I said it's already hard enough for a US citizen to find a job let alone finding one and getting paid under the table much less than minimum wage.

I'll let you all discuss the rest and go from there, but the whole job situation is effecting a large part of us here in the states and even a lot of people across seas (but that is for a different thread unless you can still stay on topic please).

One of my curiosity is why America would do this? America's military is more civilian then any other country. You can't wipe out the middle class and still have a military.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


Or you could wipe out the middle class so the military is the only option for most. Solves the whole recruiting thing. Also, if you see a large scale war on the horizon it might not hurt to have lots of volunteers.

I can see it now, whole sections of cities become military bases to house the families.

The days are gone when you could buy a house, put kids through post secondary and maybe even vacation or have a cottage/boat/chalet on 1 income. I wish I could travel back to the 50's. Life seemed simpler!

Deez

strategy is the business of death.

the weapon of choice is irrelevant, as we can see, goals and intention count and the whole sham is still being sold as 'peace'. guess who will be next? too bad that one only seems to encounter passive resistance or even open hostility for talking shop about such matters.

we do we have to die this way? because some people's pride got in the way of saying (and acting) no at a meaningful time? brainwash? think of all the nutters you used to laugh at when it's your turn, sheeps.

Originally posted by DEEZNUTZ
reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

 

Or you could wipe out the middle class so the military is the only option for most. Solves the whole recruiting thing.

You're on it!!!

Originally posted by DEEZNUTZ
reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

 

Or you could wipe out the middle class so the military is the only option for most. Solves the whole recruiting thing.

You're on it!!! That's 100% correct. Why do people think that recruiting numbers are doing so good even though we know that we are at war. A war that most of the people that join the military are against.

It's just a way of playing us into believing that its still our choice to volunteer. I'm about to leave the military myself. I know that its hard out there for jobs and I'm worried about how I'm going to take care of my family but I just don't believe in any of this anymore.

The standards in military recruiting have dropped so much in the past five to eight years. It's unbelievable. It seems like everything has a waiver now. People that couldn't join the military ten years ago are now welcomed with open arms and will eventually be running this Army. I definitely don't want to be here for that.

Also, I want somebody here to look up the word Army in the dictionary and post what the definition is. Right now the Army is more civilian then military.

If anybody here goes to Iraq. They'll notice that it looks like the Army no longer has Cooks. Not too many truck drivers, a lot of them are civilians. Then you have British & American civilian commandos. The Bush administration managed to make even more money by outsourcing through war. The united states pumps out all these billions for war and the money is literally going into these civilian companies' pockets.

A perfect example would be the last time that I was deployed. I was a supervisor where I worked. Their were two KBR civilians that worked under me yet they got paid almost three times more than my soldiers doing the exact same thing.

I'm really sorry for my ranting I guess I should have posted this on another thread.

We as a country have become so ignorant that it isn't even funny. We're the joke of the world!!!

reply to post by highlyoriginal


Excellent post. I have one in political madness somewhat similiar.
When I was coming up in the 70’s and got a job at GM, there was all kinds of opportunity even for those with just HS diplomas.

There were many chemical plants, manufacturing industries, the post offices, Auto worker jobs, civil service jobs, and even good jobs in sales, or delivering the newspaper a guy could hustle and make a good living.

Now there is just not the same for our youth coming up today.

I later went to school and left the auto industry [which was on its way out] and entered the rising IT industry. For years a person could get a good living of 50, 000 to 100, 000, from a computer tech to admin network job. But slowly, after y2k, 20000, the jobs started to dry up as people in the IT industry, HP, Microsoft, IBM, shipped those good jobs overseas. . . .Suddenly the many good jobs in the IT industry were gone!

Now anyone who wants to theorize about capitalism, trade, or whatever

I lived these downgrades in American lifestyle, and what the OP is posting is absolutely correct on all levels.



[edit on 17-7-2010 by inforeal]

[edit on 17-7-2010 by inforeal]

Here's a statistic: a man and his wife, 1990 graduates from Purdue, with three college degrees between them are on Food stamps and Medicare.
They don't want to move accross the United States to be employed. Laziness.... We are all going to end up supporting these lazy Americans who don't want to sacrifice and work hard. They choose this way of life, after eight years it is a life style choice... and people should not feel sorry for these able bodied mooches. They borrowed a bunch of money off a widowed mother and fail to repay their debt. This attitude destroys family relationships with the relatives, and they have three kids. What are these kids learning? Someone will bail you out for lazy behavior? Very irresponsible. This is how America is going. The rest of us are going to pay and pay and pay. We are getting tired of paying. We know people who are moveing to Norway and Canada to get out of here.

It isn't much better here in Canada...
We are behind the curve the US is on, but only by a a short time..

You can't live under an over pass here in winter.

[edit on 17-7-2010 by Danbones]

reply to post by Danbones


As true as it it to say Canadians can't live under an overpass, there is a HUGE difference in the types of economies in Canada and the USaSS errr I mean USA, the largest difference is in manufacturing, Canada as other countries hasn't outsourced its manufacturing base out like the US. even though the economy is hard hit like other countries the US has become almost 100% a consuming country as in they don't make anything other than service and debtors.

You can't run a country on services, you have to be able to export something you manufacture or produce! the US buys everything (lots 73%) and if they sell anything its something they bought repacked and sold.

I don't know about "systematically", doesn't that imply that it's directed with purpose?

Here's a set of graphs that also demonstrate the huge gap we're facing, and how it's only becoming worse.

Source

I believe at this time, a quote is appropriate:

"Fighting fire with empty words
While the banks get fat
And the poor stay poor
And the rich get rich
And the cops get paid
To look away
As the one percent rules America"
-Queensryche

Dunno about the cops being paid to "look away", but the album that quote is from, Operation:Mindcrime, was released in the mid 80's.

[edit on 18-7-2010 by PieKeeper]

reply to post by Danbones


Yes in Canada it's getting a little more stagnant but we won't see things as bad here as the US. Our banks have more strict capatilization rules and it's tougher to get a mortgage here so we won't have nearly as bad a housing bubble as the US. Our home prices will drop and I would reckon soon as our market especially here in Vancouver is way over priced. If a 40 year old home 2000 sq ft is going for $850 000 on a 1/2 acre of land, then we have a problem.

I don't own a home because I wasn't willing to pay ridiculous prices and pump every dollar I make just to "Live the dream". I've been waiting patiently for the market to get back to manageable price levels(5 x yearly gross=price you can afford for home).

I think they poured globaliztion on too thick and too fast and it backfired on them. As a result of this meltdown and the one that is coming will turn countries back to "Island States".

The only way to recover for alot of countries will be to basically default on sovereign debts, start up a new currency, build on your manufacturing base, trade and produce within your country and go from there.

I fear the above is going to be the only option for the US and it will be painful, for both of our countries. Lets just hope we can keep level heads about things while this goes on.