50 Percent Of American Workers Make Less Than 28,031 Dollars A Year

a reply to: NonsensicalUserName

Regulation will be dismissed by the bankers/politicians in their pockets as "unnecessary" or "stifling". when what it does is destroy a fraudulent business model.

Government regulations are exactly what has caused our financial problems.

A "regulation" is really just a law, which has to be enforced--meaning, you're empowering the police state.

I find it ironic that everyone is complaining about corporations. Everyone wants to give government more power to "regulate" corporations.

Buuuuuut...guess who owns the government...

originally posted by: LewsTherinThelamon
a reply to: NonsensicalUserName

Buuuuuut...guess who owns the government...

Corporations and powerful private wealth enterprises

originally posted by: BlubberyConspiracy

originally posted by: LewsTherinThelamon
a reply to: NonsensicalUserName

Buuuuuut...guess who owns the government...

Corporations and powerful private wealth enterprises

Exactly!

I am above that mark. Or was anyway. Worked for a company that MADE money. But apparently not enough for them. I lost my job last week. The company is closing down and moving out of the country so that they can make more money by paying workers less. Well that and having less regulations to deal with.

That is just the beginning. You have conglomerates who are held into account on their bottom line. They monopolize the sector, buy out who they want, and cut costs (probably your paycheck) wherever they see a profit. This is to appease the board of directors and shareholders. If a law is there to protect the public and it is getting in the way, lobby the government and they will sell out the people for a dollar. Never underestimate the power of greed.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It's the world we live in.

^Chirp^

This is more or less the smoking gun on the state of the US economy. When adjusted to inflation the average person's wages are apparently in a decline, while the top of the pyramid continues to grow their wealth. When those of us who can not find a decent job, those at the top tell us we are not working hard enough, we are not educated, we made bad choices, ect..

It seems the media has ignored the decline of the wages, the increase in frivolous taxes that are hidden everywhere, and the endless debt and sings the same tune of not working hard enough, not being educated, making bad decisions(arrest record), and what ever else they can think of to place the blame of the decline is the working man's wage on the him and his peers while completely ignoring whose wealth is growing.

The US continues to get more top heavy. Many of us realize this and too many do not.

Most all full time jobs in my region are all around $10.00 /hr also. What I read is that when they will try to push through the flat tax in the future. They want no deductions after $41,000 and a straight 17%. So with your two or more part time jobs, if you break the $41,000 mark your fed taxes will be around $7000 + per year.

a reply to: LewsTherinThelamon

frankly I think that's a bit naive.

If you want to call out bad laws, fine, but laws exist for a reason. The incompetence of our present government in overseeing the rule of law doesn't disprove the period of relative economic stability following the depression/ww2, in which recessions were comparatively moderate.

originally posted by: SubTruth
a reply to: tinker9917

It is not 8,000 a month take home.......taxes. The average mortgage is 1000 a month a car payment is 300-400. Add in insurance and and electricity and that is 400 a month. Food cost is 400 a month easy.


Money just does not go that far anymore. I believe a true middle class household income is over 100,000 a year.

Even at 25% taxation, thats $6000 per month take home. 3 times more than most people make where I live. But I guess living location expected standard of living has alot to do with it.

Everyone ignores the fact that we've been adding a million people a year to our country, most of whom are low educated workers. That lowers wages while increasing the cost of services at the same time.

a reply to: CB328

Well blame the education system for that. But even taking that into account, what about the record number of college graduates with 2 and 4 year degrees? What happens when 1,000,000 new nursing graduates enter the market with only 750,000 jobs available (made up numbers)? Population boom affects professionals as well with an over saturated amount of college graduates with basically useless paper. It's the new diploma. Now people have to get masters degrees to make ends meet and even that is becoming watered down. Lets face it, our economic model isn't working anymore. There's so many factors why that is the case, but first we must face the obvious and start coming up with ideas that go past the classic capitalism or communism arguments. We need to prepare for societal collapse, and hopefully come up with a new model which addresses the multiple issues that we have with our current one.

I find the Title of this thread so depressing. I have worked at my current employer for 12 years. It is a small company with one big money-making client. Two weeks ago it was announced we are losing that client. And we were told that some of us are going to be layed-off. I knew I would be one of the staff to be let go. Tonight before I left the office the President of the company called me into his office and asked if I had been applying for other jobs. I said that I had and had in fact had an interview on Monday, but have not heard back. He said " You need to be looking for another job." I said "I am."

It makes me sick to my stomach to think about being without work at 51 years old. My resume, references and credit history are lock solid. But I have worked so hard to own a home and pay my bills on time each month to make sure my credit is perfect, and now I'm afraid it may get ruined if I run out of money. Taking a job for $30k a year is almost cutting my salary in half. I'm trying to be positive.......but man this SUCKS!!!

a reply to: CatLady3912

Look at it this way. At least your age group really did have all of those opportunities. My age group will be fighting for a second chance.

a reply to: jrod

This is more or less the smoking gun on the state of the US economy. When adjusted to inflation the average person's wages are apparently in a decline,

Yes, If you start looking with the beginning of the recession. The average adjusted wage took a bit of a hit then (the top 20% of earners took a bit of a hit bigger hit than the rest). Of course, a lot of people stopped being wage earners at all but we are talking about average adjusted wages, right?

But it's been quite steady for the past 3 years, no decline. The reason being that the inflation rate has been very low.
www.advisorperspectives.com...
www.usinflationcalculator.com...

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Hoosierdaddy71

Who's going to run the machines in ten years when we have an entire generation of untrained unskilled workers hitting the market?

That's about to happen.

That's just it, One. The only button pushers will be setup men, or
robots. Half the toolmakers I know in IL backpedaled into CNC and
took a big cut-- the other half that were inde without their own
shops went fishing early.

I'm one of the latter, after getting gouged as a consultant for a
temp agency; and then a CNC setup man in a well known meat
grinder.
Obama care just passing put the handwriting on the wall---
and I didn't make the cut for the employee number cap. You like
your job you can keep your job ROFL. not.

If anything with chips happens for humans it'll be big multi-axis
cell setups and maintenance people in the next ten.
A local big, international contractor is always looking for maint
workers and supers... robots break, and the few around that
can noodle a ladder diagram in the control are still in big demand.

Think about it though-- would you rather have anything one-up you
want machined right away from somebody skilled: that you spent a
couple million on toolroom equipment for? Or a robot that gets a
much better workflow, and cost of manufacture a frac of the journeyman?

No contest.... and the jungle's getting thicker.
Moral: More hydraulics/pneumatics, industrial strength three-
phase, and PLC basics. In two years you'll eat well again.

Now to try and off load this half ton of shiny paperweights.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: puzzlesphere

So it's no problem that we have massive wealth inequality and continuing massive inflation and loss of purchasing power of the dollar while corporate profits grow to increasingly staggering amounts while they ship jobs overseas and wages not only stagnate but decline due to an over abundance of labor?

Nothing to see here right?

W.Edwards Deming, a statistics guru started saying in the '70's:
"The modern business school teaches you to find something
successful, ruin it for a profit, and move on."
It might have been a little severe, but watch the hatchet men
enter for some quick dividends by way of paring the work force.
After forty or so years, it seems a lot less lonely now anyway.
And Human Resources is the new name for Personnel: because
humans are commodities to be used up and discarded after they
burn out, Neo. My flint's about shot.