The U.S. Middle Class Is Being Wiped Out:The U.S. Middle Class Is Being Wiped Out

1prometheus · Jul 16, 2010

Great info Pockets thanks for adding specificity to my claim.

LEAPup · Jul 16, 2010

Quote from LeeD:

In case you are too busy to scroll through all the pages of the article:
1) 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
2) 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
3) 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
4) 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
5) A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
6) 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
7) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
8) Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
9) 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.
10) 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.
11) As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
12) The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nationâs wealth.
13) Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
14) In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% as much as the average worker in the private sector.
15) The top 1% of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
16) In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
17) More than 40% of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
18) For 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.
19) 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.
20) Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
21) Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
22) The top 10% of Americans now earn around 50% of our national income.
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Stunning!!!:eek:

achilles28 · Jul 16, 2010

Quote from Martinghoul:

Which country's commercial banks? Total stock of Greek debt outstanding is arnd â¬300bn, including bills, if I remember correctly. So if you look at the aggregate balance sheet of the world's banking systems, the percentage should be insignificant.
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Martin,

Just curious how much of that 300 Billion was owned by Commercial Banks, of any nationality? Thanks,

IanMacQuaide · Jul 16, 2010

Quote from LeeD:

I just listed all the statistics from the article linked in the opening post. I haven't checked the figures independently, and the figure in 1) may be as old as 2001.
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I should have added that I'm aware it's not YOUR numbers..but that not properly saving for retirement is MUCH higher than 43%.

MohdSalleh · Jul 16, 2010

yes these are the stats that preceded the bolshevik revolution

misterno · Jul 16, 2010

Quote from pupu:

ahhhh the innocence of youth....

Smart people are smart enough to know that honesty is for fairy tales but in real life it will get you chewed up and spit out in no time.

It's a global shark tank out there and goldfish get eaten alive.
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1) I am not young I am 41

2) Goldfish goes to heaven and shark goes to hell when they die. At least that is what I have been told.

LeeD · Jul 16, 2010

Quote from IanMacQuaide:

I should have added that I'm aware it's not YOUR numbers..but that not properly saving for retirement is MUCH higher than 43%.
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Perhaps, the keyword is "properly". Anyone who contributes $10 per year to an employer-sponsored pension fund is technically contributing to his or her retirement.

Recent figures suggest that given potential inflation and increased life length, $1 mln in after-tax savings is no longer considered sufficient for care-free retirement.

blackjack007 · Jul 17, 2010

Quote from LeeD:

In case you are too busy to scroll through all the pages of the article:
1) 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
2) 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
...blah blah
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the only people who have a problem with this list are poor people or middle-class people. maybe they should do something about it instead of blaming smarter, more driven and more successful people?

Mayhem · Jul 18, 2010

Quote from MarketMasher:

Would you like Purina or Alpo tonight?
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I'll take Dinki Di:

Martinghoul · Jul 19, 2010

Quote from achilles28:
Martin,
Just curious how much of that 300 Billion was owned by Commercial Banks, of any nationality? Thanks,
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Hard to make an educated guess... I'd say arnd 2/3 is sitting with commercial banks, while the rest is stuck with the real money community, incl the Chinese.