THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS IS BEING DESTROYED. HERE ARE THE FACTS TO PROVE IT.
Sunday, July 25, 2010 at 12:07 AM -----------------------------------------------------------------------
The biggest problem that Snyder points out in his article is that most Americans are dependent upon someone else giving them a job.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
by Bill Baker, J.D.
Editor and Publisher, The San Bruno Beacon
In a July 15, 2010 article titled, The Middle Class in America is Radically Shrinking. Here are the Stats to Prove it, Michael Snyder cited 22 statistical facts supporting his conclusion that the American middle class is dying.
10 of the 22 facts that Mr. Snyder used to support the conclusion in his article are:
1). 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
2). 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
3). Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008*.
4). As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
5). In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
6). More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
7). 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
8). Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
9). The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
10). Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
In his article, Snyder writes, "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." Snyder also observes that "the [U.S., state and local] government(s) keep passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States". Oppressive regulation of private business by the [U.S., state and local] government(s) has resulted in companies relocating their operations offshore in business friendly environments offering highly skilled workers who will work for lower wages and benefits.
The biggest problem that Snyder points out in his article is that most Americans are dependent upon someone else giving them a job. With very few exceptions, the entrepreneurial spirit, vision and genius that made America an economic powerhouse and powerful engine of commerce is long gone. The American public education system is a disaster, the traditional American family has all but disintegrated and the values that once made this country great have disappeared.
We have become a tragically pathetic nation of clerks, politicians, jail keepers, security guards, cops, lawyers, government bureaucrats, administrators and other support people. When the U.S. industrial base shrinks to a fraction of what it was and the private sector contracts, these jobs can no longer be funded, dry up and go away. Working as a cop, judge or government bureaucrat for a government entity that has no tax revenue doesn't pay very well. As we have seen, there is a move by some government entities, that do not have sufficient tax revenue, to simply close down.
We have an overabundance of people who can take orders, enforce and administer the law, keep records, jail people, answer telephones, flip hamburger patties and take orders at the local 7-11. On the other hand, the United States has very few people who have the skill, talent and education to create the new wealth and jobs necessary to expand our economy.
Talented people are in short supply because our public education system does not appear to be capable of educating enough students who can read above the sixth grade level (or at all), write a coherent sentence, do simple math or understand basic science. This problem is sometimes exacerbated when public elementary and high school students are taught by their teachers that no matter how bad they do they should still be rewarded. Elementary and high school students in the public education system are often taught that self-esteem and getting rewarded for failure are more important than actual results. The problem is that self-esteem is a by-product of success and failure, no matter what type of pretty package you want to wrap it in, is not a self-esteem builder. In the real world, failure is not a viable option. Talented people are also in short supply because our local, state and Federal governments strangle new ideas and private sector companies by regulating and taxing them to death. These government entities bite the hands that feed them and then wonder why most companies are leaving the United States and taking their jobs overseas.
We pour billions of borrowed dollars into our public schools that continue churning out poorly educated conformists who can follow someone else's rules in a controlled environment and are dependent upon someone else giving them a job. These people are being trained for jobs that will not exist in the next 5-10 years and most of them stand a better than even chance of spending most of their lives as chronically unemployed people living on the edge of or in poverty.
We must start training entrepreneurs and not employees. The days of working 20 or 30 years for someone else and then expecting a fat retirement check every month for the rest of your life because you showed up for work and did some job that a machine or $1 a day worker could do are quickly coming to an end. The ridiculous sense of entitlement that many American workers have is based on the bizarre notion that their labor is somehow worth more than the labor of a worker in a foreign country who often possesses superior skills and almost always has a stronger work ethic than their American counterpart.
Fifty or sixty years ago, America was the most powerful industrial engine in the world and American workers were doing the best work in the world. Today, with a few exceptions (i.e., GE and Boeing), the limited number of products that are still manufactured in America are either manufactured by a foreign company operating their plant in America or by an American company operating on the fringes of whatever industry they are in. That being said, even the biggest U.S. companies, like GE and Boeing, are finding it extremely difficult to compete against foreign competitors whose products are often superior.
We have reached a point where chronic unemployment is a fact of life for millions of Americans. Sooner or later, as tax revenues dry up, governments at all levels will no longer be able to serve as the traditional employers of last resort and support their richly paid taxpayer supported labor forces. Sooner or later, when economic reality sets in, governments at all levels in the United States will have to lay off hundreds of thousands of government workers who will join the ranks of the unemployed and exacerbate the chronic unemployment problem.
We have reached a point in the United States, where it really doesn't matter how polished your resume is, how well you interview or how much education or experience you have. With limited exceptions, we have reached a point where the traditional notion of depending on someone else to give you a full time job with benefits and a retirement plan is quickly becoming a wet dream. From an economic standpoint, the traditional retirement model cannot be supported because there are not enough resources available to support this model.
Right now, most Americans have to choose between creating their own jobs and wealth; working at a low paying service or retail job; working at a mind numbing, dead end government job; living off of whatever form of government welfare is available at a very low subsistence level; or dropping out of society and quite literally living off the land.
If you think things are bad now, as the song goes; you ain't seen nothing yet.
