Is The Middle Class Being Wiped Out??

Question

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

What should we do about it?
Will The Rich Help the Middle Class if we give them Tax Cuts?

Answer 1

The USA is a 70% consumer economy. The Rich don't spend their money. The Middle class does.



That's where the tax cuts should be!!!!!! Not on the rich where it has been for years now.



If tax cuts for the rich worked why are we in a recession then????



They don't and will not in the future!!!!



Focus on the middle class and you will see America be great again!!!

Answer 2

Well, let's start by putting the blame where it really belongs. I haven't seen any rich people going neighborhood to neighborhood stealing from the middle class to get richer. I do see that most of the middle class WORKS for the rich who PROVIDE JOBS! So who's to blame for the sudden downfall of the middle class? How about those wonderful Democrats who took over Congress in 2008? As soon as they won election in 2007 the housing and stock market started to tank. It isn't any better after nearly three years. We have almost 20 million people out of work or under employed thanks to the Democrats. Now, we can confiscate money earned by the wealthy if we want to but I know if I was one of them, and you wanted to take my hard earned money, I wouldn't earn another damned dime until you stopped trying to confiscate what I worked for. And I daresay, that if the shoe was on your foot, neither would you. So, if it takes tax cuts or even letting the rich keep the CURRENT tax rate that has been in place for TEN YEARS, then leave it alone. If the government would stop screwing around with new regulations and only extending current tax rates for short periods of time, so that there was some stability and business projections could be made, you would see those mean old rich people create jobs. But hell, that doesn't fit into Keynesian economics so all the libs are against it. In the mean time, be happy with your unemployment check or your food stamps and welfare. Because that is our future unless things change.

Answer 3

The big problem is that the Obama minions who bought into the wealth redistribution hoax thought that his plan to take from the rich and give to the poor was intended only here in America. Little did they realize that his true intent was to do so on a global basis.

Obama and the UN look at at the wealth of the United States as a whole, with no division between the rich and the poor. Their ultimate goal is to take from the "rich" nations and give to the "poor" nations. And, it is inevitable that the little wealth of the poor and the middle class in this country will eventually be lowered to a world wide average. We see this happening with each passing day. Look at the amount of US "wealth" which has being redistributed to China and India, today, through both trade deficits and job transfer. Those are actually US dollars that we are borrowing back from China. We sent them there through trade agreements.

And, here is the Obama-UN perspective on the worlds wealthy.

Practically every American adult falls among the top 50% of the worlds richest people, and the greatest majority fall within the top 10%. Quite a few are among the richest 1% of the world population.

The most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. In contrast, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth.



The research finds that assets of $2,200 per adult placed a household in the top half of the world wealth distribution in the year 2000. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world required $61,000 in assets, and more than $500,000 was needed to belong to the richest 1%, a group which — with 37 million members worldwide — is far from an exclusive club.

Answer 4

Yes the rich contribute to the economy CAUSE THEY HAVE MONEY!!!! If I were rich I'd pay my taxes and contribute to the economy too!! But I'm not I barely make enough to pay my bills and feed my kids! I've never had to pay in and usually get a tax return. I am not ashamed by this!! It is the one time a year I get to take my kids on a vacation and enjoy my time with them cause the rest of the year I have to work constantly just to keep food and clothes coming!!

Answer 5

Its been like this for a LONG LONG time



yet for some reason, many will defend tax cuts for the rich until they die.



But honestly, the middle class is doing all right, as with every recession it is slimming down but it is in no way being destroyed.

Answer 6

Yes, America is on the way down and has been for years.

Answer 7

Not yet, but they are taking financial strain form the 47% who pay zero tax, not the rich who actually contribute to the economy.

Answer 8

The Rich have enough tax cuts,

Answer 9

More Americans doomed to have low-income jobs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5rasyeMdmI&feature=channel_video_title



Peter Schiff: "We're selling our souls to the devil"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JBbdCSgy9A&feature=channel_video_title



U.S. middle class disappearing into abyss?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PsUyEYO16E&feature=channel_video_title



We're becoming communist; small upper class with everyone else in poverty.

Answer 10

Taxed to oblivion by socialist libtards...