The Proof Is In The Numbers: America Is Getting Poorer
How in the world can anyone claim that things are getting better? Sometimes the numbers are so clear that they simply cannot be denied. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, median household income in the United States fell from $51,726 in 2008 to $50,221 in 2009. That was the second yearly decline in median household income in a row. In other words, America is getting poorer. Just let that statistic above sink in for a little bit. In 2009, American families had roughly $1,500 less coming in than the year before. Not that the cost of living has gone down either. Have you been to the supermarket lately? Things are getting ridiculous out there. In fact, middle class American families are being squeezed as never before. More mothers and fathers are scrambling to find second and third jobs just to pay the mortgage and to keep the lights on and to put food on the table. This is not a time of prosperity in America. We are in a state of serious decline and it is time to wake up and admit it.
When you stop and analyze the new Census data, something jumps out at you right away. You quickly realize that these income declines are not limited to just a few regions of the country – they are literally happening from coast to coast.
The U.S. economy is in deep, deep trouble and the proof is in the numbers. The following are 12 statistics that reveal just how far the standard of living in America is declining….
1 – According to the Census Bureau, median household income dropped in 34 U.S. states in 2009, and the only state where median household income actually increased was in North Dakota.
2 – The Census Bureau data also revealed that of the 52 largest metro areas in America, only the city of San Antonio did not see a decline in median household income in 2009.
3 – 35 percent of all U.S. households now live on $35,000 or less.
4 – According to the Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans living below the poverty line is the highest it has been in 15 years.
5 – The number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program passed the 41 million mark for the first time ever in June.
6 – The number of Americans in the food stamp program increased a staggering 55 percent from December 2007 to June 2010.
7 – One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government.
8 – Nearly 10 million Americans now receive unemployment insurance, which is almost four times as many that were receiving it back in 2007.
9 – In 2009, U.S. consumer spending experienced the biggest decline since 1942.
10 – As millions of young Americans struggled just to survive, marriages fell to a record low in 2009. Today, only 52% of Americans 18 years or older are married.
11 – The only group that saw their household income increase in 2009 was those making $180,000 or more.
12- According to the Huffington Post, the gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew in 2009 to its largest margin ever….
The top-earning 20 percent of Americans – those making more than $100,000 each year – received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent made by the bottom 20 percent of earners, those who fell below the poverty line, according to the new figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968.
Not that it is a bad thing to make money.
Contrary to what our socialist friends may think, it is actually a very good thing to work hard and make money.
The point is that the game is rigged and the bottom 80 percent of us are being left behind.
The middle class is being systematically destroyed. At the rate we are going, we will eventually have a very small group of ultra-wealthy Americans and a gigantic mountain of very poor Americans that are barely able to survive.
The answer to this is not a “redistribution of wealth”.
What middle class Americans actually need are good jobs with good benefits.
You know, the kind of jobs that the U.S. economy used to produce.
For the vast majority of Americans, all they have to offer in the marketplace is their labor. If they cannot get someone to hire them for a wage that will enable them to take care of their families then they simply cannot make it without government assistance.
But what our leaders have done in the name of “globalism” is that they have essentially merged our economy with the economies of nations such as China where blue collar workers are paid about a dollar an hour to do the same jobs that American workers get paid 15 to 20 dollars an hour to do.
As a result, jobs and factories are fleeing the United States so rapidly it is hard to even describe. The deindustrialization of America is happening right in front of our eyes, but the American people have become so dumbed down that most of them don’t even seem to have the capacity to understand what is going on.
Quite a few advocates of “free trade” (which is not “free” or “fair” at all under our current system) have left comments on my columns telling me that the American people better just suck it up because this is how it is now and the world isn’t going back. These advocates of the globalist system say that the American people just need to toughen up and learn to compete and need to just accept that the standard of living for workers across the globe is going to be equalized and that is all there is to it.
So are you ready to have the same standard of living as a Chinese sweatshop worker who works 12 hours a day for one dollar an hour?
That is where we are headed.
But things did not have to be this way. We did not have to merge our economy with communist China and allow them to keep their currency devalued 40 percent lower than it should be so that they could dump massive amounts of cheap goods on our shores. We did not have to elect politicians that believe that “globalism” is the answer to all of our problems. We did not have to sign on to the WTO, NAFTA and all the other “free trade” agreements that are destroying the American middle class.
Labor is now a global commodity. American workers are now part of the global labor force. The bargaining power of the average American worker has dropped through the floor. Now the monolithic predator corporations that dominate our economy don’t even have to deal with American workers if they don’t want to.
Very few of our politicians admitted that merging us into a one world economy would mean a dramatic decline in the standard of living of middle class Americans.
But that is exactly what is happening.
Meanwhile, the federal government, our state governments and our local governments keep going into massive amounts of new debt in an effort to keep paying the bills.
There are some state governments, like Illinois, that are basically flat broke. In fact, Illinois doesn’t even bother to pay many of their bills anymore.
Of course the federal government is the worst offender of them all. The U.S. national debt is rapidly approaching 14 trillion dollars, and most of us have gotten so accustomed to it that we don’t even talk about it much anymore.
That is how bizarre things have gotten.
As America keeps getting poorer, and as U.S. taxpayers see their incomes continue to decline, how in the world are U.S. government finances going to turn around?
The truth is that our leaders should be in full blown crisis mode in an attempt to fix this thing. Pieces of the U.S. economy are literally falling off all around us and our leaders are pushing the debt accelerator to the floor as we head toward a giant cliff.
But instead our politicians are prancing about the countryside telling us that everything is going to be just great as long as we cast our votes for them in the fall.
And the mainstream media keeps telling us that the “recession” is over and that soon the U.S. economy will be better than ever.
Is it any wonder that faith in the mainstream media is now at an all-time low?
According to a new poll just released by Gallup, the number of Americans that have little to no trust in the mass media (57%) is at an all-time high.
A significant percentage of the American people is starting to wake up.
What about you?
Are you awake yet?
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I agree with one exception. I don’t think that global competition is the main culprit. If we are going to sell our products around the world, it seems logical that other economies will compete with product as well as labor. I believe that it is the elitism in our governments from cities all the way to Washington that is the real devil. These people are getting rich in government service while it is the average Joe that pays for everything. We are in a TAX and SPEND free-fall. Factories and jobs have been leaving for decades to circumvent wage and business taxes as well as government regulations. Politicians like to tax corporations heavily because they don’t vote. Employers are paying half of social security and Medicare for individuals so that workers are oblivious to it. I don’t think workers would have bought it if they had to pay the full cost. Look at the perks alone for politicians. Why are we paying for this when the average taxpayer is lucky enough to get a vacation or maybe keeping food on the table and the mortgage paid. Government needs to get out of the way of private sector business and the private sector needs to starve the government until it looses weight. What is going on now is quite the opposite; through class warfare, and the public sector “economy”, government is starving the private sector to secure ultimate power and control. We cannot allow anyone in the private sector, rich or poor, corporate or individual, to be feeding this monster too much. The monster always gets bigger and hungrier while ensuring the survival only of those that feed it the most. It’s better to keep the monster a little hungry and grateful to all in the private sector that feeds it and retains the power to starve it.
Two points.
First, John asserts that the reason these corporations ship jobs overseas is to avoid governmental intervention. Absolutely. If we could get rid of minimum wage requirements and the clean air and water acts, it would be a lot cheaper to manufacture here. The Federal Government did not push these manufacturers away, the free market did. Why, in a free global economy would I pay a union factory worker from Detroit $30 an hour plus benefits, when I can move the operation to Mexico and pay a fraction of that wage, and not worry about other expensive things like worker’s compensation claims?
Second, as long as we keep buying it, they’ll keep selling it.
No amount of protectionism can stop this flood. It’s been our protectionist policies that brought us to this. We have been exploiting the cheap labor of others to finance our own standard of living. If there weren’t immigrant laborers picking oranges, we would not have orange juice on our breakfast tables.
If it were not for Chinese sweat shops, we would not have… well pretty much anything…
Let’s take a cotton T-shirt.
I can buy a 3 pack of Hanes from Target for about $11. Made in China using Cotton from somewhere else in Southeast Asia.
Or I can buy 1 American Apparel T-shirt, made from sustainable American cotton, manufactured using American union labor for about $20.
We have put up with stagnant wages because goods are cheap, but goods are cheap because it’s manufactured elsewhere.
What’s happened is the bubble has popped. We have built a generation worth of growth on debt and false markets.
THE ONLY LONG TERM SOLUTION IS TO SUPPORT RAISING THE STANDARD OF LIVING ACROSS THE GLOBE. AND YES, OUR IMAGINARY PROSPERITY WILL, IN PART, VANISH.
Forget it, the prosperity of the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton years were a joke, a fabrication. Our growing economy was not based on anything real.
So the life I thought I’d have has evaporated. We’re paying a mortgage on a house we can’t give away, strapped with student loan payments that didn’t open up the opportunities we were promised. Paying daycare to watch our kids because we work 4 jobs between the two of us, all because Free Market Wall Street was treating our entire financial system like a Ponzi scheme while the Fed watched.
As long as we keep fighting amongst ourselves over Reps or Dems, they’ll both keep ripping us off.
You want to wake up?
1. Support Publicly funded campaigns so that corporations can’t buy politicians.
2. Take your money away from Wall St. invest in local banks
3. Don’t buy products from manufacturers who exploit their workers or their natural resources
4. Stop watching FOXNews
Most of the statistics etc are true. He doesn’t however spend sufficient time in his rant in developing a solution, nor in accrediting proper responsibility? He even takes a swipe at the “socialist”left, as if their agenda for a balancing of the wealth dynamic, is somehow unworthy of attention? Believe me the “party of business” on the right, the Republicans, have had more than their fair share of culpability in this dissembling of the American dream, since the advent of the “unfettered and free” marketplace of the trickle down lunacy, that began with Reagan!
He makes merely a suggestion, that we should “not” focus on the disparity between the rich and the rest of us? After all, it isn’t their fault that the country is in such a mess? This is where he and I would part company as regards a conclusion and a philosophy for a solution to this debacle. I do “Blame” that small % or “UBER rich”, that has had all the advantages for over 30 years. That group which did focus on breaking the power of Unions, deregulating banking and trade protocols, manipulating currency markets, etc. applying speculative gambling to all facets of trading, and as the rule in the market! “Dumbing down” the school curriculums of the institutions of higher learning, so that they produced only serfs to serve their agenda of a socialist corporate model of capitalism.
See mine.( http://www.jamesconvey.com/uploads/3/3/8/3/3383644/conspiracyofthecorporations.pdf)
Controlling, through their lobbyists, the electoral processes at all levels. This is the reality of the “military industrial complex”, as highlighted by a then retiring president Eisenhower some 50 years ago! The neocon philosophy! Additionally the Global marketplace that he condemns so readily, as being anti American all of a sudden, also serves the agendas of these multi faceted multinationals. They are not society friendly institutions! They function for only one thing, “profit”! And which profits shall only be disbursed and controlled by that select few, that are fortunate enough to be amongst this cadre of self serving, socialist style, corporate executive suites. Additionally the Global market is the only hope for the salvation of the U.S economy for the future, and if he is suggesting a trade protectionism surge domestically, then he doesn’t have a clue about practical reality in economics.
All manner of things that caused this worldwide recession, were directly resultant from the self serving agenda of the mega corporations! To maintain their control of the capitalist system to their own favor, and not the favor of the society that housed them! Besides, if he doesn’t believe that America is bereft of common decency at these % levels of hedonistic disparity, then he is a fool! My many reports and essays on economic matters have been highlighting these facts for many years now! This report of his is a little late to the game, and indicates that he is just now beginning to awaken, to the cruel reality that is the American version of the Anglo saxon capitalist model.
Where has he been all these years. Making profits no doubt and blithely ignoring the corporate ‘coup detat’ that has been unfolding in America before his very eyes. He wants to blindly blame the “governments” for the disasters. The governments unfortunately, are the only institutions remaining that can still effect the outcome of this debacle, Only they, through their mandate from the people, can dismantle this hegemony of greed and return a balance of equivalency, to the opportunity dynamics for a vibrant, entrepreneurial driven economy, and a way back to sustainable productivity and a resurgence of a middle class, if he still believes in democracy?
That is only “if” of course, we do not return a government bought and paid for by special interests! Unfortunately that looks as though it could happen in these upcoming midterms? I believe the American people deserve better than this shower of extremists that have suddenly emerged as the leaders in waiting, of a new America geared toward self destruction, if they should receive the peoples mandate. What happened to sensible conservatism in the American body politic? Thye are in for a very rough ride indeed!
I think you need to look at corporate power rather than Government power as the main culprit
Refer to Keynes articles from 1926 “The end of Laissez faire capitalism” for some insight into socialist corporate dominance of societies economic engines of growth. I also have several essays on economics on my site @ http://www.jamesconvey.com, that you might find enlightening. Enjoy your visit and leave a comment if you wish.
James
my business went away last year here in california , and more are either leaving here or relocating eles where.
its the polices of the Obama Admin and just now we are feeling the wrath of those polices in just a small way.
Obama wants the USA to be on par with the rest of the third world countries and its what he wants and is doing his best to make this “fundumental Change” a priority before he leaves office.
he shuts down the drilling in the gulf to hurt the gulf coast business and to keep BP paying out the money so they may collapse under the weight of this corporate showdown.
george soros is the man whos going to come out ahead of everyone as he funds all of these groups to beat down the business people and when america is finally in chaos he will step in as the savior and chief and pick and choose who lives where and how.
look at where george soros puts his money – he puts it in third world countires like brazil – never putting money into america – look it up yourself! its easy on goggle. wake up is right!!
I also agree with Jam. I would take this a bit further though. Obama with the help of the Democrat party are the tool of George Soros. It is interesting how liberal democrats complain about jobs going overseas when the entity behind the liberal government puppets is George Soros directs, supports and profits from everything the Obamacrats have done. Soros has converted the Democratic party and all their elected politicians into his own personal MOB. America is waking up but after 100 years of sitting in the progressively heated pot of water, will America jump out or just keep getting used to it till we boil? And will the progressives be able to convince the country to get back in the pot after things cool down again? I would say yes to the second question if central control over our institutions such as colleges and business is not reversed.