Despite our increasing amounts of education, the “middle-class” life that many of us dream of is growing increasingly harder to attain. Whether it is due to the effects of Globalism (and jobs going overseas..) or the global economic crisis, these statistics give a sobering account of the state of our being….
Some Excerpts:
• 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.
• 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 the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• 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.
What can we do to turn the tide around??? Is it time for the ideals traditionally given to meaning of "middle class" be re-examined??
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