The tide has shifted and most don’t know it. For decades the US had the largest and most successful middle class in the world. That was in the 20th century but not now.
To oversimplify things, the globalization of the our “local” economy has forced the US worker to compete head to head with workers abroad who will do the same work for a fraction of our wages. US owned companies recognized the opportunity and have sent the work and the jobs overseas.
Need proof? Look outside:
- 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.
- Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
- 40 million Americans are on food stamps
Yes, these are sobering facts, but what about the US rich?
- 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.
The most sobering fact is that the folks in the middle known as the middle class grow fewer and fewer.
John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2010
All rights reserved.
Source: Yahoo Finance. See the link below which I liberally quoted.