How Does America’s Middle Class Rank Globally? #27

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We are number 1 right? USA! USA! No one can beat our wealth creation machine, our economic dynamism, our level playing field and our bastions of higher education. We have a middle class that is the envy of the world, right?

Well, like so much of the “American dream” we have been force fed for a generation or more, this perception is not based in reality whatsoever. Sure it may have been the case for a couple of decades immediately after World War 2. Before the military-industrial-Wall Street complex fully took over the political process, but it certainly isn’t true any longer. Myths die hard and this one is particularly pernicious because it prevents people from changing things. As James Baldwin said:

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

From the Huffington Post:

America is the richest country on Earth. We have the most millionaires, the most billionaires and our wealthiest citizens have garnered more of the planet’s riches than any other group in the world. We even have hedge fund managers who make in one hour as much as the average family makes in 21 years!

This opulence is supposed to trickle down to the rest of us, improving the lives of everyday Americans. At least that’s what free-market cheerleaders repeatedly promise us.

Unfortunately, it’s a lie, one of the biggest ever perpetrated on the American people.

Our middle class is falling further and further behind in comparison to the rest of the world. We keep hearing that America is number one. Well, when it comes to middle-class wealth, we’re number 27.

The most telling comparative measurement is median wealth (per adult). It describes the amount of wealth accumulated by the person precisely in the middle of the wealth distribution — fifty percent of the adult population has more wealth, while fifty percent has less. You can’t get more middle than that.

American Middle Class

* Side note: May want to cross Cyprus off the above list…

The Huffington Post also provides a list as to why this is the case. While I don’t agree with all of them, I agree with most. Here are a few:

  • Wall Street is out of control.
  • Higher education puts our kids into debt.
  • It’s hard to improve your station in life if you’re in prison.
  • Our tax structures favor the rich.
  • The wealthy dominate politics and the media.

They go on to correctly note:

Is there one cause of the middle-class collapse that rises above all others?

Yes. The International Labor organization produced a remarkable study, (Global Wage Report 2012-13) that sorts out the causes of why wages have remained stagnant while elite incomes have soared. The report compares key causal explanations like declining bargaining power of unions, porous social safety nets, globalization, new technologies and financialization.

Guess which one had the biggest impact on the growing split between the one percent and the 99 percent?

Financialization!

Ding ding ding.

Full article here.

In Liberty,
Mike

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13 thoughts on “How Does America’s Middle Class Rank Globally? #27”

  2. Middle class isn’t based on some median or average wage. The middle class traditionally is defined tradionally as an entraprenural undertaker or a small business person. It has nothing to do with wage levels. Just another misuse of a term via political priorities.

    Reply

    • sounds like Rich K has drank the cool aide for a bit to long, sorry Rich middle class was and always will be a wage earner and has nothing to do with someone who starts a business…you sound like the one with the agenda…let me guess, next you’ll start screeching “liberals”…LOL

  4. See my report that highlights the breakdown of traditional law enforcement in the USA and the beginning of a sweeping police state here and around the world.

    Part One:

    Below are some links to my reports that reveal the real destruction of our
    liberties by the homicidal sociopaths in police (& their fbi mentors) and operatives in gang stalking, neighborhood watch, vigilante groups, etc.,

    http://www.indymedia.org.nz/articles/1029

    As shown in the links below, all such thugs representing the police community engage in extreme hyperbole, wild accusations and destructive libel in order to incapacitate or kill this Target.

    *fbi operative ‘paint me doubtful’ exclaims:”mass murderer”:

    http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/02/422103.shtml

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/911caneasilyrevi.html

    UT legal counsel proclaims:”investigate & prosecute criminal activity, deter crime”:

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part19a-updatefo.html

    AUSA Robinson screams:”threats to public safety & possible crimes”:

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/pagea18.html

    medical doctor labels Target of hideous predatory agenda as “Paranoia (delusional disorder)”:

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part20-updatefor.html

    fraudulent BOLO on Target:

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part19c-updatefo.html

    assaults by police operatives/stalkers:

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part19b-updatefo.html

    this victim of crimes by police/fbi is targeted for fraudulent investigation by multiple agencies:

    http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/05/423148.shtml

    Geral Sosbee’s comments on crimes by the fbi,et. al.

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part4-worldinabo.html

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/affidavit2007.html

    outlaws are better men:

    http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2013/07/18212.php

    one remedy for the thugs in blue:

    http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/11/382350.shtml?discuss

    national failure of populace created this state of affairs:

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/proclamation.html

    Part Two: Perpetual War:

    So long as the United States is at war, their power is preserved, and now that they have attained empire the USA must expand the war or fall, for the arts of peace they know nothing and have never engaged in any employment higher than torture, killing & war. Aristotle.

    For Our Brothers:

    See my reports on USA’s efforts at *world inhumane domination; note that all USA prisoners of war are microchipped

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/brainscanofsosbe.html

    and most are targeted for assassination (usually by drones) after learning of
    activities and associates of the subject.

    United States assassins now use torture & threat of torture (fear) pervasively:

    http://www.boell.org/downloads/Lingis_on_torture.pdf

    http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/470971/index.php

    or:

    http://austin.indymedia.org/article/2013/07/19/save-species-itself

    *
    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part4-worldinabo.html

    The united states of america is now forever known as the BEAST, the BrainEntrAinmentSTate, a country w/o conscience, a people w/o heart who are cursed with a national character predominantly w/o soul :

    http://www.governmentattic.org/docs/USMC_NeuronalEntrainment_NonlethalApplications_1998.pdf

    http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/hightechassau.html

    http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/age-madness-critical-review-fbicia-operations/9375

    Reply
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  8. “Financialization!”

    Is this undefined abstraction supposed to qualify as an explanation?

    Is it jargon for some well-known process that I’m merely unfamiliar with?

    Reply
  9. Pingback: American Upper Middle Class Share of Wealth is Worse than Every Country Besides Russia and Indonesia | Liberty Blitzkrieg

  10. What would happen to this chart is the spending power in each location is included? I live in the south. and a dollar goes way farther here than in NY. It would make a big difference for sure.

    Reply

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