Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Dropped husband off at the train this morning. Passed Starbucks. The lot was full. Cars waiting to enter the drive- through, clogged the road.
Went out to dinner last night. The wait was 30 minutes.
People camp out in front of the Apple Store in anticipation of the latest release.
Seems to me at least half the people under 35 have tats.
People buy lottery tickets by the 100.
Casinos tend to do well unless there's too much competition.
Alcohol sales are stable.
Marijuana sales brisk and profits are high in those places where recreational use is legal.
Flights are overbooked and hotels and resorts are sold out, in season.
Seems to me a heck of a lot of people have discretionary income to spend on endless stuff they don't need instead of building their own wealth.
Outside the box, how is it going with the rush to a 2 tier society?
When is the middle classes going to be able to make it on a one person income again, so someone can be home raising the kids to be respectful and productive?
Outside the box, how is it going with the rush to a 2 tier society?
When is the middle classes going to be able to make it on a one person income again, so someone can be home raising the kids to be respectful and productive?
I raised my kid on my income. Middle class incomes have stagnated, not gone down. The answer is ...when Americans start raising their families in 1500 square feet homes again.
I once showed an administrative lady at work how after child care, automotive expenses and taxes she was working for $2 an hour. Two weeks later she quit.
Frame the recent global financial/economic imbroglio as a cumalitive result of the 'free market fundamentalism' of the 2 main US political party's' agenda, the 'Washington Consensus':
The two main parties are NOT interested in free market fundamentalism. They are interested in cronysim.
Dropped husband off at the train this morning. Passed Starbucks. The lot was full. Cars waiting to enter the drive- through, clogged the road.
Went out to dinner last night. The wait was 30 minutes.
People camp out in front of the Apple Store in anticipation of the latest release.
Seems to me at least half the people under 35 have tats.
People buy lottery tickets by the 100.
Casinos tend to do well unless there's too much competition.
Alcohol sales are stable.
Marijuana sales brisk and profits are high in those places where recreational use is legal.
Flights are overbooked and hotels and resorts are sold out, in season.
Seems to me a heck of a lot of people have discretionary income to spend on endless stuff they don't need instead of building their own wealth.
A good many do. Even they are falling behind the few. I'm doing fine. That doesn't mean I'm happy about what we are doing as it can not be sustainable long term.
I raised my kid on my income. Middle class incomes have stagnated, not gone down. The answer is ...when Americans start raising their families in 1500 square feet homes again.
I once showed an administrative lady at work how after child care, automotive expenses and taxes she was working for $2 an hour. Two weeks later she quit.
Nothing wrong with a 1500 sq ft home. What is wrong is those who get 3 18,000 sq foot homes off the backs of those who's wages have stagnated.
You probably said the same thing four years ago before the BLM marches, protests, and riots.
Can't happen. Won't happen. It's not that desperate.
Americans that supported Bernie were happy that their votes were crushed by a corrupt primary process. Keep the blinders on what normal looks like on elections. The instigator (debbie Wasserman) was fired but then HIRED by Hillary. How can Hillary bring the party together and claim she's not corrupt when she did that?!?
You don't think both political parties have used strategies to promote a given candidate? My goodness. There was a Stop Trump initiative within the RNC. Let's see the internal emails of RNC staffers.
Trump was quite capable of running as an Independent and in doing so delivering the election to Hillary. The Trump org played dirty tricks and told lies to destroy the competition.
Unlike Bernie, Trump had the votes and delegates.
Bernie, an Independents, switched parties and chose to run as a Democrat and now that he lost the primary has reverted back to Independent. He has and will continue to caucus with Democrats.
Bernie lost and it had nothing to do with the DNC or Hillary. He was a victim of his own agenda that failed to attract the support needed to win.
Had he won, Congress would not have supported or funded any part of his agenda. Regardless of who wins in November, there is no certainty Congress will play ball or that the next POTUS will pursue their agenda in its entirety.
The graph did not copy and paste too well but the third column represents what Hispanic men make compared to white men. What you see is the wage gap has jumped around but has stayed in the same narrow range since 1980. Hispanic females did have an uptick in that last number but otherwise the same thing is true for them.
White women have gained substantially. The conclusion from all these stats combined with increasing percentage of Hispanics in the workplace is that incomes have not stagnated for the white couple but gone up significantly, with black couples income going up slightly, thanks to the gains made by black women.
The apparent stagnation in income growth has much to do with the Hispanic population increasing as a percentage of the workforce while their wages have stagnated.
What would be interesting is to know the incomes of the first, second and third generation Hispanic Americans to get an idea of how much the income stagnation of the Hispanic demographic is simply due to influx of impoverished immigrants.
Outside the box, how is it going with the rush to a 2 tier society?
When is the middle classes going to be able to make it on a one person income again, so someone can be home raising the kids to be respectful and productive?
Middle class is a construct of government, not a right.
The concept of childhood and education is a construct of government.
As far as the middle class making it on one income again, consider living in the relative austerity of many of those who previously managed to do so. I can guarantee you they lived in substantially smaller quarters, had a greater tendency to be renters, had no more than one car, shared a party land line, had one TV or radio that had 4 stations, rarely dined out or took vacation, did not blow money on tats or lottery tickets or fancy coffee drinks. Collars and cuffs were replaced on shirts, shoes were repaired, not discarded. Spending serious money on hair cuts or weaves or extenstions did not happen.
Healthcare costs were a fraction of what they are today because people tended to die when they got sick. Heart Disease and Cancer were death sentences. 75% of the people were not fat. Most seniors had no hospitalization insurance. You got old, if lucky one or more of your kids supported you, got sick and died.
US people have historically been lousy savers compared to other developed countries.
Back then a man could be the sole provider for a family of 4, 7 or 12 and do so by simply pushing elevator buttons in a commercial building. He had a pension, provided his employer was still in business to fund it. His kids attended public schools funded by taxes. Obviously, technology was substituted for this sort of labor. No longer necessary to pay a man a " living wage" and benefits when software was substantially more productive than a grown man who spent 8 hours a day pushing buttons.
No reason to pay someone the equivelent of $25/ hr in current value to perform rule based job functions.
No reason to think the rest of the world would continue to pay a premium for made in the USA when the same product could be acquired elsewhere for less.
Some have adapted to the ever changing economic realities better than others.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
