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Ostensibly, for the past ten years, our economy has been recovering from the 2008 collapse. During the past few years, our comeback seems to have gained momentum. All the official indicators say we’re back in boom times, with a bull market, low unemployment and steady job growth. But there is an alternative set of data that depicts a different America, where the overlooked majority struggles from month to month.
The Nation recently published a stunning overview of the working poor and underpaid. One of the most powerful data points in the piece described how empty the decline in unemployment actually is: having a job doesn’t exempt anyone from poverty anymore. About 12% of Americans (43 million) are considered poor, and yet they are employed. They earn an individual income below $12,140 per year, and slightly more than that for a family of two. If you include housing and medical expenses in the calculation, it raises the percentage of Americans living in poverty to 14%. That’s 45 million people.
At that level of income, there’s almost no way to pay for food and shelter in any sizeable American city. That means people now can both be employed and homeless. Rajon Menon writes, for The Nation:
In America’s big cities, chiefly because of a widening gap between rent and wages, thousands of working poor remain homeless, sleeping in shelters, on the streets, or in their vehicles, sometimes along with their families.
Fewer and fewer people have savings to weather time between jobs or an emergency expense. A third of the U.S. population has no savings and another third has saved less than $1,000. Two-thirds of American households, by this measure, are desperately scrambling to make ends meet from check to check. Nearly half the American population earns too little to live on comfortably:
One-third of all workers earn less than $12 an hour and 42% earn less than $15. That’s $24,960 and $31,200 a year. Imagine raising a family on such incomes, figuring in the cost of food, rent, childcare, car payments (since a car is often a necessity simply to get to a job in a country with inadequate public transportation), and medical costs.
Even in households that combine income from two wage-earners, it’s rarely enough to live on without anxieties about money. It takes an average of a little more than $100,000 per year now for a household to be able to live without anxieties about money.
Same old story, the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, except that we are
practically back to a Caste system society now.
It is a tale of epic sadness that some people could work full time jobs and still struggle to feed their families and sometimes still end up homeless.
America should be better than this.
Last edited by Crazee Cat Lady; 09-09-2018 at 02:16 PM..
Same old story, the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, except that we are
practically back to a Caste system society now.
It is a tale of epic sadness that some people could work full time jobs and still struggle to feed their families and sometimes still end up homeless.
America should be better than this.
If the poor do nothing to produce, and the rich are wise with their time and effort... what should happen?
At what point do we look at the poor and try to lift up what they do (not how much to give them) instead of tearing down those who are successful? ...and tearing down a system that's successful?
So why did half the country vote for a billionaire who is catering to the rich (and his own family) with tax cuts? Half the country is convinced the poorest people are responsible for their financial problems, not the rich. When will someone come out with a slogan like "It's not socialism, it's democracy... a government of the people, by the people and for the people, not for the millionaires and billionaires"?
If the poor do nothing to produce, and the rich are wise with their time and effort... what should happen?
At what point do we look at the poor and try to lift up what they do (not how much to give them) instead of tearing down those who are successful? ...and tearing down a system that's successful?
You say the system is successful. The question is "For who?"
If the poor do nothing to produce, and the rich are wise with their time and effort... what should happen?
At what point do we look at the poor and try to lift up what they do (not how much to give them) instead of tearing down those who are successful? ...and tearing down a system that's successful?
Great point.
If you wish to not obtain training or education to get past a McJob, be content with your McWage.
We should be happy to teach a man to fish, but unhappy to see him do squat, and demand free fish.
If the poor do nothing to produce, and the rich are wise with their time and effort... what should happen?
At what point do we look at the poor and try to lift up what they do (not how much to give them) instead of tearing down those who are successful? ...and tearing down a system that's successful?
Successfully doing what exactly.
The richest of the rich relative in our family is only so due to insider trading.
I didn't realize ...always thought and expressed it as " falling ass backward" into money. " lucked out", " hard worker, good job"...nope. Whatcha gonna do. That was 30 years ago, since passed away, But they had a rich 30 years didn they. Wise with their time? It all depends on your definition of " wise"... And I guess the American dream is based upon " who you know" not how hard you work. Enter Trump Russian Republicans.
They come from similar families--two parent home, private high school, college paid for by their parents, etc.
One of them dropped out of college, then dropped out of junior college. She has jumped around from low paying job to low paying job. She has over 30 tattoos and neon green hair, multiple weird piercings, smokes and does drugs.
The other one is in a top engineering program at a top university, and has earned a scholarship. She studied abroad this past summer. She has secured prestigious internships. She is vegetarian and runs marathons.
Which young woman has a more successful life ahead of her?
Sometimes, it DOES come down to the choices you make.
I feel for people who are disabled, physically or mentally. I feel for the chronically ill. I feel for people who made wise choices but got caught up in bad situations. I feel for people born into crappy circumstances who don't know how to get out of them.
But sometimes people willingly throw away every opportunity with both hands. This country typically rewards people who show determination and a willingness to strive and work hard. If someone wants to waste advantages given to them, is it anyone's fault but their own?
. If someone wants to waste advantages given to them, is it anyone's fault but their own?
No, it is not.
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