America - Traveling Towards A Road Well Traveled (Part 4)

Class Structure:
There is indeed a class structure within the USA. It’s structured along economic lines. They are as follows: Wealthy, Middle, and Impoverished. The Middle class serves as a buffer between the wealthy and impoverished classes. This buffer serves to buttress the system of inequality by facilitating the marginalization of the poor.

Wealthy:
The share of total income earned by the top 1 percent of families was less than 10 percent in the late 1970s but now exceeds 20 percent as of the end of 2012. A large portion of this increase is due to an upsurge in the labor incomes earned by senior company executives and successful entrepreneurs.

Middle Class:
Middle class wages are stagnant. Accumulated wealth inequality is robbing the middle class as more income is going to the wealthy. Middle class costs are soaring. The costs are mostly child care and education. Middle class wealth is has dropped by 20 % since 1984.





Impoverished:
Except for a small decline in numbers of individuals in 2013; the number of individuals who are considered in poverty is increasing since between 1975 and 1980.



One in three children in the USA lives in poverty as defined by the USA Government. The USA ranks 36th out of 41 wealthy nations.

a reply to: bucsarg

Thanks for all the research and the great post. I am looking forward to putting this all together and reading it through.

I hate for the first reply here to be a request rather than a comment, but would you mind linking all the sections of your story at the end of each thread? That way we link from one to the other without having to search for it. It will make it more coherent.

Thank you! And I look forward to reading this.

I will be more than glad to satisfy your request to link my posts. . I do not know how. Are you able to inform how to do this.
a reply to: MRuss

a reply to: bucsarg

It's probably not the easiest way, but copy and paste all the URL's where your threads are on ATS and then go to the link button when editing your post and paste it there.

Hope this helps!

I tried but failed. Sorry MRuss.
a reply to: MRuss

a reply to: bucsarg

I have thought long and hard about this OP and am pressed to make a coherent observation. I will however make an attempt at it.

1). The shrinking wealth of the middle class and the concentration of wealth in the top 1% is not an accident. After WWII, the US was taken over by an Elite ruling class I'd refer to as Corp Gov, or Corporate Governance. That's to say the massive Corporations that had prospered through the war effort as part of the Military Industrial complex found they had so much wealth and influence that they could take over the Political government of the US. They became the King Makers; they determined who would be elected to high office.

At first, in the 1950's and 1960's, they did this by coercing, (gently) their employees and/or Union members to vote for the candidates the Corporations agreed upon to be elected. But, this was a sloppy and fractious practice and failed as many times as it succeeded. At that time, the Corporations, IBM, GM, Ford, Lockheed, Boeing, Westinghouse, AT&T, etc., employed 10s of Millions of people.

Progress, innovation and the dawn of the Computer age coupled with new trade policies, i.e., "Free Trade" and Globalization of Economies has gutted the US American middle class. Jobs were sent overseas, and at some point around about 2007, the US Economy passed the point known as Peak Employment or Peak Labor Participation rate. That's because, whereas in 1950, a hundred assembly line workers produced an automobile, today, Computers and robots have replaced the assembly line workers and now only 10 employees are needed to produce an automobile and crank out a new car every 20 minutes. Whereas in 2006, 66.4% Labor participation rate was had, today, its down to 63%; see: data.bls.gov...

As fewer and fewer workers are needed in good paying, middle class type jobs, the middle class compensation rate has of course, declined. Now...most jobs are low paying jobs in the service sector, Baristas, burger flippers, etc.

2). In the 1960's, the "Elites" in the UK and the US looked out upon the world and realized they had come to a fork in the road. They had the technological advancements needed to spring their societies headlong into a bright new future of Space Exploration and Space Exploitation of raw materials. They could elect to leave the rest of the world to wallow in near Stone Age Third World status. But they decided this would be immoral and elected instead to raise the living standards of the third world and to bring them up to a Second World status with access to clean water, electricity, education and decent housing. They also realized the fastest way to do this would be to level the playing field between First World and Third World by reducing the living standards of First World societies to Second World status at the same time they elevated the Third World to Second World status. They accomplished this in First World societies by exporting the manufacturing jobs and switching employment emphasis to the Service Sector. They also embarked, in 1965 in the US on the Open Borders policy to flood the US with unskilled and some skilled workers from Third World and Second World societies.

Where does this all end? No one knows for sure. The switch in emphasis from Manufacturing in First World countries to the Banking and Finance Operations that have created the great build up of wealth for the 1%, but has left the rest of the society to flounder in near poverty conditions.

But...remember one ruthless axiom, Money Talks and BS Walks, which leads to a second ruthless axiom, You Don't get the Future you want, you get the Future the Corp Gov elites have in mind for you. Only they have the answer. There's much bold talk of the masses rising up in rebellion, but remember the third Axiom correllative to the first two, "He who has the Guns, Tanks and Helicopters, Rules". Part of their idea for the future can be seen in legalization of Marijuana. Which talks to the fourth axiom, "A Stoned People, is a happily Compliant People".

Excellent reply. I concur.
a reply to: TonyS

I'm moving to Norway!

You may want to consider Switzerland as well. New survey states they are the happiest country in the world.
a reply to: LOSTinAMERICA