Goodbye Middle Class, 2014 SSA wage info.

According to the WashingtonsBlog the SSA wage statistics for 2014 shows some horrible information. www.washingtonsblog.com...

51 percent of the wage earners in the USA for 2014, by net compensation, were below $30,000.

From the blog:

If you worked a full-time job at $10 an hour all year long with two weeks off, you would make approximately $20,000. This should tell you something about the quality of the jobs that our economy is producing at this point.

And of course the numbers above are only for those that are actually working. As I discussed just recently, there are 7.9 million working age Americans that are “officially unemployed” right now and another 94.7 million working age Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force”. When you add those two numbers together, you get a grand total of 102.6 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.

As we move closer to 2016, the election, and the year in which the richest 1% will own more than 50% of the world's wealth Oxfam Jan 2015.
And the "richest country in the world" has 51% of its wage earners earning less than $30,000. What's worse is that 38% of all Americans made less than $20,000 last year.

Many of us on ATS have known that the middle class has been shrinking over a great many years. However, sometimes it often appears as exposition rather than hard data, well this data is utterly compelling.

This appears to solidify the direction we are heading - civil unrest. When income disparity between the Haves and Have Nots grows to great in any empire, country, or society civil unrest is around the corner. How far around the corner? That's anyone's guess. If I had to put a guess on civil unrest for the USA I'd say by 2020.



Edit: Having weird link problems.

*Sarcasm on*

It's in no way the fault of the 1% though, it's just that everyone but them are lazy no good layabouts that do nothing. Let us never forget that. We only make what we deserve and it's just simple fact, most humans are worthless garbage.

*Sarcasm off*

I feel those numbers are misrepresented.

I would like to dig deeper in this. For example, those 38 percenters. Highly likey a majority of that are young persons still living at home and unwilling to take a second job.

Yes, I do believe the middle class is disappearing. No, I think that statistics are being misrepresented.

a reply to: smirkley

So you think working two jobs should be a requirement to making a living wage?

a reply to: Puppylove

Yes, if you are earning less than what is considered a poverty wage.

You do what you have to do for yourself and your family if necessary to meet your goals.

If your goal is to earn more, then you must work more, or pursue goals that increase your value to your employer.

The jobs are out there for most of us.

a reply to: WCmutant

You know what is really astonishing? We are not exporting anything...I could see if people were working in factories making this for entry level jobs...but we are not...how sad..

a reply to: WCmutant

Until we get the money out of politics, it's only going to get exponentially worse.

That 1% is doing a great job at bribing one another for their own self interests

a reply to: smirkley

Working two jobs does not increase your value to your employer, it makes you worse at both jobs than you would be focused on one.

Also making the claim that it should be is ludicrous, it shouldn't be. You work 40 hours that's more than good enough, anyone who claims otherwise is a believer in basically slavery in my opinion. Once you cut out that 40 hours and sleep, there's not much left for a life, nor pursuing ones personal health.

I will never agree more than 40 hours should be necessary to afford a roof over your head, healthy food, phone, car, insurance and some entertainments. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to use you.

It may BE necessary but it shouldn't be.

a reply to: chrismarco

Where I work, the only way to get in without an education or defined resume skills is as a temp. If you cut the mustard after a few months you get hired full time. You will be making twenty bucks an hour plus overtime.

You would be surprised how many dont make it that far solely on the requirement of showing up. I see it all the time.

I have been homeless before and broke before. But I hold my goals to a high standard. As such, I didnt remain there very long.

a reply to: Puppylove

That era ended a long time ago I am afraid.

This is the way it is now.

a reply to: smirkley

Yes and I'm saying that we need to fight and take back our rights and throw off the shackles of our masters. Not just sit her and accept them by shrugging and saying that's the way it is.

a reply to: Puppylove

You dont have a right to higher wages.

a reply to: smirkley

Ahh and the truth of who you are comes out, thank you, have a nice day. You're an apologist for the upper class and their apparent right to take more and more and treat their workers as less and less. I get it, I go to work, I do my job, but I only deserve table scraps, I have no rights, I must beg and lick at the boots of my betters.

The Eloi will be handing out the Morlok badges soon. The sad part is that the Morloks will happy to get them if there is a loaf of bread attached to them...

a reply to: Puppylove

If you really knew who I was and where I am coming from, you would not say such things to my face.

Alas, and I reiterate, set your goals and live by them. Or dont. It is a choice, not a right.

originally posted by: Puppylove
I will never agree more than 40 hours should be necessary to afford a roof over your head, healthy food, phone, car, insurance and some entertainments. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to use you.

It may BE necessary but it shouldn't be.

I wonder what jobs are out there where people can make a "living wage" anymore without the need to have high skills and education. I also wonder what is a living wage based on? Is a living wage where one person can live on their own with no other help? I also wonder if privacy is more of a luxury than a right. I had roommates until my 30s where I started to earn enough not to need them. I also had less things to spend my money on that today are considered essential, though most likely are not essential, just desired. Even when you go to Japan you have generations under the same roof, roommate is a norm too.

If a person wants to live on their own, have their IPhone 6, internet, computer, cable, car, Starbucks etc I would say 25 plus an hour is needed. If a person can only find work that pays 10 bucks an hour they need to find roommates to share the cost.

a reply to: smirkley

You are an apologist, I don't know why you are, but you are, whether it's to make you feel better for your lot in life, or to make you feel superior to those less than you, or some philosophical love of capitalism, or some desire to not fight the status quot I do not know.

The very fact that you argue that the solution is to simply accept the way things are, to just work harder and harder and harder as things get worse and worse and worse, and that this is what we deserve and have no right to be upset about it makes you a straight up apologist no matter how you look at it.

a reply to: WCmutant
Haven't we become a nation of consumers?

I imagine it getting worse as we produce little, and we spend well above our means.

Americans are going to have to give up that keeping up with the Jones mentality, and stop thinking their worth is determined by stuff, especially when you stop and think about the fact that most of that stuff, will likely be in self storage containers, or a landfill, in less than five years.

originally posted by: NightSkyeB4Dawn
a reply to: WCmutant
Haven't we become a nation of consumers?

I imagine it getting worse as we produce little, and we spend well above our means.

This is an issue, people have a spend spend spend like there ain't no end mentality, but do not make enough to afford it.

Americans are going to have to give up that keeping up with the Jones mentality, and stop thinking their worth is determined by stuff, especially when you stop and think about the fact that most of that stuff, will likely be in self storage containers, or a landfill, in less than five years.

Don't knock Storage Containers, I have a friend building a house out of them...hehe

a reply to: Puppylove

I apologize to nobody for any reasonable facsimily of success I may credit myself with. I earned it the hard way. And if I lost everything tomorrow, which could happen, I would recover completely within a year. It is because I dont accept myself doing any less.