Honey, I Shrunk the Middle Class.
Did America ever truly “recover”? Officially, yes. We are in the greatest, and most transparent recovery of all time.
Unofficially, absolutely not. Businesses are dying; disposable income has dried up; the economy is artificially stimulated because otherwise there’s no pulse.
And middle and working class people who are the backbone of this country have been left behind because of it.
The CEO of Gallup.com, perhaps the nation’s oldest and most trusted polling company, wrote an op-ed, drawing from fresh polling data, that should give every American pause.
Citing statistics that show a precipitous decline in the comfortable status of “middle class,” Gallup CEO Jim Clifton explained how government/economic interference is killing small businesses and people who used to be employed by them.
![SocialClassSelfID_Chairmansblog_91916[1]-edit2](http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/TCBCMS/cok4xqznpkmftiig_uaj3g.png)
According to Jim Clifton:
The percentage of Americans who say they are in the middle or upper-middle class has fallen 10 percentage points, from a 61% average between 2000 and 2008 to 51% today.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 65% of all new jobs are created by small businesses, not large ones.
Here’s the crisis: The deaths of small businesses recently outnumbered the births of small businesses. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the total number of business startups and business closures per year crossed for the first time in 2008.
Since 2008, a stunning 10% of working adults, or about 25 million Americans, have lost good paying jobs and have lost economic status – along with their economic security.
Worse, these millions of Americans falling on hard times are virtually invisible to the system. They don’t show up as unemployed because they either take on lower paying jobs or give up looking for work – allowing the government to patch it over and pretend that unemployment rates are at manageable and minimal rates.
As Clifton explains:
Let’s say someone has a good middle-class job that pays $65,000 a year. That job goes away in a changing, disrupted world, and his new full-time job pays $14 per hour — or about $28,000 per year. That devastated American remains counted as “full-time employed” because he still has full-time work — although with drastically reduced pay and benefits. He has fallen out of the middle class and is invisible in current reporting.
Jim Clifton, who also wrote the book [amazon text=The Coming Jobs War&asin=1595620559] (2011), explained in no uncertain terms that the numbers must change (and soon) in order for anyone to have a chance – particularly with the accelerating impact of technology on jobs:
There are three serious metrics that need to be turned around or we’ll lose the whole middle class.
[…]
America needs small business to boom again. Small businesses are our best hope for badly needed economic growth, great jobs and ultimately accelerated human development. When we get small business to boom, we can save America, restore our middle class and once again lead the world.
These problem numbers include a) the lowest full-time employment more than two decades; b) a drastic decline in publicly listed companies, and an increase in the consolidation of large companies into even larger conglomerates (where jobs are typically destroyed) and c) the historical low point in the creation of new businesses in the United States – which once prided itself on the independent and vibrant streak of its middle class entrepreneurs.
Given the current trends, the entire Middle Class could be lost in the next few years, and the people of the future will become feudal serfs once again – albeit with really cool smart phones.
That would make just about everyone who doesn’t have the luxury of being rich – well, poor and dependent as hell on the government.
Then again, can we really be surprised after 8 years of a president that believes in tearing down free enterprise, and forcing all or most onto the state-run system?
As President Obama famously stated, “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
That special “someone” is, of course, government.
Obama: If You’ve Got A Business, You Didn’t Build That
In a longer version of the statement, which was repeated numerous times, Obama said:
“Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.”
“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”
“So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the GI Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That’s how we invented the Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for President — because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your own, we’re in this together.”
The fact that Obama fundamentally doesn’t get it has fundamentally screwed over the country… and now our children will have to pay the price through lower living standards and a false economy with little real opportunity.
Read more:
American Dream Ends Abruptly: “Middle-Class Families No Longer the Majority”
Not Wealthy Enough To Meet Skyrocketing Rates, “Middle Class Is Being Crushed By Obamacare”
Billionaire: “We Are Destroying the Middle Class. That’s What Keeps Me Awake at Night.”
What American Dream? “The Middle Class Is Dying And Poverty Is On The Rise”
It Took 22 Years to Get to This Point
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Elimination of the chosen ones worldwide is the only solution. A total elimination would save the humanity. It is coming.
“The way to crush the bourgeoisie (middle class) is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.” – Vladimir Lenin
Obama’s War on the Middle Class
“From the Bolshevik experiment in Russia to socialist Venezuela today, it is necessary for communist leaders to eliminate that class of citizens who are not dependent on government for their welfare.”
“Political theorists from Aristotle to Locke understood that a truly INDEPENDENT AND PROSPEROUS MIDDLE CLASS WAS ESSENTIAL TO THE COLLECTIVE WELL-BEING OF ANY SOCIETY.”
“It is an ominous sign that the political left, with the loyal support of more than a third of our population, is intent on its destruction.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/03/obamas_war_on_the_middle_class.html
McDonalds Hires Foreign H-1Bs, Fires 70 American Accounting Staff
“The outsourcing news comes as Donald Trump campaigns on the popular promise to reform the H-1B and immigration programs and while Hillary Clinton is PROMISING TO EXPAND companies’ hiring of FOREIGN blue-collar and white-collar workers.”
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/09/18/mcdonalds-hires-foreign-h-1bs-fires-70-american-accounting-staff/
Collapsing the economy… Death by 1000 cuts.
One-fifth of U.S. workers were laid off in past five years, study says
“One in five U.S. workers was laid off in the past five years and about 22% of those who lost their jobs still haven’t found another one, according to a new survey that showed the extent Americans have struggled in the sluggish labor market…”
“Almost half — 46% — of the estimated 30 million layoff victims who found new jobs said they paid less than their old ones, according to the survey of 1,153 U.S adults done over the summer.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-layoffs-unemployment-jobs-economy-20140924-story.html
“The Center for Immigration Studies reports 100% of Employment growth in the U.S. since 2000 went to immigrants.
On a population adjusted basis, the numbers look horrific. Population-wise, native US citizens account for two-thirds of the working-age population growth, yet FEWER work today.
Here’s the harsh reality: 17 million working-age native US citizens were NOT working in the first quarter of 2014 than in 2000.”
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/06/100-of-employment-growth-since-2000.html
New Record: Foreign-Born Job-Holders Break 25 Million
“The number of foreign-born individuals holding jobs in the United States hit a record high of 25,019,000 in September, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).”
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/new-record-foreign-born-job-holders-break-25m
Been crushing the middle class long before Obama with “free trade” that benefits the foreign country more than the usa almost every time, increased technology, unions incentivizing companies to ship jobs offshore and the general trend of jobs leaving the usa because they can be done elsewhere for $5 a day or less.
Although, Obama has hit the accelerator.
Todays kids are likely to find 30K a good salary. The golden era is over for usa’s jobs, even trump isn’t realistic about the future for jobs in the usa.
Thanks KYM – as always, great post!
thumbs up, KYM!
ht tp://www.prisonplanet.com/charlotte-riots-what-theyre-not-telling-you.html
Video: Charlotte Riots – What They’re NOT Telling You
———–
Controlled Media.
Communist educating and BRAINWASHING your children in school.
Criminal TRAITOR poser president.
Criminal ONE PARTY criminal Politicians.
This is happening world wide. Not Only in USSA.
Yep the Great Culling is a comin’.
The Good News today is that Silver is back trading in the $20 Range. High so far today was $20.10
The Silver to Gold Price Ratio is also dropping again @66.93, like it historically does.. I’m looking for 47 to 1 which is the usually bottom out range.
People are calling for Gold @ $1900 by the end of the year.. 47 to 1 would put silver at $40, so could be a double you money play in a few months.. or by next year. One thing for sure is, it will keep increasing in value as these collapses unwind.
~WWTI…
47 to 1 is only the most very modern manipulated ratio…historic ratio is 16 to 1
See not really OHB fault… it just math now… TPTB just forgot what debt really is… it has to do with the future… really future spending… you know how it works with you and your “credit” card when there is a lot of debt … it lowers the amount you can spend … so you know you can have so much debt that you cat spend anything (credit limit) … it all goes to the things you bought in the past…We the USA have now spent so much there is no future… because DEBT really is “spending in the future” now all earned $$$ …all goes to debt… that is where we are.. more debt less money to spend on other things … we are at the wall … it (USA) is all over now … we have to default sooner or later … better sooner. Go back to Gods ways and Gods “money” … or all die.
Stoltz, YOU sir are 100% correct… yet people are sooooooo brainwashed into believing that could never be the case…(((das juden))) are destroyers of wealth and anything or anyone who get’s in their way…
Communism is J*wism.
J*ws are behind the scene plotting destruction.
J*ws are the enemy of all mankind. They are killing us.
War is a J*w tool. All the wars of the past 200 years were
Wars for and because of J*ws.
J*ws are supremist. They look down on nonJ*ws as whores and subhuman.
They think they are chosen to be Masters and
YOU nonJ*ws live only to serve them as slaves.
You are not racist, they are racist.
__
Cannot understand communism = jwism, in communism religion would be reduced to a personal matter, and money would be abolished, since no man exploitation could be permitted any more (hence no more surplus value hence no more money). In communism national borders would totally lose of significance, aside from folk aspects, because there wouldn’t be any necessity to mark a uniform sage of profit inside an uniform geographical area by respective national bourgeoise ruling class. The abolition of private property of the means of production would mean the end of capitalism, a foundation of jwish culture and tradition.
Orsobubu:
For a better understanding read “The Secret Behind Communism” by: Dr. David Duke.
There is an excerpt from a book written by a Christian who under Communist/J*w oppression spent twenty years in a Concentration Camp in Russia. I refer to the Gulag as a camp because most people have no idea what a death camp highly concentrated by Christians is all about. It is about torture, starvation, breaking rocks non-stop for hours or being shot. A gulag is a death camp. ALL the guards in the “Russian” gulag under Communism are J*ws.
All the main figures in Communism, even Stalin are/were J*ws. Trotsky=J*w, Lenin=J*w. Marx=J*w.
The Communists in Russia had four divisions. Two of those divisions of Communists were entirely J*wish. The other two divisions included Christians and nonJ*ws but the key positions were exclusively J*ws.
In America, the Neo-cons are the J*w grandchildren of the Russian Trotskyites. J*ws left Russia for America when the tide turned against them. For the most part, J*ws are atheistic Communists. Hiding behind religion is a farce.
Perhaps you are ignorant of the facts. Perhaps you know all to well and are covering for your partners in crime, the J*ws.
__
—————————————–
ELIMINATION of ANY and ALL PATRIOTIC, America Loving, Freedom Loving, God Fearing, Straight, Americans, is the STATED GOAL of Obama-Hitlary-Soros-SAME Party SYSTEM of TRAITORS who run the Political-Media-Education-Entertainment. They are a CRIMINAL ENTERPRISES. Politicians are CRIMINALS.
You People can not wrap your minds around the FACT that TRAITORS-CRIMINALS are running NOT only USSA “Changed Amerika” but also MANY of the worlds Nations.
THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION of the Economy-Christianity-Freedom-Family and the white race is their Goal/Objective. YES they are out to DESTROY ***YOU*** by DESIGN.
They are not just incompetent. They are on a mission to destroy Your Family and civilization. They WANT NUCLEAR WAR. World War III is their GOAL.
***The German People did NOTHING to stop Hitler. Result: German people destroyed.
***Americans do NOTHING to stop Obama and CRIMINAL COMPANY. Result: Our Nation in it’s Historical form DESTROYED.
Here is Obama at it yet again. Right before he sets off NUCLEAR World War III.
OBAMA: AMERICA MUST SURRENDER SOVEREIGNTY, EMBRACE ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT
blacklistednews.com/Obama%3A_America_Must_Surrender_Sovereignty%2C_Embrace_One_World_Government/54252/0/38/38/Y/M.html
Yeah, BO…and you did not get into office because of your intellect.
Yup, they said, hey, i know what were gonna do, lets put a blackish guy in the white house,,,,,,
Yea, thats the ticket
When you have interest held low like they are and the federal government spending at the deficit levels they are, you can’t speak of economic recovery. If the economy were a person, this cwould be the equivalent of life support.
Obama knows he screwed over the country. It’s all part of the globalist plan to rule over a docile, slave population. Want some alcohol, drugs, porno, and mindless TV?
Small business feeds off of big business. Remove the Steel Industry from Allentown PA and they’re goes the all the places the well paid employees spent their money at. We crested the hill five decades ago. The downward slope is increasing and the focus is upon the increasing rate of decent. Look back, we been falling for some time. More people are paying attention to the acceleration rather than the root cause.
Someone divested their interests in a stable American society… and commenced with offshoring and writing off of U.S. workforce, as you pointed out, decades ago.
NAFTA did just that. TPP is more than just trade. It is a Shift in World Power. Obama is a sellout to America. Trump will have his hands full, fixing all of Obama’s problems he has caused.
So just take charge of your world. Just picked up a new 5+ cubic feet chest freezer. $200. And only uses 70 Watts. A nice addition to the fridge/ freezer now. My Solar seems to top off every day, so it should work.. A full freezer runs less when full. I will fill it up with water jugs to freeze first, and when the meat comes in, the Jugs go out, but keeping the freezer full. Always freeze water jugs in your freezer with your food. If and when the power goes out, the frozen ice will keep your food good and cold for several more days. I had power go out for 4 days during a hurricane in 2004 in the city, I did not throw out a single fridge or freezer item. Did some fun grilling with friends who evacuated from So FL in Cane Wilma. My next door neighbors /unprepared yuppies, threw out an entire trash dumpster of fridge food, I watch them fill it. I gave him some of my frozen ice, but he had little space in his freezer for it.
You can only help these people so much, and then cut them off. Cause you sure don’t want them living with you.
~WWTI…
Kevin2, well said. The net is the multi national Corp. culture and the WallStreet starvation for money. These two factors are the root cause and the cancer cells. Destroy both and we may have a chance.
Excellent! Then we can all work for the Soviet States of America! After all, that model worked so well in Russia, right?
Worst case, we can all work a travel agents for Michelle-Marie Antoinette Obama, or as email server techs deleting files for serial liar Hitlery.
Welcome to the service economy that Bill Clinton and the globalists spoke so glowingly about when they signed the bad trade agreements sending our manufacturing jobs overseas.
Problem is they are now even exporting the services jobs.
Someone along the line gave him some help… the Saudis.
OT on Charlotte. It is not black against white in these riots. It’s not even blacks against cops… a black cop shot the suspect. It is mostly lower class blacks and whites against middle class blacks and whites. Witness the tatooed white trash woman sitting in the street in front of the police line last night. White skaters skating in front of the line of cops practically daring them to pop them with a beanbag. The restraint of that line of officers was amazing. I saw one idiot last night defending the break in at Walmart as the natural response of a downtrodden people. Bull! That’s not a protest;that’s a riot. Those people were fed a line of bull, that if they had a black president, attorney general, police chief, etc- their lives were going to get better and they are mad now at everybody, including each other. That’s why reporters were attacked last night.One guy in a video online said that they were going to take the protests to the wealthier areas. There is a video online that showed the blocking of the highway was planned on the fly.
It’s a real object lesson as to what we need to watch out for-
This, in a nutshell, is how the FED sleeps at night: “Worse, these millions of Americans falling on hard times are virtually invisible to the system. They don’t show up as unemployed because they either take on lower paying jobs or give up looking for work – allowing the government to patch it over and pretend that unemployment rates are at manageable and minimal rates.”
In August, 151,000 (I think that’s the number) new jobs were created. A large percentage of these “jobs” were fast food and retail jobs. You won’t hear that emphasized much on CNN, though.
No Nation Has EVER Taxed Itself Into Prosperity
You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating working Americans out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. Government cannot give to anybody anything that government does not first take from somebody else. When half the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to pay for them – and when that paying half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they worked so hard for, then that, my friend, is the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth to help the poor by dividing it.
SHOOT THE MIDDLE CLASS IS GONE.
Yes, as I like to refer to it, the ‘hollowing out of America’ is proceeding full speed ahead.
Manufacturing is continuing to flee the EPA and the US tax code.
US companies are empowering 3rd world countries with our inventions and technology.
However there are two US industries that continue to thrive and do very well.
US abortion mills are humming along at full speed doing their part to make sure this country dies.
US illegal immigration is running at full tilt.
For the handful of us ‘normal functioning’ men and women that are left, we must continue to quietly prepare for the future.
Or rather the lack thereof in our once proud and strong nation.
2016 census estimate = 324 million+
2016 White ALONE estimate = 197 million+ **approx. 100 million are baby boomer aged or older**
White percentage of the US population: 61% – and dropping fast
Be careful when reviewing Census numbers, they are reporting whites and Hispanics together in an attempt to hide the declining white only percentages.
I’ve been saying this for years. I’m a small business and the bulk of my business was insuring small to midsize businesses. Between 2009 thru 2012 we lost 50% of our commercial clients, not because they went to another Agent, but because they went out of business. From 2012 thru 2014 Obamacare killed off our bigger clients who were trying to get smaller, under 50 employees. The end is coming quickly now because all the tekkies who looked down there nose at tradesman and laughed are now losing there six and seven figure incomes to China and India. Post collapse you are going to need real skills to survive and I don’t typing is gonna be a marketable skill. For that matter we won’t need insurance agents either.
Excellent article.
And look at the millions of Millennials financially supported by their parents or by assets earned and saved by their parents.
Saved by their parents or in most cases Grandparents.
We been sliding along time !
I made more in the 80s than i ever have , going downhill ever since .
Soon im going Gault with my business .
My jobs are being held up by environmental permits, energy code compliance permits ,new regs everyday .
Through Agenda21 nobody will ever build a single family home again ! The only folks who can have “old” money .
Hammer,more in the trades daily “going Galt”,still working,just no permits/taxes ect.,cuts down on jobs but actually do better in the long run.
Yep , the small jobs pay better anyway !
The reason the middle class is disappearing is due to the Democrat party. I’d vote for a communist before I would support a Democrat as Commies have more ethics. Who do you trust more, Putin or Pelosi? Were it up to me I’d stuff Democrats into ovens and light them off, I would not even waste Zyklon B on them.
Rellik, how many times do I have to explain to you THAT the democratic party no longer exists… it was hijacked by the commies decades ago. AND (((who))) are the commies??? (((Das Juden))) wake up dude…
Any business that doesn’t use the natural resources to make ,build or grow something is parasitic. So we are going third world. Folks using black market and barter to sell and trade their goods and services. things like paying the miller a toll that a percentage of the grain to grind your grain. the middle class is going extinct.
All wealth comes out of the earth. Crops, ores, timber, oil. You can build nothing without extracting resources.
Of course the middle class is dying. We have been taxed, mandated, forced to , bent over and deep throated into submission. Wonder who our leaders will tax to help us out?
Don’t fret, Hillary just proposed a 65% estate tax on billionaires, so the problem is solved !
Unfortunately, even if you completely confiscated the holdings of the wealthy, right down to the millionaires, 100% of it, it would only fund the government for about 10 days.
She’s keeping pretty quiet about that aspect of her plan.
“They don’t show up as unemployed because they either take on lower paying jobs or give up looking for work”
That is incorrect. They don’t show up as unemployed because they either take on lower paying jobs or their unemployment benefits run out. When your benefits run out, they no longer count you as unemployed. They have no idea whether you’re looking for work or not, and they don’t care as long as they can keep their fake figure below 5%.
In 2009 i lost two good carpenters , when their unemployment ran out they were put on disability , because they had no other skills !
So theres a lot more hocus pocus goin on than anyone knows.
The “official” unemployment rate last month was 4.9%
How do they get to this number? According to the BLS, the employment figures are based on a “household survey.”
The terms “labor force participation rate” and the “employment population ratio” are different.
The term “Labor Force Participation rate” includes people who are UNEMPLOYED, but are ACTIVELY SEEKING A JOB.
From the BLS news release – employment August 2016
Household Survey Data, Page 2
“Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.8 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 59.7 percent, were unchanged in August.”
Also…
“In August, 1.7 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, about the same as a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were NOT in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were NOT counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.”
ht tp://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
Direct link…
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
Empty pages.