I'm Right Again Dot Com

A new commentary every Wednesday   -  July 22, 2015

2004-2014: THE LOST DECADE FOR AMERICA'S MIDDLE CLASS

Hurrah for the middle class!  Now that the economic figures are in, every holder of public office and all politicians jostling in the most crowded field of aspirants ever to hope to lead our nation are, God bless them, decrying the fact that the puny "recovery" is yet to be felt by nearly 50-percent of households in the USA who identify themselves as having a middle-class income. Even while our leaders are faultless in having never participated in anything that contributed to this regrettable circumstance, they each say they intend to rescue us from the morass by providing many more higher-paying jobs to those mired in the middle class. There! I've repeated the magic words; the ones that have gained highest prominence in the lexicon of office seekers in the present never-ending election cycle.

The U.S. Census Bureau breaks down we subset of worker bees into four different segments: working middle-class, blue collar households with an income in excess of $29,050.  Next, white collar workers with incomes falling between $32,500 and $60,000. Then come upper-middle-class households that have incomes falling between $60,000 and $100,000.  Only five percent of households in the middle class make more than $150,000 annually. These we might term "high end" middle class families. Like the denizens of apiaries, they seem to to be beset by a unidentified and relentless colony die-out.

Yet, let's hold this thought for a moment: we middle-classers constitute nine out of ten potential voters. Need I say more?

Nevertheless, I will. Permit me to point first at the folks stuck in the pits of poverty.  The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 46.2 percent , nearly half of our people in the U.S.A. barely subsist with incomes ranked below the poverty line, calculated to be an income less than $29,050 for a family of four.

I really love astronomy, but when a society can know this and yet make no outcry when learning that we spent $720-million on a fly-by of a rock in our planetary system, something is decidedly wrong with our priorities. Of course, we didn't know much about the insidious, intractable recession ten years ago, but please don't get me started on waste and corruption.

You may be interested in seeing how you measure up with the average family in the USA.  According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. median household income peaked in 1999 at $56,895. By 2013, the latest number I could google, was also from the Census Bureau and was recorded at $51,939, or close to a ten percent drop. This in no way takes in the steady inflationary price rise in the past decade. Nor does it figure in the drop in average family size and/or average number of wage-earners per family. I'll bet you are not surprised to learn that families are getting smaller. Where once there were two wage-earners filling joint returns, there are less of those and more single persons reporting income.

Most of us have given up on holding onto something every working class wage earner in the recent past sought to some degree: A nest egg: the measure of accumulated wealth meant to offer comfortable, worry-free, old age retirement.  We can easily identify one factor that has seriously eroded our ability to save:  an annual inflation rate of 1.5 to 3 percent in each of the past ten years.

Here's the fallout: According to the prestigious analysts in Pew Research, 85 percent of those of us in the middle class say it is harder to maintain a middle-class lifestyle than it was 10 years ago.

So, there is good reason for the astounding number of presidential candidates already in the never-ending marathon vowing that the rescue of the middle class is the focus of their main concern. They claim they're going to give us jobs, jobs and more jobs!

Excuse me for sounding like something out of Marx's "Das Capital." I still believe in capitalism and the free enterprise system—long may it wave.  On the other hand, wealthy families have piled-on enormous savings in the last 10 years. They increased their nest eggs on an average of $318,000 in 1983 to an average increase of $639,000 in 2013.  The gap between upper income and middle income families has reached the highest level on record. I say, "more power to the rich."  That is the fulfillment of the Great American Dream. At the same time, let's not forget the great middle class and the poor, for we constitute the great, unwashed mass of consumers: the fuel that powers this great engine of democracy.  

Mark Twain once said that everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it.  There is a spot in the stump speech of every candidate, when reference is made to the "hard working" American taxpayer, and how the office seeker supports their middle-class values. We've an excellent opportunity to discover what they intend to do about it.  How refreshing it would be if they could begin by making some little effort to live, as we, their constituents do. At least that would demonstrate a modicum of humility, even if they continue to watch us drown in the sea of despair. 

-Phil Richardson, Observer of the human condition and storyteller    

    THE PROSPERITY COAL COMPANY: My book about hard times and union wars in the coal fields, in times past.  

   $9.95, plus shipping  For details on the novel, click: http://www.Amazon.com  and enter "Prosperity Coal Company" in the search window.

Shop Amazon Fire TV - Say it. Watch it.

Our unending thanks to Jim Bromley, who programs our Archive of Prior Commentaries

Learn About the Savings with  Prime from Amazon.com