Middle Class Wages And Jobs Crushed by Progressives

As usual, the middle class takes the brunt of the problem of economic catastrophe. The wealthy are so because they are the smartest people, economically, then most of us, they know how to find ways to protect their wealth.

We, on the other hand, are too busy making a living to find ways to hide what little savings we might have. Oh sure most of us have 401K's or mutual funds in some other plan, but they are all dependent on the stock market doing well. When the market takes a down turn it's because the smart people see a problem coming and move their money which causes the market to fall. We, on the other hand, again are too busy to watch what's going on and so rely on the fund managers to watch for us. 

hmmmmm  That, of courese, doesn't always work out the way we want. But someone has to pay the bill and why not the working stiff. Right?

 Are we better off with our savings in the market, sure, but the disclaimer here is who is making the rules and inforcing the regualtions that will effect our well being, and do they have our best interests at heart. Think about this in November!!

Obama Didn't Stop the Middle Class Free Fall
Source: Jim Tankersley, "Obama Didn't Stop the Middle-Class Free-Fall," National Journal, September 4, 2012.

September 7, 2012
The middle class in America today is not better off than it was four years ago, not better off than it was at the end of the Great Recession in 2009, not even better off than when President Clinton left office in 2001, says Jim Tankersley, the economics correspondent for National Journal.

•Inflation-adjusted median income fell by 2.3 percent in 2010 (the last year for which official statistics are available) and dipped below $50,000 per year for the first time since 1996, the Census Bureau reports.
•Real median weekly wages last quarter were lower than at the same time in 2002 -- and down 1.5 percent from the second quarter of 2010.

In the past decade, the middle class has endured a real estate bust that wiped out two-fifths of median household wealth; seen millions of traditional middle class jobs vanish as the nation hemorrhaged "middle-skill" manufacturing and service work that does not require advanced training; and watched as the income gains from expanded foreign trade and increased labor productivity accrued largely to a small group of Americans at the top of the income distribution.

Nearly all those trends continued after the Great Recession, even though President Obama cut taxes and offered new deductions and credits for middle class families, among other legislative and rhetorical initiatives aimed at reversing the middle-class decline.

Since 2000, the Pew Research Center reported recently, "The middle class has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some -- but by no means all -- of its characteristic faith in the future."