The reality is our middle class isn't number one. In fact, we are number 27.
This opulence is supposed to trickle down to the rest of us, improving the lives of everyday Americans. At least that's what free-market cheerleaders repeatedly promise us. Unfortunately, it's a lie, one of the biggest ever perpetrated on the American people. Our middle class is falling further and further behind in comparison to the rest of the world.
So how do we compare to other countries?
Pretty craptacular if you ask me. Australia is number one? Even with their strict gun laws? I'm surprised that the middle class is doing so well considering that we have all been told by those "in the know" that gun bans lead to totalitarianism. Where is the suffering under communism that was promised?
So how is all of this measured?
Wealth is measured by the total sum of all our assets (homes, bank accounts, stocks, bonds etc.) minus our liabilities (outstanding loans and other debts). It the best indicator we have for individual and family prosperity. The most telling comparative measurement is median wealth (per adult).
Just north of $38,000. Like I said, pathetic.
Of course, any sort of discussion about addressing this problem jumps immediately to a mouth foaming rant about communism and merrily we go on avoiding how, in some very key ways, we are falling behind the rest of the world.
As a country, we can't go on with a government that represents only the wealthy citizens. While this article presents nothing new (Stiglitz says much of it in his book), all of its bullet points are truly depressing and make me sick. When is it going to end?
More importantly, which party is going to have the guts to change the system we have now?
6 comments:
Pretty craptacular if you ask me. Australia is number one? Even with their strict gun laws?
You just can't make a logical connection to save your life, can you?
Well, we currently have white house and a senate that you voted for Markadelphia. You present a problem and I noticed you don't connect it to Obama at all. It's always somebody elses fault.
These sorts of statistical games are always misleading. I've traveled to Finland, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, and several other countries not on the list including Russia, Greece and Turkey. The general cost of living is much higher in most of those counties. For example, gasoline is much cheaper in the US compared to western Europe. Food is cheaper. Most everything is cheaper. Part of that is because American taxes are the lowest among comparable countries, and because American workers have no real wage protections -- that's the main reason average Americans keep slipping.
The other thing is that this includes debts and assets. This is probably the biggest factor knocking Americans down. We generally amass huge credit card debt and buy houses with mortgages that are far more expensive than we can really afford. Finally, we have no savings. We live hand to mouth, buying stuff constantly -- and that's what makes our economy go. People in other countries actually save their money, and that's partly why their economies are in the doldrums and ours is doing fairly well.
Another thing that makes that chart suspect is that it lists countries like Ireland, Spain and Iceland as having higher median wealth than Americans. Given that those countries got socked even harder than the US did in the recession of 2008, I'm suspicious of the methodology used here. Another thing that looks fishy is that the chart lists United Kingdom and Great Britain separately. Huh? Finally, Germany -- the wealthiest country in Europe -- is only four places higher than the US. Too many things in that chart just don't make sense.
So, while I agree that average Americans are steadily slipping in terms of overall wealth relative to the richest Americans, our position compared to the rest of the world is not quite so dire as the chart purports it to be.
Who are you and what have you done with the real Nikto?
A quick look at Wikipedia shows WILDLY different numbers than the quoted piece.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_household_income
The US is number 4 with a median income of $30,230. Number one is Luxembourg at $34,821. That is hugely different than the linked Australia at $193,000. That Wiki source is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The source data is here
http://stats.oecd.org/
Looking at the source data at Mark's link
https://infocus.credit-suisse.com/data/_product_documents/_shop/369553/2012_global_wealth_databook.pdf
And Ah-ha! The chart Mark posted DOES NOT show median incomes - median incomes that would gauge the 'trickle down success' of a middle class. No, this chart shows median wealth. Median wealth would include such things as savings and property assets.....
While a median wealth does show the US to be poorly represented in the 'keeping' of wealth department. It does not, as suggested, show that the US middle class is 'doing poorly'.
GD, I don't know why your comment ended up in the spam filter but I just saw it and put it up. Sorry!
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