i read an interesting article the other day, some stats on how the middle class is being wiped out. taken with a grain of salt for sure and just passing along, not saying i believe it. in my experience, life is what a person makes it, not how much hard work they do. all about investment and I don't necessarily mean money. time and effort spent doing all the right things. anyhoo if what people are saying is true, find a better career.
22 Statistics That Prove The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
Source: ACS, Lending Report via Financemymoney.com
61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
Source: Careerbuilder.com poll via CNBC
66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
Source: Harvard Magazine
36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
Source: Careerbuilder.com poll via CNBC
A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
Source: Employment Benefit Research Institute via CNN
24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
Source: Employment Benefit Research Institute via CNN
Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
Source: mybudget360.com
Note: 2005 spike preceded tougher bankruptcy filing laws
Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
Source: Dailyfinance.com
For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
Source: Federal Reserve Board via endoftheamericandream.com
In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
Source: Smirkingchimp.com
As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
Source: Dailyfinance.com
Source: Institute for Policy Studies
The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
Source: UN via informationclearinghouse.info
Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
Source: Washington Times
In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
Source: USA Today
The top 1% of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
Source: CBO via MSN
In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
Source: Telegraph
More than 40% of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
Source: CNN
For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
Source: Boston Globe
This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
Source: World Socialist Web Site via axisoflogic.com
Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
Source: Reuters
Topic: my rant this month (Read 8169 times)