Inflation

[LaRondo]

http://www.mybudget360.com/income-budget-game-over-for-the-american-middle-class-inflation-adjusted-wages-up-20-percent-in-last-20-years-while-housing-costs-are-up-56-percent-and-healthcare-costs-are-up-155-percent/

Game Over for the American Middle Class

Inflation Adjusted Wages up 20 Percent in Last 20 Years While Housing Costs are up 56 Percent and Healthcare Costs are up 155 Percent.


The struggle for average Americans to keep up is largely becoming an act of will power and force in this current grand recession.

Now you wouldn’t think that there is a definite war raging against the middle class if you simply follow the mainstream media but the facts speak to a more distilled and corporatized method of debt slavery.

Americans are working more hours trying to stay in the same place that they believe would keep them on pace to having the American Dream. And this dream is merely the ability to afford a home, provide your children with a good education (public or private), and save enough to have a retirement that doesn’t require you to eat cat food after a lifetime of working.

That is at the root of what most average Americans would want after a full working career.

But we are at an inflexion point and the middle class is largely being squeezed out. A recent study from the Commerce Department shed some light on an issue that we already know. Over the past 20 years the middle class has been falling behind:



Everything is relative in this world. Incomes have gone up during this time but the cost of housing, healthcare, and access to education have outpaced income gains in some cases by four to one.
Money is only worth what you can buy with it.
The grand housing bubble of this decade lured many into buying homes that they simply could not afford.
Banks and Wall Street were more than willing to provide access to this dream since they knew if all bets crashed, and they did, that they would call on their connected politicians to bail them out and send the bill to taxpayers for their adventures in finance.
Take a look at the chart above closely. Housing price changes have wiped out any gains in income. The relative amount of income needed to buy a home has put many two income households on the brink of bankruptcy. And the 4 million foreclosure filings in 2009 alone tell us that many Americans are unable to hold onto one cornerstone of the American Dream.

The middle class is absolutely vital to having a sustainable and flourishing economy. The massive debt machine coming from the big banks has created a new form of debt servitude. Some would argue that this is a personal responsibility issue and I will be the first to agree with that. People should live within their means.
But think of the FICO score that has become like a permanent financial report card.
Some employers actually screen for credit scores before hiring applicants. Want to rent a home because you don’t want to over extend and buy a home? You better hope that FICO is up to par.
And many insurance companies base their analysis on this score. So even if you never had a credit card or any debt, you would be in a bad spot because so many people rely on this number. This is only one example of how people are actually forced to use debt simply to pursue the avenues of the middle class.
In fact, we have many more people simply trying to stay afloat let alone pursuing the middle class ideal. Over 37 million Americans are now part of the food stamp program, not only is this the highest number ever but also the highest percentage of Americans ever to be on food assistance:

I sometimes read gut wrenching stories from the Great Depression where people would wash and reuse paper towels or have soup for weeks on end just to keep their families fed.
37 million Americans would be one step away from that existence if it weren’t for some basic safety nets. It is troubling to say the least that this patch is what is keeping this great recession from being a profound depression.
Yet I think the 27 million underemployed Americans are already in that state of mind.
The idea of a middle class life is slowly drifting away as each and every day we realize that our nation is becoming more of a corporatacracy.