Article

2017-02-16 Economy

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Posted by badanov 2017-02-16 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 Huh, ask any former Middle Classer turned sustenance laborer how tight the squeeze is.

Posted by Skidmark 2017-02-16 04:14|| 2017-02-16 04:14|| Front Page Top

#2 Depends on your definition of middle class, Skidmark. To some, middle class are white collar, public sector employees (+ academics) and that's all.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2017-02-16 04:18|| 2017-02-16 04:18|| Front Page Top

#3 Guess that 'some' would be wrong.

Posted by Skidmark 2017-02-16 05:39|| 2017-02-16 05:39|| Front Page Top

#4 I'm lower middle class and have reacted to the squeeze by cancelling my subscription to National Review several years back. Not only saved money going in, didn't need to read their social climber BS, and saved on associated disposal costs.
Ya do what ya gotta do.

Posted by ed in texas 2017-02-16 07:29|| 2017-02-16 07:29|| Front Page Top

#5 I made the unfortunate decision to get out the old inflation calculator from my MBA eco classes and applied it to my pay at various times in my life.
I found that corrected for inflation I am making less now than I did when I was a GM-13 in Frankfurt.
I also found out that my O-3 over 4 pay was pretty good in today's dollars.
I then found out that the $63,000 I was making in 1998 is worth almost 20% more than what I make right now...
So stagnation? It's real, decline in real income, you betcha.
The statistics are simple. Get an inflation chart from anyone of several colleges, multiply your annual income in any particular year by the coefficients in the chart to correct to current dollars.
You don't need a bunch of statistical folderol to see the middle class is in it up to their necks and struggling as the rich get richer and the welfare state feeds more and more from the higher and higher hidden taxes on the middle class.
For instance...oil is selling for less than half what it was in 2010. So is gasoline selling for less than half? Nope, the Feds and the States raised gasoline taxes to cover the lost revenue stream.
Buying grocery bags in California? Essentially a 10 cent a bag tax on groceries
Notice how property taxes fluctuate?
They have bled the middle class for years and really want to kill it off but then who pays the bills for all of these wonderful entitlement programs?

Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2017-02-16 10:09|| 2017-02-16 10:09|| Front Page Top

#6 I've just printed the 74 page Pew report, titled "The American Middle Class is Losing Ground." I could have pulled any number of other 'headlines' off individual charts, but after scanning all the charts, I concluded the report - released December 9, 2015 - was toxic to the POTUS at the time. The middle class decline started about the time The One took office. Yes, the rich got richer, but the poor got richer, too. Only the middle class suffered.

I'm going to work up half a dozen 'headlines' out of the one report as an example to the family.

Posted by Bobby 2017-02-16 13:52|| 2017-02-16 13:52|| Front Page Top

#7 Sorry, the Pew Research Report

Posted by Bobby 2017-02-16 13:53|| 2017-02-16 13:53|| Front Page Top

#8 Careful to print it on 4ply charmin for appropriate reuse.

Posted by Skidmark 2017-02-16 17:32|| 2017-02-16 17:32|| Front Page Top

#9 From the Dimicrat perspective, there are two classes: The Vulture Class (the Dims) and Road Kill (the middle class).

Posted by Phineth Thaving9104 2017-02-16 22:32|| 2017-02-16 22:32|| Front Page Top

23:46 CrazyFool
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