Middle Class - what is happening to us?

In a study a family earning between $30,000 and $50,000 was considered lower-middle class. For high earners, a three-person family needed an income between $100,000 and $350,000 to be considered upper-middle class.. Those who earn more than $350,000 are rich.Jul 17, 2018


 A trucker who says trucking was once a good middle class job, now says it is no longer middle class in salary. Back years ago when the unions and corporations worked together to get good wages for the workers, trucking was a good job. A man could afford to raise a family and buy a decent home for them. But everything changed in the seventies. 

In order to bring prices down for the consumer, wages were deregulated. Workers were not guaranteed a living wage, but consumers found that products became very cheap.

The trucker said, And this is the question. This is the question that everybody needs to ask as a citizen of any place, which is, how much money do you want to save, at the expense of good jobs, community character?
You know, we all have our $9 sneakers from Wal-Mart now. That's great. But in order to get those $9 sneakers, we had to export all of our manufacturing. So now we don't have good jobs, but we have $9 sneakers. Is that a good tradeoff? In my opinion, no.

Americans are known for buying tons of items they don't need. They rent storage units to hold all their stuff. Homes and garages are filled with boxes of  stuff. Those who have disposable income throw it away on junk. We all know of someone who passed away and in her closet were hanging clothes with the tags on them, things she bought and never wore. But there are families that can't afford to take their children to McDonald's once in a while. 

Our disparity between those with high incomes and those with low has been going on for some years.

Most American households did slightly better economically in 2015 than 2014, according to a recent survey by the Federal Reserve; 69 percent said they were living comfortably or doing OK, up from 65 percent. 

But 31 percent said they were either struggling to get by or just getting by, a figure that includes millions of middle-class Americans.

In a survey, the question was asked. "Could you come up with $2,000 in 30 days if you had to?"  Forty percent or more of American families can’t, despite the improving economy we keep hearing about.  

In Hayesville, NC while helping an evicted single mother, I learned the renter must come up with two to three thousand to get approved to rent a decent place and some are not so decent. The people who need to rent apartments to keep their children from being homeless, are the ones who don't have the money to pay the deposit, first and last month's rent. A woman who makes 10 - 12 dollars an hour, cannot save thousands of dollars. As we heard often on the news recently, most people are living pay check to pay check.


A man who has lived year round in The Hamptons for many years, Neal Gabler, has a good job, but has no savings. He raised a family, sent children to college, but he could not come up with $400 in an emergency. He says he is typical of people who used to have a good income, but the income has not grown to meet the costs of living in this country. 
Hear his interview with Judy Woodruff on PBS.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-so-many-americans-in-the-middle-class-have-no-savings


When asked why he didn't move from The Hamptons to a less expensive place to live he said he had thought about it. "And we have talked about that. But here's the catch-22 of that. If we were — once the recession hit, the house lost its value, as it did for most Americans.
So, now the house is deteriorating, it's lost its value. So if I had the resources to fix up the house to sell it, I wouldn't need to sell it. That's the catch-22."

I relate to Mr. Gabler as I have a nice house, but with prices so low, I would lose money if I sold my house because I would have to pay more to get something adequate for my needs. I don't want to go down in my standard of living at my age, so I just keep putting more and more into my house to keep it up. Just the past few months I have replaced a hot water heater and paid for repairs on my well. All of that came out of my savings that I am grateful to have. But many people have no savings. 

I have wealthy friends who have pensions. Yes, they are older folks who worked for major corporations and are among those who have great incomes in their seventies. They want to sell their big house in the mountains and move to a Fifty-Plus community. Age and health issues force people to go where they have help with physical tasks and are near hospital facilities.

But my friends have had their house on the market for over a year and it hasn't sold. They have put much money into their house to make it the perfect place. No one wants to pay what the house is listed for, but they have a certain amount they need to get out of their home so they can purchase the home in the retirement community.

I notice the cost of living has soared in the past ten years, but the income of most working people has not risen. With all the blustering and government  shutdown, thousands of low middle class families suffered and now live in fear that there will be another shutdown in three weeks. It seems our government is doing more to hurt citizens than to help them. 

With the stock market falling as it has done lately, those retired people who had money invested for their future are worried now. So, how is our economy so much better? I don't see it. We hear that more people have gone to work, but they are not making living wages. The lower middle class, those who make thirty - forty thousand dollars a year, is now more dependent on food stamps, medicaid and such federal programs that our elected officials in Washington want to do away with. How far can these people be pushed?  

I hate to hear people who have never had to resort to signing up for government aid complain that "those people are playing the system."  The system is complicated and food stamps can be cut back to practically nothing because of a small raise in income, even though the income is too low to provide rent, car insurance, gas for a car, and medical needs. 

I was told recently that my home town in south Georgia has become a major crime city. When I asked why, I was told that after the big flood in 93, the lower income housing was razed and new government housing was built. People in the rural areas moved into town and there are not enough jobs that pay a living wage. Poverty and easy access to drugs provide the perfect setting for the criminal element to take over.

I know this post sounds like a downer, but sometimes I feel I must share what I know, what I have learned about the state of affairs in our country. We still have those with blinders on who feel that anyone can make it in the United States. But I am not sure that it is as easy as it was for my generation to just work hard and be frugal with your money and you will be successful. I see so many young people today floundering, depending on family to help them out as they try to get an education with exorbitant loan interest and work at the same time. With everything so expensive, it takes lots of discipline to make ends meet and often it takes loving parents to cushion those sons and daughters until they get their wings.

I lived at home after college one year until I married. No one thought that was unusual at that time. My father gave us land to build a house on and we lived there for thirty years. Because I had loving support from family, I have always been glad when I could help someone who was in need. There but for the grace of God go I. 

I hope you, my readers are not struggling, but have safe, warm homes if you live in a cold area as I do right now. I hope you are in good health and that you are grateful every day for what you do have and don't despair over what you don't have. Tonight I am thankful that gas was delivered to my house this morning. I am very grateful that Miller Well Service sent some nice men to my house early. They worked in the sleet and snow to repair a broken pipe in the pump for my well. Tonight I have heat and running water. I know there are some who have neither.