CBS Poll: The Middle Class Squeeze

Majority Think Life Has Gotten More Difficult For Middle Class

(CBS)  The last few years have seen economic gains for the wealthiest Americans, at least in part resulting from tax cuts and investment gains, and many Americans are living well — buying large homes, expensive cars and luxury products. But has any of this wealth trickled down to the middle class?

According to the latest CBS News Poll, most Americans — and most of those with mid-range incomes — don't think so; instead, many think the middle class has experienced tougher times. 59% think that life for middle class Americans has gotten worse in the last 10 years. Just 30% think it’s gotten better.

54% of those with incomes of $30,000 to $75,000 (44% of those who describe themselves as "middle class" have incomes in this range) concur that life has indeed gotten worse for the middle class.

Over the past 10 years, life for the middle class has gotten:
(All respondents)
Better
30 percent
Worse
59 percent
Same (vol.)
7 percent

($30,000-$75,000)
Better
31 percent
Worse
54 percent
Same (vol.)
12 percent

Those with incomes of $30,000 to $75,000 would have trouble paying for large or unexpected expenses. 47% in this income range would have a lot of trouble paying a bill for $1000 right away, and 47% are very concerned about paying for large expenses such as healthcare, tuition, housing or retirement.

But most Americans with incomes of $30,000 to $75,000 are
managing to stay afloat financially. 56% are keeping their heads above water. Just one in 5 is getting ahead, and 23% are falling behind.

Overall, half of Americans feel that they are staying even financially. A quarter say they are falling behind, and another 22% say they are getting ahead. Nearly a decade ago, in early 1998, Americans were more likely to feel they were getting ahead.

Financially, are you ... :
(All respondents)
Getting ahead
21 percent
Staying even
50 percent
Falling behind
27 percent

($30,000-$75,000)
Getting ahead
19 percent
Staying even
56 percent
Falling behind
23 percent

(1998 poll response)
Getting ahead
31 percent
Staying even
48 percent
Falling behind
20 percent

Among those with incomes of $30,000 to $75,000, seven in 10 have not graduated from college. This group tends to be middle-aged; 31% are 30 to 44 years old and another 34% are 45 to 64. Most are white, and more than half live in the Midwest or South.

For detailed information on how CBS News conducts public opinion surveys, click here.

This poll was conducted among a random sample of 994 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone April 9-12, 2007. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. 396 interviews were conducted among respondents with household incomes of $30,000 to $75,000; the margin of error for this group is plus or minus five percentage points.

[hawksprings]

Ohmigosh, what a sham of a story. If this doesn't perfectly illustrate the liberal slant of the media, what does?

The headline of the story says "Majority think life has gotten more difficult for the Middle Class".

But if you read the poll questions and the results, it's a TOTALLY different story!!!!!!
They ask people if they think it's tougher for others and 59% say it's worse.
But then they ask about their PERSONAL situation and over 70% in both categories say their situation is the same or better!!!!
THAT should be the headline!!

Why do 59% think things are worse for OTHERS and over 70% say it's the same or better for them?

Because the Media constantly tells them it's worse!!!!! It's all they hear from the Leftwing Media!! But their own freakin' poll says it's NOT WORSE!!!

What a SHAM!!

C- Continuous
B- Bull
S- Sheet

...

[sharncedar]

What is out there is the anxiety economy - most people have bigger houses, better cars, more toys and goods. But they've lost something more important, which is the feeling of control. This translates into a general anxiety and malaise.

The rich people and their toadies answer is always is well you are richer, of course you are happier. But if money is what made people happy then I guess all 6 of the world's major religions would be wrong.

Even psychologists tell us that happiness has no correspondence to material wealth above the survival level, but corresponds to a feeling of self-determination and control of one's destiny.

So if you agree we have a society that now has more material wealth but power concentrated more into the hands of the few, then it would be a logical conclusion to see poll results like these.

[l8c6]

Don't know what your situation is Hawksprings but people doing an honest days work earning the typical income are facing a grim future. It's not so much what is happening now with people's ability to purchase all the material *** marketed at them but what will happen when people need to retire in their latter years. The ones who think they are doing well are the type that have inadequate foresight and planning. This type may struggle someday even if they earned twice what they earn now.

The fact is, it is virtually impossible for most americans to sufficiently save for retirement even if doing all the right things. The real feces will be hitting the fan in the future if this isn't dealt with and I doubt it will be. This type of evolvement isn't good for this country or any other.

One of the problems with right wing extremists is they think like an island till their own nest is spoiled.

Lou Dobbs is republican just to remind.

[king77shaw]

the squeezing of the middle class is by design - a careful plan put in place by economic conservatives (i.e. Republicans) over the last 35 years ... a vibrant middle class means a participatory democracy which elitist Republicans hate because they lose control/power ... so it began with Reagan's war on unions, his deficit spending, absurd funding levels of the military and corporate welfare for the Reublican elite ... all the while, middle America has to have two bread winners to attempt to tread water ... big oil & big pharma aren't feeling the pinch and neither is Wall St. - the Republican goal of a small ruling elite, a small middle class and a vast working poor is becoming a reality ... here is the neo-con American dream ... trickle down is just not trickling ...

[fascistusa]

What Middle Class??

The ONLY opposition to a FASCIST GOVERNMENT is ORGANIZED LABOR and a HEALTHY MIDDLE CLASS.

We the People will be seeing CIVIL WAR in America again.

[chicagotp]

The middle class is getting hammered and the so called "liberal" media is not getting half the story out there because actual numbers would call into question some of the basic economic "truths" of post WWII America. Truths that we really want to believe in.

Here's a statistic for you: an average entry-level college grad with a degree in science or engineering had his/her salary drop by 27% between 1967 and 2007 (Source Chicago Tribune, see Chicago Magazine April issue for discussion).

That's not a misprint - the entry level salary for Engineers had not just dropped in the last 40 years but dropped significantly.

[chicagotp]

What about statistics showing an ever greater disparity between college grads and non college grads and the idea that more "skills" are the key to making more money? Well the college/non college disparity has been increasing but not for the reasons that are implied and the business about skills is just fraudulent.

The growing gap in the U.S. economy is almost solely due to massive increases in the management/authority sector - the top 10% and most especially the to 1%. Also professional athletes, Hollywood stars and top lawyers have seen huge gains. These are the ONLY sectors that have seen consistent gains since 1970.

The salaries for all college grads have only risen because the overwhelming majority of management jobs require a college degree. The real line should be "if you want to make more money be the boss" not "if you want more money get a college degree". Key point: even those in management without a degree saw big increases since 1970 - think Bill Gates.

Also when college vs. non college comparisons are made typically the sick, those in prison, the disabled and so forth are counted in the "non college" category. IE people with problems to begin with. If you narrow the comparison to healthy people who *chose* to get blue collar employment rather than college the picture is very different. Basically there is no advantage to college unless you go into management. None. Nada. Zip. This contrasts sharply to the picture before 1970.

[king77shaw]

well, we could go back farther than 40 years and include the New Deal ... I would argue that since that time until the Reagan years, the middle class enjoyed unprecedented growth and prosperity ... since Reagan, the real welfare state has nothing to do with "we the people" and everything to do with "we the corporation" so much so that it threatens the very definition of what America is ... we borrow billions daily from China (a communist country) just to stay afloat while at the same time giving tens of billions in tax breaks to Exxon/Mobil, who once again are boasting record quarterly profits ... we are selling huge chunks of our freeway systems and ports to the highest international bidder because America needs the money, while at the same time our troops are fighting Halliburton's war, they're moving to Dubai to avoid paying US taxes - needless to say, they're profits are through the roof as well ... is this national security ? WE had a brief economic respite with Clinton but he sold out to corporate interests as well with NAFTA - for decades we had laws (tariffs) in place that protected the American way of life - good employment, good health, good education, a comfortable retirement - that was the America we were willing to go to war for, to protect those interests ...

[king77shaw]

Americans are beginning to realize that this so called war on "terror", and the war in Iraq is not to protect American interests but corporate interests, an increasing number of which are not even basing there operations in the US ... which is why we can't get enough people to fight these wars... unfortunately, the overwhelming burden is falling on the very middle class that these Republican policies are supressing ...

[chicagotp]

last part of my spiel:

But wait haven't non college educated blue collar workers gotten hammered since 1970? Yes they have - and so have tech workers since 2000. The tech wreck has decimated the field since 2000. It's a financial bloodbath with aggregate employment, income and everything else down by double digits.

Yet you don't hear the media talk much about it. You still hear discussion about the loss of manf jobs but not about the loss (in America) of tech jobs. Why? I suspect it does not jibe with the "skills" myth.

Bottom line: the middle class is getting hammered.

[antoniof123]

Hawksprings when you get up in the morning how do you remember to breath the air? In all my life I have never seen so many followers like today. But the good news is the 60's may be comming back thanks to you clowns. Those were the times when people though for themsleves and did not listen to someone who hears voices and sees a 900 foot Jesus. Wonder if they are on meds or maybe they should be.

[mcvet]

king77shaw, so the Welfare state put in place by Democrats 40+ years ago has NOTHING to do with making people dependent on Government and having a 'vast working poor,' does it.

Democrats have been and still are the party of slavery.
Posted by hawksprings at 12:33 PM : Apr 15, 2007
report abuse

What the HELL are you babbling about. Now follow along here and for God's sake take off that stupid Hood and Sheet. When the Democrats and FDR took over this nation it was in COMPETE shambles. The Stock Market had crashed and the Radical Right Wing Nazi's were attempting to take over ALL of Europe. FDR put in place an Economic Plan that remained in place until we got stupid and went with Trickle Down. During those 70 PLUS years this nation went from that low to become the Greatest Economic Superpower on the PLANET. Unlike today we could PROUDLY proclaim the HIGHEST standard of living in the entire WORLD. Not ONCE in all those years did we fall OUT of that position. That's just a matter of RECORD Sparky. Now you can put your hood and sheet back on!! Sieg Heil Y'all.

[omega39-2009]

Here's a statistic for you: an average entry-level college grad with a degree in science or engineering had his/her salary drop by 27% between 1967 and 2007 (Source Chicago Tribune, see Chicago Magazine April issue for discussion).

That's not a misprint - the entry level salary for Engineers had not just dropped in the last 40 years but dropped significantly.

Posted by chicagotp at

Chicagotp, did you see the story last week about the 2008 H1B1 visas being snapped up in one day? The tech companies are clamoring for more, they claim they can't find technical people but what they mean is those willing to work 30 to 40% under market value. The company I work for is one of the biggest offenders, you would be hard pressed to differentiate my stateside campus from Bangalore if you didn't know where you were.

[hypnotoad72]

When an entry level helpdesk support job that pays $10/hr demands nothing less than a BACHELOR'S degree, there's a huge problem afoot.

hawksprings - your Dem argument is accepted. Now tell me what Republicans are doing to spare us the indignity of slavery that Dems purportedly put us in? And if Repubs are so much anti-slavery, how come they no longer shout "We are the party of Lincoln!"? Or even "We are the party of fiscal responsibility!"? MORE IMPORTANTLY, how come republicans give welfare to large, successful corporations? (you may know it as 'government subsidy'.) In short, both sides don't give a frig about the working class. And if it wasn't for the working class, there would be NO upper class at all.

king77shaw - China cannot be our enemy. Otherwise we wouldn't have been doing what we have been since the early 1970s. Even liberals loved Nixon's visit to China and the subsequent low-low-priced goods that came from it.

[fascistusa]

Organized Labor can be Unions. Or it can be People Organizing in Mass to protect themselves FROM the Government. Your Labor (resources) are what The American Elite want.

A Middle Class is typically the class between The Elite/The Rich and the Poor. The Middle Class typically makes a certain amount of Money. Enough to make investments, save, start businesses, or waste on materialistic goods.

We live in a Corporate Controlled Fascist Country. Small business is being slaughtered by Corporations. Where there use to be Mom & Pop store we now have a Walmart, Walgreens, Gamestop, McDonalds on every corner. ONE Wal Mart consistes on 20 small businesses. One Microsoft consists on 100's of smaller computer companies that could have existed if not for the crushing, MONOPOLISTIC actions of Microsoft.

I love the idiots that say Wal Mart has a Competitor - Target. The question being... CAN YOU START A BUSINESS AND COMPETE WITH WAL MART??? No way.

We were ruled by MONOPOLIES in the late 1800's. Carnegie, Rockerfellar, J.P. Morgan. The Robber Barons. We are RULED by MONOPOLIES not. The American Elite.

[jpesot]

Its interesting to see so many posts reaching back a few decades on this topic -- rather than to look at what has occurred since the GOP controlled the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

If their philosophy worked, surely after 6 years of their control we'd see more evidence.

For 6 years, congress did what ever Bush wanted, and in return, Bush let the GOP pork up every bill.

They put cronnies in every office they could, in every department they could.

The GOP control of the US has been as complete as it has ever been.

Did they create a new Deal? Win a War? Balance the Budget? Improve Health Care? Improve life for the average American? Improve the Environment? Stablize the middle east? Improve the US's standing in the world? Medicare? Social Security?

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

Personally, I'd like to see some one from the GOP side layout all the great and wonderous things the GOP model has brought us in the last 6 years.

From where I sit, they've been a complete disaster.

[candojj1]

To understand why the middle class is shrinking first understand that Bush is a scholar(?) of Hobbes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes#Leviathan
And just as the Cold War and The Truman Doctrine instilled fear into the hearts of Americans, so too the WMD instilled fear. So if one examines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfowitz_Doctrine and sees how leviathan's plan was to be carried out by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, the World Bank and the IMF and WTO at the cost of the middle class (all in the name of helping our society survive as Hobbes put it at all costs) by borrowing huge amounts of dollars and distributing them to the military economy and the third world democracies (now 185). And with the annexation of the 10 USSR nations into NATO and into the IMF, Russia is back into Cold War mode. So Cheney is certain that the congress will not cut off spending, as they can't, or the dollar can and will collapse. While the battle seems to be raging in Iraq, even greater battles are being fought where Russia, Iran and OPEC are aligned to change the OIL trading business entirely into EUROs from dollars causing a ripple effect, where our biggest creditors Japan and China would have no choice but to demand their debt be repaid. This might cause the weakest of the 185 democracies to fold and the dollar to collapse as the $ has no gold backing.
So consider yourself lucky, for now, as you might need an AK-47 and won%u2019t be able to buy bullets without $s.

[omega39-2009]

Did they create a new Deal? Win a War? Balance the Budget? Improve Health Care? Improve life for the average American? Improve the Environment? Stablize the middle east? Improve the US's standing in the world? Medicare? Social Security?

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.-Posted by jpesot

LOL!! Well of course they were just about to get to it, but first they had to ban gay marriage and make sure they tacked on "We support our troops" to the "We support the way George Bush is running the war in Iraq" resolution.

[radiob-2009]

How long has it been since a republican president has won a war?

[acauble1]

Personally, I'd like to see some one from the GOP side layout all the great and wonderous things the GOP model has brought us in the last 6 years.

From where I sit, they've been a complete disaster.
Posted by jpesot at 06:04 PM : Apr 15, 2007

.........
As this story suggests, the GOP model has brought 'wonderous things' to those who primarily have annual incomes well into the six digits and higher. And it's primarily those people who will defend the GOP and Bush till the bitter end. These wealthier Americans will defend Bush's policies, including the war in Iraq, not because they totally believe in it, but only because they have more money in their wallets thanks to the Bush administration. Sadly, that's all that matters for many of those "Americans" in the upper income brackets.

"Myself before any other." --- The new GOP slogan for the 21st Century.

[acauble1]

"Myself before any other." --- The new GOP slogan for the 21st Century.

Posted by acauble1 at 06:28 PM : Apr 15, 2007


Oh... and one other thing...

Based on the record of the GOP in the past six years, (and beyond)....

... JESUS WOULD URINATE ON TODAY'S CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN PARTY!

[iceman_1960]

"A Rising Tide Lifts All Yachts"

The principle behind the Bush tax cuts.

[iceman_1960]

Another CBS headline: "New Stats: Economy Healthier Than Thought"

Of course.

Thought can make you sick. Look at Einstein. He died of an brain hemhhorage.

[iceman_1960]

hemorrhage

That's a tough one for a layman to spell on the fly.

[omega39-2009]

Another CBS headline: "New Stats: Economy Healthier Than Thought"

Posted by Iceman_1960

Geez, I criticized the Heritage foundation on their Sunday morning show story "The squeezing of America", and six pages of posts disappeared into cyberspace......My publish button is still disabled (on that page) and it's been over half an hour

[acauble1]

"A Rising Tide Lifts All Yachts"

The principle behind the Bush tax cuts.
Posted by Iceman_1960 at 06:43 PM : Apr 15, 2007


ROTFLMAO! I love it Iceman!

That statement made my day.

[iceman_1960]

"ROTFLMAO! I love it Iceman!

That statement made my day."
Posted by acauble1 at 07:04 PM : Apr 15, 2007

Thanks. That was not my invention, however, but that of many writers more clever than I.

Here one from USAToday.com back in August 2006:

"There's an old saying that "a rising tide lifts all boats." Popularized by President John F. Kennedy, it generally refers to how a growing economy benefits everyone.

These days, however, it might need to be revised to say: "A rising tide lifts all yachts." Or perhaps it should be retired entirely, because it no longer appears to be accurate.

That's the inescapable conclusion from Tuesday's Census Bureau report on poverty. Some 37 million Americans lived below the poverty line ($19,971 for a family of four) in 2005 %u2014 that's 4 million more than at the height of the last recession, in 2001."

[jn122736]

You are exactly right.
Reagan started the borrow-and-spend policy in the 80%u2019s running the national debt into the trillions.

Bush Jr. has done even worse with his tax cuts and paying for his war through borrowing, thereby doubling the national debt. The annual interest on just a part of the debt is somewhere around $1/2 trillion which equals what we have spent on the Iraq fiasco in more than 4 years and that interest (to China, Japan, etc) must be paid EVERY year.

The government has borrowed about $2 trillion from the social security surplus alone, plus at least that much more from other programs, on which no interest is paid.

The favorite claim made by the republicans is; cutting taxes helps the economy.

When we borrow trillions of dollars from foreign countries instead of cutting spending to pay for the tax cuts we are loosing control of our country and steadily going into bankruptcy and ruin.

When the democrats are in control and try to pay down the debt they are falsely labeled as the tax & spend party.

Nearly all jobs created over the past 3 decades have been service industry jobs. Think about that for a minute. When products are not being made/created to pay for that labor, where is the money coming from?

Someone once said:it is like a giant vacuum sucking up all of the resources of the average American, middle class or other wise.

[iceman_1960]

"How long has it been since a republican president has won a war?" - Posted by radiob at 06:22 PM : Apr 15, 2007

Dubya's prudent father was successful in war.

The first Gulf War could be called a Mission Accomplished, if not a victory, since the mission was sensibly selected: to liberate Kuwait, not to liberate Iraq.

The overthrow of Manuel Noriega in Panama was a very small "war" that resulted in victory.

[iceman_1960]

"to liberate Kuwait" - from Iraqi troops, that is.

Kuwait's Sheik (or Emir or Pasha or Sultan or Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler, or whatever the h*ell he is), was returned to power.

There was no attempt by Bush the Elder to impose a Western style democracy there.

[walt1944-2009]

Energy bills are 2 to 3 times what they were last year. Gasoline in the midwest is over $3.30 a gallon. You can't walk out of grocery store without spending $100 for food grown in a foreign country that is overpriced, and loaded with chemicals that could give you cancer tomorrow. A doctor's visit is $200 for him to just say "Hi" and paying for prescription medicine is making a mortgage payment. People can't afford to buy a home anymore, and buying a new car is a privilege for the rich today.

Who says the middle class isn't being squeezed out of existence?! And what does our "fearless" leader what? Does he care what is happening to the middle class? He just wants more money to keep fighting a useless war and bankrupt the country!

[ne_patriot7]

The timing of this article co-incides with an article in my local paper this morning..

These stats are for the immediate area around where I live over the past 8 years:
Housing value: down 27%
Taxes (for individuals: up 49%
Taxes (for business): up 70%
Manufacturing: ten major manufacturers have gone belly up of left the area, including IBM, GE, a major shoe manufacturer, Link systems, and with these companies leaving, 22,000 jobs have been lost.. That's part of the reason home values are in the sh*tter, the market is glutted with houses for sale by the banks that have foreclosed on them.
Population in the area is down 4,000..

Yep... the republicans have done a wonderful job...
Sure glad the people left in this area finally got the balls to axe the republican yes man congressman that has had this district for the past 20 years... At least it is a start... now if we could axe the chimp and dead eye, we'd really be making progress..

[kesac4650]

How about a poll, on whether more whiners take polls today tha in '98.

[gkc99]

While the Bushits, George the Elder and his son Curious George, have done much to plunder the middle class, giving huge tax breaks to their billionaire pals and putting their optional war on a credit card, let's not forget all that Globalizer #1, Bill Clinton, the President from Microsoft and Intel, did to screw over the middle class. Outsourcing, giveaways of key technologies to Asians for money, loss of US manufacturing and technological edges, we can all thank Hound Dog Billy for. Can Wronged Wife #1, Hilly, be any less in favor of these programs? Is there any political party that does things for Americans, not foreigners, any more?

[jn122736]

gkc99,

I would have to agree with a lot of what you say about Bill Clinton%u2019s administration. I have often said Bill Clinton was the best republican president since Ike.

Signing NAFTA, backing excessive gun control laws, and a few things like that caused a lot of moderate democrats and independents to change their voting practices allowing the republicans to take over both branches of congress for the first time in decades, and consequently the presidency for the past 6 plus years.

Not trying harder to get independent Judges approved by the republican Senate didn%u2019t help much either.

I don%u2019t know about Hillary but right now we need a democratic president or a large enough majority of democrats in both houses to over ride vetoes in order to repair the mess the Bush administration has brought us down to. An independent president would be acceptable but that isn%u2019t really possible at this time. So I would vote for Hillary over a republican in 2008 though I would prefer a better choice.

[mh4cbs1]

Why are my WAGES taxed at a HIGHER rate that the Billionaires who make a killing in the investment world while they sit on their ***??

Because the Republicans and Democrats BOTH represent the wealthy, the corporate elite.

And every time someone complains about the massive RIP-OFF, the billionaires accuse the middleclasss of "Class Warfare".

Its a Class War all right! And it has been waged AGAINST the middleclass since Ronald Reagan, and the middleclass has been getting Hammered!

Wake up and FIGHT BACK. Vote them OUT, Republicans AND Democrats who only pay lip-service.

[frankly6]

This is "trickle down economics" at its best.

It's time we stop running up massive deficits so that the wealthiest amoung us enjoy huge tax cuts and the bill is passed on to the middle class.

[acauble1]

For the United States to survive as a country beyond 20 years from now, there must be two things done immediately:

Cut spending on everything by 50%. (yes, everything)!

Raise taxes on everyone by 10% (income, cap gains, dividend, everything).

And maybe that **might** take care of the interest on our national debt. Though the upcoming crises in Social Security and Medicare may be nearly impossible to avoid even with the suggestions above.

It's a hard pill to swallow, and many people can't handle the truth and sacrafices we all will have to make in the near future.

The vast majority of the voting public would best be symbolized as a 400 pound person about to shove a Big Mac in their face....

...if asked to trade-in the Big Mac for a leafy green salad (no dressing), the answer would be pretty obvious...

...and the future result will be clear.
Irresponsible politicians exclaim there is nothing to fear,
but because of their arrogance,
our death as a sovereign country,
is near.

[bellal-2009]

Sorry frankly6, you raise my taxes by 10% and I'd have to borrow to make up the difference. My property taxes have doubled, my health insurance has increased by 30%, my income has stayed the same. NO MORE TAXES on the middle class. We're drowning here.

[bellal-2009]

What planet are those 30% on that think things are better for the middle class.

[bellal-2009]

The only thing better for the middle class is retirement accounts which doesn't exactly help because of the 10% penalty for early distribution which is outrageous. Middle class should not have to pay that penalty.

[jfgordon24]

The rich don't get taxed as much becuz the politicians are trying to stay on their good side.. so they will donate money for their campaign, so they can win...its pretty simple.. n it will b that way for a very long time...