WASHINGTON, April 9, 2008
Middle Class Feeling The Financial Squeeze
Study: More Middle-Class Americans Say They Aren't Better Off Than They Were 5 Years Ago
-
Photo
(CBS/AP)
-
Interactive
Eye On The Economy
In-depth features on U.S. markets, taxes, employment and the Federal Reserve.
-
Interactive
The Nation We Live In
Who are Americans and what do they do? A comprehensive look at our economic, sociological and racial breakdown.
Their short-term assessment of personal progress, according to the study, is the worst it's been in nearly half a century.
The survey by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based organization, paints a mixed picture for the 53 percent of adults in the country who define themselves as "middle class," with household incomes ranging from below $40,000 to more than $100,000.
It found that a majority of Americans said they haven't progressed in the last five years. One in four, or 25 percent, said their economic situation had not improved, while 31 percent said they had fallen backward. Those numbers together are the highest since the survey question was first asked in 1964. Among the middle class, 54 percent said they had made no progress (26 percent) or fallen back (28 percent).
Asked about their financial experiences in the past year, 53 percent of middle-class people said they had to cut spending because money was tight. About one in five said they had trouble getting or paying for medical care, while 10 percent reported they had been laid off or otherwise lost their jobs.
Looking ahead to the coming year, half of the middle class surveyed said they expected to have to cut more spending. Among those employed, one in four, or 25 percent, expressed worries that they would be laid off, that their job would be outsourced or that their employer would relocate in the coming year, while 26 percent were concerned that they would see cuts in salary or health benefits.
Middle-class prosperity overall also lagged compared with richer Americans. From 1983 to 2004, the median net worth of upper-income families - defined as households with annual incomes above 150 percent of the median - grew by 123 percent, while the median net worth of middle-income families rose by just 29 percent.
At the same time, most middle-class people remained upbeat when asked to measure their progress over a longer timeframe, although their level of optimism lagged behind their richer counterparts. Two-thirds, or 67 percent, of middle-class Americans say their standard of living is better than the one their parents enjoyed at the age they are now.
In contrast, 80 percent of richer people said they exceeded their parents' standard of living. Among the lower class, only 49 percent reported better conditions.
"It's been a lousy run for the American economy and people feel it," said Paul Taylor, director of Pew's Social & Demographic Trends project and lead author of the study. He noted that people's pessimism largely tracks annual median household income, which has seen little gain in recent years. Middle-class people also may be disproportionately feeling the pinch because they tend to borrow more heavily against their homes to support their lifestyles, Taylor said.
"Still, over a span of a generation, it's been a pretty good run, even as there are some recent pressures that I think people are feeling," he said.
The Pew poll involved telephone interviews with 2,413 adults, conducted from Jan. 24 to Feb. 19. The margin of sampling error was 2.5 percentage points.
Among the other findings:
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Video and Galleries from U.S.
-
Video
Birthday Brunch Gone Wrong
-
Video
Bus Travel On The Rise
-
Video
'Tumor' Turns Out to be Baby
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 95 CommentsGee, who could have ever predicted this.
This also just in:
water is wet
heat is hot
and snow is cold
Posted by mortal3 at 09:55 PM : Apr 09, 2008
You wisely know that, hoping the "Economic stimulus" will revitalize the economy is the same as, expecting to be woken up by one cup of coffee after downing two bottles of bourbon.
It''''s OVER...Get used to it...and just solely focus on your Health, Family, Friends, Intellect(READ...READ...READ!), and go Cold-Turkey and give up on this MORONIC POP CULTURE. Do Not participate in it...Do Not pay attention to it.
I''m surprised the figure is that high. I have four siblings and not one of us (all with college degrees) is better off than our parents were at the same age. I only wish I could afford to buy a house as nice as the one I grew up in.
Who?
The very same people who saw through Bush''s lies when he said we have to "preemptively" attack Iraq to "save" us from the terrorists. The people who saw through Cuntoleeza Rice''s "mushroom cloud" warnings. The people who didn''t buy the WMD stories. The people who could count the number of Iraqis on those airplanes on 9/11. The people who just laughed their a$$es off when the little dictator donned a flight jacket, "landed a jet" on an aircraft carrier with a big banner saying "Mission Accomplished", and declared "major combat operations are over". Etc, etc.
Bush failed at every single business he ran. He claimed to be the "MBA Prezdent", but we all knew he was just a skirt chasing, drunken cheerleeder who got his daddy''s friends to do his schoolwork.
Only the truly, desperately blind and ignorant did not forsee the reign of Bush leading to financial disaster and moral ruin.
I am struggling so much I am tempted to not vote for anyone who isn''t talking about how corporate profits are privatized and yet their losses are socialized.
The most interesting thing about our inflation tax is how the "Federal" Reserve is so much more concerned about a Depression than inflation, their interest rate is now almost down to ZERO.
And yet our credit card rates are shooting up to around 20 percent, and without any trigger from payers like late payments and without any justification. And we have no recourse, thanks to the Bankruptcy Bill.
Our country is not a democracy, it is now a corporatocracy where our taxes and policies of government are spent with one purpose.....to help corporations and Wall St make money.
This wouldn''t be such a bad policy if US corporations were still producing in the USA (and not China) and if CEO compensation was held to a realistic premium to average workers as it was 25 years ago. Instead the CEO class has been successfully lobbying for the raping and pillaging of taxpayers, workers and shareholders.
Not to be derogatory to women, but the US corporate and Wall St financial manipulators need to be severely *** slapped via government policy for the next 20 years. That might begin to get things back to the point where working Americans are once again sharing in the wealth of America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ4SSvVbhLw
(Copy/paste)
It''s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
"In this year''s survey, only 16.8 percent correctly answered that stocks likely would offer the higher growth over 18 years of saving for a child''s education, while 37.3 percent thought a U.S. savings bond - one of the most conservative investments - would offer the highest growth."
Now who says that the choice of stocks over bonds is a "correct" answer? Only a stock broker would make such promises. I am sure that those millions of people that held Enron, or World com, Countrywide, or Bear Stearns stock wish right now that they had bought bonds instead.
Posted by CBSBlogger
What makes you feel that working Americans are entititled to share the wealth? They are just as you describe, working Americans. If they want to share the wealth, let them become the owners. It is entrepreneurs, business people, and investors who go out and create the wealth. Working people tend to put in their time, rush home, watch football, drink themselves into a stupor, and start all over again on Monday morning. These are not the people who risk capital and work seven days each week, and put in 80 hours per week. Beimg a business owner, it meant 20 years with no vacations, working day and night, and giving up a lot of good times. Now that my businrss is successful, I can enjoy the vacations, nice cars, and nice homes. Compare the two. Who earned the right to share the wealth?
Not to be derogatory to women, but the US corporate and Wall St financial manipulators need to be severely *** slapped via government policy for the next 20 years. That might begin to get things back to the point where working Americans are once again sharing in the wealth of America.
Posted by CBSBlogger
What makes you feel that working Americans are entititled to share the wealth? They are just as you describe, working Americans. If they want to share the wealth, let them become the owners. It is entrepreneurs, business people, and investors who go out and create the wealth. Working people tend to put in their time, rush home, watch football, drink themselves into a stupor, and start all over again on Monday morning. These are not the people who risk capital and work seven days each week, and put in 80 hours per week. Beimg a business owner, it meant 20 years with no vacations, working day and night, and giving up a lot of good times. Now that my business is successful, I can enjoy the vacations, nice cars, and nice homes. Compare the two. Who earned the right to share the wealth?
Isn''t this why our founding fathers started our country ? ?
You make a very good case...and I too used to be a hard-core, "Invisible-Hand," "Every-Man-for-Himself," Ayn Rand Capitalist...but one thing you''re doing is stereotyping "Working Americans" AND "Business Owners." There are PLENTY of working americans who DO NOT do as you suggest ("rush home, watch football, drink themselves into a stupor) and PLENTY of Business Owners who are Struggling to make ends meet.
The Question is this...WHAT TYPE of "Capitalism" do we want? Do we want a "Productive Capitalism" where there is a sharing of the wealth between the owners and employees, and where the owners like Henry Ford KNEW that he had to PAY his workers well in order for them to BUY...OR do we want (what we have now) a "Finance Capitalism" where "Clever" people make OBSCENE Amounts of Money for VERY LITTLE work, and one where the "Middle Class" is destroyed and where the Owners and the "CLEVER" reap ALL the Profits...a "Winner-Take-ALL" situation...or as one enlightened CEO recently said..."A Capitalism where Grandmothers in the Mid-West have to eat Catfood so that 25 year-old Investement Bankers can drive their Porsches around Manhattan."
Is the Latter scenario, what we presently have, REALLY what we want? Is it REALLY good for America?
Think About it.
Sounds more like stupid spending habits than anything else.
Well, if a tenth of your so-called accusations that the government is a Nazi regime were true, you''d already have had your IP investigated to locate you, you''d have been detained, questioned, and afterwards your body left out in the middle of a forest somewhere.
Well, at least there is some good that could come from your accusations, if they were true in the slightest.
It is the nightmare that Americans have created for themselves by having chmapgne taste on a beer budget. And still we see the banks & credit card companies sending out all the garbage ...
No wonder our college/high schoolers have no idea about finances ... their parents dont either ... so monkey see monkey do ..
The US is in deep Doo DOO .. & until we begin to reward saving instead of borrowing ... we will continue to print money we dont have & be OWNED by foreign countries.
Stop the madness ... live within your means !!
It is the nightmare that Americans have created for themselves by having chmapgne taste on a beer budget. And still we see the banks & credit card companies sending out all the garbage ...
No wonder our college/high schoolers have no idea about finances ... their parents dont either ... so monkey see monkey do ..
The US is in deep Doo DOO .. & until we begin to reward saving instead of borrowing ... we will continue to print money we dont have & be OWNED by foreign countries.
Stop the madness ... live within your means !!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by dowjones20k at 05:36 AM : Apr 10, 2008
+ report abuse
You are making excuses for the problem. How does that solve anything. It''s not the PEOPLE who are at fault here. When they aren''t GAINING that means our STANDARD of LIVING isn''t moving UPWARD. You know like CEO Salaries?? When the Republican''s started this "Trickle Down" economics we had the highest standard of living in the world. Today we''re just trying to stay out of Third World Status because we are DEAD LAST amoung the G-7 nations. That''s the fault of Working American''s??
That''s the most moronic statement I have ever seen on these posts. And I''ve seen alot them.
Skyk,,, I agree!
That''s the most moronic statement I have ever seen on these posts. And I''ve seen alot them.
Skyk,,, I agree!
Sounds more like stupid spending habits than anything else
Posted by TheGateway1
----------------------------------------------------
That really depends on where you live Smartguy.
If you live in armpit alabama or North Dakota then yeah, I agree with you, BUT try living in Maryland or New York on that. ... It''s really not that easy
Sounds more like stupid spending habits than anything else.
Posted by TheGateway1 at 05:27 AM : Apr 10, 2008
...........
In places like the San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington DC, New York, and Boston metro areas (as well as many others I haven''t listed) the $40k to $100k income levels break down like this:
$40k = Poverty or near poverty living
$100k = Middle Class living
AND THAT''S IF YOU DON''T HAVE CHILDREN!
Add children to that equation and the income levels needs to increase by at least 30% or more just to afford the extra people you have to support.
The wealthy, in their gated golf-club communities, will never be able to understand the plight of the middle class in this 21st century. When you can look at gas prices, while driving a luxury SUV, and not even flinch...
...then talking about or even trying to understand the challenges and lives of middle class Americans is just... well... IMPOSSIBLE... if not foolish.
That is assuming the next presidential administration(s) has a heart for the middle class and puts their needs in a top priority.
I agree,,,rents in N.Y. city can run as high as 2.000 to 4.000 a month. And food,,If you grab a basic sandwich,,that can 5.00, by itself.
Posted by FloydZepp at 07:10 AM : Apr 10, 2008
................
Actually, he does... and she is.
Gateway 1 clearly supports the Iraq war and Nancy Pelosi is clearly against it.
Nothing says "rape and murder" more than the U.S. involvement in Iraq.
That is assuming the next presidential administration(s) has a heart for the middle class and puts their needs in a top priority.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by NAUcoming4U at 07:12 AM : Apr 10,
Good point...
I agree,,,rents in N.Y. city can run as high as 2.000 to 4.000 a month. And food,,If you grab a basic sandwich,,that can 5.00, by itself.
Posted by slim1h2o at 07:15 AM : Apr 10, 2008
...........
Yes, I live in the San Fran area, and I am speaking from experience as well.
Average rent for a 1-bedroom appartment (of decent quality in a decent neighborhood)... is between $1,100 to $1,500 a month! Gas prices in this area are the highest in the country. Same with food prices.
Game Over!
I don''t know when Bush is going to get it through his thick head that his policies are going to ruin us.
Not just the middle class, but whole country.
Who''s going to do all the work?, If the middle class has no job to go to?
Are the rich, and nuevo rich going to work on the infrastructure? I doubt it,,they couldn''t tell the difference between a monkey wrench, and a crecent wrench!
I don''t know when Bush is going to get it through his thick head that his policies are going to ruin us.
Not just the middle class, but whole country.
Who''s going to do all the work?, If the middle class has no job to go to?
Are the rich, and nuevo rich going to work on the infrastructure? I doubt it,,they couldn''t tell the difference between a monkey wrench, and a crecent wrench!
Posted by slim1h2o at 07:30 AM : Apr 10, 2008
...........
Well, actually I can''t tell the difference between a monkey wrench and a crecent wrench... and I''m nowhere close to being rich!
(But I digress)
It has been demonstrated, by various administrations and both political parties, that when the wealthy run the establishment... they have little need to ensure the advancement of those "below" them.
...but for all of us middle class folk reading this now, I will paraphrase Edward R. Murrow by saying:
Good day, and good luck!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by NAUcoming4U
Thats because they are the ones employing the illegal immigrants. That is their answer to their perfect economic world.
Posted by navpro at 07:46 AM : Apr 10, 2008
So true. More immigrants = GDP boost(but no GDP per capita boost, Which makes everyone better off),and lower real wage growth to help keep a lid on inflation.I expect an acceleration immigration in future.Both parties will allow it to try and maintain the illusion of a growing economy.
DOWN WITH THE DEMOPUBLICAN REGIME!! TROOPS HOME NOW!!
NY Times 3-26-08
Game Over!
Posted by truthspeake2 at 07:29 AM
You couldn''''t be more right. I fear it is true but the only answer is voting for these three idiots? GULP! We''''re in for it now.
Posted by maxify55 at 08:26 AM : Apr 10, 2008
No one can stop it. The die has already been cast.
1. Buy lots of tools and learn how to fix your own belongings.
2. Never buy anything new if you can buy it used, if you need dependable transportation, buy two very used cars so you have a spare while you are fixing the other one. No car payments and "crash and Burn Insurance" can save you a ton.
3. Never use a credit card, need credit? buy a house that costs less than you can afford and create sweat equity by fixing it up, use home equity at 6% for credit when needed and make sure the balance goes to zero periodically.
4. Realize that if something is still working after many years, it is well made and worth owning, old quality is much better than new crapp.
5. Make it your goal that by 60 the only bills you have are utilities and property taxes.
6. Take satisfaction in knowing that, as a middle class American, not spending money and not running up your credit is about the only affective way you have to say "Scrrew You" to Corporate America and their bed buddies; the Federal Government.
mudrose
Where do you think the money will come from to pay off the 9 trillion dollar debt and the other 3 trillion we are estimated to spend in Iraq?
Aren''t Bush''s tax cuts and deficit spending are just a deferred tax increase with interest? Right now we borrow the money just to pay the interest on all this debt.
Don''t worry America. Bush and the RNC are going to send you a nice flag lapel pen in the mail.
The Roman Empire, the French revolution, the Bolsivik revolution, and the wheel keeps turning and most people belive the rich until they have nothing left to lose.
But there are stil those that hold on to the old ways and it keeps coming back to haunt us.
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 95 Comments