Middle class shrinking

The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking. Here Are the Stats to Prove it

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-u.s.-middle-class-is-being-wiped-out-here%27s-the-stats-to-prove-it-520657.html?tickers=%5EDJI,%5EGSPC,SPY,MCD,WMT,XRT,DIA

Here are the statistics to prove it:

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people. [Does this include all of stocks in ordinary pension funds held by ordinary Americans? Not! Work those numbers again math-breath!]
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans. [How can you have income growth when you did not finish school, pregnant with no father in the home, no degree, high on drugs?]

• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year. [Retire to what?]

• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together. [And whose fault is that 2009 mortgage debaucle, hmmm?]

• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets. [There is that 80-20 rule again.]
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth. [And do not pay taxes or receive earned income tax credits.]

• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008. [The Ruling Class?]
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector. [Big Sugar Daddy Government is eating away our income and killing the business sector.]
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.

• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks. [Why look for a job when Big Sugar Daddy Gov will give you an unemployment check to live comfortably.]
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011. [Have you seen any of the reports over the years on our prosperous welfare recipients?]

• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour. [There have always been new jobs to replace the buggy whip jobs.]
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years. [Look at the educational performance of our school - our current children and their parents.]
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009. [It is difficult to improve your situation when achievers are running and others are losing ground for lack of education, self-discipline or motivation.]

• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income. [And 50 per cent of the population pays no taxes or receives earned income tax credits.]

Added notes from the right jack are needed. If it is going to be, it is up to me, not Big Sugar Daddy Government. Show us the prosperous socialist states.