Blog Editors Note : try increasing taxes, insurance and education costs , coupled with decline of the two parent household , decline of work ethic, and regulating small business out of existence
By John Aidan Byrne
December 27, 2015 | 2:34am
Downward mobility is catching on fast with America’s new economic underdogs — the emerging middle-class minority.
The ranks of the American middle class have sunk to a shocking new low.
After four decades as an economic majority, middle-class Americans are no longer in that admirable place. They’re down to 49.9 percent from 61 percent of the population in 1971, with the ranks of the poor and ultrarich growing to a majority in the US.
“The fabric of income distribution is stretching thin,” Rakesh Kochhar, lead author of the recent Pew Research Center study “The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground,” told The Post.
“There’s been a hollowing out in the middle, a bulking up on the edges. The gaps are at record highs,” Kochhar said, adding that the wealth of upper-income families is now about seven times that of the middle class, compared with three times about 30 years ago.
Meanwhile, the middle-class share of US household income has plunged from 62 percent in 1970 to 43 percent today.
And for lower-income families looking to move up to middle-class status, that accomplishment is getting harder to pull off, according to new analysis.
Analysts offer no single explanation for the decline of America’s middle class.
Years of wage stagnation, the decline of unions, a skills gap, economic malaise, taxation, debt and policymaking are often cited, as is technological efficiency in a more globalized economy that rewards outsourcing. Some analysts say the Fed’s trillions of dollars in quantitative easing ended up disproportionately in the hands and wallets of bankers and other upper-middle-class Americans.
when you have police retiring on +100K a year pensions and free platinum healthcare in their early 50s, somebody has to pay for it….
Yup, you have to pay for it 7:14……thanks.
it’s okay 9:44, your benefits are about to be diminished big time
In your dreams 11;09, that ain’t happening, but I know FOR A FACT your taxes are going up. Reach deeper into your deep pockets my friend.
Taxed to death, that’s why we’re leaving. Have fun paying for the mess you’ve created 11:30
Wow, I’m surprised someone who clearly benefits from a public pension and wants our taxes to go up to pay for his extravagant bennys and lifestyle is posting on this blog. Shouldn’t you be retired in Florida living like the swamp parasite you are?
There it is! Right there at 11:30, see it? The smug, self-satisfied, union thug arrogance that is destroying NJ’s economy and has left a $200B unpaid bill for our children. You must be so proud of the destruction of this state. 11:30, and not one mention of reducing your benefits. Your only solution – the one proposed by your union cheerleaders in Trenton like Sweeney, Sarlo and Prieto – is the one that won’t work because all it does is fund unsustainable benefits that should have never been promised at their current level in the first place. They are too good.. These men were elected by union votes, they don’t represent me.
Clearly, you morons still don’t get it. The politicians screwed you not the government employees. But don’t let the facts and truth get in the way of your hate mongering, I realize that’s the only thing that makes you feel good.
11:30 said, “I know FOR A FACT your taxes are going up. Reach deeper into your deep pockets my friend.” So that’s the solution then, raise taxes on the most heavily taxes Americans who already are being taxed to death? NJ already has the highest state & local taxes and we still have a $200 billion unpaid tab which keeps growing and swallowing more revenues at the expense of everything else. Obviously you don’t think there’s any chance that the wealthiest residents – who don’t need to live in NJ – won’t just pack up and move? It’s great you think the destruction of NJ’s middle class is all on the governors we’ve elected since the 1980s, but why no mention of the fact that unions negotiated excessive contracts and benefits in bad faith towards taxpayers? Pension checks already cost over $8 billion a year, equivalent to 25% of the annual state budget for past promises. Why should anyone pay more so you can keep your extravagant $100,000 a year defined benefit pension, $25,000 a year Platinum health benefit, and live tax free in Florida? That’s a deal that no one in the private sector gets, so why should we pay for you to get that deal?
2:15, you mean BoE, police & fire employees in Ridgewood didn’t agree to 4% annual base wage increases since 2009 in addition to annual step wage increases, 10% longevity pay, and accumulated leave up to six months on retirement at their highest final comp rate? That wasn’t the employees, it was all our Village Manager and Governing Body’s fault? Blame the government we elected, not the unions?!? Think about a public safety employee in 2009 with 20 years of service making $110,000. By the end of 2015, that same officer was making $152,000 just on base wage increases and 10% longevity pay increases, not including any step wage increases.There was little to no CPI-based inflation in Bergen County over this period and property prices are also flat. That officer can now retire in 2016 at 65% of the average of their final three years of compensation for pension calculation, i.e. over $99,000 a year in a defined, fixed benefit from an average PFRS retirement age of 52 years old. They will also get a $25,000 annual platinum health benefit for $480 a year out of pocket until they quality fro Medicare at age 65. That means the retiree will earn more from their pension and value of the annual health benefit combined than they made during their employment service assuming they live to 80 years of age. That’s a Ponzi scheme and is not sustainable absent massive tax increases, i.e. 12% state consumption taxes and a 25% increase in state income taxes. But it’s he politicians who screwed us, not the government employees and their excessive contract demands and benefits, right?
Guess you don’t get it 2:15… no tax hikes unless your benefits get diminished by an equal amount. Public sector employees took everything and more from politicians thanks to union promising them votes. This led to bad faith negotiations by unions for over 30 years, where the state and municipalities overpromised on wages, pensions and health benefits with no sustainable way to pay for these benefits. You can promise yourself a retirement on the beach in Tahiti, but if we can’t pay for it, good luck, hope that makes you feel good.
Suck it up buttercup. Your complaining and crying is falling on deaf ears.
Hey, the unions negotiated in bad faith – time to void the contracts! Or diminish the benefits. The damn taxes are already too high and constitutional mandates limit how much of the state budget can be allocated to pension & benefit costs. That’s why Sweeney is trying to do an end run with an amendment to the NJ Constitution, so he can mandate quarterly pension contributions. This amendment must be stopped !
Really, can you prove in court that the unions negotiated in bad faith? I’m betting you couldn’t even get a court to agree to hear the case. But go ahead and try and while your trying reach deeper into your pocket cause retirees COLA will be reestablished by the courts. You ultra rich high income earners have been riding the gravy train long enough with all your tax deductions and loop holes, time to pay your fair share.
We’re not paying our fair share? How much did you contribute towards your fixed $109K annual pension? Oh, less than 10%. How much does your annual health benefit premium cost? Oh, $480 a year. Seems like you’re the one not paying your fair share. COLAs will never be restored and your benefits will be diminished before any tax hikes.
You can dream all you like 2:45 pm but the fact is you couldn’t be more wrong. No pension or health benefits will be reduced at all. Dig deeper Chuck, you ultra rich friends are about to see a tax hike to pay for the continuation of those benefits after your hero Christe is gone.
Never gonna happen 9:47, dream on
7:53 am your the one who’s dreaming.
Clearly you have no idea what you are talking about 7:53 am. But keep dreaming.