Article that realy scared me...

As a college student hoping to enter the work force one day these statistics scare the **** out of me..

Basicly it lists reasons why the American middle class is being wiped out...ill skip most of it and list the stats

Here are the statistics to prove it:

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

The thing is, well recover from this recession, and it will get better. Don't you worry. I remember the last one, trust me, it's not as bad as everyone makes it out as.

Creed said it. "This economy" is just a cycle. It has it's ups and downs, just like anything else. All I care about is that I can have food on the table and all the other necessities. I don't really care who earns money or how they do it.

"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."

^ There is absolutely no reason for this. This is just wrong. Nobody should make 500 times more than average. I mean 50 times more would be more than enough. Wtf do they spend all that money on?

If every had to make the same amount of money, wouldn't that be kinda communist? We already have commie healthcare...

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DrummerBoyz95 wrote:

We already have commie healthcare...

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Okay okay...lets not start that, this thread's here for intelligent discussion.

I think what he said was intelligent. I think he censored it quite well

Ehh health care is niether here or there it's gone into affect but lets all wait to see what it truly does in the future.

Anyways yeah world keeps turning right? I mean I understand right now it's almost impossible to get a job without collage so yeah mid class seems to be going extinct but the world needs mid class if it falls who will do the jobs? Mid class is like a penny, it will always be around as long as odd change is around. When even change happens well your screwed

DrummerBoyz95 wrote:

If every had to make the same amount of money, wouldn't that be kinda communist? We already have commie healthcare...

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Who suggested that? IMHO it's perfectly right to have different people working more or less important jobs for different hours at different levels of stress making different amounts of money. It's perfectly alright to pay people with degrees more than those who didn't graduate HS. But for the average CEO to make 500x more than the average American is just insane. Their job isn't that hard. They don't have the most advanced degree. They don't work the longest hours. Yeah, you need someone to run things. Yeah, you need to pay them enough to make it worth the stress and everything. But 500x more? Come on now.

Yeah I agree with omega here...realy..500x more? Thtas just wrong..

And on a tangent for the healthcare?...The Govt will have no involvement in it, Honostly i like it, they can\'t deny you coverage once you get sick becouse "your cancer is a pre-existing condition" Those who are ill can get healthcare in the high risk pools.

One of the main arguments people give agianst it is that they can\'t force you to pay for health care..guess what? Just like I don\'t like paying for illigal imagrints to go to the emergency room when they get sick and not pay, I don\'t like you going there either. Pay your own healthcare thank you very much.


Now back on topic. The main issue I think is all the regulations in the USA, im sorry but no bussiness is going to pay a worker a good salary, benifits, paid vacation ect when they can get the dude in the sweat shop for 50 cents a hour, And I realy don\'t see a fix for that

@ zane I see a fix, but its illegal.

lets see what comes in the next few years, chances are we will move to CANADA (eh?) and it will be the same there too, in all the major powers it will happen, its in our rich blood

Canada eh..well Palin is already going there for healthcare lol.

But yeah hopfully it fixes itself...if not..well I guess nobility will rise agian rofl

Quote :

Who suggested that? IMHO it's perfectly right to have different people working more or less important jobs for different hours at different levels of stress making different amounts of money. It's perfectly alright to pay people with degrees more than those who didn't graduate HS. But for the average CEO to make 500x more than the average American is just insane. Their job isn't that hard. They don't have the most advanced degree. They don't work the longest hours. Yeah, you need someone to run things. Yeah, you need to pay them enough to make it worth the stress and everything. But 500x more? Come on now.

Omega, this is what I think:
Who are we to say what they get paid? Should us or anyone else regulate someone else's life?
No, I don't think so.
Because what if there is someone out there that thinks you make too much, you want them to take it away?
Guys, it's a free country, and it's the one of the best ones out there!

Quote :

And on a tangent for the healthcare?...The Govt will have no involvement in it, Honostly i like it, they can't deny you coverage once you get sick becouse "your cancer is a pre-existing condition" Those who are ill can get healthcare in the high risk pools.

One of the main arguments people give agianst it is that they can't force you to pay for health care..guess what? Just like I don't like paying for illigal imagrints to go to the emergency room when they get sick and not pay, I don't like you going there either. Pay your own healthcare thank you very much.

The thing with that is that you and I are paying for Illegal immigrants with this new healthcare bill, they very slyly "removed it." But it's there in a very small shape and form.
Now, there is already mediCAL (that we pay for) for low income families, so why do we need something else to pay for?
Look, my dad is a doctor, and he (and many other doctors) know that this will hurt us, and the medical profession.
Already, it's starting to "filter" doctors who are not American, or lazy, etc to go to medical school, and give us less and less healthcare quality, not to mention take away AMERICAN jobs. (Going to make Zane's fears worse).

I know what I'm talking about, my mom has been a medical biller since 1983.
My dad has been a doctor (Chiropractor, general practitioner) for 20 years!

What people fail to realize is, this is going to hit my family hard, as well as other families. They only think about themselves, and the "lofty morals" that they claim to have.
Frankly, I'm sick of being broke, and so is my family. We probably have to move soon, and we have no idea where were going. This will make it worse.

But Zane, whenever people want quality, Americans will be there to work.
You can have a Cadillac, or a Toyota.

Creed769 wrote:

Omega, this is what I think:
Who are we to say what they get paid? Should us or anyone else regulate someone else's life?
No, I don't think so.
Because what if there is someone out there that thinks you make too much, you want them to take it away?
Guys, it's a free country, and it's the one of the best ones out there!

I don't think the government should regulate it. I think the shareholders should demand it. If I owned a significant amount of stock in an American auto company, I would protest the huge salaries and bonuses being handed to the people who f***ed everything up for that company. I wouldn't want MY stock money to go straight to the CEO. I'd want it to contribute to the growth and prosperity of the company. The salary of the CEO should be set at shareholder meetings. Not dictated by the CEO himself.

A government regulation on how much money a person can make would get messy fast. People would try very hard to get around it any way they could. It would be a waste of time and money. As a tea-partier, I'm against wasting money on silly legislation like that.

As for the "healthcare" bill, I learned something rather interesting recently. Obama named his czar to run this system, and in this guy's acceptance speech he said outright that this healthcare bill was going to be by definition a transfer of wealth. About 1/3 of the economy (as I am told) is now going to be directly in the control of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. And if I remember correctly, it will take a 2/3 majority in Congress to overturn anything this czar does. This is a huge transfer of power. Sam Adams would roll in his grave if he heard about this.

This "healthcare" bill... man.... It's really f***ing up a lot of stuff. And it's not improving our healthcare system one bit. There's a lot of worthless spending in this bill. A lot of pork. A lot of counter-productivity.

I'm finally old enough and registered to vote. It's time to clean house in Congress. After that, the Executive Branch. A good old-fashioned lassiez-faire government is what we need. After we repeal a few things, that is.

-off the top of my head, very little research supporting.

i believe your right.
I took you saying that they made too much in the wrong way. I thought you were for the gov regulating.
Hopefully my dad doesn't have to quit his practice because of this stupid thing.

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I don't think the government should regulate it. I think the shareholders should demand it. If I owned a significant amount of stock in an American auto company, I would protest the huge salaries and bonuses being handed to the people who f***ed everything up for that company. I wouldn't want MY stock money to go straight to the CEO. I'd want it to contribute to the growth and prosperity of the company. The salary of the CEO should be set at shareholder meetings. Not dictated by the CEO himself.

I agree with his 10000% Why should a CEO who bancrupted a compay, and in the process caused many to loose everything, be rewarded with a massive bonus? It's like a article I saw a few days ago...I politician in one of the smallest towns in california was making 600k a year...they got fired but guess what? thier garunteed 400k per year for life in pension..total bs.

NOw back to the health care thing..

Creed to adress your problem with the immagratio..here is a direct quote from the billl

Quote :

H.R. 3200: Sec 246 — NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

Now omega...As for your take on the healthcare? Yeah it's not perfect..and politicians always put "Watch your language" in there for themselves..becouse guess what? They have to worry about relection and if they say "hey I got 10,000,000 for education" they get bonus points.So until the senate and house have term limits thats always going to be a issue.

As for improving healthcare? The basics are good, like i said earlier you can't get kicked of your inssurance while your sick, they can't deny children, everyone has to get healthcare so the rest of us don't have to foot the bill with our tax money. (Becouse right now they go to the emergency room for the flu since they can't get denied, and we get stuck with the 1,000 emergency visit, I would rather be stuck with the 25 primary care visit, wouldnt you?

As for the tea party? Be carefull there, some of thier ideas are good but alot of wack jobs are getting afeliated with it and theres ALOT of spin and BS coming from some of them..*cough*palin*cough*

I know it's realy hard but try to find some non-partisan info backing what thier telling you. don't take anything your told at face value...becouse guess what? many of them just want your money. SO find out the facts..use sites like fackcheck and politifact to find out if what thier saying is true or BS.

And im loving this discussion, finaly were getting to were it's not just mindless bashing..I HAVE SUCEEDED BWAHAHAHAHA

EDIT:: Credd your dad wont have to loose his job...in fact the bill might give him more patients since more people will be able to go to primary care. Keep in mind that all healthcare still stays in the private sector...the govt has nothing to do with deciding who gets what.

The only control they have is over the high risk pools, and those are no diffeent then the insurance you would get working for a major coorperation or the govt. (Everyone pools so the group has better buying power)