Can you imagine an America without a strong middle class? If you can, would it still be America as we know it?
Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street.
More on a topic I touched upon last week: the shrinking middle class, thanks in part, to wage disparity. The truth is, the last few boom cycles in the US have only been a boom for the wealthy. For the middle class, what appeared to be a boom was, in reality, a credit crisis in the making: living the life without paying the tab, while real wages stagnate and decline and security erodes.
Comments (0)
Leave a comment...