reflexblue

Exactly wages have been flat for years, one of the reasons people are up in arms about taxes and cities and states are having such a hard. People are just being paid less. If taxes are going up and your making the same amount you were ten or twenty years ago its taking a bigger chunk out of they're pocket books. People start charging and in the end can't pay.

How the middle class became the underclass - Feb. 16, 2011

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Are you better off than your parents?

Probably not if you're in the middle class.

Incomes for 90% of Americans have been stuck in neutral, and it's not just because of the Great Recession. Middle-class incomes have been stagnant for at least a generation, while the wealthiest tier has surged ahead at lighting speed.

Harry Boy

We need a Riot.

End the wars.
Close Gitmo.
Seal the borders.
Find Obama's Birth Certificate.
Stop Slobbering

Then watch the money roll in, bring America back to what it once was if we don't our grandchildren will be living in a Third World ***** Hole.

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Harry Boy (Genius)

In The Absence Of Law And Order Society Will Surely Destroy Itself

The Brandon Five

There are trade-offs though. While incomes have stagnated or fallen, benefits provided by employers have increased (or at the least the cost of them have).

What was total compensation (the value of salary and all benefits) in 1988? What is it now?

You can't get all of the things we have now (technologically and medically speaking) without all of the changes that happened at the same time. I'm not saying I'm happy that I am paid less, just that there are other things we have gained that you have to take into account when comparing two points in time.

reflexblue

I would say health insurance has gone up quite a bit , much more than general inflation. I would still rather have my wages go up.

The Brandon Five

Agreed. But what would you be willing to give up in exchange?

reflexblue

As in what? Paid vacation, pension? what? ....If i got paid more i could put more money into investments, like the stock market, my house, or jsut stuff it in a mattress, which in the end would mean i would have to rely less on entitlements.

Real World

There's just not enough information in that article to properly analyze their point. Most people understand that today it's income plus benefits that really make up earnings, whereas that might not have been the case in 1980.

Think about 1980 too. How many homes had one working parent? One car, one TV, one phone line, etc.

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

Nikolai

I'm fairly certain that a higher percentage of jobs in the 1980s had some sort of pension or retirement package. Other than union, federal, or military jobs, I don't think it's nearly as common now, and even people that had retirement packages (such as my father) have since lost them or have seen them slashed significantly. Between that and the much higher cost of health care, I'm a firm believer that the stagnating middle class wages are a major part of our economic woes, and that the middle class in this country will be mostly gone before I die.

The erosion of the middle class has been a major indicator of future instability throughout the last century. I'm not the doom and gloom type, but this is an unnerving trend.

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We get what we deserve.

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“On a day when they could have had impact players David Terrell or Koren Robinson..they took Georgia defensive tackle Richard Seymour, who had 1 sacks last season in the pass-happy SEC and is too tall to play tackle at 6-6 and too slow to play defensive end. This genius move was followed by trading out of a spot where they could have gotten the last decent receiver in Robert Ferguson and settled for tackle Matt Light, who will not help any time soon.”

wistahpatsfan

Tarrifs and protectionism, anyone? Scrap NAFTA? Controls on US corporate activities outside our borders?

The erosion of the middle class is due to the shifting of wealth upward and the loss of manufacturing jobs.

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Nikolai

This goes back to that old saying of "what hill do you want to die on?"

I have libertarian tendencies, but I'm willing to compromise on issues that affect national security and prosperity.

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We get what we deserve.

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“On a day when they could have had impact players David Terrell or Koren Robinson..they took Georgia defensive tackle Richard Seymour, who had 1 sacks last season in the pass-happy SEC and is too tall to play tackle at 6-6 and too slow to play defensive end. This genius move was followed by trading out of a spot where they could have gotten the last decent receiver in Robert Ferguson and settled for tackle Matt Light, who will not help any time soon.”