Most Americans don't earn enough to afford basic costs of living, analysis finds

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cost-of-living-income-quality-of-life/

The gap between what Americans earn and how much they need to bring in to achieve a basic standard of living is growing, according to a new report.

The analysis, from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), looks beyond whether people can afford daily necessities like food and shelter to consider whether they have the means to pay for things like the technology tools necessary for work, higher education, and health and child care costs.

(snip)

The findings? For the bottom 60% of U.S. households, a "minimal quality of life" is out of reach, according to the group, a research organization focused on improving lower earners' economic well-being.

"The middle class has been declining — we just haven't recognized it fully," LISEP Chairman Gene Ludwig told CBS MoneyWatch. "It's really dangerous because it's the kind of thing that leads to social unrest, and it's not fair. The American dream is not that it's given to you — it's that if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead and achieve the things in life that you want to achieve. It's not living in a tent, not having to steal."

[Initech]

1. Meanwhile, America's billionaires - the greediest humans on earth - are set to "earn" trillions.

And the idiotic Fox News correspondent who cosplays as the Secretary Of Commerce is on that fucking worthless station every night telling us that we need to feel pain from an intentionally caused recession because a golden age is coming, or something.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. But it'll all trickle down

They'll piss down your back and tell you it's raining.

[LastDemocratInSC]

10. We'll get our reward in the sweet bye-and-bye

Just like the Southern slave owners said to their slaves.

[Initech]

12. It's exactly how cults recruit new members.

Don't promise them things that are going to happen now. Promise them things that are going to happen in the not too distant future. But you must suffer for it. Then keep moving back the goal posts every time the "future" comes closer. Works every time.

[keep_left]

17. "The Preacher and the Slave"...an old union song.

"Work and pray, live on hay, you'll get pie in the sky when you die".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Red_Songbook

?si=eBEK-hXGn4Bbz7sm

[Magoo48]

14. The day we working people are finally convinced and we rise as one, then It's on that day billionaires become obsolete.

[Initech]

15. Agreed! Billionaires should be obsolete.

[kimbutgar]

2. That's why I can never understand why so many magas vote repuke and are in that 60% category

Are they ok with billionaires paying less taxes than them who earn $50,000? They lose funds in their community also Medicare/cade so a rich person gets more money than they’ll ever need! Then you’re a special kind of stupid!

[leftstreet]

8. They just want everyone doing as poorly as they are n/t

[Johnny2X2X]

3. Interested to see the data for years

Because Joe Biden had a pretty good 4 year run for working people, people actually saw wage growth in excess of inflation, and that was most pronounced in the bottom 25%.

But this concept and the inability of our leaders to address it is largely why we have lost our Democracy right now. 60% of the population just sees little security, a lite of wanting, and little hope.

I've been on both sides of that divide, I remember all too well of going up to the corner store for a 99 cent loaf of bread and a $1.99 package of bologna and then counting the slices to see if this would feed me for 5 days until pay day and if I had enough mustard left to make sandwiches with. I've been there, where you let the car insurance lapses so you can afford to keep putting gas in your car to get to work. And then you promise to put insurance back on your car next month and that turns into several months until it's time to renew your tabs, which you can't do without proof of insurance so your tabs expire. It's a struggle every week and every month. And then you maybe use credit cards to buy groceries and it's a whole vicious cycle of revolving debt. You're one fender bender from disaster. And you're one car repair from going hungry, or one traffic stop from huge fines for expired plates and no proof of insurance. The majority of the country is living some form of this. It's stress every single day, it's sleepless nights of worry, and it just kind of grinds you down, sucks the joy out of everything. So enough people were desparate enough to believe a used car salesman that he alone would solve all their problems. The hard truth they're all about to learn is that there's absolutely nothing in Trump's polcies for any of them, in fact it's more of the same and a trend that will move that 60% to 8-% or 90%.

And the ologarchy will do everything they can to get that 60% to blame the other 40% when it's really only the 1% that is to blame. As someone who made it to the top 10ish %, the life I am leading is not that different from the midle class life I grew up with in the 70s and 80s. It's the life I saw around me and seemed normal and seemed like most people had a chance at. I own a modest home with a payment than I can afford. Have 2 used cars that are paid off, one is 11 years old, the other 7. Was able to completely get out of credit card debt a while back, and that allowed me a modest savings for emergencies. Saving enough for retirement. I'm not going on vacations, I'm not buying jewelry or going to 5 star restaurants. It's just a normal life. I live on a budget, can afford home or car repairs without too much pain, and just sleep better. It's not too much to ask for for the rest of the country. This country is RICH! And the wealth the country has is a product of the work the bottom 99% does, not the top 1%. Tehy've swindled us, they're getting rich off your work while 60%$ of you struggle for even the basics in life. It's wrong, and this is what we need to address.

[uponit7771]

6. It's not the direct decrease in 60% living standard it's printing money for the rich that eventually lowers it.

Biden and Obama years didn't allow for 10% gains as much in buying power cause they don't need it.

Both Bush and Trump admins did though, they expanded debt to GDP mostly focusing on the rich decreasing buying power and overall wages on bottom end and now inflation.

It's NOW TIME for someone to scream tax the rich and corps their effective share in assets.

There's little where else to go to pay off debt and increase the buying power or the 60%.

The upper 10% tax cuts were that devastating to the 70%

[Johnny2X2X]

13. It's the lack of wage growth to follow gains in productivity

Quantitative easing (printing money) didn't realy cause this.

Basically, labor created wealth at an exponential rate for 40 years, but the labor didn't share in those wealth gains. An hour of labor in the auto industry in the 1980s maybe produced $150 of value and the laborer got $30 an hour plus $25 an hour in benefits, so he kept $55 of the $150 his labor created in value. Today, an hour of labor in the auto undustry maybe produces $500 of value and that auto worker is keeping the same $55 an hour for himself (if he's lucky). That other $350 an hour went to executives and shareholders. Numbers just a generalization to illustrate the point. And some of this increased productivity is automation for sure, labor didn't get a piece of it at all.

Basically, we've gotten better and mopre efficient in everything we do and in everything we make, those gains made the top 1% into kings while the bottom 60% struggled.

[uponit7771]

16. Interesting point, wage growth **RECENTLY** has been above average that's cause it was trash...

... for the last 40 yrs for the lower quarter income.

Damn, makes tax cuts for the rich even more evil

[OldBaldy1701E]

5. And far too many don't earn at all.

But it is not about earning. It is about corporate greed and the constant desire to add as many layers of fluff as possible between you and what you need so that they can suck even more from the consumer while doing little to actually aid in the supply. (Advertising, anyone?)

However... we do love our commercials, so...

[LudwigPastorius]

7. USA! USA! USA!

[leftstreet]

9. They fear social unrest from middle class, but not the poors

Interesting

DURec

[twodogsbarking]

11. The Repuplican Party Mission Statement.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2271185/Desperate-pictures-rural-America-1930s-style-depression-actually-lasted-SIXTIES.html