Why is the middle class in America getting smaller each year?

Question

It takes two people working full time in the same household just to have moderate means. The American dream seems to be the American struggle.

Answer 1

Because the upper class is squeezing them out of the middle and into the lower. If the middle class complains about these actions, the upper class says the middle class is engaging in class warfare.

Answer 2

The same reason the rich are making double digit increases every
year, due to the manipulation of our government through the
legislative branch by way of lobbyists and campaign contributions
and also by way of similar manipulation of the tax code the wealth
of the country is being systematically funneled to the top few percent of the population, and if it's not stopped you can kiss the
U.S. we all know and love goodbye, because we will just turn into
another third world country where a few have everything and
everyone else has squat. Think Mexico among others.

Answer 3

Cause the freemarket is built on the dollar bill and not concern for people, their welfare and their needs... It's sad but in America the Rich have won the battle for now... I can only hope that the abuses of the last 6 years will wake up the many to the abuses of the few... live long and prosper should apply to all not just the rich. Support of unions is a good thing as long as the unions truly represent their constituents... In many cases they don't... they have internal structures that are totalitarian under the guise of being democratic... but overall they are good tools to even the playing field as long as their agenda is the agenda of the membership and not the leadership.

Past union organizer
Britt

Answer 4

The middle class in America is being squeezed out by our current administration and their anti-labor policies. Our very American way of life is under attack. They want to privitize social security, which will put your already slim retirement money at risk. They want to abolish pensions that American workers toiled for 20 or 30 years to earn. This administration is working to weaken labor laws and make it harder to join a Union. Everyone knows that being in a Union increases your chance of making a decent wage and getting good benefits for your family. They continue to outsource our manufacturing jobs, which built this country to where it is today. The only jobs left will be Wal-Mart, where you have to depend on the state you live in to provide welfare type health care while Wal-Mart rakes in the profits which they have made at the expense of the 15 cent an hour Chinese workers that make their products. Our country needs to wake up and turn this around before it's too late. This can be accomplished by using your right to vote. The politicians that don't support the American way of life need to be replaced!!!

Answer 5

The GINI index is at 46 for USA which close to third world countries. THat means the rich are richer and poor are poorer and the middle class is disapearing. That is the Republican way. Canada is at 33 average for developed countries. Denmark is the best at 25 most people in Denmark are of the Middle class.

Answer 6

because only one cause for this is not enough, i mean it is coporate greed, the rich reaping all the benefits of the taxes, the competition by mechanization for your jobs. you think about the machines a bit because they take away more jobs than anything, and leave to many trained people competing for the few remaining jobs, even though it seems like there is lots of work the wages are much lower, this is what happened in the 1920s and lead up to the great depression in thr 1930s, repeating today with computers instead of shop machinery,
not just one reason but many reasons working together against us
machinery and computrization is taking away more jobs than cheap labour, even where labour is cheap they can not compete with mechanization, in factory or in office and office jobs are next to go, damn computers!

Answer 7

because the lower class is getting larger each year. The middle class supports social programs which they don't qualify for but do not have the benefits they provide for others with those programs. Follow me?

Do you know that here in good ole Ca. there are women who have lived on welfare for YEARS.......I know one who has three children, lives in a house with a married couple who also has three kids.......that is six kids and three adults in a three bedroom house......the woman who is on welfare gets....housing money, an EBT card and food stamps. She works ONE hour a day only during the school year. She has full medical for her kids and for herself........wants for very little. gets new tattoos, smokes and drinks often eats fast food daily. How she is allowed to be on these programs for YEARS and get away with working 185 hours in a year I just don't know.

I do know that people like her is why the middle class is getting smaller each year.......I work TWO full time jobs to make it on my own and not be on government programs.......and not have medical for myself or my child....so that people like her can sit on her ***.

Answer 8

Make no mistake, this is about class warfare. The Republicans want working class Americans to pay the $2 trillion cost of the Iraq war, Republicans never pay for their own mistakes, they move taxes to others.

Answer 9

Because the consumer price index is rising faster than aggregate wages and salaries. Even if it rises so slowly that you don't notice it from paycheck to paycheck, it has been this way since the early 70s. It is the product of the philosophy that the rich are entitled to a larger proportion of their income be exempt from taxes than the rest of us do.

Answer 10

The American Dream should be a struggle. If it was as easy as falling off a log, it wouldn't be a dream.