Is the gap between rich and poor growing (is the middle class dieing ?)?

Answer 1

in the last decade, the difference between the rich and the poor has increased by 11%, the most ever. the rich own nearly 20% of the money, while they are less than 1% of the population. you can make your own guess

personally, i am a medical monitor, and make 100K a year, and believe me, that is not rich. I think the middle class still has many years to live

Answer 2

Yes, the Haves an Have Mores have gotten every tax break they wanted from Prexy Dubya, leaving the Middle Class to pay the bulk of the taxes. The Neo-Cons believe the Middle Class is too uppity and don't know their place!!

They don't need to keep their noses to the grindstone to stay a few steps in front of the wolves as much, so, they have the time to watch the political goings-on and participate. When they're prosperous they become politically active.

The recent spate of conservative, and budding Fascist, government can't tolerate demands for justice and equity which the Middle Class often demand, nor do they want the "social instability" of the Middle Class to form again. As Nixon was the antidote to the Hippies, Reagan was the antidote to the Middle Class. Twelve years of moderate republican policies under Bush 41 and Clintion set up the destruction of the Middle Class, followed by Dubya's tax cuts for the Rich ,to decimate them (us).

The (Progress for A New American Century) Neo-Con "libertarian" goals were to reduce the size of the government to the point where they could drown it a bathtub", and and the same time they needed to prepare the way for 'Mercan world dominance well into the 21st Century by invading the Middle East, and destroy the middle class by giving tax incentives for companies to export good jobs overseas!! IOW - they're all crass idiotic morons!!

Because 'Publicans hate the whole idea of government, when they get into power they're poor administrators. Unfortunately the Bush Crime Family excelled in placing the most unqualified political hacks in postions of upper management. So, they can later claim,. 'The private sector can perform government functions more effectively, so let's outsource as much work to them as we can!...

Unlike the pay-as-you-go "tax-and-spend" Democrats, the'Publicans have decided that "borrow-and-spend" will destroy what ever social programs are left, as well as the Republic itself...

(In the Roman Empire publicans were tax collectors, more importanly -- they were private contractors!)

Answer 3

Yes, the middle class is dying. Also, only 1% (maybe 2%, I can't recall) of Americans make $5+ million a year. A few years ago it was $1 million. Inflation? So as you can see, the rich is still getting richer, while the poor (and middle class) is getting poorer.

The dying middle class is partially due to the cost of living is increasing disproportionally to our salaries. Think about. GAS, rent/mortgage, insurance premiums, property taxes, food, entertainment, etc. have all gone up significantly. I get a raise annually and it's always between 2 to 5%. (I'm a HS teacher). I can't even tell the difference from one year to the next b/c as usual the medical premiums have increased also and I can gaurantee it's more than 5%.

My house was appraised about 2 years ago b/c of new development in the area. It increased -can't recall the percentage, more than I expected; but nothing to wow you - but I know I couldn't sell it for that price. However, my taxes went up b/c of it.

Ditto goes for the poor. Can you make it working at a fast food establishment or some other minimum or low paying job?

Hope this answered your question.

Answer 4

It really depends on where you draw the lines between poor, middle class, and rich, whether you consider income or wealth, and how you measure the 'gap.'

For instance, if you just leave income and wealth the same, but add inflation, the gap (as measured in dollars) between rich and poor will widen.


As with all staticstics, you can easily come up with some to back up whatever point you're trying to make. It is certainly easy to come up with numbers to support the assertion that the gap between rich and poor is increasing, that the middle class is 'shrinking' or that the middle class is prospering - even if such is not really the case.

Answer 5

confident he can and so can every person with a good head on his/her shoulders. at the instant - Fed gets 2 trillion and spends 3 trillion. it is unfavourable a million trillion. the reason in the back of the unfavourable a million trillion is by technique of the fact we are helping the unemployed. If we give up helping them, we cut back some spending. yet whilst we give up help because of the fact they have been given a activity, then it has double effect. So how can we get those human beings to pass to artwork? properly, they at the instant are not lazy. they desire to artwork, however the wealthy is squeezed with taxes. And each and every now and then, the wealthy can open up shop in Ontario, Canada and pay purely 15% company tax. And hire... Canadians. right here, the wealthy are advised to pay extra, and likewise they could desire to offer scientific coverage or pay $2k/worker. that is a tax on hiring human beings if I ever observed one. Obama's plan is to have 7.5% unemployed. And to tax the wealthy like loopy. Romney needs decrease than 4% unemployed and to tax the wealthy at a decrease value, so as that the tax payer pool will enhance. And with extra employed, much less subsidies to the undesirable, because of the fact they're no longer undesirable.

Answer 6

I would like to think that our government leaders, no matter who they are, will always realize that without the middle class this country would die.

I have read articles that have said that even China has now come to understand that a strong economy only grows out of the middle class. For the first time in history China is showing signs of a middle class developing.

Answer 7

What is the middle class? Is it one person earning enough money to suppor the family or is it two people working to support the family ?

Is having a combined wealth of over half a million or one million?

I believe the middle class died off in the 80s when both husband and wife had to work together to bring income to the household.

So if someone has the family and they are the only one brining in the cash, have a home, I consider that middle class. I consider that very little and very few. So you can say its gone way way way down to nothing much left.

Answer 8

The question should be ...

why is the gap between the rich and poor growing and the middle class is disappearing?

Answer: Individuals voting against their own interests, putting a republican extremist administration in the white house and giving GW a republican congress for the first 6 years of his reign as king.

Answer 9

Yes. This is not an opinion.

If you look at the poverty rate from the census, you would see poverty growing. If you look at their inflation adjusted median household income, you would see it dropping.

Even with all that the number of millionaires is growing. The media does stories on this everyonce in a while.

In law of the jungle, big fish eat small fish, economics, that is what happens. The rich get richer and the poor poorer.

Answer 10

No, because I do not see teachers getting paid more in the future? There will always be people in the middle. There are more poor people becasue of all of the illegal immigrants that are coming here. They do not get richer here, they get
poorer sometimes.

What is considered rich? (In the USA) Do you have to be a millionaire? I always thought it was 600,000$ and up.