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"30 Facts Which Prove The American Dream
Is Turning Into A Nightmare For The Middle Class"
by Epic Economist
"The U.S. middle class has been left with the nightmarish reality of decaying living standards, poor working conditions, and rising living expenses. During our golden era, the United States was known by the rest of the world as the country that had the largest, strongest, and most prosperous middle class. But those days are far behind us. Now, the American middle-class is falling apart as more and more people fall into poverty.
Not so long ago, middle-class families used to have nice homes, most households had a car or two, kids had good toys and comfy clothes, food was abundant, people could go on vacation and retire, and teenagers could even look forward to going to college if they wanted to. There was an implicit promise that this was the way that things were always going to be.
Today, there are simply not enough good jobs for everyone. In fact, the vast majority of jobs are "hardship jobs," in which workers don't even earn enough to keep up with their monthly bills. Labor conditions are so bad right now that millions of people are just dropping out of the labor force and relying on federal assistance programs to get by.
Nearly all of the long-term economic trends just keep getting worse and worse. We can't afford mortgage payments, we can't afford rent. We can't afford to buy a car, and we can't even afford gas. It seems like the future has been removed from our reach, and there's no hope that things will change for the better. Unless fundamental transformations are made economically, financially, and politically, the long-term trends that are destroying the U.S. middle class will continue to do so.
The number of decent jobs has been declining for years, and those positions that used to offer some sense of financial stability to millions of families decades ago don't exist anymore. They've been replaced by a smaller number of low-paying "service jobs".
And at the same time, the cost of everything continues to soar. So many of us can't afford to do basic things, such as putting food on the table and heating our homes. On top of that, health care costs are completely outrageous, and many people are falling into a devastating debt spiral just to pay for an unexpected health care expense.
Household debt rises by trillions of dollars each year, and credit card debt has absolutely exploded since the turn of the century. Meanwhile, college tuition is now out of reach for millions of American families, and social mobility is close to zero.
With each passing month, more American families fall out of the middle class. Today, there are more Americans on food stamps than ever before, while more than one out of every five U.S. children is living in poverty. Things are getting really, really gloomy out there.
We all grew up thinking that if we studied a lot, if we worked really hard, if we stayed out of trouble, if we did everything that the ‘system’ told us to do, then we would guarantee a spot in the middle class just like our parentes did. We believed that we were going to be able to live comfortably and peacefully. But it turns out that the ‘system’ is breaking down, and the promises that have been made to our generation were empty. That era of prosperity is far gone.
We can no longer deny that the U.S. middle class is being shredded, ripped apart, and systematically wiped out. And if you still doubt this, just check out the statistics. Here are '30 Facts Which Prove The American Dream Is Turning Into A Nightmare For The Middle Class.'"
It's worse for the working class. Working class incomes have steadily declined since 1965, and are now more than 20% lower than then.
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