4 ms·

The American Dream is looking more like a middle level marketing organization with false advertising for most. The problem is we just keep stripping away the m

The American Dream is looking more like a middle level marketing organization with false advertising for most. The problem is we just keep stripping away the middle class and lower class consumer power[1][2] and the solution is getting wages up to fix these issues. People wonder what happens in a consumer driven economy after stagnant wages since 2001, well this. It leads to Great Recessions, a sideways investment market and a few generations worse off with the US heading in the wrong direction. The country has been Enron'd and drained of cash. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/25/upshot/shrinking-middle-class.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/25/upshot/shrinki... [2] http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/09/news/economy/middle-class/ http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/09/news/economy/middle-class/ EDIT: Multi-level marketing, was caught up on middle class, thanks for correction.

sokoloff 11y ago
MLM is multi level marketing, not middle.
mineshaftgap 11y ago
The middle class is shrinking, but not because they are moving down but moving up, but that doesn't fit the doom narrative that whiney millenials love.
ArkyBeagle 11y ago
It's been more correctly Bained. See what happened to Guitar Center for details. Enron was a real company doing real work. Bain, not so much. Sure, the traders at Enron were completely out of control and the management team was out to lunch, but please remember that MCI was even part of Enron. But YEP! drained of cash and loaded up with debt. The small details don't really matter than much.
ecnal 11y ago
Those articles (and the data behind them) suggest the opposite of your point: the middle class is shrinking, yes, but it's shrinking because incomes are increasing and people who were previously in the middle class are moving into the upper class.
- drawkbox 11y ago
  Yes and that is welcome, but take another look. They go further to say that since 2000 that trend is no longer a big reason. Even stated in the first paragraph that incomes are falling as the new big reason. The middle class, if defined as households making between $35,000 and $100,000 a year, shrank in the final decades of the 20th century. For a welcome reason, though: More Americans moved up into what might be considered the upper middle class or the affluent. Since 2000, the middle class has been shrinking for a decidedly more alarming reason: Incomes have fallen. '67-'99 there weren't stagnant wages as much as post 2000, where we have seen a sideways market, massive recession, 15+ years in horrible economic conditions worsen for lower and middle. Costs rising way faster than wage increases eventually crushes the lower/middle. The CNN article also mentions money locked up in the upper class and so does an associated video [1]. The lower/middle spend in downturns, the rich do not. Eventually demand is depressed and noone can buy anything. It is bad for lower/middle and upper when noone is gaining in income and has no consumer power gains to grow on. People buy less, people sell less when consumer power is locked up. For decades, the middle class had been the core of the country. A healthy middle class kept America strong, experts and politicians said. But more recently, these residents have struggled under stagnating wages and soaring costs. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeCfq-9l_b8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeCfq-9l_b8 (around :30)

sokoloff 11y ago

MLM is multi level marketing, not middle.

mineshaftgap 11y ago

The middle class is shrinking, but not because they are moving down but moving up, but that doesn't fit the doom narrative that whiney millenials love.

ArkyBeagle 11y ago

It's been more correctly Bained. See what happened to Guitar Center for details. Enron was a real company doing real work. Bain, not so much. Sure, the traders at Enron were completely out of control and the management team was out to lunch, but please remember that MCI was even part of Enron. But YEP! drained of cash and loaded up with debt. The small details don't really matter than much.

ecnal 11y ago

Those articles (and the data behind them) suggest the opposite of your point: the middle class is shrinking, yes, but it's shrinking because incomes are increasing and people who were previously in the middle class are moving into the upper class.

drawkbox 11y ago
Yes and that is welcome, but take another look. They go further to say that since 2000 that trend is no longer a big reason. Even stated in the first paragraph that incomes are falling as the new big reason. The middle class, if defined as households making between $35,000 and $100,000 a year, shrank in the final decades of the 20th century. For a welcome reason, though: More Americans moved up into what might be considered the upper middle class or the affluent. Since 2000, the middle class has been shrinking for a decidedly more alarming reason: Incomes have fallen. '67-'99 there weren't stagnant wages as much as post 2000, where we have seen a sideways market, massive recession, 15+ years in horrible economic conditions worsen for lower and middle. Costs rising way faster than wage increases eventually crushes the lower/middle. The CNN article also mentions money locked up in the upper class and so does an associated video [1]. The lower/middle spend in downturns, the rich do not. Eventually demand is depressed and noone can buy anything. It is bad for lower/middle and upper when noone is gaining in income and has no consumer power gains to grow on. People buy less, people sell less when consumer power is locked up. For decades, the middle class had been the core of the country. A healthy middle class kept America strong, experts and politicians said. But more recently, these residents have struggled under stagnating wages and soaring costs. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeCfq-9l_b8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeCfq-9l_b8 (around :30)