Who is the biggest loser in the ongoing decline of the U.S. economy?
Is it the wealthy? No, the stock market has been soaring lately and
their incomes are actually going up. Is it the poor? Well, the poor
are definitely hurting very badly, but when you don't have much to begin
with you don't have much to lose. Unfortunately, it is the middle
class that has lost the most during this economic downturn.
According
to Bloomberg,
95 percent of the jobs lost during the recession were middle class
jobs. That is an absolutely astounding figure. Yes, some executives
lost their jobs during the last recession as did some minimum-wage
workers. But overwhelmingly the jobs that were lost were middle income
jobs. Sadly, the limited number of jobs that have been added since the
end of the last recession have mostly been low income jobs. A higher
percentage of Americans are working low income jobs than ever before,
and the cost of living continues to rise at a very brisk pace. This is
causing an erosion of the middle class unlike anything we have ever seen
in American history.
When I was growing up I was taught that the fact that we had the
largest middle class in the history of the world was evidence that our
economic system was working incredibly well.
So what does the fact that the middle class is shrinking at a very
rapid pace at this point say about how well our economy is working?
Middle Class Incomes Are Going Down
During the last recession, millions of Americans lost their jobs and the percentage of working age Americans that have jobs
has not bounced back in the years since the recession ended.
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