Jim Clifton, head of Gallup (!), and this is one of the most authoritative sources on the state of public opinion in the United States:
I read a lot about the “recovery” of the economy in the United States. But it’s a lie.
The percentage of Americans who rate themselves as middle or upper middle class, fell by 10% from 61% before the first wave of super crisis in 2008 to 51% now.
10% of 250 million adults is 25 million people whose economic life has collapsed.
Mass media widely covers the issue of 4.9% officially unemployed people, and those 25 million “collapsed” media is invisible.
For example, someone was having a good job, with a salary of $65K pieces in the year. This work disappears and now his new work is $14 per hour or $28K a year. This devastated American is still considered to be working full-time, but his income has decreased significantly. He fell out of the middle class, but the media does not notice it.
Even worse his emotional state – it destroys self-esteem, creating a spirit of hopelessness that we have not seen since the great Depression.
In addition, millions of Americans, even if they are still on good works, are one step away from those who are unemployed or have lost wages. We all know these.
There are three major metrics talking about the destruction of the middle class:
1. According to the Bureau of labor vzroslykh the percentage of full-time work is around 48% from 2010 and the lowest level since 1983.
2. The number of companies traded on the stock exchange fell by 50% in 20 years – from 7300 to 3700. The fact that companies cannot grow naturally, due to the creation of new businesses, attracting new buyers and expanding sales of old – instead, they absorb competitors, and reduces the number of public companies. It also contributes to the loss of jobs of the middle class.
3. The creation of new startups at historically record low, and existing businesses grow with a record low rate. Despite the fact that 65% of new jobs historically are created by startups.
The rate of closure of small businesses exceeds the creation of new ones. The first was in 2008 – and that has never happened 30 years before. But from 2008 to 2011 on average 420 thousand companies a year were created, and 450 thousand died.
