GOOD READ FOR THE YOUNG AND THE MIDDLE CLASS HA! The US stock market is near its at all-time high. Unemployment is officially below 7%. A crazy man sits in the park carrying on a vigorous conversation with nobody. A fat woman begs for spare change on the street: Please, mister, can you spare some change? Im hungry. It has been seven years since the first signs of the financial crisis... and now things are back to normal, right? The poor are still poor. The rich are still getting richer. And the middle class? What middle class? The middle class has atrophied into the 10% of households just below the top 10%. The truth is painfully obvious: A middle-class lifestyle is unaffordable to all but the top 20%. Smith figures there are 10 key criteria for entry into the middle class. 1. Meaningful health-care insurance (not phantom insurance, with deductibles that cost thousands of dollars a year that offer no non-catastrophic care at all) 2. Significant equity (25%-50%) in a home 3. An income-expense ratio that allows you to save at least 6% of your income 4. Significant retirement funds 5. The ability to service all your debt and expenses over the medium term, if your spouse becomes unemployed 6. Reliable vehicles for each wage earner 7. You dont rely on government transfers to maintain your lifestyle 8. You have non-paper, non-real estate assets, such as family heirlooms, precious metals, tools, etc., that you can transfer to the next generation – that is to say generational wealth 9. The ability to invest in your kids (education, extracurricular clubs/training, etc.) 10. Leisure time devoted to the maintenance of physical/spiritual/mental fitness Galley Slaves Who can afford all that? Smith added up the cost of these things. It came to $106,000. Trouble is Americas middle class doesnt earn that much. Only those in the top 20% of household incomes qualify. So, what happened to the middle class? Well get to that on Monday. But first, well leave you with some advice... and a whole weekend to think about it: Want a middle-class lifestyle... with middle-class finances... and middle-class attitudes? Forget it. Trying to enter the middle class is like trying to get a job as a galley slave. You get chained to an oar. You sit. You row... until you drop dead. The middle class, as Smith tells it, is desperate to continue its aspirational consumption financed by debt. Its a trap – set for you by the oligarchs and poligarchs (people whose votes can be bought cheaply) who control Washington and its major industries. And if youre young, you face a lifetime of backache... trying to keep up the pace. You will be forced to pay for the most expensive health care in the world... the most expensive military in the world... and the most expensive education system in the world. All while your real income falls. These heavy burdens didnt just happen. They are the result of dirty dealing by Americas goons and poltroons... its oligarchs and poligarchs... and all the company of modern crony democracy.
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 15:39:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015