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Author Topic: US Regressing into a developing nation-MIT Professor  (Read 1781 times)

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Offline RomanCatholic1953

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US Regressing into a developing nation-MIT Professor
« on: April 24, 2017, 09:45:24 AM »
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    • US regressing into a developing nation for most people, MIT professor warns

    Growing income inequality is turning the US into a dual economy, with one economy for the rich and another for the poor, according to an MIT professor, who warns that the middle class is vanishing.
    In his new book, “The Vanishing Middle Class," Peter Temin, professor emeritus of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, warns that the US is moving backward and becoming more like a developing nation, as the “the vanishing middle class has left behind a dual economy.”
    “We are still one country, but the stretch of incomes is fraying the unity of the nation,” Temin wrote in the introduction of his book, according to a copy obtained by Barnard College.
    The economist describes a dual economy, where the gap between the rich and the poor has grown wider.
    Temin points to a study from the Pew Research Center, which, he said, “shows that the income share lost by the middle class has gone to people earning more than double the median income.”
    “In short, the rich got richer. The poor did not disappear, and the middle class shrank sharply,” Temin wrote. “We are on our way to become a nation of the rich and the poor with only a few people in the middle.” 
    Read More:
    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americas-middle-class-has-lost-nearly-30-of-wealth-2015-12-09

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    Offline Marlelar

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    Re: US Regressing into a developing nation-MIT Professor
    « Reply #1 on: April 24, 2017, 07:25:22 PM »
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    • Just for grins I used an online calculator to see what my wage back in 1974 would be today if only inflation was taken into account.  I was paid 75 cents an hour as a cashier at Sears, today that would be equivalent to $3.71.   But the current minimum wage in that same town is now $13.00 !

    I also checked the cost of housing.  At trulia dot com I found a house similar to the one my parents bought in 1968 for $36,000. (in today's dollars that would be 252K)  It's the same neighborhood, similar size, but not exactly the same house.   The asking price today is $1.7 MILLION <where is the fainting icon when I need it?>

    So roughly speaking wages have gone up 4x; median housing 6x.  (That house my folks bought was nothing special either.  Standard suburban home w/a small lot.  The backyard was probably 30-35" deep from the back door with 5-6" side yards.)
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    Offline Nadir

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    Re: US Regressing into a developing nation-MIT Professor
    « Reply #2 on: April 24, 2017, 07:33:40 PM »
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    • Quote from: Marlelar on April 24, 2017, 07:25:22 PM
    Just for grins ...
    Grinning at the beginning!
    Frowning at the finish!
    Winners are grinners!
    We are losers!
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    Help of Christians, guard our land from assault or inward stain,
    Let it be what God has planned, His new Eden where You reign.

    Offline Marlelar

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    Re: US Regressing into a developing nation-MIT Professor
    « Reply #3 on: April 24, 2017, 07:43:20 PM »
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    • As I recall you live in Australia Nadir, don't you?  Is it the same there?
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    Offline Seraphina

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    Re: US Regressing into a developing nation-MIT Professor
    « Reply #4 on: April 24, 2017, 08:22:46 PM »
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    • In 1976, the minimum wage in my state was $2.10 hr.  My first year of university I earned that wage and could afford a rented room and living expenses including food, clothes, etc.  Tuition was paid by the money I'd saved from various jobs beginning in 1971. For the remaining three years, I found a salaried job in the university administration, a file clerk, that paid $3.85 hr.  I worked 39 hrs. week, the maximum they'd give me.  Since I was a student still covered under my parents' medical insurance, any more hours would legally require them to give me benefits and union wages. I rented a three bedroom fire-trap, found two roommates, and graduated in 1980, debt free.  I did not own a car, just a second-hand bicycle.  
    Would this be possible today?  I highly doubt it!
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    Offline Nadir

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    Re: US Regressing into a developing nation-MIT Professor
    « Reply #5 on: April 24, 2017, 08:26:58 PM »
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    • Quote from: Marlelar on April 24, 2017, 07:43:20 PM
    As I recall you live in Australia Nadir, don't you?  Is it the same there?
    For real estate, yes. It sure is, sadly!
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    Help of Christians, guard our land from assault or inward stain,
    Let it be what God has planned, His new Eden where You reign.

    Offline exleftist

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    Re: US Regressing into a developing nation-MIT Professor
    « Reply #6 on: May 05, 2017, 07:29:42 PM »
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    • You can't have mass immigration of unskilled labor and not have it displace and impact the poorest Americans. You can't ship formerly good paying manufacturing jobs overseas that created and held up the middle class and have the middle class remain as much when they find themselves working service jobs and competing with cheap immigrant labor.

    Economics doesn't work that way and the American laborer has been completely ignored by both parties in this country which is why the Rust Belt put Donald Trump into the presidency.

    He's the only one that's listened to them.
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