Posted on 09/06/2012 4:24:13 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
What does it take to be middle class in America? The timely answer seems to be not home ownership or a college education, but a good job.
In a survey released late last month, 86 percent of the 2,000-plus Americans polled by the Pew Research Center put a secure job at the top of their list of requirements to qualify for the middle class. The next most-popular answer was health insurance, which made the list for 66 percent of respondents in the survey, conducted in July.
Owning a home was considered a sign of membership in the middle class by only 45 percent of those surveyed. Having stocks or bonds rated for only 28 percent.
The importance of work and health care may be a reflection of how the recent scarcity of both is threatening many Americans' place in the middle class. The poll found that 15 percent of those surveyed had lost their job in the last year alone. "For those self-described as middle class," noted Wendy Wang, the study's author, "it's only a little better, at one in 10."
Even having a job doesn't appear to offer any guarantees. Of those who were working, 20 percent told Pew they still had trouble getting health care for themselves or their families. Eighteen percent of working Americans had problems paying their mortgage or rent. (Both figures were significantly higher for the unemployed.)
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Yup, Big Gubamint took over.. and became Big DaDDy to all.. more cabinet posts and departments than ya can shake a stick at grew beyond belief.. in less than 50 years, a nation of laws became a nation of the regulated.
Yes, I hear jobs remains this administration's Priority Numero Uno but can only ask, Where is the beef Sir? Where is the laser?
About 250K in debt. ;-)
Road to jobs not ‘quick or easy’: Excerpts from Obama speech
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-road-jobs-not-quick-easy-223436509—election.html
President Barack Obama plans to warn American voters who may be wary of giving him a second term in the White House that it will take “more than a few years” to revive the economy and create jobs while pleading for another chance to chart a course he warned would not be “quick or easy.”
“Know this, America: Our problems can be solved. Our challenges can be met. The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place. And I’m asking you to choose that future,” Obama will say, according to excerpts of his acceptance speech to be delivered to the Democratic National Convention.
“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have. You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth. And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over a decade,” read Obama’s remarks.
...
Obama plans to lay out a series of goals—some of which he has already announced—like creating 1 million new manufacturing jobs by the end of 2016, doubling exports by the end of 2014, cutting net oil imports in half by 2020. He will also say he wants to recruit 100,000 math and science teachers over the next decade, and cut growth of college tuition in half over the same period.
...
One thing that helps people that do not go to college is belonging to a union and like it or not it is a road to being middle class. College is no guarantee since no amount of education can compare with who you know versus what you know. I did not make the rules in this country but that is the way it is. In fact that is how the current idiot got into office. This is actually his first real job from i heard. You guys can all scream and holler but even if one does graduate from college it ends up being who you know not what you know. I know engineers and a few architects that are working as cashiers since work is so short at present. I see no end in sight unless we get the crap out that is in there now, promote unions, free up some money lending policies in a responsible way, and punish firms that outsource to places overseas. Make it non profitable to run abroad and the jobs will come home in the near future because business always looks at the bottom line and paying extra taxes for going abroad will bring the monney and jobs home.
asshole
Fixed it.
Sorry it had to be done.
If there were no plumber unions my guess is that you would still make a good living. Unions are pox on the middle class. Nothing personal. If there were to be unions, which I am against, it would be for engineers - not tradesmen.
I understand your view about unions helping people in the middle class, but they also must be seen as the primary driver to move work overseas. In a closed environment they’d suffice, but the fact is that five Red Chinese peasants costs less than one unionized worker, so jobs leave.
A lot of today’s engineers and architects need a special union since they are certainly incompetent. What has been coming out of schools as of late is the bottom of the barrel and i see it every day. No responsibility, and no common sense in any manner. They just let the contractors figure out their mistakes.
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