Posted on 04/09/2015 6:04:35 AM PDT by HomerBohn
It is clear that the economic realities falling upon the masses in America are driving us towards a crisis point.
Even with substantial government subsidies, the bottom 10% of Americans are beyond struggling, spending more than 60% of their meager incomes on the bare essentials. According to the latest official numbers, the poorest in the United States are spending 42% of their income on housing and another 17% on food, statistics that are unsustainable for individuals and families.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
For many Americans, the rise in food and housing prices is a tough squeeze. That’s because—even in an era with low overall inflation—low-income Americans spend a disproportionate share of their money on food and housing.
New data from the Labor Department show the extent of the discrepancy. The bottom 10% of Americans, by income, devote 42% of their spending to housing and an additional 17% to food–nearly 60% of their total spending, according to the Consumer Expenditures Survey. By contrast, the wealthiest 10% of Americans dedicate only 31% of their spending to housing and 11% to food–closer to 40% of total spending.
"Contrary to perception, not all food and housing is covered by the welfare state, with many lower class Americans paying out all their wages just to get by with the basics – leaving scant to nothing for everything else.
Take a look at this chart based on Labor Dept. statistics:
The richest spend less, proportionally, on food and housing, as do the upper half of Americans, who average less than a third of income on homes and only about 11-13% on food.
By contrast, the world’s poorest billions, who often live on less than a dollar a day, typically spend 50% of their money alone on food for sustenance, putting prosperity even beneath the dream level. Not surprisingly, most of these people live in unstable, chaotic and often war-torn regions.
The difference in theses percentages are huge in much more than just disposable income. It is the deciding factor in terms of the ability to save money, secure retirement and education, pay off debts and especially to deal with a crisis.
Far too many Americans are already teetering on the edge, and emergencies of any kind – including personal, family illness/injuries, economic or natural disasters and much more – are enough to drive most to either capitulation at the hands of government assistance or worse – desperation.
David Quintieri, commentator and author of The Money GPS, is warning that this kind of extreme economic pressure is likely to trigger civil unrest and riots.
(Watch video at link)
With the past many years yielding no real signs of opportunity or enthusiasm for average Americans, there is plenty of reason to think that other echelons of society are following suit, where a slide to poverty becomes a collapse.
The worry is that these numbers only signal a slide in that direction for the rest of the nation’s poor – who are also economically strapped – and behind them the quickly disappearing Middle Class, with many already treading water to make ends meet and carrying significant debt loads.
When desperation sets in, order goes swiftly with it. After that, riots, unrest and martial law. We all know the pattern.
Worse, we all know the system – propped up by a swelling nanny state giving out freebies and handouts to a disturbingly dependent class of masses – cannot last and is doomed by design to collapse.
How long until we see riots in America – not just over media-driven issues as in Ferguson – but over sustained, untenable economic desperation from the bottom up?
The hour is getting late. It really may not be long…
When it's destitution as far as the eye can see timid sheep will become lions.
We really have no true “poor,” it will be the ones having trouble paying their smart phone payments that will riot.
60% seems like a benefit rather than a problem.....
welcome to the Obama economy !
My teenage son and I were watching people come to the food pantry driving nice SUVs and with cell phones and jewelry. He made an astute observation:
“The only difference between poor and middle class in who pays for everything.”
Cloward meet Piven
Or can no longer buy $200 sneakers.
Some of those with “bare essentials” include 50 inch HDTV, cable/fast internet; unlimited smart phones, two vehilcles in the double garage of their two story house.
Perhaps I’m missing something, or just from another generation. But what exactly do people think “bare essentials” represents?
When you say this to me...it means that I’ve got just enough money in my pocket for a loaf of white bread (the cheapest stuff possible) and ten slices of cheap bologna meat. I’ll sip tap water from some park fountain for liquid refreshment.
Once you have a cellphone on you, have sufficient funds to buy beer or French water from the Alps, and wear a pair of $70 tennis shoes...we are beyond bare essentials.
Maybe some people are pretending they are bare essential-types, but frankly, I don’t see too many of these folks.
My teenage son and I were watching people come to the food pantry driving nice SUVs and with cell phones and jewelry. He made an astute observation:
“The only difference between poor and middle class in who pays for everything”
Yup. Go sit in the parking lot of your local county hospital/medical clinic and see the same stuff. They know how to get every free penny’s worth of stuff from the state, local and federal govts and live better than some of us who work to sweat.
Who ever paid that much for sneakers, rich or not? Ridiculous.
Bingo! That is the threshold—”nothing more to lose”
They are talking proportion.
Yes, I would expect a poor person to spend proportionally more on food and housing than a rich person?
There is little to no logic in the argument as presented.
The comparison should have been decade to decade with the same class group.
So tell me why do Obama and Co. want more (a lot more) unskilled/less educated illegals to come here again?
Ping.
Who ever paid that much for sneakers, ....Gee dude. Some are $400 or more.
Exactly my thought when I read the lead.
Oh, I’m not disagreeing that sneakers that expensive exist, but who is that stupid to pay for them?
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