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…
The giverment gets to define “poor” for us, you hater. /sarc
More ‘racial’ unrest?
A more onerous, massive government?
No jobs?
No money to pay welfare queens?
Not enough money for beer and drugs?
No cable TV?
It’s the middle class that is being squeezed.
I got to thinking about all the taxes, fees, tolls, surcharges we pay on a yearly basis...it’s mind numbing.
When I did the rough math, about 40% of our household income goes to some form of tax/fee.
Gas tax, federal income tax, property tax, school tax, sales tax, hospital district, EMS-Fire, Sports Authority. Redundant taxes on each phone line as well as a host of fees/surcharges. Internet/television connectivity hold fed, state, local taxes/fees. The list is endless.
This doesn’t even touch the inflated cost of goods and services due to government regulation.
Sir. Are you kidding?
His only objective in his miserable life is to destroy America.
How better way to complete his task (and thereby crap out his legacy) than to further load the gaggle of low IQ populace than by opening the floodgates to the scum of other nations?
America is already contaminated by his actions.
There's also the culture differences with society today focusing so much on multiculturalism. I know all my family members have cell phones to keep track of their kids...it's a safety factor as much as anything else with society as dangerous as it is today.
IIRC, Moocher Obama had on a pair of $500 sneakers.
Where, pray tell can you find this? Surely not 'Boar's Head'.
Hard for anybody to get ahead of the financial curve when you spend so much on just red tape bureaucracy and taxes.
The Middle Class is getting squeezed ever more tightly. And that’s all part of the plan...
The overall mood of the citizenry and years of indoctrination of being owed everything.
Things are tough here, we’ve never been so close to the limit before.
These stats are meaningless if not trended. What were the corresponding numbers five, ten, fifty years ago??
I notice the red band “Public Assistance and Food Stamps” persists at a small but nonzero level all the way up to the Top 10% of income category.
Erik. Look them up if you have the time and believe there is any relevance.
I have a multi-billion dollar corporation to run.
The Obama is the limit and should have been when he first oozed onto the political scene.
“Some are $400 or more.”
True, but that wasn’t dude’s point. I’ve never paid more than $30 for sneakers in my life, and probably never will. The $400 pairs aren’t any better than mine, IMO.
9 Facts About How the Poor in America Live
Many in America, while struggling, also have more assets than you might assume based on media reports.
According to research by Robert Rector, a leading authority on poverty and welfare programs at The Heritage Foundation, the official U.S. Census Bureau poverty report (to be released this morning) undercounts welfare income, therefore failing to provide meaningful information about the actual living conditions of poor Americans.
For most Americans, the word “poverty” means significant material deprivation, an inability to provide a family with adequate nutritious food, reasonable shelter and clothing. But only a small portion of the more than 40 million people labeled as poor by Census fit that description.
http://dailysignal.com/2014/09/15/9-facts-poor-america-live/
Yes...if you look at the graphs, there really aren’t any truly poor (in the context of a lower order world society).
It’s all just different levels of how many are on entitlements of some sort and who demand MORE.
It’s been said that urban areas in this country are only days away from a complete breakdown in terms of the support they demand. Take away the ability to replenish and restock shelves, stop those continual entitlement payments and you have a full blown zombie outbreak in a month.
Maybe then people will realize this Zombie fascination in entertainment is just a metaphor for a completely real potential problem that has nothing to do with ‘undead,’ but rather the ‘disentitled.’
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that it was your job to provide a historical comparison. It was the job of the original article writers, and they failed at it.
You can if you get the cheaper chicken and pork kind....Beef? That’s a whole nuther story.
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