Goodbye Middle Class: Half Of All American Workers Made Less Than $34,248.45 Last Year
If you are making less than $3,000 a month, you have plenty of company, because about half of the country is in the exact same boat. The Social Security Administration just released new wage statistics for 2019, and they are pretty startling. To me, the most alarming thing in the entire report is the fact that the median yearly wage was just $34,248.45 last year. In other words, half of all American workers made less than $34,248.45 in 2019, and half of all American workers made more than $34,248.45. That isn’t a whole lot of money. In fact, when you divide $34,248.45 by 12 you get just $2,854.05. Needless to say, it is not easy to survive in America today on just $2,854.05 a month, and this may help to explain why we have been seeing so many people fall out of the middle class in recent years.
And of course all of the figures that I am sharing with you in this article are just for 2019. This year, we have seen more than 63 million Americans file new claims for unemployment benefits as the U.S. economy has imploded during this pandemic, and so the final wage numbers for 2020 could be quite a bit worse than the numbers for 2019 were. Please keep that in mind as you go through the rest of this video.
Once upon a time in America, a single income could easily support a middle class household in most cases, but those days are long gone.
The cost of living has been rising far faster than our paychecks have, and as a result many Americans have been working themselves to the bone just to survive financially from month to month.
To give you an idea of just how bad things have gotten, I would like to share with you some key numbers from the report that the Social Security Administration just released…
-32.26 percent of American workers made less than $20,000 last year.
-44.79 percent of American workers made less than $30,000 last year.
-56.46 percent of American workers made less than $40,000 last year.
-65.91 percent of American workers made less than $50,000 last year.
Today, the poverty level for a household of five in the United States is $30,680.
That means that close to half of all workers in this country do not even make enough to get a family of five above the poverty level.
Wow.
There are tens of millions of Americans that are referred to as “the working poor” because they are living in poverty even though they are employed and are working extremely hard. Many of you that are reading this article know exactly what I am talking about. Some of you are working way more than 40 hours a week, and yet there never seems to be enough money at the end of the month.
Sadly, the truth is that our system has evolved in a manner that makes it almost impossible for most Americans to ever build up much wealth.
If you are making the median monthly wage of just $2,854.05, there simply is not going to be much left over after all of the bills are paid. First of all, you are going to need some place to live. In the middle of the country you may be able to find something habitable for under $1,000 a month, but in most of our major metropolitan areas that simply is not going to be realistic.
Secondly, you are going to need to pay your utility bills. If you can keep the combined cost of your power, water, phone, television and Internet bills to about $250 a month, you are doing quite well.
Thirdly, you will need a vehicle in order to get around, and these days it is hard to buy or lease a vehicle for less than $300 a month. In addition, you will also need insurance, and that will set you back even more.
Fourthly, you will need health insurance. If you are young and single, maybe you can find a plan for just a few hundred dollars a month, but most Americans pay far more.
Fifthly, you will probably want to eat, and that will cost you several hundred dollars a month as well.
At this point almost all of your money is already gone, and there are so many expenses that I haven’t even mentioned yet.
And of course you never even started with $2,854.05 in the first place, because all sorts of taxes were taken out of your paycheck before you even got it.
Are you starting to understand why so many families in America are deeply, deeply struggling today?
We have an economy that works for those at the very top of the food chain, but pretty much everyone else is desperately trying to stay afloat.
And now we have entered an economic downturn during which tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs. According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if honest numbers were being used the real unemployment rate in the U.S. would be 26.9 percent right now, and that would rival the worst levels that we witnessed during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
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So it’s really ALL ABOUT CONTROL then. DOMINATE the MASSES by KEEPING ‘EM POOR.
@John Hadleigh seems anecdotal ….it wasn’t the system that hindered you but your wife. However, your right everything isn’t black or white. Good luck and I’m pulling for you. Sounds like you did well before all that happen to you.
Depopulation
@Manuel Hernandez They need the commoners around to buy their products so I’m not sure about that. I’d say it falls between control and profits.
@Dan Wesson they can keep an industrial civilization without that many of us they dont need that many of us anymore thanks to A I and robots
Exacly!
My father was raised by a single mother with 8 siblings during the depression. Grandfather was a WW1 vet and was badly injured in the war albeit being highly decorated and was never the same when he came home and died prematurely. My father joined the army at 16, having an older sister pretend to be his mother and lie saying he was 18, just so he could get off his mother’s support. He was a ranger and on the front lines in Korea.
He ended up getting a political science degree using the GI Bill.
He told me when I was a child that in my life time, or perhaps my child’s, I would witness the middle class disappear in the US. In his words, he said there will be the fifty rich and the stinking poor.
Sabastian your dad was right and do was mine. He lived through the 1929 depression with his mother and two sisters. He was a WWII soldier in the SouthPacificJungle War2yrs2mos2days. When federal notes first came out he laid one on the kitchen table next to a silver certificate dollar. He said, “You see this silver certificate? It is backed by silver that is what makes it have worth. You see this federal note? It is worthless because it is not backed by silver. We are going to go into another depression someday at the rate we are heading.” Dad passed over a decade ago but he was right.
@Kevin Tewey capitalism has not failed. The crooked banks,Rothchilds,NWO have manipulated the system by keeping the wages unbearable low. TRUMP is in the process of righting the wrongs. See x22Report website for explanations as to we hat has gone on in.He past and how it is being corrected. See Crimes against humanity on upward TV this website explains things very clearly.
@shirley lake It failed tax breaks for the super rich did not trickle down capitalism failed to protect us from the Covid and other systems to better
@shirley lake capitalism failed and required a socialist bail out Chuck continue but it is still unravel in couple of them has its own end Built in
It’s in evitable Mr. Anderson
And.. Even here conflict. When will the cycle stop 😔
Middle class disappear means war between rich and poor
Real rich live on island were you can only go with a chopper punk.They dont care about riot .just make more money for them.
I’ve already chosen a side in this war. I side with Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio and the rest of the progressives out there. Ready to stand by and do what I got to do so my party can fix America.
@Eric Sirias Bernie sold out and became a shill TWICE.
@x00p3 It doesn’t matter, I still believe in their policies of combating income inequality.
@timothy chung And look at the enormous disparity between rich and poor in China now! It’s insane!!! Plus the Chinese are forbidden to speak out about it. Rather have inequality and a voice, than inequality and silence.
The little Dutch boy don’t have enough fingers to plug this dam.
Two in the pink and one in the stink!! Lololol
..you aint seen nothing yet..there is much worse to come
Much much worse
Only $2,256.00 a month. But I consider myself rich! Literally! Why? I have all I need, and am very thankful.
Matt Ali Before taxes, and that’s 2019 statistics, not 2020, which is going to be a heck of a lot worse.
@Matt Ali Gross income. 34k/year is about $17/hour I believe.
@San H This is before tax? Tax in the USA for this level of income is about 30% right?
@Matt Ali Yes before tax, and really depends on what state you live in, but usually around 24%.
What about health insurance?
Its actually worse, most people make minimum wage or work 2 minimum wage jobs to get by.
automation killing jobs… We need UBI and VAT to generate revenue. Somebody call Mr. Andrew Yang!
@Jon ubi is gonna be a reality… we got too much dead weight heee
@Jon Andrew Yangs vision is flawed. So small minded he is, his UBI is just putting a bandaid on an open wound. Bernie Sanders and AOC are the real deal. They are the party that tackles income inequality at its core.
Minimum wage in Texas is $7.25
@Eric Sirias Look up the word insufferable.
The Americans forget that the US dollar is nothing else but just DEBT
@William Wilson That’s what I think. When other Countries begin to feel the pain of the printing press they will run to US assets.
@Dan Wesson HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
@Dan Wesson Your right Dan!!!
@Dan Wesson — LOL…LOL…LOL…LOL.
I could be wrong. I’m not acting like I know everything and sure can’t tell the future. I think with everyone creating debt at the same time it won’t be as catastrophic. Not offset each other but share the worldly inflation so to speak. The rich will get richer and poor get more poor which adds gasoline on the social unrest so then there’s that but that’s always been around since dawn of time. That will never leave and it’s naive to believe otherwise. I see all the warning signs that has everyone worried but they’ve always been there. System is always on razors’s edge of destruction kinda like mankind. This will pass and things will continue in my opinion. I don’t think we are going to be tapping our feet waiting on the collapse. It won’t be that obvious, especially if you subscribe to the theory this is all by design to obtain power/wealth. If so, wouldn’t they hide it with a Trojan horse recovery.
Everything is overpriced except for my paycheck!
@MrLeafBeef the rich are rich because the government allows it through ridiculous loopholes and corrupt policies. Or else working and inventing would be what makes u rich
Lol so true!!! 🤣
Thank you for your comment
@Lil pop most of the mega rich got that way by inventing or starting a business
The rich are rich because of socialism for the rich aka money printing
One of the big things that I have learned from all this is that there never was a reason for any American to ever go hunger go homeless or go without health care. For a tiny fraction of what the Fed has given big business that could all have been taken care of. Our so called leaders do not take care of We The People and waste or steal our own resources. This our land not theirs.
america is a very very very very poor country now – besides 30,000,000 or more unemployed – the country is bankrupt.
Daddy always be Daddy 🇺🇸💪
@Bbauto Repair “Daddy” USA is now “old grandpa”, OVERWEIGHT & in debt !
@ricky mandoo LOL This guy.
Facts!
@ricky mandoo If you don’t vote for Biden you ain’t communist.
50% Of Jobs Available In The U.S. Are Not Living Wage Jobs! .. And That Was BEFORE The BS CornHoleVirus Shutdown Debacle!
Probably more than 50%.
@William Wilson They’re stupid because they don’t think as you do ? Where did you get that education, from you parents ?
@Rachel C. .. It Very Well May Be More Than 50% .. That Wouldn’t Surprise Me At All
@William Wilson .. You Make A Reply Like That? And Call ME Stupid?! .. LOL! .. Hey Troll, You Want To Talk About It? Sounds Like You Might Need To Talk To Someone About It .. I’m Here For You .. JLYK! .. :^)
No one applying for our $20 per hour jobs right now. Can’t find workers willing to work.
I drive a semi. Pay $400-$600 a week in taxes and am lucky to get a dime back at end of year. First 20+ hrs a week are stolen by the Fed.
(IRS is just an extension of Fed Reserve)
IRS is the enforcement arm of those thieves. End the Fed
Been driving truck 4 a while too. After deductions 600 is about what I clear. Sad wage for the risk that’s taken.
@Brandon Hargis EXACTLY
This collapse is going to be scary AF
You got that right.. 🙁
Not if you live here n the country . Get out of the city
If you haven’t already, start preparing now, stocking up food, to the rafters !
@Jon of he is just 1% right then you are gonna look pretty bad.
Start preparing ground too. Get those potatoes in.
Power grid kill and food fits the bill.
@ian pennack yup, the potatoes… hahaha…
@Joe Cantu II yum… sure i will.
feel bad for people paying thousands in school degree
Me too. I was finished with school after 10th grade. I still went to college, got bored, drove trucks for awhile. I have a family member that just got a PhD. she is still in denial.
sorry about that my friend just have faith
Especially when that degree is virtually worthless
The city where I live Middle class is already dead.
This is why ppl are leaving the USA.
Americans sneaking down to Mexico, Panama etc might even outpace the Hispanics coming north soon!!
Yea USA really is only good for upper middle or rich class you can’t move up if your broke the system has everything in play against you not everyone knows how to play the system and they want it that way for a reason 😂
*americans:* starts to trickle down south of the border
*mexicans:* build that walllll
@Mister Banshee middle class get taxed through roof while billionaires like jeff bezos doesnt pay income tax. certainly there is a war elite class against lower and middle classes
@thomas jefferson they just smart and know how the system runs 😂 average joe can only invest so much from a salaried income to get ahead.
We are headed to UBI and Socialism. Elections are a farce.
@Eric Sirias Reproduction has caused many to exist that will need UBI, mostly the uneducated ones. It is nothing more than an extension of welfare and food stamps.
@Randy Best Well maybe some people can use that UBI to lift themselves out of poverty. One the main causes of college dropouts is a lack of funding, lots of people drop out of school because they can’t afford it. UBI is a lifeline for many to stay in school and not drop out. I am all for it!
@Randy Best I Agee alot of people should not exist and should never have been born because they come from terrible upbringings. I am Pro choice on the abortion matter.
@califood3618 No they aren’t. But they are incredibly over priced. The Education system in this country needs to be abolished. It’s the biggest racket and scam of all time.
Well that is Moscow you see at 2:00 lol
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