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.

For more economic collapse news visit our website: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

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95 comments

  • InPursuit ofGoodness

    So it’s really ALL ABOUT CONTROL then. DOMINATE the MASSES by KEEPING ‘EM POOR.

  • Sebastian Michaelis

    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.

    • shirley lake

      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.

    • shirley lake

      @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.

    • Kevin Tewey

      @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

    • Kevin Tewey

      @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

    • Joshua Langley

      And.. Even here conflict. When will the cycle stop 😔

  • Hamid Hamid

    Middle class disappear means war between rich and poor

    • f3nder111

      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.

    • Eric Sirias

      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.

    • x00p3

      @Eric Sirias Bernie sold out and became a shill TWICE.

    • Eric Sirias

      @x00p3 It doesn’t matter, I still believe in their policies of combating income inequality.

    • Gooster 1

      @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.

  • Robert Sherrill

    The little Dutch boy don’t have enough fingers to plug this dam.

  • ..bones!!

    ..you aint seen nothing yet..there is much worse to come

  • Eddie Gonzalez

    Only $2,256.00 a month. But I consider myself rich! Literally! Why? I have all I need, and am very thankful.

  • David Hoshour

    Its actually worse, most people make minimum wage or work 2 minimum wage jobs to get by.

  • Ally Soobratty

    The Americans forget that the US dollar is nothing else but just DEBT

    • Dan Wesson

      @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.

    • CloudwalkerZ

      @Dan Wesson HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

    • CloudwalkerZ

      @Dan Wesson Your right Dan!!!

    • Rick Stewart

      @Dan Wesson — LOL…LOL…LOL…LOL.

    • Dan Wesson

      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.

  • Max Intel

    Everything is overpriced except for my paycheck!

  • jack cash

    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.

  • king dragonboygod

    america is a very very very very poor country now – besides 30,000,000 or more unemployed – the country is bankrupt.

  • Charlie Scott

    50% Of Jobs Available In The U.S. Are Not Living Wage Jobs! .. And That Was BEFORE The BS CornHoleVirus Shutdown Debacle!

  • last_of_the_ middle_class

    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)

  • Jesse Ajuda

    This collapse is going to be scary AF

  • SouthWest Prepper Group

    If you haven’t already, start preparing now, stocking up food, to the rafters !

  • Daniel

    feel bad for people paying thousands in school degree

  • Asiel MILIAN

    The city where I live Middle class is already dead.

  • MGTOWgladiator777

    This is why ppl are leaving the USA.

    • Offgrid Jack

      Americans sneaking down to Mexico, Panama etc might even outpace the Hispanics coming north soon!!

    • Mister Banshee

      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 😂

    • 007thematrix007

      *americans:* starts to trickle down south of the border

      *mexicans:* build that walllll

    • thomas jefferson

      ​@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

    • Mister Banshee

      @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.

  • Randy Best

    We are headed to UBI and Socialism. Elections are a farce.

    • Randy Best

      @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.

    • Eric Sirias

      @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!

    • Eric Sirias

      @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.

    • Eric Sirias

      @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.

    • Gooster 1

      Well that is Moscow you see at 2:00 lol

  • Buckely Robert

    Bitcoin is a remarkable cryptography achievement and the ability to create something that is not duplicable in the digital world has enormous value.

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