The Middle Class in Economic Decline

[brokensymmetry]

Please let me preface the article by saying that I'm a bit reticent to post this due to the source. There are some portions that may be a bit offensive to Christians - I regard myself as a Christian, so I would ask that you overlook those portions of the piece. Others may be a bit put off by the domain - endtimesnetwork - but, again, I'll ask that you judge the piece on merit instead of due to the source.

The article seems well researched, well sourced, and has - IMO - worthwhile information about the direction our economy has taken.

------------excerpts----------------------
Very obviously, as Ralph Whitehead says, the notion of an "ever expanding middle class" was yielding to the "diverging middle class," with blue-collar, clerical and technical workers falling out of the middle class into the ranks of the working poor - i.e., THE APPROXIMATELY 56 MILLION AMERICANS WITH INCOMES INSUFFICIENT TO COVER BASIC NECESSITIES. Moreover, according to John Schwarz, increasing numbers of Americans were beginning to realize that they too were only a "firing" or "restructuring" away from joining these millions.

Jodie Allen, writing in U.S. News and World Report (March 8, 2004), says that there is now no end in sight with regard to this phenomenon, which is dumping millions and millions of former middle-class Americans into poverty. She says that this -

"... trend ... (is) replacing full-timers with piece workers - make that 'consultants' or 'independent contractors'. With no health care, pensions, or vacation pay, these 'on-callers' are great for a firm's productivity - though not so good for a family's pocketbook."


(snip)

"Colleges are harder to get into, and only the well-off can afford a college education these days. The numbers could not be more clear. A mere 4.5 percent of young people from the lowest income quartile get a B.A. by the age of 24; 12 percent from the next quartile get one; 25 percent from the third quartile, and 51 percent of students from the top quartile. COULD IT BE THAT AMERICA IS NOW RE-SEGREGATING HIGHER EDUCATION, ONLY THIS TIME NOT BY COLOR BUT BY (ECONOMIC) CLASS?"

------------end excerpts------------------------

It's a little long, but well worth a look.


http://www.endtimesnetwork.com/ShearerCommentaries/Shearer032004.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[sweetheart]

3. well, if you did it, then

the statistics must be bullshit... come on dude. Welcome to DU
where we give a shit for people who are not *ME*.

It is hardly overstated. 56 million working poverty, and the
quintile college attendence show that ameircan upward mobility is
less likely statistically, than in europe. How pathetic.

[Big_Balled_Dem]

2. I think it's overstated

Most kids can't get through a four year education at a good, in-state university by borrowing and working while they go to school. I did it.

[brokensymmetry]

4. That's great!

However...if you've noticed...tuitions are going up considerably faster than are wages. Additionally, competition for the traditional student and/or summer jobs has intensified. Thus, despite your experience, we must be aware that the dynamics may not be favorable for replication of your accomplishment.

Welcome to DU!

[Skittles]

5. UM.....BBD

it's not all about YOU. We DEMOCRATS care about WHAT HAPPENS TO OTHER PEOPLE.

[bain_sidhe]

6. How long ago?

Because things have changed very quickly with the chimp in charge. Here's another more reputable source for that statistic:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4050965/

Colleges' New Tuition Crisis

Rising costs and funding cuts are resegregating higher education, not by color but by class. Low-income students find it hard to pay for a degree.
By Jane Bryant Quinn
Newsweek
Feb. 2 issue

There's a whole list of research and facts backing up the sub-head's claim, but here's the one relevant to the statistic cited in the "endtimesnetwork" article:

Who earns a college degree by the age of 24 is largely determined at birth, Mortenson says. Among families with incomes exceeding $85,000 or $90,000, 51.4 of children get their sheepskins young. But with family income in the $35,000-$65,000 range, only about 12.4 percent of children do. Among families with lower incomes, the portion is only 4.5 percent. Even comparing kids with the same academic scores, low-income students enroll in college at sharply lower rates. Costs count. Opportunities aren't as equal as Americans think.

[bain_sidhe]

9. pdf link to report noted above

http://www.nea.org/he/heupdate/vol9no1.pdf

"Access and Choice" January 2003
This report illustrates how the nation continues to struggle with academic and financial access to a college education. Low-income students face large financial barriers. Increasing tuition costs have offset increases in student aid. Loans are the largest source of student aid for public two and four year institutions.

About the author, Tom Mortenson

Thomas G. Mortenson is Senior Scholar at The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education in Washington, DC. and an independent higher education policy analyst living in Oskaloosa, Iowa. He has been employed in policy research and budget analysis roles for the University of Minnesota, Illinois Board of Higher Education, Illinois State Scholarship Commission, and the American College Testing Program. Currently, Tom is editor and publisher of Postsecondary Education OPPORTUNITY, a monthly research letter devoted to analysis and reporting on the demographics, sociology, history, politics and economics of educational opportunity after high school. He provides consulting services on higher educational opportunity policy to state and national organizations, and makes presentations on opportunity throughout the country.

The website of Postsecondary Education OPPORTUNITY is here: http://www.postsecondary.org/home/default.asp

(Warning, I got stuck in a "do-loop" when loading the page. It kept rebuilding the menues over and over. But that could be a function of browsing with Opera instead if the more common IE.)

[Jackpine Radical]

7. So which quintile are you from?

If you're gonna pay & borrow your way through school, it helps to start from somewhere other than the lowest rung. Like, for example, did you have a computer before you started school? What was your wardrobe like? Were your teeth fixed & in good repair? Have a car? etc.

[w4rma]

8. Yup. Wages/salaries are stagnant or dropping for anyone not making more

than half a million. It's pretty obvious that what is happening is the millionares and billionares are hoarding resources at a rate too quickly for the economy to withstand and at the expense of the middle and lower classes. Millionares/billionares should be competing with one another for their resources, not against the middle and lower classes.