Repo Finder provides free repossessed bank cars for sale, bank repossessed cars, credit union repossessions, and ATV repo lists among other repo sales service lists. The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground. December 9, 2. 01. No longer the majority and falling behind financially. After more than four decades of serving as the nation’s economic majority, the American middle class is now matched in number by those in the economic tiers above and below it. In early 2. 01. 5, 1. Pew Research Center analysis of government data. In at least one sense, the shift represents economic progress: While the share of U. S. The share accruing to middle- income households was 4. And middle- income Americans have fallen further behind financially in the new century. In 2. 01. 4, the median income of these households was 4% less than in 2. Moreover, because of the housing market crisis and the Great Recession of 2. Meanwhile, the far edges of the income spectrum have shown the most growth. In 2. 01. 5, 2. 0% of American adults were in the lowest- income tier, up from 1. On the opposite side, 9% are in the highest- income tier, more than double the 4% share in 1. At the same time, the shares of adults in the lower- middle or upper- middle income tiers were nearly unchanged. These findings emerge from a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the U. S. Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. In this study, which examines the changing size, demographic composition and economic fortunes of the American middle class, “middle- income” Americans are defined as adults whose annual household income is two- thirds to double the national median, about $4. Under this definition, the middle class made up 5. U. S. Policymakers are engaged in debates about the need to raise the floor on wages and on how best to curb rising income inequality. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama uses the term “middle- class economics” to describe his economic agenda. And a flurry of new research points to the potential of a larger middle class to provide the economic boost sought by many advanced economies. The news regarding the American middle class is not all bad. CFL on TSN audiences up 14% for yesterday’s dramatic Eastern and Western Semi-Finals.Although the middle class has not kept pace with upper- income households, its median income, adjusted for household size, has risen over the long haul, increasing 3. That is not as strong as the 4. Moreover, some demographic groups have fared better than others in moving up the income tiers, while some groups have slipped down the ladder. The groups making notable progress include older Americans, married couples and blacks. Despite this progress, older Americans and blacks remain more likely to be lower income and less likely to be upper income than adults overall. Those Americans without a college degree stand out as experiencing a substantial loss in economic status. In addition to changes in the size and economic standing of the American middle class, its demographic profile has changed significantly in recent decades.
Bureau of Labor Statistics Some of the changes reflect long- term demographic trends in the U. S., as the middle class is in many ways a mirror of the broader population. For example, the aging of the country, the growing racial and ethnic diversity, the decline in marriage rates and the overall rise in educational attainment are all reflected in the changing composition of the middle class. Who is middle income? In this report, “middle- income” households are defined as those with an income that is 6. Lower- income households have incomes less than 6. The income it takes to be middle income varies by household size, with smaller households requiring less to support the same lifestyle as larger households. For a three- person household, the middle- income range was about $4. However, a one- person household needed only about $2. For a five- person household to be considered middle income, its 2. In addition, the lower- income group is divided into lowest- income households (with income less than half of the overall median) and lower- middle income households (with incomes from half to less than two- thirds of the overall median). In 2. 01. 4, a lowest- income household with three people lived on about $3. Likewise, upper- income households are divided into upper- middle income households (with more than twice the overall median income and up to three times the median) and highest- income households (with more than three times the overall median income). In 2. 01. 4, an upper- middle income household with three people lived on about $1. Middle income or middle class? The terms “middle income” and “middle class” are often used interchangeably. This is especially true among economists who typically define the middle class in terms of income or consumption. But being middle class can connote more than income, be it a college education, white- collar work, economic security, owning a home, or having certain social and political values. Class could also be a state of mind, that is, it could be a matter of self- identification (Pew Research Center, 2. The interplay among these many factors is examined in studies by Hout (2. Savage et al. For that reason, the term “middle income” is used more often than not. However, “middle class” is also used at times for the sake of exposition. The middle class shrinks. The hollowing of the American middle class has proceeded steadily for more than four decades. Since 1. 97. 1, each decade has ended with a smaller share of adults living in middle- income households than at the beginning of the decade, and no single decade stands out as having triggered or hastened the decline in the middle. Based on the definition used in this report, the share of American adults living in middle- income households has fallen from 6. The share living in the upper- income tier rose from 1. Meanwhile, the share in the lower- income tier increased from 2. Notably, the 7 percentage point increase in the share at the top is nearly double the 4 percentage point increase at the bottom. The rising share of adults in the lower- and upper- income tiers is at the farthest points of the income distribution, distant from the vicinity of the middle. The share of American adults in the lowest- income tier rose from 1. Over the same period, the share of American adults in lower- middle income households did not change, holding at 9%. The growth at the top is similarly skewed. The share of adults in highest- income households more than doubled, from 4% in 1. But the increase in the share in upper- middle income households was modest, rising from 1. Thus, the closer look at the shift out of the middle reveals that a deeper polarization is underway in the American economy. The middle class falls further behind upper- income households financially. The gaps in income and wealth between middle- and upper- income households widened substantially in the past three to four decades. As noted, one result is that the share of U. S. More recently, upper- income families, which had three times as much wealth as middle- income families in 1. Trends in income. Households in all income tiers experienced gains in income from 1. But the gains for middle- and lower- income households lagged behind the gains for upper- income households. The median income of upper- income households increased from $1. That was significantly greater than the 3. Lower- income households fell behind even more as their median income increased by only 2. Although 2. 01. 4 incomes are generally higher than in 1. Great Recession of 2. The greatest loss was felt by lower- income households, whose median income fell 9% from 2. Trends in wealth. The Great Recession of 2. The losses were so large that only upper- income families realized notable gains in wealth over the span of 3. Before the onset of the Great Recession, the median wealth of middle- income families increased from $9. But the economic downturn eliminated that gain almost entirely. By 2. 01. 0, the median wealth of middle- income families had fallen to about $9. Upper- income families more than doubled their wealth from 1. Despite losses during the recession, these families recovered somewhat since 2. The disparate trends in the wealth of middle- income and upper- income families are due to the fact that housing assumes a greater role in the portfolios of middle- income families. The crash in the housing market that preceded the Great Recession was more severe and of longer duration than the turmoil in the stock market. Thus, the portfolios of upper- income families performed better than the portfolios of middle- income families from 2. When all is said and done, upper- income families, which had three times as much wealth as middle- income families in 1. Demographic winners and losers. As the middle has hollowed, some demographic groups have been more likely to advance up the income tiers (winners) while others were more likely to retreat down the economic ladder (losers). Nationally, the share of adults in the upper- income tier increased from 1. Meanwhile, the share of adults in the lower- income tier also rose, from 2. The difference – 3 percentage points – is the net gain for American adults. By the same measure, the net gain in economic status varied across demographic groups. The biggest winners since 1. This age group was the only one that had a smaller share in the lower- income tier in 2. Not coincidentally, the poverty rate among people 6. Evidence shows that rising Social Security benefits have played a key role in improving the economic status of older adults. The youngest adults, ages 1. The economic status of adults with a bachelor’s degree changed little from 1. Those without a bachelor’s degree tumbled down the income tiers, however. Among the various demographic groups examined, adults with no more than a high school diploma lost the most ground economically. Winners also include married adults, especially couples where both work. On the flip side, being unmarried is associated with an economic loss. This coincides with a period in which marriage overall is on the decline but is increasingly linked to higher educational attainment.
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