Americans Getting Poorer

[TaunSew]

if they're smart, they're going to use the oil money to develop an another source of income before they deplete the reservoirs

They are not, and they are not used to working hard (like, say, the Chinese or Japanese) which could make up for it. If they were, they wouldn't build useless skyscrapers or meaningless islands, but rather build research centers and production facilities instead, that is anything which creates real wealth (cf. Israel or Iran to a degree).

true, they're wasting money

but islands attract tourists, skyscapers could too

I get your point, they're wasting their money foolishly

Income from tourists won't be enough even to maintain everything in order.

I think you exaggerate maintenance costs or how much is needed.  Petronas Towers in Malaysia have been predicted to last 5000 years if humans disappeared and didn't perform maintenance.  There's people living in skyscrapers and towers in New York that go back a hundred years.  There's even apartment buildings in Europe that go back 400 years.

Dubai may run out of the oil and could have debt issues over that but the towers and infrastructure wouldn't disappear, neither would the financial exchange, the tourism or the all the shopping commerce.

Ironically that could lead to some interesting developments in Dubai.  Arabs are already a minority in that country, no?  I bet once the oil money goes it becomes a dominion of India.



 


 

[galbros]

Seem somebody steal the productivity gain:

one word

inflation

No, the chart plainly says REAL, so adjusted for inflation.

The US is clearly becoming less industrialized and this risks a much lower relative standard of living compared to the rest of the world.

There are no shortages of reasons.

[TaunSew]

USA is becoming a service economy.

Much like Haiti is a service economy - where the 99.9% services the 0.1%.  Real wealth that results in a middle class is always going to come from manufacturing and other high revenue industries.  There's a reason why China's middle class has been exploding in size while the middle class in the US has been contracting.

[Chef Ramsay]

USA is becoming a service economy.

Much like Haiti is a service economy - where the 99.9% services the 0.1%.  Real wealth that results in a middle class is always going to come from manufacturing and other high revenue industries.  There's a reason why China's middle class has been exploding in size while the middle class in the US has been contracting.

Another reason college degrees are mostly a thing of the past or otherwise you don't have a chance in life after starting off your 20s w/ student loan debts while being relinquished to a service economy. Furthermore, these youths won't be purchasing homes for the most part leaving the retirees w/o the added bonus to their retirement savings that they'd been counting on.

[TaunSew]

USA is becoming a service economy.

Much like Haiti is a service economy - where the 99.9% services the 0.1%.  Real wealth that results in a middle class is always going to come from manufacturing and other high revenue industries.  There's a reason why China's middle class has been exploding in size while the middle class in the US has been contracting.

Another reason college degrees are mostly a thing of the past or otherwise you don't have a chance in life after starting off your 20s w/ student loan debts while being relinquished to a service economy. Furthermore, these youths won't be purchasing homes for the most part leaving the retirees w/o the added bonus to their retirement savings that they'd been counting on.

Except the old people vote and everyone generation X and younger is: "lol I'm too kewl 2 vote".  So trust me, if old people were reduced to eating dog food they'll have a power session in the senate to save the retirees.

[Swordsoffreedom]

WELP, I guess you guys should come up here to the great white north, full of less economic troubles then its southern counterpart! and 100% more Moose!

Yep the North is nicer if you don't mind the cold winter otherwise its nice ^_^

[Chef Ramsay]

USA is becoming a service economy.

Much like Haiti is a service economy - where the 99.9% services the 0.1%.  Real wealth that results in a middle class is always going to come from manufacturing and other high revenue industries.  There's a reason why China's middle class has been exploding in size while the middle class in the US has been contracting.

Another reason college degrees are mostly a thing of the past or otherwise you don't have a chance in life after starting off your 20s w/ student loan debts while being relinquished to a service economy. Furthermore, these youths won't be purchasing homes for the most part leaving the retirees w/o the added bonus to their retirement savings that they'd been counting on.

Except the old people vote and everyone generation X and younger is: "lol I'm too kewl 2 vote".  So trust me, if old people were reduced to eating dog food they'll have a power session in the senate to save the retirees.

Well, these retirees I'm speaking of are the Baby Boomers whom were the spawns of the "Greatest Generation" whom I joke as the greediest generation since they shelled out all the kids, let govt grow to where it is today as they're the genius voters that started the trend and then sit back and sop up all the medicare and social security that legitimately was spent years if not decades ago. The GGs and what's left of their spouses are sitting back collecting, eating out, getting their hair done every week while most of their progeny are retiring nowadays w/ little to nothing in their savings and have cashed out their 401Ks years ago if not in a current depleted state. Some of Gen Y are doing fine as they made it good before shit happened in the mid to late aughts but many of the millennials are flatout screwed if they have no exposure to Bitcoin.

[Wilikon]

The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less

Economic inequality in the United States has been receiving a lot of attention. But it’s not merely an issue of the rich getting richer. The typical American household has been getting poorer, too.

The inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household was $87,992 in 2003. Ten years later, it was only $56,335, or a 36 percent decline, according to a study financed by the Russell Sage Foundation. Those are the figures for a household at the median point in the wealth distribution — the level at which there are an equal number of households whose worth is higher and lower. But during the same period, the net worth of wealthy households increased substantially.

The Russell Sage study also examined net worth at the 95th percentile. (For households at that level, 94 percent of the population had less wealth and 4 percent had more.) It found that for this well-do-do slice of the population, household net worth increased 14 percent over the same 10 years. Other research, by economists like Edward Wolff at New York University, has shown even greater gains in wealth for the richest 1 percent of households.

More...http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/business/the-typical-household-now-worth-a-third-less.html
Typical class warfare lingo but yeah, things are trending down here in the home of the brave. Anecdotally, I know plenty of people living paycheck to paycheck while I stack coins for the future.

I am sorry but that is just not true. I listen to NPR everyday and they never said anything like that....
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=714316.0

[Nathonas]

WELP, I guess you guys should come up here to the great white north, full of less economic troubles then its southern counterpart! and 100% more Moose!

Not only that but we're also planning to implement universal basic income in the near future. The Liberals and Green Party  want to test it on the federal level in the near future. Money, money for everyone!

[tee-rex]

if they're smart, they're going to use the oil money to develop an another source of income before they deplete the reservoirs

They are not, and they are not used to working hard (like, say, the Chinese or Japanese) which could make up for it. If they were, they wouldn't build useless skyscrapers or meaningless islands, but rather build research centers and production facilities instead, that is anything which creates real wealth (cf. Israel or Iran to a degree).

true, they're wasting money

but islands attract tourists, skyscapers could too

I get your point, they're wasting their money foolishly

Income from tourists won't be enough even to maintain everything in order.

I think you exaggerate maintenance costs or how much is needed.  Petronas Towers in Malaysia have been predicted to last 5000 years if humans disappeared and didn't perform maintenance.  There's people living in skyscrapers and towers in New York that go back a hundred years.  There's even apartment buildings in Europe that go back 400 years.

In respect to maintenance costs, I was referring first of all to those artificial islands. But nonetheless, stone buildings can indeed last for centuries (or rather their ruins), but this doesn't in the least mean that they will be suitable for living (at least as far as today's living standards are concerned). You have to keep sewerage, electricity, water supply, elevators operating and what not in respect to high-rises besides just keeping roof waterproof.

[picolo]

USA is becoming a service economy.

Much like Haiti is a service economy - where the 99.9% services the 0.1%.  Real wealth that results in a middle class is always going to come from manufacturing and other high revenue industries.  There's a reason why China's middle class has been exploding in size while the middle class in the US has been contracting.

Another reason college degrees are mostly a thing of the past or otherwise you don't have a chance in life after starting off your 20s w/ student loan debts while being relinquished to a service economy. Furthermore, these youths won't be purchasing homes for the most part leaving the retirees w/o the added bonus to their retirement savings that they'd been counting on.

Except the old people vote and everyone generation X and younger is: "lol I'm too kewl 2 vote".  So trust me, if old people were reduced to eating dog food they'll have a power session in the senate to save the retirees.

Well, these retirees I'm speaking of are the Baby Boomers whom were the spawns of the "Greatest Generation" whom I joke as the greediest generation since they shelled out all the kids, let govt grow to where it is today as they're the genius voters that started the trend and then sit back and sop up all the medicare and social security that legitimately was spent years if not decades ago. The GGs and what's left of their spouses are sitting back collecting, eating out, getting their hair done every week while most of their progeny are retiring nowadays w/ little to nothing in their savings and have cashed out their 401Ks years ago if not in a current depleted state. Some of Gen Y are doing fine as they made it good before shit happened in the mid to late aughts but many of the millennials are flatout screwed if they have no exposure to Bitcoin.

They have the power, the capital and the arrogance in the western world; they are giving some of it to their children and grand children but innovating without being in the correct circles become harder and harder in the western world

[Full Spectrum]

WELP, I guess you guys should come up here to the great white north, full of less economic troubles then its southern counterpart! and 100% more Moose!

Yep the North is nicer if you don't mind the cold winter otherwise its nice ^_^

Hows that housing bubble going for you guys? Good for now, but we'll see.
The only thing that Canada (and the West) has going for them is parasitically taking the educated classes of 3rd world countries and using them to the benefit of the Great White North through taxation, basically leaving the 3rd world nation with the debt of educating the immigrants, and Canada (and the West) reaping the benefits through taxes. But I will agree your cities are beautiful and clean(don't get me started on New York:P), the drinking age is lower, and the Poutine is great!

[hologram]

So you are against the freedom of people to travel ?

[picolo]

WELP, I guess you guys should come up here to the great white north, full of less economic troubles then its southern counterpart! and 100% more Moose!

Yep the North is nicer if you don't mind the cold winter otherwise its nice ^_^

Hows that housing bubble going for you guys? Good for now, but we'll see.
The only thing that Canada (and the West) has going for them is parasitically taking the educated classes of 3rd world countries and using them to the benefit of the Great White North through taxation, basically leaving the 3rd world nation with the debt of educating the immigrants, and Canada (and the West) reaping the benefits through taxes. But I will agree your cities are beautiful and clean(don't get me started on New York:P), the drinking age is lower, and the Poutine is great!

Housing bubble, Dollar bubble, Dow Jones bubble; it is so obvious it is painful; inflation is kept a bit low by the capital destruction, lies of the official CPI and low velocity but it will not last for ever and they will all pop

They will say it is because of Russia, war, terrorist or something else but it will be because of the FED policies

if they're smart, they're going to use the oil money to develop an another source of income before they deplete the reservoirs

They are not, and they are not used to working hard (like, say, the Chinese or Japanese) which could make up for it. If they were, they wouldn't build useless skyscrapers or meaningless islands, but rather build research centers and production facilities instead, that is anything which creates real wealth (cf. Israel or Iran to a degree).

true, they're wasting money

but islands attract tourists, skyscapers could too

I get your point, they're wasting their money foolishly

Income from tourists won't be enough even to maintain everything in order.

I think you exaggerate maintenance costs or how much is needed.  Petronas Towers in Malaysia have been predicted to last 5000 years if humans disappeared and didn't perform maintenance.  There's people living in skyscrapers and towers in New York that go back a hundred years.  There's even apartment buildings in Europe that go back 400 years.

Dubai may run out of the oil and could have debt issues over that but the towers and infrastructure wouldn't disappear, neither would the financial exchange, the tourism or the all the shopping commerce.

Ironically that could lead to some interesting developments in Dubai.  Arabs are already a minority in that country, no?  I bet once the oil money goes it becomes a dominion of India.



 


 

Dubai doesn't have any substantial amount of Oil though

[Jamie_Boulder]

Doesn't help that their economy is in an unpayable debt...

[picolo]

Doesn't help that their economy is in an unpayable debt...

You have the debt but also social funds invested in the debt (!), growing % of people that don't work, replacement of full time well paying jobs by service minimum wage part time jobs, money wasted on wars and politicians, heavy regulation which slow down businesses, trade deficit and the upcoming desmiss of the Dollar

[wasserman99]

Doesn't help that their economy is in an unpayable debt...

You have the debt but also social funds invested in the debt (!), growing % of people that don't work, replacement of full time well paying jobs by service minimum wage part time jobs, money wasted on wars and politicians, heavy regulation which slow down businesses, trade deficit and the upcoming desmiss of the Dollar

The fact that a lot of people are leaving the workforce, and that people are accepting part time jobs and jobs that they are overqualified for is a big problem for the US economy. If it lasts long enough then these workers will permanently lose the potential to contribute to society as much as they can now. This will eventually lead to a lower standard of living for all americans. 

[AdamSmith]

Doesn't help that their economy is in an unpayable debt...

You have the debt but also social funds invested in the debt (!), growing % of people that don't work, replacement of full time well paying jobs by service minimum wage part time jobs, money wasted on wars and politicians, heavy regulation which slow down businesses, trade deficit and the upcoming desmiss of the Dollar

The fact that a lot of people are leaving the workforce, and that people are accepting part time jobs and jobs that they are overqualified for is a big problem for the US economy. If it lasts long enough then these workers will permanently lose the potential to contribute to society as much as they can now. This will eventually lead to a lower standard of living for all americans. 

The outsourcing trend started 30 years ago, this is nothing new other than the fact that more and more are paying attention because they themselves are affected.

The auto industry can no longer compete with foreign competitors due to cost, quality, regulation and quality issues. To solve the problem long term, tax code and labor law need to be re-examined.

[leex1528]

Pretty easy to know why Americans are getting "Poorer"

The minimum wage has not reflected the inflation rates since the 70s.

College education has skyrocketed and there are less grants available and the financial aid you can get, the interest rate is 7% on.

Illegal immigrants are being used for work that get under paid and Americans can't get that job because the minimum wage. 

[tinof]

Pretty easy to know why Americans are getting "Poorer"

The minimum wage has not reflected the inflation rates since the 70s.

College education has skyrocketed and there are less grants available and the financial aid you can get, the interest rate is 7% on.

Illegal immigrants are being used for work that get under paid and Americans can't get that job because the minimum wage. 

Even without minimum wage, can you really afford to pay the bill working below minimum wage?