California’s Middle Class Is Shrinking And Democrats Offer No Hope For Change
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Here in California the middle class is shrinking and has fallen under 50 percent. From the Mercury News:
Not even half of California’s families are middle-class anymore as the recession and its aftermath widened the gap between rich and poor, according to a new report.
Three decades ago, 60 percent of California families could count themselves in what the Public Policy Institute of California calls the “middle-income” bracket. Not rich but doing reasonably well, the middle class formed a comfortable majority and shared the state’s prosperity.
But the portion of middle-income families slipped to 49.7 percent last year, according to the nonpartisan research group’s study. Using census figures and a federal standard-of-living measure adjusted for inflation, the report defines the middle-income bracket as families who earn $44,000 to $155,000 a year.
“It really reflects a decades-long trend, at least three decades of shifts in our economy,” said report co-author Sarah Bohn.
Globalization and technological progress contributed to the long-term changes, which hurt some but were not always bad for everyone over the decades, she said. While some fell out of the middle into poverty, others moved from the middle to the higher income brackets.
“Up to 2006, it looked like a net improvement,” Bohn said. “The low-income group was pretty steady. The high-income group in California was growing.”
Now, however, few are moving up. The downturn reduced the fortunes of almost all groups in California, but families who already earned lower incomes were hit the hardest…Of course the Democrats are not doing anything to help the situation.
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