1 out of 3 American households can no longer afford rent, food, and transportation. The biggest rise in expenditures comes from rising housing costs.
- 5 Comment
The driving force in this political movement is anger and many American families need only look at their bank statements to understand why. Since 2004 median income has fallen by 13% while expenditures have risen by 14% according to latest figures pulled by Pew Research. That strikes at the heart of why the middle class is now a minority. People are struggling to get by and while the Fed is obsessed with interest rates, most families are seeing the impact of crony capitalism devastating their wallets. One perfect example is the banking bailouts. The bailouts simply allowed the too big to fail banks to get even bigger and allowed large investors to purchase many homes as investments. This happened while regular families were struggling. The end result is higher housing costs but no real underlying gain in income. Since housing eats up the biggest part of your budget this has had a major impact. 1 out of 3 American can no longer afford rent, food, or transportation.
Incomes down and expenses up
Americans are struggling to get by. All you need to do is look at income versus expenses:
“(ZH) According to Pew, households spent more in 2014 than they did in 1996, after adjusting for inflation; this holds whether the figures are based on averages (means) or medians. The typical household saw its expenditures grow by more than 25 percent, from $29,400 in 1996 to $36,800 in 2014. Mean expenditures grew 27 percent since 1996, rising from $43,200 to $54,800.â€
That is one part of the equation. But the other part of the equation is the rising costs with housing:
Lower income renters spent half of their income on rent. This is not typical. What happened in 2014 and also in 2015 is that the bailouts have finally come home to roost. A massively manipulated market has allowed banks to have access to crony capitalist policies while the rest of the public has had to deal with painful austerity. And ultimately all that is happening is more money is being siphoned off the public and flowing into the banking and rentier class.
This is actually a disturbing trend. We still have over 45 million Americans on food stamps. Does that sound like a recovery? We’ve also highlighted that most retirees would be out on the streets in abject poverty if it were not for Social Security. Is that something you envision when you think of booming economy?
Americans are angry and rightfully so.
Source:Â Gallup
The real unemployment rate is nearly twice as high as the stated headline unemployment rate. Only 44 percent of the adult population is engaged in full-time employment. This is also reflected in the 94 million Americans that are part of the “not in the labor force†category. When you have 1 out of 3 Americans being unable to afford rent, food, or transportation then it is understandable that you are going to have anger.
If you enjoyed this post click here to subscribe to a complete feed and stay up to date with today’s challenging market!
If you enjoyed this post click here to subscribe to a complete feed and stay up to date with today’s challenging market!  5 Comments on this post
Trackbacks
-
Joseph Mendoza said:
I get $790 a month and can afford neither rent , food, nor utilities, so I don’t participate in the corporate facist takeover of all employment. You can’t save anything, so working for a living is obselete, because you only meet your assured self-destruction.
March 31st, 2016 at 3:51 pm -
Doc said:
This situation is even worse for veterans. The VA and other “support” services are inherently flawed, and have policies and other dictates that actually prevent many of the veterans on pensions or disability from receiving the help needed.
Basically, rather then preventing homelessness, you first must be completely homeless, have lost all your income, and be out on the street to receive any help whatsoever. Even then, the veterans that actually receive any help after they have lost everything, is only a very small percentage. It’s a scam to prevent most of the veterans, or anyone who may a disability from actually receiving help.
One virtually has to give their life away to a government social system that barely helps anyone, and robs the last of one’s dignity and life they have left. It’s all about getting you into a system, that you cannot get of.
That my friends is NOT help or support. It’s cow pies, short and simple.March 31st, 2016 at 6:08 pm -
Rascal said:
I’m wondering what country (China?) has invested the most in housing in America. I’m sure there’s a way to find out the nationality of the owners of rental homes. That will tell us who is putting the pinch on the average Joe!
It used to be that if you rented a house, it belonged to an American that most likely knew the neighborhood because he once lived in that house. Now, it’s all “investors”.
It’s a sad state in American neighborhoods when they go over to all rental homes. Run down and over-populated. Not a place to raise a family.
It can’t go on like this. I’m thinking rent-controls for the nation will be proposed.
April 1st, 2016 at 1:57 pm -
Poor Working Steve said:
Premiums for some of the most popular insurance plans in the Obamacare exchanges will have double-digit rate hikes in 2016.
You will have to pay the Obamacare tax for not having insurance. If you didn’t get insurance by January 30, 2016, and you
go without for three months, you will owe 2.5% of your AGI on your 2016 return.
The minimum flat tax rises to $695 per adult plus $347.50 per child, up to a maximum
of $2,085 per household. You read that right. The tax increased a LOT this year.
Employers to avoid having to provide health insurance, have cut employees’
hours so it is below that 30 hour a week threshold.
Good Americans there never was a real recovery and there will not be a recovery. We are still in a decline.April 3rd, 2016 at 6:28 am -
Nichole said:
Agreed with most everything stated in this article.
How can self employed individuals buy healthcare when they cannot file taxes within 30 days? The 1040 is the firs thing they ask for when verifying income. It makes no sense at all.
The taxes and deadlines are ridiculous, so far from reality.
April 7th, 2016 at 10:37 am