Did you know that 83% of American adults make less than $60,000 per year?

[reformist2]

And maybe even more shockingly, 50% of Americans make less than $27,000.

This graph reveals the truth. Keep in mind this is based-on self-reported data, which as everyone who studied the housing crisis knows, tends to be a little bit inflated...



http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2010/12/whats-your-us-income-ranking.html#.Uew3vCrD_IU

[darkangel218]

1. Yeeps. Im one of them.

[onethatcares]

14. I'm two of them

both my lovely wife and I make right around 27K a year each.

That's less than I made in 1980.

Something happened.

[Tien1985]

2. I've been living it

Since birth. I know few people, on a personally basis, who make more.

[robinlynne]

10. exactly. The surprise is rather surprising......

[reformist2]

26. I think a lot of upper-middle class people, Repugs and Dems, have no clue.

[robinlynne]

31. I'm earning less than 20k per year now, and I keep finding out how lucky I am....

[YoungDemCA]

33. Because they, more often than not, live in their own universe

Away and apart from the "Other America."

Out of sight, out of mind.

[mick063]

35. Check my post history

I have a clue. I donate money. I make phone calls. I am not "comfortable" with the political landscape including the current Administration. I despise ALEC. I am in one of the heaviest taxed brackets and consider it my patriotic duty to pay them.

Don't begin the fracturing beyond 1%. You will lose pursuing such a path.

[reformist2]

36. Many in the Top 10% are too complacent, and they need to realize they're really not rich at all.

[mick063]

38. Many in the top 10% understand that one serious illness may bankrupt them.

And we fall into "no man's" land when it comes to qualifying for assistance when that day comes.

We don't qualify for assistance to send our kids to school.

We pay the most taxes, of anybody, above or below us.

We are the prime targets of marketing. Every corporation, charity, and, and political party has us neatly catergorized and targeted.

We are what is remaining of the great vision FDR had for everyone. We are what every American family should be.

I see the injustice and am sincerely angered. I am a full fledged beliver in the Occupy Movement. I do not diminish their heroism....ever.

I believe economic injustice is the greatest threat to our sovereignty.


DO NOT CATEGORICALLY LUMP ME WITH ASSHATS.

You need me, just like I need you.

[bahrbearian]

3. And Yet about half the population votes Republican. Go figure.

[leftstreet]

6. Wrong. 1/2 the eligible voters don't vote

Which would mean only 1/4 of the population vote for Republicans

...which would also mean only 1/4 of the population vote for Democrats



Clearly both parties need to think of some way to draw more voters to the polls. I'm thinking a $20 an hour minimum wage campaign could see record turnout

[bahrbearian]

8. So , its about 50% of votes, I'm sorry for my wording.

[dsc]

41. but voting is highly positively correlated with income

meaning the median income of voters is likely considerably higher than the median income of the population as a whole.

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

27. I'm all for a higher minimum wage...

And I like the idea of hard working people making more, but unfortunately, for many small businesses, paying employees $20 per hour is unfeasible without drastically raising prices.

My dad owns a plumbing and heating business that employs a secretary, two full time employees, and one part time employee. He starts his employees at $9 an hour (ironically, he has done that for years, even before the President started to push to make that the federal level). If he would have to pay his employees $20 a hour, you can expect that the prices of minor things like having a faucet replaced to skyrocket.

[socialist_n_TN]

28. I'm thinking that you would probably be right leftstreet....

A $20 per hour minimum wage being called for by one of the bourgeois political parties would probably get a WHOLE lot more of those non-voters to the polls. I wonder why they don't call for that?

[YoungDemCA]

32. + a million

Thanks for pointing this out.

[limpyhobbler]

42. I love this idea, a wage campaign for record turnout...

Remember too though if any serious politician proposes this and actually has a chance of winning, they will become a target for big money special interests.

The corporate media, the billionaires club, the chamber of commerce, restaurant association, all those people will throw money to paint the person as a lunatic, or an extremist, or dig up dirt on them.

Also to be realistic this could drive some people out of business if there business model depends on paying low wages. Some companies will relocate overseas. I'm all for it but it should also be accompanied by other stuff to guarantee employment and job security for people.

Other businesses will raise prices so they can pay higher wages. But then we're just using our higher pay to pay higher prices for the stuff we buy, so it might negate the effect of the wage increase.

[Thinkingabout]

29. For the life of me I just dont understand, most I know who does this is usually on one

Issue decision and it is the anti-abortion crowd. Provide birth control and let us get this country back on track. They vote against themselves, the GOP damn sure is not going to help.

[burnodo]

4. I'm one of them

Not that I mind of course

[hobbit709]

5. I never got more than half of that, even with my best paying job just before the layoffs of 2001

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. I would be screwed if we were not living where we do.

The nice thing about growing up poor is you learn how to deal with money very well.
Even in my best earning years, I never made more than 40 K annually.
And now, in retirement, Mr. Dixie and I live on half that.
It was not that bad for the first 5 years of early retirement, but the hidden inflation is screwing with the budget.
If we had any debt, we would be in a pickle.
I don't see how families with growing kids can make it on incomes that shrink and costs that have doubled in the last 5 years.

[hfojvt]

7. yes, but if you claim that a family making $90,000 a year is upper middle class

you sure will get a lot of grief here.

I make about $33,000 a year and I find that to be decent money. It is more than I need. The only trouble is that I really, really hate my job. Take yesterday, (please). I went in to work at 2:30 pm, worked until 7. Came back at 9 and worked until 10:00. Then went home, intending to come back at midnight for the last 2.5 hours of my "8 hour day".

Except I zonked out in my chair and did not wake up until 2 am, at which point I scrambled back to work until 4:30 am.

The basement is now waxed - with four coats.

The kicker, to me, is that I will probably hear something about how nice it looks, but I bet I will also hear about two or three other things that did NOT get done. Where I work, the glass is always 90% empty according to my supervisors.

But it is cool, since I get to retire (early at age 55) in just three years, 8 months and one week (but who is counting?)

[bhikkhu]

13. That's about how it is here too, though my job isn't bad

I can stretch $32k out pretty comfortably, and I have plenty of free time for the family and other things. 36 hours a week pays the bills. If the cost of living were higher here, I'd have to make more money, which would mean working harder...and I have too many other interests to want to do that.

I imagine that choosing to work less and make less money, in a way that makes life more enjoyable, is some kind of sin from a "protestant work ethic" viewpoint, or perhaps to an old repug or calvinist who recoils at the idea of an ordinary person actually enjoying life.

[Safetykitten]

9. Poor Democrat problems. Not an issue that is interesting to many here.

[Dragonfli]

18. Centrists see poor Democrats (which most of us actually are) as a whiny nuisance

That they must lower themselves to pretend to care about occasionally to con us into voting for them and they resent us for it.

They prefer the wealthy crowd they belong to or sell us out to in order to join. It is also the reason there never seems to be a way to pass laws that help us rather than the elite due to an all powerful minority party (when we are in power), and an all powerful majority party (when they are). Odd how weak the minority party is when we are it, odd also how weak the majority party is when we are it.

Were it not for the centrists - free trade, deregulation of banks, patriot type acts and negotiated cuts to social programs would never get done and no laws at all would be passed. The 1% should continue thanking them financially for their service, after all bribery is legal in this country and the peasantry should not stand in the way of good business that enriches the obscenely wealthy and political classes at their expense.

Whiny retards whose votes they need are all us peasants are to them, they are far too pragmatic to care about the majority of us that are so far beneath them.

Actual unpurchased Democrats are an endangered specie of politician and if there were ever any unpurchased Republican politicians they became extinct long ago.

[duffyduff]

22. You probably want to edit your post so it doesn't look like you're slamming the disabled. n/t

[Dragonfli]

25. I was quoting a centrist, perhaps they should have corrected him not me for his labels

I don't think we are disabled, Rahm does.

[SheilaT]

11. That is a chart that's from four years ago.

Would there be any significant shifts since then?

In any case, I know that even adjusted for inflation I apparently never made as much as the 50th percentile.

[B2G]

17. And it includes all over the age of 15

[skepticscott]

19. Exactly

It makes you wonder why someone had to lie for that headline.

[byeya]

12. 48,000,000 Americans are in the SNAP(food stamp) program

[bhikkhu]

15. Good for them

I don't quite qualify myself, buy I'm glad the program has been made available to so many.

If we can't pass a decent jobs bill, or raise the minimum wage, or a host of other things, what we can at least not do is shame people for still eating, or shame the government for doing something good. Leave that to the repugs.

SNAP is a great program, and I'd rather see it expanded than trotted around as some kind of shameful tragedy.

[byeya]

16. It is a fine program - Great Society? - that benefits the needy and the farmers.

Michigan and Ohio have added a positive slant to it in that there's a provision that gives a break for buying food that is locally produced.

Of course, the Republicans in Congress want to take SNAP out of the comprehensive farm legislation where it will be easier for them to curtail or destroy the program.

[glowing]

20. Not shocked and I'm one of those making less than $27,000... It takes 2 incomes to eek by.

[reformist2]

23. And soon two incomes won't be enough. The downward slide can and will continue if nothing is done.

[madville]

24. I make 56k and it's kind of right at times.

After deductions and taxes I actually take home about 32k net. Not rich by any means but I guess around the top 20%

[malokvale77]

30. Woo Hoo

10,600, I'm banking.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is not a typo.

Texas is swimming with high paying jobs. LOL

[gollygee]

34. Why did they start at age 15 for this chart?

I agree the distribution of wealth is shocking, but I wish they didn't have that age range. Teenagers don't make much money, and how much a 15-year-old makes a year shelving books at the library is irrelevant when we're talking about people feeding their families and paying rent. I know the numbers would be bad enough if they just included adults, or went by households.

[reformist2]

37. I see your point. I didn't make the chart. But even if you start at 18, the numbers aren't too diffe

rent.

[gollygee]

39. I agree

I just know what the excuse for denying the facts of this chart will be, and I don't like to see excuses made available.

[Socal31]

40. Yikes.

[penultimate]

43. Making between 40k and 60k isn't bad for a lot of people (assuming the area isn't a high-cost area)

Under 32K can be tough even for a single person in a moderate cost of living area though...