[jdub]

The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction.

While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.

After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.

Screen shot 2014-04-22 at 9.52.42 AM.png (39.18 KiB) Viewed 803 times

“The idea that the median American has so much more income than the middle class in all other parts of the world is not true these days,” said Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist who is not associated with LIS. “In 1960, we were massively richer than anyone else. In 1980, we were richer. In the 1990s, we were still richer.”

That is no longer the case, Professor Katz added.

Median per capita income was $18,700 in the United States in 2010 (which translates to about $75,000 for a family of four after taxes), up 20 percent since 1980 but virtually unchanged since 2000, after adjusting for inflation. The same measure, by comparison, rose about 20 percent in Britain between 2000 and 2010 and 14 percent in the Netherlands. Median income also rose 20 percent in Canada between 2000 and 2010, to the equivalent of $18,700.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/upsho ... ml?hp&_r=0

It is going to take a decade or more to fix the pile of economic dog shit left behind by W. (I put that line in for you, Plow).

[FormerlyChaseChrome]

Driveby...

Those damned "subversive" Canucks...wait for it jdub...plow's on deck
May as well begin with the hair-brained Ray-gun trickle-down idea...(that was after all the great promise that would "equalize" the disparity)

Is ok. bro, I'll spend my money chasing chrome down there and you and yours come and do likewise up here...

[BigCliff]

Two things- I'm surprised Germany isn't doing better, but holy fukk I don't envy the Irish.

[Upsetter]

Id like to see it broken down by province...id bet that paint a starker picture....one dominated by the natural resource development in canukistan known as tar sands, etc. Our healthiest state economy has been north dakota since the bakken got rolling...by far. Im not saying this is a good thing necessarily, but given the blue collar nature of the good paying jobs in the natural resource sector, having boatloads of them is about the best way I can think of to raise the median income significantly.

The reason poor people are better off in Europe than here is that Europe is bankrupting itself paying all the poor people more than we do here. You don't pay people to do nothing, cause then they will never do anything. Further, idle minds are the devils playground. Europe shouldn't be envied for having poor people who are better off. Nobody I know who lives AND works there thinks its a good thing to have a 1/3 of the working age population doing jack shit.

[SOBF]

The reason poor people are better off in Europe than here is that Europe is bankrupting itself paying all the poor people more than we do here. You don't pay people to do nothing, cause then they will never do anything. Further, idle minds are the devils playground. Europe shouldn't be envied for having poor people who are better off. Nobody I know who lives AND works there thinks its a good thing to have a 1/3 of the working age population doing jack shit.

Fuck man that was well said !

[cantfishforshit]

Europe has been "going bankrupt" for a couple of decades now. Canadia has pretty much the same social policies as most of Europe, I think, and they aren't going broke either.

[Plow]

It is going to take a decade or more to fix the pile of economic dog shit left behind by W. (I put that line in for you, Plow).

Thanks for thinking about me but that pile of shit was laid by libs leveling the playing field so everyone could buy a house. Bush warned y'all but Fanny May hoodwinked ya.

Am I the only one who would like to see the last 3 years of data (2011,12,13)? not a clue what it would show but expect it was left out for a reason (like our middle class has fallen behind everyones poorest).

Anyway good for Canada. Now we'll send you all our Obama voters and see if you can keep up.

I got to get back to work. Fuck all of y'all for having free time...

[Cary]

It is going to take a decade or more to fix the pile of economic dog shit left behind by W. (I put that line in for you, Plow).

Thanks for thinking about me but that pile of shit was laid by libs leveling the playing field so everyone could buy a house. Bush warned y'all but Fanny May hoodwinked ya.

Try Bush I.

[Cary]

My mistake. By todays standards, Bush I was a flaming liberal.

Sorry, Carry on.

[LTD]

My mistake. By todays standards, Bush I was a flaming liberal.

Sorry, Carry on.

Who's standards would those be? Lol.......

[Plow]

It is going to take a decade or more to fix the pile of economic dog shit left behind by W. (I put that line in for you, Plow).

Thanks for thinking about me but that pile of shit was laid by libs leveling the playing field so everyone could buy a house. Bush warned y'all but Fanny May hoodwinked ya.

Try Bush I.

Country club republicans just want to be in charge too. Just a tad better than your average democrats who would sell his mother to a whore house for a second more of the power. You can't run a family with their finical logic, how can you run a country with it?

[Upsetter]

Europe has been "going bankrupt" for a couple of decades now. Canadia has pretty much the same social policies as most of Europe, I think, and they aren't going broke either.

Have you not been paying attention? Wtf do you think the pigs (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain) have been doing for the last 5 years? Its called chapter 11 for "largely sovereign nations". The pigs didn't dissolve ONLY because the productive countries in the EU saw the wisdom on not allowing it. What they did do though is forcibly restructure their financial situation. What do you think the primary restructuring goal was? If you guessed getting the 60% (~% of their population totally dependent on govt either thru employment, handouts, or largesse), not to mention all the ridiculous corruption, you guessed right. France, the Netherlands, and Denmark had to significantly restructure their handouts situation to avoid EU intervention as well.

Only eastern Europe has been thriving thru all of this. Why? Comparatively repressed wage structures, also known as competitive, and comparatively small fractions of govt expenditures going down the black hole of paying people not to work. They also have throngs of young people fleeing those countries to go to the comparatively rich welfare states in western Europe. When Ireland went thru its own version of this problem, they seriously considered barring eastern Europeans migrant workers from entering the country.

Again, Canada thrives on exploitation of its vast natural resources compared to its paltry population. Change that ratio to Europe's situation, or even ours, and Canada wouldn't look near so good.