Bye Bye Middle Class

[workathome]

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.

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

[dot_com_vet]

I'm not too surprised. It's been a race to zero since Wal-Mart entered the picture, long before 2000. Most of those that could be helped by a union are strongly anti-union.

[Seneca]

Surprising the NYT got it right- the US middle class has allowed it's technical prowess to decline on a relative scale at about the worst time they could've, just as manual labor was becoming exponentially less valuable.

Most of the other stuff written about this topic is noise.

[dot_com_vet]

I'm not sure I know of a college-aged person person pursuing STEM studies. Is this foolish or smart?

It's been a few years ago, but I've seen a manager offer a strong CS grad $12/hour straight faced. The senior manager at my first job out of college frequently complained they were paying us too much. We had no retirement and a six month waiting period for medical insurance. Vacation? Five days/annually.

For someone to move up with technical work, it generally takes four years of intense study, plus a willingness to relocate to where the solid jobs are.

[Chad]

@seneca Agreed on the first part, but not the second.

The senior manager at my first job out of college frequently complained they were paying us too much.

Too many assholes promoted to management who don't know how to be managers. Technical competence does not equal managerial competence. Interestingly enough, this would suggest we are lacking with soft skills too (but, it's anecdotal).

[jennypenny]

More evidence that the middle class is disappearing ... http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-new ... dle-class/

[leeholsen]

I'm not sure I know of a college-aged person person pursuing STEM studies. Is this foolish or smart?

It's been a few years ago, but I've seen a manager offer a strong CS grad $12/hour straight faced. The senior manager at my first job out of college frequently complained they were paying us too much. We had no retirement and a six month waiting period for medical insurance. Vacation? Five days/annually.

For someone to move up with technical work, it generally takes four years of intense study, plus a willingness to relocate to where the solid jobs are.

stem studies is still what you want, but you really need a 4 year degree like engineering to keep the dilution down. programming which can be learned without a degree will continue to have wages decline as the populations across the world continue to enter stem fields not needing advanced math and science.

the American middle class still is not wanting to face reality that they are competing with the world increasingly more every day and that their standard of living will continue to decline because of the discrepancy vs. the world.

[Jean]

An advanced engineering degree (MSc) ain't no garantie to find a job either.