The Social Security Administration released it’s latest economic figures this week. They’re so horrible even I was surprised…
51.4% of American wage earners made less than than $30,000 in 2014.
Think about that. No, seriously, stop for a minute and really think about that. $30K a year? That’s damn near poverty, and that’s what most Americans made last year or less. 38% of Americans made less than $20K. For the entire year!
Median household income, which means half of the population make less than this, is about $54,000 a year. By the way, that’s three percent lower than when Jesus Hopechange was elected back in 2008 to save us all.
It gets worse. That’s just wage earners. Nearly 9 million people in the US are unemployed, and 40 percent of them have stopped looking for work. Oh, and guess who will be paying their bills? If you’re an American taxpayer, YOU are.
According to Credit Suisse, if you have no debts and $10 in your pocket, you have more wealth than all the bottom 25% of Americans combined.
Again, stop and think about that. This is the once great United States we’re talking about.
I’m not shocked very often when it comes to bad economic news coming out of the Western world, but this week I was legitimately surprised. These numbers are absolutely horrible, folks.
Want a sobering comparison? As I type these words, I’m in Singapore. The economy here is booming so crazily that I’ve had very serious trouble finding office space during my stay here. Everywhere I check, office companies are telling me, “Sorry, we have no vacancies. Business is good here.”
The West falls, the East rises. That’s why I’m in the East right now, building business foundations here instead of in the Slowly Sinking Ship that is America/Europe.
And no, neither Donald Trump nor Bernie Sanders have any hope in hell of turning any of this around. Dream on.
Want over 35 hours of how-to podcasts on how to improve your woman life and financial life? Want to be able to coach with me twice a month? Want access to hours of technique-based video and audio? The SMIC Program is a monthly podcast and coaching program where you get access to massive amounts of exclusive, members-only Alpha 2.0 content as soon as you sign up, and you can cancel whenever you want. Click here for the details.
Leave your comment below, but be sure to follow the Five Simple Rules.
Guy
Posted at 05:13 am, 30th October 2015These two figures confuse me:
“51.4% of American wage earners made less than than $30,000 in 2014.” and “Median income, which means half of the population make less than this, is about $54,000 a year.”
If a majority of wage earners are making less than $30,000/year, wouldn’t that mean that the median earner would fall within that majority? I think the $54,000/year is for household income, which includes the combined income of everyone living together and doesn’t paint any more of a rosy picture here. It might also include business and dividend income, but I would think the vast majority of Americans are wage earners, especially on the lower income scales.
What scares me is how bad these figures are while we’re running trillion dollar deficits and giving out money like madmen. While it’ll never happen, imagine how bad things would be if we not only stopped running deficits, but started massively raising taxes to pay off the deficit. Economic activity would screech to a halt. One thing that will happen is the current stock market and real estate bubble re-inflation will pop, and publicly traded companies will have to downsize their work force even further. It will get uglier still.
Netbug
Posted at 08:21 am, 30th October 2015I don’t understand how anyone can see these numbers and still think that the current economic model is viable.
Caleb Jones
Posted at 08:24 am, 30th October 2015It is. I added the word “household” above to make it more clear.
You’re right. It isn’t. In the long-term anyway.
Tony
Posted at 03:15 pm, 30th October 2015To be fair, 14% of those are making $5k or less, which means they’re probably just working part time and are either partially retired or teenagers in high school or college, so the median of those who are actually trying to earn a living is probably closer to $40k. And even at $30k you can live a pretty good lifestyle if you’re in a low COL area.
Alejandro
Posted at 01:41 am, 31st October 2015I was going to say that 30K is not THAT terrible if you can make your lifestyle as cheap as possible. If you have no kids and get a very, very cheap small apartment closest to your work as possible so that you can walk to work and spend gas cost, you will be able to live with a very low amount of money.
Caleb Jones
Posted at 02:33 am, 31st October 2015Absolutely. If you’re completely single, have no children, have zero debt, and purposefully and strategically live very simply, you can pull it off. But you guys are talking about the radically small exception to the rule in American society.
Most low-income Americans at the levels we’re talking about have massive debt and/or kids. They’re fucked.
Axel Page
Posted at 10:50 am, 1st November 2015Those #’s are insane. I’ve written on the broken educational and economic model, but these statistics are painfully hard to swallow. Horrible.
John
Posted at 08:12 am, 6th November 2015Very sad and sobering numbers. However, considering how dependant the east is on the west for consumers, I’m curious as to why you think it will be much better there when the economic rubber meets the road here in the US. If the west falls, won’t it trigger a world wide economic cataclysm?
Caleb Jones
Posted at 07:17 pm, 7th November 2015Possibly yes, but:
1. The East is much better equipped to survive such a problem, since the East are savers whereas the West are debtors.
2 The East on still on the rise for demographic reasons the West lacks.
3. The East isn’t as lazy as the West.