Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here’s why: America doesn’t have a jobs crisis. It has a ‘good jobs’ crisis – where too much employment is insecure, and poorly paid

via theguardian:

America doesn’t have a jobs crisis. It has a ‘good jobs’ crisis – where too much employment is insecure, and poorly paid

The official rate of unemployment in America has plunged to a remarkably low 3.8%. The Federal Reserve forecasts that the unemployment rate will reach 3.5% by the end of the year.

But the official rate hides more troubling realities: legions of college grads overqualified for their jobs, a growing number of contract workers with no job security, and an army of part-time workers desperate for full-time jobs. Almost 80% of Americans say they live from paycheck to paycheck, many not knowing how big their next one will be.

America is in a crisis of wage slavery and has been for about 10 years now.

Ever since the 2008 Wall Street crash, things have been getting steadily more and more unbearable for average Americans and now we’ve reached a confluence of several things that has come to a head in 80% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck.

Now I’m just going to run down the boilerplate list of standard things that people try to rebuke me with when I point out that this country is rigged in favor of the rich and against the working class and poor:

  • Well maybe those 80% of Americans are just bad with money.

This is a ridiculous notion because there’s no way that 80% of Americans are bad with money, like it’s not possible at all.

  • Maybe they shouldn’t have bought that new iPhone.

iPhones cost around $900-$1000, not enough to make up for the massive shortfall that average Americans face in their finances every day/week/month/year.

  • I wonder how much they spend on avocado toast and Starbucks?

This is also obviously ridiculous, because it isn’t avocado toast and Starbucks that is making 80% of this country live paycheck to paycheck.

We are drowning here in America. Average Americans have been fucked over systematically since the Reagan administration started in ’81 and decided that the wealthiest among us need to have their tax burden reduced dramatically.

Also it doesn’t help that whenever one political party, the Republicans gain any type of power the first thing they do is reduce the taxes of millionaires, billionaires and multinational corporation.

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Also this isn’t to say that the Democratic Party is completely blameless in this situation. The Democratic party has largely forgotten their working class and labor base and embraced the Wall Street money machine.

Goldman Sachs was Obama’s single largest contributor in ’08 and wouldn’t you know it, he decided not to go after bankers after the 2008 Wall Street Crash.

But the Republicans have really taken their corporate and oligarchic servitude to new levels. Everytime the Republicans get in office they shift the Overton Window on taxation of the wealthy and multinational corporations further to the right and that is the biggest part about how we got here.

We started shipping all the good manufacturing jobs to China back in the early 70’s under Nixon, and just look at where we are now.

A nation of service worker wage slaves.

The minimum wage in this country is $7.25 while in Australia it’s $18.93.

But no we have to make sure our corporate executives get an even bigger bonus this year than last year so they can buy a 2nd yacht/vacation home.

We live in a sick society here in America.

 

h/t User_Name13

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