Among the issues most commonly discussed are individuality, the rights of the individual, the limits of legitimate government, morality, history, economics, government policy, science, business, education, health care, energy, and man-made global warming evaluations. My posts are aimed at intelligent and rational individuals, whose comments are very welcome.

"No matter how vast your knowledge or how modest, it is your own mind that has to acquire it." Ayn Rand

"Observe that the 'haves' are those who have freedom, and that it is freedom that the 'have-nots' have not." Ayn Rand

"The virtue involved in helping those one loves is not 'selflessness' or 'sacrifice', but integrity." Ayn Rand

For "a human being, the question 'to be or not to be,' is the question 'to think or not to think.'" Ayn Rand

17 July 2013

Americans Have Become So Wealthy, the Middle Class is Disappearing

According to the constant theme of the Democrat Socialist Party, the American Middle Class is disappearing because more people are poor than ever.  Well, despite the best efforts of those who are constantly trampling upon our rights to earn a living, as I have pointed out before, the Middle Class is disappearing because many more Americans are rising up out of it.  A recent post at the AEI Ideas blog shows this very well:


This chart is based on Census Bureau income data which is given in constant 2009 dollars.  I would certainly question the idea that the lower bound of the Middle Income Group is $25,000 a year and would set that at least at $35,000, but that would not change the fact that the percentage of families in the Middle Incomes is dropping as those in the Upper Incomes rises.  There is a slight decrease in the number in the lower income group.  The data does not yet show the effects of the never-ending Great Socialist Recession as many families have been worn down over the last four years.

Actually, if we look at this data a bit more closely over the period from about 1998 through 2009, the fraction of families in each income group has been about constant.  I would maintain that the longer term trend for families to leave the Middle Income Group for the Upper Income Group has been successfully foiled by Big Government with its increasing impediments to economic freedoms over that period.  If we want to restore the trend for Middle Income families to increasingly become Upper Income families, we need much less government interference in the private sector than we have seen over the last 15 years.

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