Article

2017-04-23 -Land of the Free

US regressing into a developing nation for most people, MIT professor warns

[RT] Growing income inequality is turning the US into a dual economy, with one economy for the rich and another for the poor, according to an MIT professor, who warns that the middle class is vanishing.

In his new book, "The Vanishing Middle Class," Peter Temin, professor emeritus of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, warns that the US is moving backward and becoming more like a developing nation, as the "the vanishing middle class has left behind a dual economy."

"We are still one country, but the stretch of incomes is fraying the unity of the nation," Temin wrote in the introduction of his book, according to a copy obtained by Barnard College.

The economist describes a dual economy, where the gap between the rich and the poor has grown wider.

Temin points to a study from the Pew Research Center, which, he said, "shows that the income share lost by the middle class has gone to people earning more than double the median income."

"In short, the rich got richer. The poor did not disappear, and the middle class shrank sharply," Temin wrote. "We are on our way to become a nation of the rich and the poor with only a few people in the middle."

Posted by Fred 2017-04-23 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11140 views ] Top

#1 Excellent! The left has long wanted to get rid of the middle class. A long awaited victory by them.

Posted by Harcourt Angoluting9366 2017-04-23 01:16|| 2017-04-23 01:16|| Front Page Top

#2 Simply a natural by-product of tyrannical, third-world leadership. Similar examples are readily found throughout Africa and Latin America. With all due respect to professor Temin, it hardly takes staff tenure at MIT to figure this one out.

Posted by Besoeker 2017-04-23 04:31|| 2017-04-23 04:31|| Front Page Top

#3 The professor has a point. We have seen and felt the erosion of the middle class for a long time thanks to progressive policies. The middle class was the strength of this country; the people who put Trump in office.

Posted by JohnQC 2017-04-23 09:24|| 2017-04-23 09:24|| Front Page Top

#4 Needs to vastly cut taxes on the middle classes then.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2017-04-23 10:50|| 2017-04-23 10:50|| Front Page Top

#5 The evident solution to this would be to 'break up' the concentrations of wealth accumulation zones, if you can't raise the wealth index of the lower end. This would require forcible resettlement of persons from high earning areas to areas where they can raise the local average to an equitable median.
The actual cause of this is the legal plundering of assets by the wealthy, but let's don't discuss that.

Posted by ed in texas 2017-04-23 11:03|| 2017-04-23 11:03|| Front Page Top

#6 Do not ever bring up "rent seeking".

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-04-23 11:09|| 2017-04-23 11:09|| Front Page Top

#7 The actual cause of this is the legal plundering of assets by the wealthy, but let's don't discuss that.

Is the banker's bank, the Federal Reserve, going to be examined for its role in the demise of the middle class?

Posted by JohnQC 2017-04-23 11:17|| 2017-04-23 11:17|| Front Page Top

#8 Is the banker's bank, the Federal Reserve, going to be examined for its role in the demise of the middle class? Posted by: JohnQC

As evidenced by my paltry savings account interest rate, the banks (at all levels) no longer need the common man.The government borrower has become their favoured customer.

Posted by Besoeker 2017-04-23 11:59|| 2017-04-23 11:59|| Front Page Top

#9 democrats

Posted by newc 2017-04-23 14:35|| 2017-04-23 14:35|| Front Page Top

#10 Demons

FIFY

Posted by Seeking cure for ignorance 2017-04-23 17:27|| 2017-04-23 17:27|| Front Page Top

#11 He's not wrong about the problem, but his solution is to raise taxes (of course) and to spend more Federal dollars on education (of course).

Posted by KBK 2017-04-23 20:34|| 2017-04-23 20:34|| Front Page Top

#12 bush 2 started this one

Posted by 746 2017-04-23 23:21|| 2017-04-23 23:21|| Front Page Top

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