THE MIDDLE CLASS IS SHRINKING: STOP COMPLAINING AND START GRINDING

It seems like the economy is getting better.The stock market is rising, and people are spending money again, but what is the real fall out from the latest American recession?The truth is that the middle class, the driver of the American consumer economy is declining at a rapid pace. Here are the statistics to prove it

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• For first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.
(taken from yahoo finance: The Middle Class in America is Shrinking, Michael Snyder)

These numbers offer a harsh reality. Things are changing, the old admirable goal of working your way into the Middle Class has become a fleeting one. Every once in a while we have to be reminded we live in a free market, capitalist society, not a socialist one. To succeed your going to have to understand this environment, and the rules to play by. I believe the old saying is "when the going gets tough, the tough get going." There were years in which you could get away with settling for average and be okay, but that's no longer the case. This means that if your comfortable in your 40k a year job, its time to get a little uncomfortable. Everybody can't be rich, but its obvious that all of us need to at least try to get there. This means being aggressive, and having a much stronger entrepreneurial spirit. It means having multiple sources of income, and constantly seeking new opportunities to add to your personal bottom line. The ones that work the hardest, and don't settle will find a way to thrive in this new reality. We can continue to talk about the way things are falling apart or we can start doing something about it. We have to remember that capitalism is core principle of the American System, and we're not going to be able to change that. Survival of the Fittest, so get on your Grind!