What Happened to America’s Middle-class?

Alissa Quart, author of the new book, Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America, suggests that America’s middle class is being wiped out by a cost of living that far outpaces salary increases.
 
A couple earning nearly $140,000 can’t make ends meet without taking after hours jobs? Tiny starter houses cost $680,000 and up? Highly educated professors working part-time and surviving on ramen noodles? Price inflation is rampant, especially in sectors such as real estate, equities, education and healthcare, and yet incomes are not keeping up. The only way the economy can rebalance is if wages go up, prices come down, or some combination of the two occurs. Do we take second and third jobs while we wait for an economic correction? Robert Kiyosaki has mentioned numerous times that this is not a wage-earner friendly world in terms of keeping up with inflation and in minimizing tax obligations. As such, it is in the best interest of people to consider a variety of investment and business income options to supplement or even replace earned income from their “day” job(s).
 
Kiyosaki says that one of the easiest and least expensive ways for someone to get into business is by joining a network marketing company. These companies run the spectrum from well-managed sustainable business models, offering superior products at fair prices, to outright illegal pyramid schemes built to last only a few years in order to bilk naive members out of their savings. Given this, it is imperative that each person thoroughly research a network marketing venture before they join, no matter how enthusiastic cousin Ed is in getting you to raise alligators for the expected boom in alligator boots. That said, it would also be a mistake to dismiss all networking opportunities out of fear of failure or being scammed. In this day and age life-long full-time employment with generous benefits is an endangered species and close to extinction. We owe it to ourselves and our families to consider alternatives if we are not where we want to be at this time.

Source: America’s middle class is slowly being ‘wiped out’ – MarketWatch

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