In 2010, every one of my work-related conversations turned to personal wealth management. The money-class wants to preserve and increase their considerable wealth, and they are terrified of losing it. Elsewhere in America, those that don’t have money are terrified of the rising cost of necessities like food and energy not captured in the [core] consumer price index calculation.
As of July 24, 2009, minimum wage in the United States was $7.25/hour (before taxes). At the beginning of 2010, minimum wage barely bought you a pre-tax $6.79 ream (500 sheets) of paper at Office Depot. By the end of 2010, that cost had skyrocketed to $9.49 per ream, nearly a 40% increase. But printer paper isn’t a necessity for those who need to feed and clothe their families. Official unemployment is at 9.8%, and many "new" jobs are part-time jobs that replaced former full-time jobs. Counting underemployment, the misery soars above 20%.
Arianna Huffington’s latest book, Third World America, explains how those with the least power and money have been getting squeezed for decades:
[The median middle class American] in September 1979 was earning (in constant, inflation-adjusted dollars) $25,896 a year. In September 1995, that same man or woman was earning $24,700 a year — a 5 percent cut in salary over the intervening decade and a half. (P. 54)
More here: Janet Tavakoli: In Third World America, You Can’t Buy a Ream of Paper on Minimum Wage.
