Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

More Than Half of All Americans Make Under 30,000 Dollars a Year According to a Shocking New Report

Wage statistics for 2014, recently released by the Social Security Administration, provide proof to the claim we all feared was true: the middle class is actually disappearing. As the online publication Washington’s Blog notes, 51 percent of U.S. workers made less in 2014 than what is required to support a middle class family, with a monthly salary of 2,500 dollars, before taxes. What’s worse is that as the numbers in the original report are parsed, other stunning facts become clear. For instance the fact that nearly 40 percent of Americans aren’t even making 30,000 dollars but rather are earning closer to 20,000. Or that 70 percent of workers made less than 50,000 dollars in 2014.

All of this just illustrates in vivid detail how far the wealth gap in the U.S. has widened. We’ve gotten to the point where the majority of U.S. citizens are barely making enough to make ends meet, and let’s face it, most aren’t even scraping by.

Michael Snyder explains in his post for Washington’s Blog how these numbers don’t even paint the full picture of income inequality in this country:
The federal poverty level for a family of five is $28,410, and yet almost 40 percent of all American workers do not even bring in $20,000 a year.
If you worked a full-time job at $10 an hour all year long with two weeks off, you would make approximately $20,000.  This should tell you something about the quality of the jobs that our economy is producing at this point.
And of course [the numbers in the SSA report] are only for those that are actually working.  As I discussed just recently, there are 7.9 million working age Americans that are “officially unemployed” right now and another 94.7 million working age Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force”.  When you add those two numbers together, you get a grand total of 102.6 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.
The SSA report is reprinted in full, below.

—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata

Wage Statistics for 2014

 


The national average wage index (AWI) is based on   compensation (wages, tips, and the like) subject to Federal income taxes, as reported   by employers on Forms W-2.  Beginning with the AWI for 1991, compensation includes   contributions to deferred compensation plans, but excludes certain distributions from   plans where the distributions are included in the reported compensation subject to   income taxes.  We call the result of including contributions, and excluding certain   distributions, net compensation.  The table below summarizes the components of   net compensation for 2014.
                                 
Net compensation components for 2014
Compensation subject to Federal income taxes$6,797,372,805,419.35
Deferred compensation plan
         Contributionsa
         Distributionsb

+ 255,336,805,992.78
- 2,450,397,767.58
Net compensation7,050,259,213,644.55

 
  Wages on which contributions were paid by 53,592,754 workers.
Distributions, to the extent included in reported wages       (see text above), paid to 60,572 workers.

The “raw” average wage, computed as net compensation divided by     the number of wage earners, is $7,050,259,213,644.55 divided by 158,186,786, or $44,569.20.     Based on data in the table below, about 67.2 percent of wage earners had     net compensation less than or equal to the $44,569.20 raw average wage.     By definition, 50 percent of wage earners had net compensation less than or     equal to the median wage, which is estimated to be     $28,851.21 for 2014.
                                                                                                                               
Distribution of wage earners by level of net compensation
Wage earnersNet compensation
Net compensation intervalNumberCumulative
number
Percent
of total
Aggregate amountAverage amount
$0.01 — 4,999.9922,574,44022,574,44014.27075$46,647,919,125.68$2,066.40
5,000.00 — 9,999.9913,848,84136,423,28123.02549102,586,913,092.617,407.62
10,000.00 — 14,999.9912,329,27048,752,55130.81961153,566,802,438.4512,455.47
15,000.00 — 19,999.9911,505,77660,258,32738.09315200,878,198,035.0717,458.90
20,000.00 — 24,999.9910,918,55571,176,88244.99547245,317,570,246.8822,467.95
25,000.00 — 29,999.9910,192,86381,369,74551.43903279,865,461,187.0527,457.00
30,000.00 — 34,999.999,487,84090,857,58557.43690307,828,947,411.1632,444.58
35,000.00 — 39,999.998,578,21599,435,80062.85974321,200,755,103.4437,443.78
40,000.00 — 44,999.997,553,972106,989,77267.63509320,563,569,965.1542,436.43
45,000.00 — 49,999.996,542,882113,532,65471.77126310,391,706,424.2347,439.60
50,000.00 — 54,999.995,723,269119,255,92375.38931300,016,377,448.5152,420.46
55,000.00 — 59,999.994,846,517124,102,44078.45310278,354,367,841.4157,433.90
60,000.00 — 64,999.994,201,232128,303,67281.10897262,203,932,128.6862,411.20
65,000.00 — 69,999.993,573,471131,877,14383.36799240,948,179,180.4067,426.93
70,000.00 — 74,999.993,094,739134,971,88285.32437224,145,278,103.3672,427.85
75,000.00 — 79,999.992,684,481137,656,36387.02140207,853,372,824.6277,427.77
80,000.00 — 84,999.992,297,338139,953,70188.47370189,370,862,869.1782,430.56
85,000.00 — 89,999.991,975,400141,929,10189.72248172,719,042,418.7087,434.97
90,000.00 — 94,999.991,714,370143,643,47190.80624158,442,931,588.4492,420.50
95,000.00 — 99,999.991,486,636145,130,10791.74604144,858,203,365.6197,440.26
100,000.00 — 104,999.991,309,068146,439,17592.57358134,083,282,259.67102,426.52
105,000.00 — 109,999.991,117,128147,556,30393.27979120,020,513,136.11107,436.67
110,000.00 — 114,999.99977,055148,533,35893.89745109,855,105,705.14112,434.93
115,000.00 — 119,999.99865,889149,399,24794.44483101,693,061,676.62117,443.53
120,000.00 — 124,999.99773,339150,172,58694.9337194,660,281,091.31122,404.64
125,000.00 — 129,999.99673,971150,846,55795.3597785,886,152,964.93127,433.01
130,000.00 — 134,999.99595,827151,442,38495.7364378,899,843,713.01132,420.73
135,000.00 — 139,999.99527,341151,969,72596.0698072,476,546,845.30137,437.72
140,000.00 — 144,999.99466,992152,436,71796.3650166,519,743,635.12142,443.00
145,000.00 — 149,999.99419,003152,855,72096.6298961,787,674,520.19147,463.56
150,000.00 — 154,999.99384,581153,240,30196.8730158,607,775,121.57152,393.84
155,000.00 — 159,999.99335,391153,575,69297.0850352,801,735,517.69157,433.37
160,000.00 — 164,999.99296,048153,871,74097.2721848,087,213,596.86162,430.46
165,000.00 — 169,999.99265,309154,137,04997.4399044,426,198,104.69167,450.78
170,000.00 — 174,999.99239,515154,376,56497.5913141,304,379,348.95172,450.07
175,000.00 — 179,999.99216,255154,592,81997.7280238,370,042,895.27177,429.62
180,000.00 — 184,999.99200,592154,793,41197.8548336,588,064,085.78182,400.42
185,000.00 — 189,999.99179,005154,972,41697.9679933,554,727,208.93187,451.34
190,000.00 — 194,999.99165,277155,137,69398.0724731,807,897,759.84192,452.05
195,000.00 — 199,999.99154,070155,291,76398.1698730,425,466,536.83197,478.20
200,000.00 — 249,999.991,039,897156,331,66098.82726230,863,458,226.21222,006.08
250,000.00 — 299,999.99565,105156,896,76599.18450153,945,762,663.99272,419.75
300,000.00 — 349,999.99333,584157,230,34999.39537107,708,119,615.81322,881.55
350,000.00 — 399,999.99219,923157,450,27299.5344082,117,070,706.61373,390.10
400,000.00 — 449,999.99151,162157,601,43499.6299663,997,346,472.50423,369.28
450,000.00 — 499,999.99108,881157,710,31599.6987951,583,042,398.64473,756.14
500,000.00 — 999,999.99345,935158,056,25099.91748230,331,407,862.96665,822.79
1,000,000.00 — 1,499,999.9965,548158,121,79899.9589278,672,933,288.581,200,233.92
1,500,000.00 — 1,999,999.9924,140158,145,93899.9741841,431,838,733.521,716,314.78
2,000,000.00 — 2,499,999.9912,137158,158,07599.9818526,997,226,154.272,224,373.91
2,500,000.00 — 2,999,999.996,871158,164,94699.9861918,747,446,313.272,728,488.77
3,000,000.00 — 3,499,999.994,799158,169,74599.9892315,507,304,422.663,231,361.62
3,500,000.00 — 3,999,999.993,258158,173,00399.9912912,166,741,762.343,734,420.43
4,000,000.00 — 4,499,999.992,353158,175,35699.992779,970,953,222.984,237,549.18
4,500,000.00 — 4,999,999.991,822158,177,17899.993938,633,941,395.344,738,716.46
5,000,000.00 — 9,999,999.996,468158,183,64699.9980243,887,775,808.426,785,370.41
10,000,000.00 — 19,999,999.992,230158,185,87699.9994230,065,006,121.1913,482,065.53
20,000,000.00 — 49,999,999.99776158,186,65299.9999222,450,911,983.0128,931,587.61
50,000,000.00 and over134158,186,786100.0000011,564,829,969.8286,304,701.27

Original Article
Source: truthdig.com/
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