Der Spiegel: US middle class vanishing

Press TV
August 21, 2010

The middle class, circa the 1950s. The U.S. Census Bureau says the median income in the U.S. is about $51,000 a year and according to a 2008 Pew Research Center survey, half of Americans self-identify as middle class.

According to an article appearing in the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, the negative consequences of the global financial crisis include a widened social class rift and the elimination of the middle class in the US.

The article states that many Americans are beginning to realize that the American Dream has now become a nightmare as people are having to face the bitter reality of a shrinking job market along with decades of stagnating wages and dramatic increases in inequality.

More than a year after the official end of the recession, the overall unemployment rate remains consistently above 9.5 percent. But this is just the official figure. When adjusted to include the people who have already given up looking for work — or are barely surviving on the few hundred dollars they earn with a part-time job and having to use their savings to supplement their income — the real unemployment figure jumps to more than 17 percent.

In its current annual report, the US Department of Agriculture notes that “food insecurity” is on the rise, and that 50 million Americans were unable to buy enough food to remain healthy at some point last year. One out of every eight American adults and one out of four children now survive on government food stamps. These are unbelievable numbers for the world’s richest nation

Last week, leading online columnist Arianna Huffington issued the almost apocalyptic warning that “America is in danger of becoming a Third World country.”

Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)

In a recent cover story titled “So Long, Middle Class,” the New York Post presented its readers with “25 statistics that prove that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.”

Crowds Chase Scarce Housing Vouchers

From Atlanta Suburbs to Chicago, Economic Woes Lead to Surge in Applicants for Waiting Lists to Receive Federal Subsidy

By VALERIE BAUERLEIN

Associated Press

Thousands of people hoping to get federal housing assistance fill the Tri-Cities Plaza in East Point, Ga., on Wednesday. Sixty were taken to hospitals as a result of scuffles and sweltering heat at the shopping center

EAST POINT, Ga.—The weak economy has expanded the ranks of people chasing the limited number of federal housing vouchers, leading to a surge in applications nationwide and chaotic scenes here this week.

Sixty people were taken to hospitals Wednesday in this Atlanta suburb after a lengthy wait and an angry mob scene in a sweltering shopping-center parking lot. Those treated for heat exposure and injuries from scuffles were among 30,000 people who had lined up for a waiting list for just 455 vouchers to cover part of their rent.

Some camped out for nearly three days in temperatures that neared 100 degrees, including pregnant women, elderly in wheelchairs and people who drove down from New York City and Philadelphia, hoping to get on the waiting list in East Point for Housing Choice, or Section 8, vouchers.

The number of public housing units and vouchers has fallen in the past decade, as public housing blocks have been torn down, costs have risen and federal budgets have stayed flat. Waiting lists for vouchers in most major U.S. cities have been closed in recent years.

Those who make it onto the lists often have to wait for eight to 10 years to receive a voucher, which is a guarantee that a local housing authority will pay a portion of the tenant's rent directly to the landlord. High unemployment and rising rents have made these vouchers even more of a precious commodity.

The vouchers are meant to give poor families more choices over where to live. They are often given to families who leave urban housing projects that are being demolished.

The last time officials in East Point (population 43,000) opened their waiting list—in 2002—they passed out 2,400 applications. Executive Director Kimberly Lemish said the East Point Housing Authority had expected 10,000 people to line up this time, and it set up portable toilets, water stations and trash cans to handle the crowd. Instead, they saw three times that number—as many people as have been attending Atlanta Braves home games this summer six miles away.

The housing authority opened up its waiting list because most of those on the eight-year-old list had been accommodated.    

"It's the economy," Ms. Lemish said. "People are desperate. You've got families living with families, and people out of work for a long time."

Ashley Phillips, who is pregnant, and her mother, Carolyn Teagle, who uses a cane, fought the crowd Wednesday morning to pick up Section 8 applications. Ms. Teagle said she relied on her $674 monthly disability check and was renting a room because she couldn't afford an apartment. "Once you get medicine and food, there's just about nothing left," she said.

Ms. Phillips, 25 years old, said she would like to work but couldn't find a job. "It's ridiculous out here," she said. "People are talking about, 'Go find a job,' but there are no jobs."

Other cities that have opened waiting lists this summer have had similarly robust responses. The Roanoke, Va., Housing Authority took 2,400 applications in June when it opened its voucher list, 600 more applications than when the list was last opened three years ago.

Roanoke has 1,600 Section 8 vouchers and all are currently being used, so no one has come off the new waiting list, Executive Director Glenda Edwards said. "The needs are immediate, but obviously the wait is long," she said.


Read Full Article