AND INEQUALITY MAY BE TO BLAME!!..
Inequality has become one of the main economic stories of our era, and according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, it’s also a driving force behind the middle class retail squeeze. Mid-range options are struggling, because their customers simply have less money, and often carry more debt. Wage stagnation and increasing costs of living have left the median family with approximately $5,500 less disposable income per year than in 2000.
“We’ve had a recovery since June 2009, and we’ve had GDP growth since then, but retail sales have been really bad," explained Brendan Duke, an economist with the Center for American Progress and author of the report The Rich Can't Save Retail. "They’re very far away from their pre-Great Recession trend. One [reason] is the fact that the GDP growth and income growth has been really concentrated at the top."
Personal consumption has dropped overall, he said, which means it hasn’t merely fled online or to urban boutique stores. The impact of that decline has also been concentrated; while most of the nation lags, the wealthiest 5% of households are fully back to their pre-recession spending habits.
Skyrocketing inequality has allowed those households to recover their spending power, while the average consumer has taken a functional spending cut over the same time period. Although the U.S. economy has rebuilt the wealth lost in the recession, it sits in fewer, deeper pockets than ever before. From a retailer’s perspective that’s a big problem, because there’s only so much shopping that any one customer will do, no matter how wealthy.
Student debt, a feature in most young people’s lives, takes on average another 7% of their income, money that would otherwise be spent.
Republicans, broke the labor unions, Reagan fired the Air Traffic Controllers, Bush set up laws to export manufacturing jobs by the 10's of thousands overseas, these jobs generally paid well, and you did not need to be an intellectual fluent in Calculus, these jobs kept money in the hands of the middle-class, but now it seems there is developing a crisis concerning the death of the middle class,
too many hikes in personal property tax, sales tax, licenses, red tape, grocery cost increases, fuel price manipulations, and it comes apparent, we have the rich and the poor, with a diminishing middle class in a death spiral..
Inequality has become one of the main economic stories of our era, and according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, it’s also a driving force behind the middle class retail squeeze. Mid-range options are struggling, because their customers simply have less money, and often carry more debt. Wage stagnation and increasing costs of living have left the median family with approximately $5,500 less disposable income per year than in 2000.
“We’ve had a recovery since June 2009, and we’ve had GDP growth since then, but retail sales have been really bad," explained Brendan Duke, an economist with the Center for American Progress and author of the report The Rich Can't Save Retail. "They’re very far away from their pre-Great Recession trend. One [reason] is the fact that the GDP growth and income growth has been really concentrated at the top."
Personal consumption has dropped overall, he said, which means it hasn’t merely fled online or to urban boutique stores. The impact of that decline has also been concentrated; while most of the nation lags, the wealthiest 5% of households are fully back to their pre-recession spending habits.
Skyrocketing inequality has allowed those households to recover their spending power, while the average consumer has taken a functional spending cut over the same time period. Although the U.S. economy has rebuilt the wealth lost in the recession, it sits in fewer, deeper pockets than ever before. From a retailer’s perspective that’s a big problem, because there’s only so much shopping that any one customer will do, no matter how wealthy.
Student debt, a feature in most young people’s lives, takes on average another 7% of their income, money that would otherwise be spent.
Republicans, broke the labor unions, Reagan fired the Air Traffic Controllers, Bush set up laws to export manufacturing jobs by the 10's of thousands overseas, these jobs generally paid well, and you did not need to be an intellectual fluent in Calculus, these jobs kept money in the hands of the middle-class, but now it seems there is developing a crisis concerning the death of the middle class,
too many hikes in personal property tax, sales tax, licenses, red tape, grocery cost increases, fuel price manipulations, and it comes apparent, we have the rich and the poor, with a diminishing middle class in a death spiral..
Srila Prabhupada once said:
Therefore, in the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said that this is the incarnation of God in this age. And who worships Him? The process is very simple. Just keep a picture of Lord Chaitanya with His associates.
Therefore, in the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is said that this is the incarnation of God in this age. And who worships Him? The process is very simple. Just keep a picture of Lord Chaitanya with His associates.
