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the u_s_ middle-class is the twenty seventh richest in the world alternate
has a right of about this uh... let's put up with the chart if we can the time
and as you can see here their are uh...
there are many countries where we're talking about the middle class so that
means fifty percent of the population makes more than you
and fifty percent of the population
makes the last thing you know
the u_s_ ranks
twenty
seven tossed really as at the top and we have of course luxembourg germany italy
belgium great britain the u_k_
iceland sina ports with searle and
a number of other countries
and the u_s_ is uh... is is not there it is twenty seven th on that list
why is this happening well
there's a number of different things that are holding the middle class back
that the alternet article points to you
we don't have real universal health care brightly people your people who are poor
because of having to pay for health care
we have poor uld so worst health outcomes than in most other
industrialized countries
weak labor laws where unions have been completely undermined and large
corporations have a ton of power
the minimum wage is absolutely pathetic
particularly compared to other developed nations seven twenty five an hour is
just not the living wage in most parts of this country it is not if you work
forty hours a week on that
and as i mentioned earlier in the show wall street is completely out of control
deregulation started about thirty years ago
money is gushing through the topic it is not trickling down as we've heard that
it would and higher education has become so expensive that
that people are cute students are in such a debt when they graduate
compared to other countries were higher education is basically tuition free
that you're just not likely to be able to accumulate wealth anytime soon
it favors taking
inferior jobs because you need to be making something over nothing and then
of course we have a tax structure as we talked about that favors the rich and
the corporations that they they work with
it's uh... that's what it is so for people saying hey we have all these rich
people the stock markets are doing great even though stock ownership is really
limited to two mostly just rich people lease the majority of it
it is not trickling down the u_s_ middle-class is twenty
twenty seven
in uh...
in in now wealth around the world and and there's a lot of countries are head
of the u_s_
the you wouldn't really assume would be there
right by kuwait which is just above us
yet and i mean i think a lot of people who would contest this would say
well are lower class is much wealthier then the lower class in kuwait
but um... that's a conversation we could have but let's do what i can we talk
about the middle class another was it seems like a canard right and when you
look at the numbers i mean not only does
this twenty-seventh
uh... sound
pretty bad
but when you look at the actual numbers right look actual money is a difference
between first and twenty setup it's huge