Glen Beck said today that the middle class is shrinking.reason because they are moving up to highter class.?

Question

I think that the middle class is shrinking because inflation is so high. Also GAS_FOOD and everything else. Also bad economy. Not because the people of the middle class are doing better over all and moving up to UPPER MIDDLE CLASS OR MILLIONARES. DO you agree with ME or do you agree with GLEN BECK

Answer 1

I agree with you. Glen Beck  is just another right wing loud mouth spreading lies and disinformation.

A new study released Wednesday, entitled “The Measure of America,” provides a wealth of data demonstrating the profound and deepening social decay of the United States. Commissioned by the Oxfam charity and several foundations, and published by Columbia University Press, the report documents, using government figures, the dramatic decline of American society relative to other advanced industrialized countries and the mounting social disparities within the US.

In terms of the human development index, the United States has fallen from second place in 1990 (behind Canada) to 12th place. This decline continued through both the Clinton and Bush administrations, with the US falling to sixth in 1995, ninth in 2000, and 12th in 2005.

In certain respects, the decline is even worse. The US is 34th in infant mortality—with a level comparable to Croatia, Estonia, Poland and Cuba. US school children perform significantly below their counterparts in countries like Canada, France, Germany and Japan, and 14 percent of the population, some 40 million people, lack basic literacy and number skills.

Of the world’s 30 richest nations, which comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States has the highest proportion of children living in poverty, 15 percent, and the most people in prison, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the whole population. With five percent of the world’s population, the US has 24 percent of the world’s prisoners.

The report notes: “Social mobility is now less fluid in the United States than in other affluent nations. Indeed, a poor child born in Germany, France, Canada or one of the Nordic countries has a better chance to join the middle class in adulthood than an American child born into similar circumstances.”

In overall life expectancy, the United States ranks an astonishing 42nd, behind not only Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and all the countries of Western Europe, but also Israel, Greece, Singapore, Costa Rica and South Korea. The US spends twice as much money per capita on health care as any of these countries, but its citizens live shorter lives.

Two principal contributing factors were identified in the report—the epidemic of obesity, a disease primarily of poverty and miseducation, and the lack of health insurance for 47 million Americans. The report also noted that homicide and suicide are among the 15 leading causes of death in America.

The health crisis in the United States was underscored by a second report, issued Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research group based in New York. This study found that 75 million people are either uninsured or under-insured, one quarter of the population. Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, focused on the rising cost and diminishing availability of health care. “The central finding is that access has deteriorated,” she said.

A major factor is the immense administrative costs incurred by private insurance companies which spend billions of dollars to avoid paying claims. Much insurance company profit gouging is masked as “administrative” expenses as well. Administrative costs take 7.5 percent of US health care spending, compared to 5 percent in Germany and Switzerland, which also have private health insurers, and 1 percent or less in countries like Canada and Britain that have government-run insurance systems.

Assessing 37 separate healthcare indices, the Commonwealth study found that even in those areas where there was some improvement in absolute terms, other countries had improved by a far greater amount, pushing the US further down the table. For example, the US reduced the number of preventable deaths for people under 75 from 115 to 110 per 100,000 over the past five years. However, other countries, led by France, Japan and Australia, did much better. The US is now last among developed countries in this measure, having just slipped below Ireland and Portugal.

The Measure of America report also documents the widening social gulf within the United States, particularly in geographical terms, as it breaks down the census statistics to provide a table ranking all 50 states and all 438 congressional districts. The report greatly understates the degree of income inequality since the US economic census counts only wage and salary income, leaving out dividends, interest, capital gains and business profit, the principal forms of income for the upper class. But even with these limitations, the findings are devastating.

The executive summary of the report notes that “the average income of the top fifth of US households in 2006 was almost 15 times that of those in the lowest fifth—or $168,170 versus $11,352.” The top one percent of households possesses at least one third of the national wealth, while the bottom 60 percent possess just 4 percent of the total.

The authors observe: “Growing inequality in income distribution and wealth raises a profound question for Americans: Can the uniquely middle-class nation that emerged in the twentieth century survive into the twenty-first century? Or is it fracturing into a land of great extremes?” While not drawing any conclusion, they admit, “the answers to these questions will determine ... the future of America.”

The silence of the media was matched by the silence of the Democratic and Republican candidates for president. Neither Obama nor McCain made mention of the findings, although both have made photo-op appearances in poverty-stricken areas like eastern Kentucky, New Orleans and inner city Detroit.

In that context, it is worth pointing out that Obama’s campaign is making little effort in the five most impoverished states, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and West Virginia. The last four have been virtually conceded to the Republicans. The Obama campaign hopes for a heavy turnout among Mississippi’s large black population to vote for the first major party African-American candidate.

In fact, neither party is able to advance any policy to address the vast decay of American society. The Measure of America and Commonwealth Fund reports are the latest in a series of studies that depict a society—ravaged by poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, ill health and inequality—that is going backward. The sclerotic two-party system cannot provide any answer to the social disaster because it is a corrupt instrument of the financial aristocracy that is plundering the country to pile up ever-greater wealth for itself.

Answer 2

I heard a radio report from AP  this week that stated that since the year 2000 that the average American income has been reduced by $1,200.00. During the same period the average costs required to live have been raised by an almost unbelievable $4,600.00. My opinion is that you are correct and Glenn Beck is just another right wing tool.

Edit: to those of you that point out that Glenn Beck would not make statements on his show without research to back it up. I also heard Rush Limbaugh forward this same argument some time ago.Yes I agree that neither of these members of the professional right wing brainwash machine can afford to make statements without having some kind of research to back it up.You can find evidence to support any argument even if the argument after closer scrutiny requires more evidence.

I am reminded of a statement given to me by one of my mentors many years ago. "Numbers never lie,but liars use numbers."

way to go justgoodfolk

Answer 3

Observing Glen Beck both on radio and television, he is not one to blurt out something without proper and adequate investigation of what he's talking about. And I'm of the opinion he is a fair and open minded man, methodical in his reporting and, does not appear to be biased or agenda-driven.  Given that, I would really have to agree with him as opposed to you. No offense (Unless you can prove otherwise.)

Answer 4

The middle class is shrinking because many are sinking into poverty...Glenn Beck is a self absorbed idiot...if he starts crying talking about his alcoholism one more time I will scream...

Answer 5

You are correct. But here's a hint. If you want to disprove the claims of jackasses like Beck, calm down and get the evidence.

Here's the key: according to the economic figures (this is from the US Bureau of Labor statistics) real wages in the US have not risen for almost 8 years.  Real wages are he actual earnings after you adjust to factor out inflation.

So: if real wages have not incresed, then Beck's claim is clearly nonsense.  For the middle class to be "moving up" their earnings would have to incres--but those earnings have not incresed.

Answer 6

I want what Glenn Beck is smoking.

We won't have a middle class with morons like that leading the way.  Wages haven't kept up with inflation and foreclosures are up as much as three hundred percent in some places.

There are For Sale signs up all over the place and it takes forever to sell a home.  Joblessness is up and everyday businesses announce further layoffs.  Good jobs too, in banking and finance, jobs that pay well and won't be coming back.

Even banks are failing and when a company announces its losses are ONLY nine billion.....their stock goes up.

Those are not the signs of a rising middle class.

Answer 7

Glen Beck lied.

Many more people are going down than up.

Answer 8

He stated that because government figures on income show that the proportion of US "poor" has not substantially changed, that the proportion of "rich" is increasing, and that the proportion of "middle class" is getting smaller. Therefore, the middle class must be going somewhere... logic says it is that they are becoming richer. How else would you explain it?

BTW... Beck has a large cadre of researchers. He NEVER makes a claim without plenty of proof to back up his statements. So don't just dismiss him out of hand, because it doesn't meet with your stereotype of what is going on in the country.

Edit: So you and your other narrow-minded Libs only accept statistics... when they support your agenda. Hmmmm! Now I understand.