Two-thirds of America thinks the economy is helping the rich and hurting the working class.

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

(snip)

A poll by Pew Research Center found that 69% of Americans say the economy is helping the wealthy, while hurting the poor, those without college degrees and the middle class.

(snip)

One reason may be the stock market gains. The wealthiest 10% of Americans own more than 85% of individually held stocks, and with the S&P 500 up over 20% this year, many Americans feel that their wages and home values haven’t kept pace with the investments of the wealthy. Only 14% of middle-class households say the stock market affects their household finances.

While wages and jobs may be more plentiful, health-care costs also remain a source of economic anxiety for many households. More than half of lower-income households say they worry “almost daily” about paying their health-care bills. And health-care costs rank much higher than the “availability of jobs” when it comes to people’s household finances.

(snip)

Virtually all of the increase in positive views of the economy since the 2016 election have been from Republicans. Still, lower-income Republicans are four times as likely as upper-income Republicans to give the economy a poor or fair rating.

(snip)

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/11/americans-say-strong-economy-only-helping-the-rich.html

[LanternWaste]

1. A wide-spread idea held by all the Democratic candidates. Bernie too.

[appalachiablue]

2. K/R A college degree doesn't necessarily guarantee a good job

anymore in this crazy world.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. So true.

Damn lucky to find Minimum Wage Job unless you are plugged in.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

4. Those two-thirds are not wrong..

Because my husband had the vision to open his IBM investment account in 1981 and others over the last 20 plus years. We have weathered many ups and downs. We are very comfortable in our lives.

But many are not, and that is a problem because the Reagan, Bush, and Trump Tax cuts made things WORSE, not better. The National Debt reflects that since Reagan.

[SWBTATTReg]

5. When will these people that are stopping efforts to increase minimum wage amounts across...

either the states themselves or at the federal level realize that their businesses and the amount of sales they generate are very dependent upon their customers (us) being able to afford the damn things? Ford (the car manufacturer) realized this and thus paid his workers more pay in order for them to be able to afford the $500 cars they made.

The insane and very ineffective tax cut and jobs bill of 2017 contributed to the problem too, in that companies, awarded w/ tax cuts and the like, poured the extra cash NOT into wages and more jobs, but into buying back their shares of stock, thus leading to artificially inflating the values of these stock market assets (a bubble in other words). Inefficient being that the increases are artificial, and not done the good ol' way, by earning profits (and not incurring losses), by properly running their businesses.

What happens when the pump runs dry? The Feds are already at their limits in pumping cash into the economy to increase liquidity (Dec. 2019), and there are signs everywhere of an economic slowdown, not entirely unanticipated, being that this latest economic cycle has gone on for over 11 years (since the 2008 crash).

[zentrum]

6. Oh--But we must

...be moderate. (Sarcasm.)