A report published in the Tampa Bay Times on January 27, 2015, which sourced a report from the Alliance for a Just Society, put it all in perspective. The report was quite detailed and is sad reading for anyone who believes he or she is still a member of the middle class. Sadder yet for those who still believe there exists a middle class in the USA.
Here is the breakdown for Florida:
61% of job openings pay less than the living wage, $16.98/hour, for a single adult.
90% of job openings pay less than the living wage, $30.43/hour, for a single adult with 2 children.
54% of job openings pay less than $15/hour.
176% increase in income between 1997 and 2012 for the top 1% of wage earners.
12% decrease in income between 1997 and 2012 for the bottom 99% of wage earners.
$34,387 was the average income of the bottom 99% of wage earners in 2012.
$1,488,367 was the average income of the top 1% of wage earners in 2012.
4th is Florida's rank among states with the largest inequality between the top 1% and the bottom 99%.
We can wish for Jacob Marley to visit the 1%. We can pray that the Ebeneezer Scrooge's of the world will witness Christmas' past, present, and future. But, unless we stop listening to the voices of the Koch and Walton families, and begin actually looking at our paychecks' ability to pay for our basic expenses, the rich will grow filthy rich and the poor will retrograde to dirt poor.
From my perspective we are as bad off economically as most were during the Great Depression. The only difference is that cable TV and the Internet have replaced the Busby Berkeley musical as the primary weapon used by the 1% to keep our minds off our troubles.
