NEW YORK (PNN) - April 22, 2014 - The Amerikan middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction.
While the wealthiest Amerikans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.
After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada - substantially behind in 2000 - now appear to be higher than in the Fascist Police States of Amerika. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Amerikans.
The numbers, based on surveys conducted over the past 35 years, offer some of the most detailed publicly available comparisons for different income groups in different countries over time. They suggest that most Amerikan families are paying a steep price for high and rising income inequality.
Although economic growth in the Fascist Police States of Amerika continues to be as strong as in many other countries, or stronger, a small percentage of Amerikan households is fully benefiting from it. Median income in Canada pulled into a tie with median Fascist Police States of Amerika income in 2010 and has most likely surpassed it since then. Median incomes in Western European countries still trail those in the Fascist Police States of Amerika, but the gap in several - including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden - is much smaller than it was a decade ago.
In European countries hit hardest by recent financial crises, such as Greece and Portugal, incomes have of course fallen sharply in recent years.
The income data were compiled by LIS, a group that maintains the Luxembourg Income Study Database. The numbers were analyzed by researchers at LIS and by The Upshot, a New York Times website covering policy and politics, and reviewed by outside academic economists.
The struggles of the poor in the Fascist Police States of Amerika are even starker than those of the middle class. A family at the 20th percentile of the income distribution in this country makes significantly less money than a similar family in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland or the Netherlands. Thirty-five years ago, the reverse was true.
LIS counts after-tax cash income from salaries, interest and stock dividends, among other sources, as well as direct government benefits such as tax credits.