Middle class set back over last decade: report – Yahoo! Finance

Middle class set back over last decade: report – Yahoo! Finance.

Decrease in Middle America Median Networth over the past decade

Once the middle class is gone, America will be gone. What a shame…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The middle class has shrunk drastically over the last 10 years as Americans’ net worth has plunged, wages declined and standards of living slipped away, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Middle-income earners, long seen as the solid center of the country, are pessimistic and place the blame squarely on U.S. lawmakers, banks and big business, the findings by the Pew Research Center showed.

“America’s middle class has endured its worst decade in modern history,” researchers wrote.

Since 2001, median household income has fallen from $72,956 to $69,487 in 2010, the report said.

The median household net worth, which is the value of assets minus debt, dropped from $129,582 to $93,150 over the same 10-year period, according to Pew, which analyzed U.S. data along with its own survey of nearly 1,300 adults who consider themselves middle class.

Related articles

• Pew: Middle Class Poorer, Earning Less And Shrinking (npr.org)
• Shrinking Income for America’s Middle Class – Pew Research (247wallst.com)
• Middle-class income shrinks (cbsnews.com)
• The middle class falls further behind (money.cnn.com)
• Poorer, gloomier middle class voices echo ‘lost decade’ seen in new study (mercurynews.com)