Middle Class Economics

Middle Class Treated Fairly?
Who Pays for Government Safety Net
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1. Effective Corporate Tax Rate Down

2. Corporate Profits and Tax Payments Up, Effective Income Tax Rate Down Up

3. But Corporate America's Total Tax Share Down By 27%

4. Corporate Profit Share Up Lots, Wages Share Way Down Lots

Prelude: Class Structure Must Be Defined

Upper Aristocracy, Really Wealth People

Upper Middle Very Successful Professionals and Business Owners

Middle Middle Successful Professionals and Business Owners

Lower Middle Low Paying White Collar Service Workers

Lower Laborers, Part Time and Unemployed

		1. Effective Corporate Tax Rate Down
		2. Corporate Profits Up 1.2 Trillion Dollars Income Tax Payments Up 300 Billion Dollars So Corporate America Paid More Income Tax Rate Down from 29% to 19%
		3. But Corporate America's Total Tax Share Down By 27%
		Corporate Profit Share Up Lots Wages Share Way Down Lots

US Workers Contribute Much to Corporate Revenues

5-ways-americans-and-europeans-are-different/ft_16-04-22_usindividualism/

Wage "Compensation" Down About 15%

labour-share-us

US Labor Costs Are Low

More Than Most Competitors

Source

Most Foreign Companies Pay More

See Why is Poverty So Controversial?

Poverty

Workers Contributing is Down

Social Security’s main programs, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance programs (OASDI), expanded to include more beneficiaries. As American society is aging, the number of covered workers per OASDI beneficiary has steadily fallen. OASDI is facing persistent deficits and must be reformed before it becomes insolvent in 2034.http://federalbudgetinpictures.com/social-security-recipient-worker-ratio/ Editor's Note: To some degree this problem will self correct as Baby boomers die.

large and increasing share of medical costs are paid by third parties (private health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Department of Veterans Affairs, etc.) and only a small and shrinking percentage is paid out-of-pocket by consumers

stuff-keeps-getting-cheaper

2. Chart of the Day II (above) shows aggregate spending in the US on “life’s basics” — a) food, b) clothing, c) cars and parts, d) household furnishings (appliances, furniture, etc.), e) housing expenses and utilities, and f) gasoline and other energy products (data here), as a share of US personal disposable (after-tax) income (data here). Consider that back in the “good old days” of the 1950s, Americans as a group spent more than 50% of after-tax income on “food, clothing, and shelter,” and before that it was even higher. Over time, as manufactured goods have become less expensive relative to our income, the share of disposable income spent on “life’s basics” has fallen, and reached an all-time low last year of slightly below 34%. We can always find a lot to complain about, but we should be thankful that as a country we now spend less of our disposable income on “food, clothing, and shelter” than at any time in US history.


Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Allianz Global Investors. As of February 29, 2016.

http://cepr.net/publications/graphic-economics/changes-in-life-expectancy-and-social-security-s-full-retirement-age

Table 2
Life Expectancy at Age 65, Men

	Bottom Half of Earnings Distribution	Top Half of Earnings Distribution
1987	15.3 years	17.5 years
1992	15.5 years	18.5 years
1997	15.7 years	19.6 years
2002	16.0 years	20.6 years
2006	16.1 years	21.5 years

The U.S. tax system is progressive, with higher-income taxpayers facing higher tax rates