What ugly truths freedom brings

It's been a while since I did one of those posts with a bunch of depressing statistics on the poor and middle class...and with my Giants on the verge of being swept at home by the loathesome Dodgers I'm ready to slash my wrists anyway, so what the fuck, let's have at it:

1)  38% of Americans now are living paycheck to paycheck (Hey, Honey, we have plenty of company!), which to me doesn't bode well for continuing a strong middle class very much longer.
2)  The poverty rate in the U. S. is on track to hit its highest level (estimated to reach 15.7%--that's three out of every twenty of your fellow Americans you see walking down the street) since the 1960s.  Anyone wondering what it would be if republicans hadn't spent the last thirty years destroying all the gains made in LBJ's War on Poverty?
3)  The bottom 50% of American wage earners now own a whopping 1% of our national wealth (That's us again, Honey--even more company this time!).  That's down from a high of 3.6% 1995--naturally during a Democratic Presidency.
4)  Despite the bullshit we're fed by republicans about minimum wage increases stifling growth for small businesses, the majoity of low wage workers are employed by large corporations.  And as a recent study shows, of the top fifty low wage companies, 92% were profitable last year, and 63% had greater profits than before the Great Recession.  Apparently, as noted by Digby in the previous link, old Karl Marx was right about all that businesses exploiting workers to maximize profits stuff.  Who could have guessed? 

It's gotten so bad that even the usually tone deaf to the economic plight of the poor and middle class Detroit Free Press called out the campaigns--well, mostly Willard--to make battling poverty a bigger part of their Presidential runs.  It is, of course, a bit rich that the union busting Free Press would speak of poverty when the decline in membership in Labor Unions is probably at the top of the list for reasons why poverty is growing in America.  And, uh, good luck with getting Richie Rich Romney to mention poverty--he thinks the only thing 99% of Americans are good for is buffing his Richie Rich mobile and cutting his finely manicured lawn--for, of course, minimum wage.

All of which makes you wonder how much longer we can dangle the fruits of the American dream in the face of ordinary Americans when those fruits are looking less and less likely to come to fruition.

Peace,
emaycee