[PDF] Under Pressure The Squeezed Middle Class eBook

Author : Oecd
Publisher :
Page : 167 pages
File Size : 35,75 MB
Release : 2019-06-11
Category : Economics
ISBN : 9789264542839

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Middle-class households feel left behind and have questioned the benefits of economic globalisation. In many OECD countries, middle incomes have grown less than the average and in some they have not grown at all. Technology has automated several middle-skilled jobs that used to be carried out by middle-class workers a few decades ago. The costs of some goods and services such as housing, which are essential for a middle-class lifestyle, have risen faster than earnings and overall inflation. Faced with this, middle classes have reduced their ability to save and in some cases have fallen into debt. This report sheds light on the multiple pressures on the middle class. It analyses the trends of middle-income households through dimensions such as labour occupation, consumption, wealth and debt, as well as perceptions and social attitudes. It also discusses policy initiatives to address the concerns raised by the middle class, by protecting middle-class living standards and financial security in the face of economic challenges.

Author :
Publisher :
Page : 167 pages
File Size : 29,90 MB
Release : 2019
Category :
ISBN : 9789264982512

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Middle-class households feel left behind and have questioned the benefits of economic globalisation. In many OECD countries, middle incomes have grown less than the average and in some they have not grown at all. Technology has automated several middle-skilled jobs that used to be carried out by middle-class workers a few decades ago. The costs of some goods and services such as housing, which are essential for a middle-class lifestyle, have risen faster than earnings and overall inflation. Faced with this, middle classes have reduced their ability to save and in some cases have fallen into debt. This report sheds light on the multiple pressures on the middle class. It analyses the trends of middle-income households through dimensions such as labour occupation, consumption, wealth and debt, as well as perceptions and social attitudes. It also discusses policy initiatives to address the concerns raised by the middle class, by protecting middle-class living standards and financial security in the face of economic challenges.

Author : OECD
Publisher : OECD Publishing
Page : 173 pages
File Size : 21,55 MB
Release : 2019-05-01
Category :
ISBN : 926415034X

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Middle-class households feel left behind and have questioned the benefits of economic globalisation.

Author : Parker, Sophia
Publisher : Policy Press
Page : 183 pages
File Size : 30,34 MB
Release : 2013-01-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1447308956

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As wages stagnate but living costs keep rising, the pressure on working people grows more intense. The issue of living standards has become one of the most urgent challenges for politicians in both Britain and America. 'The squeezed middle' brings together experts from both sides of the Atlantic to ask what the UK can learn from the US. American workers have not benefited from growth for an entire generation - the average American worker earned no more in 2009 than in 1975. Now British workers are undergoing a similar experience. No longer can they assume that when the economy grows their wages will grow with it. This collection brings together for the first time leading economic and policy thinkers to analyse the impact of different policies on those on low-to middle incomes and to explain what lessons the UK can learn from America's 'lost generation'. This timely book is essential reading for everyone concerned about the living standards crisis, an issue which could decide elections as well as shaping the future for millions of working families.

Author : Matthew Stewart
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 11,81 MB
Release : 2021-10-12
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1982114207

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A “brilliant” (The Washington Post), “clear-eyed and incisive” (The New Republic) analysis of how the wealthiest group in American society is making life miserable for everyone—including themselves. In 21st-century America, the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution have walked away with the big prizes even while the bottom 90% have lost ground. What’s left of the American Dream has taken refuge in the 9.9% that lies just below the tip of extreme wealth. Collectively, the members of this group control more than half of the wealth in the country—and they are doing whatever it takes to hang on to their piece of the action in an increasingly unjust system. They log insane hours at the office and then turn their leisure time into an excuse for more career-building, even as they rely on an underpaid servant class to power their economic success and satisfy their personal needs. They have segregated themselves into zip codes designed to exclude as many people as possible. They have made fitness a national obsession even as swaths of the population lose healthcare and grow sicker. They have created an unprecedented demand for admission to elite schools and helped to fuel the dramatic cost of higher education. They channel their political energy into symbolic conflicts over identity in order to avoid acknowledging the economic roots of their privilege. And they have created an ethos of “merit” to justify their advantages. They are all around us. In fact, they are us—or what we are supposed to want to be. In this “captivating account” (Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone), Matthew Stewart argues that a new aristocracy is emerging in American society and it is repeating the mistakes of history. It is entrenching inequality, warping our culture, eroding democracy, and transforming an abundant economy into a source of misery. He calls for a regrounding of American culture and politics on a foundation closer to the original promise of America.

Author : OECD
Publisher : OECD Publishing
Page : 142 pages
File Size : 15,52 MB
Release : 2021-12-21
Category :
ISBN : 9264475893

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Thriving middle classes are the backbone of democratic societies and strong economies, but in many countries, they face mounting pressure as their economic strength is eroding relative to higher-income households. Real wages and incomes for most middle-class households have grown only very slowly, and rising expenditures have been putting further pressure on living standards.

Author : Irene van Staveren
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 13,38 MB
Release : 2021-01-18
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 3030576094

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How should we address today’s big problems, and what we can take from icons of economics past? How would John Maynard Keynes have resolved today’s debt problem, or how would Adam Smith have assessed the European carbon emission trading market? This book applies the ideas of ten renowned economists (Marx, Minsky, Keynes, Knight, Bergmann, Veblen, Sen, Myrdal, Smith, Robinson) to real world economic problems, directly or indirectly related to the causes and consequences of the 2008 financial crisis. Each chapter presents an economist, and structures the ‘problem’, the ‘insight’ (the economist’s idea), the ‘economist’ (short bio), and two ‘practices’ offering real-world alternatives. This book presents a lively and original approach that will be of interest to economists and non-economists alike, discussing key elements of an economics for a postcapitalist economy and connecting policy insights to real-world problems of today.

Author : Paul Edwards
Publisher : Thomas Nelson
Page : 574 pages
File Size : 24,91 MB
Release : 2008-01-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1418577456

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A comprehensive guide to safeguard your livelihood, income, and standard of living through the ups and downs of any economy. Most Americans, no matter what their economic circumstances, identify themselves as middle class. A recent Gallup poll showed that 63% consider themselves upper-middle or middle class. And they are feeling burned out and squeezed, under pressure to bring home more and more money just to maintain their standard of living. Middle Class Lifeboat is an answer to that pressure, a comprehensive guide to living a more stress-free lifestyle. Part I: Safeguarding Your Livelihood: profiles the 53 best jobs to have to be self- sufficient whether the economy is up or down. Part II: Safeguarding Your Income: 6 ways to extend your earnings, that don't always involve money. Part III : Safeguarding Your Standard of Living: 10 off-the-grid lifestyle choices to increase your quality of life

Author : Alissa Quart
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 31,50 MB
Release : 2018-06-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0062412272

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One of TIME’s Best New Books to Read This Summer “Brilliant—a keen, elegantly written, and scorching account of the American family today. Through vivid stories, sharp analysis and wit, Quart anatomizes the middle class’s fall while also offering solutions and hope.” — Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed Families today are squeezed on every side—from high childcare costs and harsh employment policies to workplaces without paid family leave or even dependable and regular working hours. Many realize that attaining the standard of living their parents managed has become impossible. Alissa Quart, executive editor of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, examines the lives of many middle-class Americans who can now barely afford to raise children. Through gripping firsthand storytelling, Quart shows how our country has failed its families. Her subjects—from professors to lawyers to caregivers to nurses—have been wrung out by a system that doesn’t support them, and enriches only a tiny elite. Interlacing her own experience with close-up reporting on families that are just getting by, Quart reveals parenthood itself to be financially overwhelming, except for the wealthiest. She offers real solutions to these problems, including outlining necessary policy shifts, as well as detailing the DIY tactics some families are already putting into motion, and argues for the cultural reevaluation of parenthood and caregiving. Writtenin the spirit of Barbara Ehrenreich and Jennifer Senior, Squeezed is an eye-opening page-turner. Powerfully argued, deeply reported, and ultimately hopeful, it casts a bright, clarifying light on families struggling to thrive in an economy that holds too few options. It will make readers think differently about their lives and those of their neighbors.

Author : Jeffrey M. Chwieroth
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 597 pages
File Size : 18,62 MB
Release : 2019-03-21
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1107153743

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Shows how the politics of banking crises has been transformed by the growing 'great expectations' among middle class voters that governments should protect their wealth.