Consumer Spending Up, But Off Balance: Affluent, Not Middle Class Spending More

Los Angeles Times:

Increased consumer spending has fueled hopes that the current economic recovery will keep getting stronger, but behind the encouraging numbers is a little-noticed reality: Much of the new spending has come not from America's broad middle class but from a small slice of affluent people at the top.

Read the whole story: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[TimOregon]

11:29 AM on 05/18/2010

We need to address and pass Tier 5. Please sign and support.

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/the_99ers_need_a_tier_v_added_to_unemployment_benefits?widget_email=1

[Bushdepression]

09:56 AM on 05/18/2010

A new class of psychiatry and therapy is on the horizon,; the ex Hippie chicks guilt trips that are engendered when former young beauties with a carefree spirit and not a dime to their name suddenly find themselves trust fund grandmothers driving a $80,000 luxury cars to their book group which is reading something written by an Indian peasant.

It does raise GDP though, and makes for some hilarious disconnects between reality and perception.

[Pleroma]

10:46 AM on 05/18/2010

GDP itself creates some not-so-hilarious disconnects as well: get cancer, raise the GDP.

Your comments, though, always lift the spirits.

[Yikes11]

05:50 PM on 05/17/2010

Our emissary knows the ins and outs of the Senate and can arrange appointments with key senators. In addition, because he already has clearance, he can enter the Capital and question staffers in other offices, too. In addition to delivering the petition copies, he intends to ask questions on our behalf both in the Capital and in the 'haunts' he knows where staffers go after hours. Like I said, he's familiar with the scene! He has a vested interest in this just like we do as he has also joined the ranks of the unemployed. What he finds out will be written in the WorldNewsVine, and all together, we'll get a lot of publicity from this!



Now our part. We have to finance his trip. Many of our signers are already familiar with this online news source as they have been the single largest source of signers for us. They have written many articles about the petition and our numbers have taken a big jump every time they have done so.


Obviously, they know we don't have much money so they're only asking for $1, $2, or $5 donations to cover the printing and travel expenses. The drive for him will be about 600 miles each way. I spent a long time on the phone with him today, and I'm more than impressed with his knowledge and commitment, but we couldn't expect him to fund this himself.






worldnewsvine.com/2010/05/tier-v-99ers-unemployment-petition-readies-for-washington
-------------------------------------------

[Yikes11]

05:49 PM on 05/17/2010

Update about 'The 99ers need a Tier V added to Unemployment Benefits' on Change.org

Great news!
WorldNewsVine has come to our rescue! But we have to help. I was encountering a lot of unexpected obstacles trying to organize getting the petition to Congress, and I began to think it wasn't going to come together. People in Washington were saying they'd 'get back to me,' but even if they did, we just didn't have time for that. Next week is when the 'unemployment extension of filing deadlines' is expected to be raised in Congress, and we hope to get weeks added to Tier 4 at that time. Then Congress leaves again the next week. There's little hope of getting another bill other than that one because they are discussing such big issues before they leave.



WorldNewsVine has offered to run a short campaign to raise some money to send a person on our behalf. This person is known to them, has press credentials and is familiar with the Senate. He will bring the printed petition with 900 pages of signatures. The Senate requires 6 copies which is one of the obstacles I encountered.

[Linda from Deerfield]

05:28 PM on 05/17/2010

I guess it's for good reason that so much advertising seems aimed at a level of leisure and money that few enjoy -- most of America is being steadily transformed into tightwads.

What I don't get is why business seems stuck in that mode -- the economy used to grow through actually benefiting regular people -- but there is very little that I find worth buying --

finally replaced my sandals with the same brand that cost twice as much as cheap ones
but lasted at least 5 times longer,
bought rain barrels to save on the water bill for the garden and house plants,
caulk definitely has been paying for itself many times over,
having the Internet is worth it for researching repairs and much more,
the old car runs great and gets gas mileage so good it didn't qualify as a clunker for cash,
the old cell phone was just fine without the bells and whistles.

I'm seriously thinking that solar PV panels are probably a better investment than a certificate of deposit, but am I overlooking anything introduced in the last decade that might possibly serve to benefit us more than such a lousy amount? How far can ever more expensive education and ever cheaper clothes for the kids go toward benefiting an aging population?

Come on, oh ye leaders of business and innovation, quit conspiring to rob us and quit hounding us to pretend we're all luxuriantly rich because you know we're not.

[StupidPeopleSuck]

05:15 PM on 05/17/2010

Upper class? What country is this post about? We don't have class distinctions here in the USA. I think you mean wealthy. Just because someone is rich doesn't mean they have class. Sarah Palin in now rich, so please don't get it twisted.

[Computer Geek]

06:38 PM on 05/17/2010

fanned!

[Artos]

05:11 PM on 05/17/2010

I more often than not never believe the tripe that is being fed to us about such and such improvement in the economy. Polls, surveys and other nonsense we are being fed is all too often pumped up well out or proportion to reality. Those responsible do it for a reason. They either profit or they depend upon showing good results in order to keep their jobs. The former is usually someone from the private sector and the latter from Government. I'm not actually from Missouri but I live by their motto "Show Me", and unless you can then I don't put much faith in the baloney I hear. I will believe it when I see it.

[MeinNH]

05:01 PM on 05/17/2010

Well finally the truth...all those articles on the rise in consumer spending only relates to the wealthy...the rest of us are struggling to pay the rent, for medical and food.

[lovbug]

04:52 PM on 05/17/2010

The wealthy is hoarding all the money. And, they're making this money, not because of hardwork, but by access and the manipulation of the investment system (i.e., WallStreet). The wealthy is using our Govt. and the distraction of angry political ideologies, to create their own system of wealth and to keep the money circling among their own class.

The private sector has outsmart the Govt. Ask yourself, what have the wealthy banker, corporate ceos, investors done for America lately? Nothing!!

The American Govt. is up to it's eyeballs in debts, bailing out private companies, banks, corporations commiting illegal acts, govt. contracting, clean-up, wars, and the list goes on. Who pay for these things? the American middle class taxpayers. While the wealthy hoards money, does not reinvest in America, create global patent so they can ship jobs overseas, use tax loopholes to excape paying taxes, use corporate welfare, and use NAFTA to sell their cheaply made products back to middle class Americans. This is obscene.

But what does Americans do? Blame the govt. for things they won't stand up for, curse the govt. who is barely hanging on while they try to keep the country futile. No one wants to blame the private sector and Wall Street. It's funny that when things are good, people praise the private markets, but when they go bad they blame Governtment.

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."

[CologneCitizen]

04:14 AM on 05/18/2010

Unless you have an electorate that is able to understand complex political issues nothing will change. Your folks have been brainwashed and dumbed down for decades. This is not going to change over night. A guy like Kucinich never would get anywhere because he cannot be sold to a wider audience. Presidential elections are the mirror of the only thing that counts - money. It is not good enough. Your 2 parties are bought and paid for by the corporations. It does not really matter which party the president belongs to. The only change you will see is the change corporate America allows you to have. And for ages you are told, too much government is bad for you. The perfect system: you keep voting against your own interests because your interests are defined by corporate America. Funny but true: everybody realizing this is denounced as un-American.

[StinkyBush]

04:34 PM on 05/17/2010

"See what I told ya. Ya gotta not tax the rich so the economy can get ahead and grow, ya know blossom like a BP oil spill".

Love Dubya:(

[brt929]

04:49 PM on 05/17/2010

Are you trying to make us laugh or cry?

[StinkyBush]

09:24 PM on 05/17/2010

I was trying to make you laugh but it does want to make you cry, doesn't it?

[leevntheus]

04:33 PM on 05/17/2010

A CALL OUT FOR FACT FINDING HELP!!!!!

I can NOT find ANYWHERE on the web a chart that shows the history of the productivity rate of the USA since origin, 1800, 1850, anything at all. Every chart I find is from WWII and later.

Anyone know a secret place?

[Linda from Deerfield]

06:02 PM on 05/17/2010

No, but productivity is a measure of returns produced per hour worked, and its importance may be over-hyped. A recent "shift index" report by Deloitte shows that the return on assets for nearly every business sector has declined steadily since the 1960's (except health care, which pretty much has a captive consumer base). To me, it means that business has been automating people out of jobs at any cost, and displacing local businesses with new chain stores at any cost. I would have enjoyed seeing that measure extended further back, too.

[lovbug]

04:32 PM on 05/17/2010

That is definitely not great news because the upper upper class is only a very small percentage of the population. And, it shows that they are the only ones with disposable money to spend because the money is not being distributed to regular middle class folks. A very bad trend for America.

America is too big of a country for a serious class warfare. If only the top 10 percent is hoarding all the money, it is doomsday for America in the future. The country cannot withstand a economy that's less that robust.

[ILuvBubbles]

04:19 PM on 05/17/2010

Sarah Palins family shopping is curving the economy back up. Can't wait for some of that to trickle-down to us regular folk.

[lovbug]

04:34 PM on 05/17/2010

That's why regular folks need to wake up and stop spending their little money on stupid things like Sarah Palin's books.

[leevntheus]

03:57 PM on 05/17/2010

Well, if enough young people are out of work, have no health care, are starving, and still bear the burden of lifelong education debt, then our ALL VOLUNTARY Armed Services might be just the place for them!

Remember folks, it was more than ten years from the Great Crash to Pearl Harbor. We've already been told the economic recovery is for investors only, NOT for workers and that we should EXPECT five to ten more years of severe unemployment.

Don't you think after five years or so of living like crap, if the Mass Media (owned by the war profiteers) convince you that its finally time to get those b^by k!ll!ng mother r@ p erz in Iran, you'll jump at the chance for a warm cot and three squares a day?

The bases in Iraq are finished up, now if we can just get back on schedule in Afghanistan.

Remember the oil history of Iran. Shell, Standard (Exxon), and BP and yes even Russia (funded by Rothschilds) have been working that pimple since 1910.

Its a world economy you know. Stand in line.

[blizb]

03:49 PM on 05/17/2010

Of course, because they are the only ones with any disposable income with the emphasis on disposable.

They aren't providing new jobs with the companies they own, they are using the economy as an excuse for continuing to take excessive profits out of their companies away from their shareholders in bonuses and can easily spend away.

While the people who need jobs are taxed to the gills, while the rich escape taxes and the people who are working are taking lower paid jobs and have no disposable income to spend.

I accept that there are the wealthy and they will always be but we haven't had this much inequality in income since the Depression.

The greed has become rampant and the wealthy don't care about their country or countrymen, only about their profits and bonuses.

[lovbug]

04:45 PM on 05/17/2010

Agreed. The wealthy is hoarding all the money. And, they're making this money, not because of hardwork, but by access and the manipulation of the investment system (i.e., WallStreet). The wealthy is using our Govt. and the distraction of angry political ideologies, to create their own system of wealth and to keep the money circling among their own class.

The private sector has outsmart the Govt. Ask yourself, what have the wealthy banker, corporate ceos, investors done for America lately? Nothing!!

The American Govt. is up to it's eyeballs in debts, bailing out private companies, banks, corporations commiting illegal acts, govt. contracting, clean-up, wars, and the list goes on. Who pay for these things? the American middle class taxpayers. While the wealthy hoards money, does not reinvest in America, create global patent so they can ship jobs overseas, use tax loopholes to excape paying taxes, use corporate welfare, and use NAFTA to sell their cheaply made products back to middle class Americans. This is obscene.

[schatsie]

07:28 AM on 05/18/2010

I don't even want to consider the TRUST FUND BABIES who never work a day in their lives and as far as I can tell PAY NO TAXES because of the laws......