The Squeezing of the Middle Class

While our foreign policy suffers in Iraq and Lebanon, prosperity at home in the US is on the decline. An article from Newsweek begins with this staggering statement:

"For the first time ever recorded, Americans owe more money than they make. Household debt levels have now surpassed household income by more than eight percent, reaching 108.4 percent in 2005, according to a May 2006 study by the Center for American Progress. Consumer debt is now at a record $2.17 trillion, reports the Federal Reserve Board and consumers cashed out a whopping $431 billion in home equity last year. "

This is because "wages have been stagnant and they're losing the battle to keep up with the cost of living" as "prices have risen in the face of a very weak labor market."

Thus the good shape that our economy is deceptive since "it's really a corporate decision where the money is going, and right now it's really going more toward corporations and CEO pay than toward increasing wages and benefits."

Other corporations, as an article in Slate reports, including high-end places like Starbucks, Whole Foods, and William-Sonoma are feeling the squeeze since even well-off consumers are "reining in spending."

At the same time, a "nationwide debt collection industry... has exploded in size and profits." The Boston Globe profiled this industry in a 4 part article series illustrating its unscrupulous, predatory practices that exacerbate those in debt along with a system (especially in Massachussetts) that is stacked up against those in debt:
"the Federal Trade Commission, which is charged with enforcing a federal law that regulates the behavior of debt collectors, has done little in the face of an explosion of consumer outrage. From 1998 to 2005, the number of consumer complaints about debt collectors soared tenfold, from 6,678 to 66,627. Yet, in the last six years, the FTC has taken enforcement action against just 10 companies."

While "this year, an estimated 20 million Americans are three months or more past due on credit card accounts alone."

This looks like a sure fire path towards recession

Those reckless Bush tax-cut haven't done anything for middle-class Americans, instead The Republican- dominated Congress made it more difficult for individuals to declare bankruptcy from lenders with the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005

This country really does need a new direction in Congress because the majority of people are suffering under the status quo.