Personal income for American worker – Median personal income for those working in America is much less than you would think
I’m struck by how many Americans think that wages in the United States are off the charts. The typical American worker is pulling in about $26,507. At least this is the median personal income in the United States. This works out to be about $500 per week which doesn’t equate too much especially given the incredibly high cost of living. The recession has taken a big chunk out of the paychecks of most Americans but this trend has gone on even prior to the recession. Personal income has been falling for a very long duration in spite of the 2000s where most of the wealth came from leveraging large amounts of debt. With the middle class being squeezed out personal income has taken a solid jab over the last decade. It is much harder to be part of the middle class when personal income is being eaten up by inflation and lost wages. Below is a breakdown of personal income in the United States:
Source: Census data, 25 years and older, Wikipedia
Does this seem high or low to you? Trying to get by on $500 a week isn’t exactly a walk in the park especially given the cost of items like food and healthcare increasing much faster than inflation.
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College majors with the highest earning potential. 2012 college major with highest paying degrees.
Choosing a college major is a big deal for most prospective students. After all, with colleges now routinely costing $40,000 to $50,000 a year for selective private institutions students should be asking what degrees are worth it. Look at recently released data for college majors and we find some interesting although not ground breaking data. For those that plan to pursue college majors with low payouts, it is probably worth your time to consider how much student loan debt you want to saddle yourself before pursuing that degree. As you should know, student loan debt is one of the most difficult forms of debt to discharge even in bankruptcy. Your wages are garnered, Social Security can be stifled, and forget about ever seeing a tax refund. So let us take a look at the top earning college majors for the recent year.
Top earning college majors:
Source: Georgetown University
No surprise that the sciences and engineering have the highest payouts with business majors doing well much more so with graduate level degrees. With rising tuition students should be asking what college degree has the highest earning potential especially if you are going into massive debt for the degree.
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New Hampshire Primary 2012 – Mainstream press focusing on everything except economy.
I don’t really have a horse in this race but watching the mainstream press cover the current election is like watching an exercise of avoiding the most important. The economy is obviously the most important item for most Americans right now. All other issues take a major back seat. Today reports were coming out highlighting every other storyline except the reality that things are still very bad for most Americans. They never mention that 1 out of 6 Americans are on food stamps and many others are underemployed. Many are landing jobs but in lower paying fields. A big hit when household income drops from say $70,000 a year to $30,000. This takes a big hit to the wallets of Americans. Yet most of the New Hampshire Primary has been a sideshow to what is most important. What can you expect from a press that has failed to analyze why the middle class has been stripped bare?
Take a look at the current polling results in the New Hampshire 2012 Primary:
Let the circus begin.
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