Two career households typically bring in more revenue. They also spend less on utilities on average because there are less household members in the family during the day. Two career families often have daycare expenses, however, but these decrease as children age and attend school. Depending on the career of the breadwinner, single career families typically make less money on average than families with two working parents. Utilities and food costs could run a bit higher because more people are in the home more often than families where both parents work.
The credit card companies take this nearly free money from the government and loan it out to us as consumers at a 7 percent rate if you have a good credit standing. If you fall under the category of bad credit like most Americans they charge you 18 percent or more depending on your credit standing and how often you pay your bill. Credit card companies are entitled to a fair percentage but not the excessive earnings they receive from charging us the consumers. Lastly the spending habits of Americans are poor because almost all Americans live out of their means. With poor spending habits passed down from generation to generation, and family to family all we learn and know is how to borrow and dig a hole deeper in
It is easy to group these people together and label them all the same, but every homeless person has a story, a reason, or a problem, that has lead them to where they are today. Homelessness exists due to a lack of affordable housing, a loss of income, mental illness, substance abuse, and a combination of various other reasons. In our society, it seems that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer making the gap between these two Classes seem larger each year. The Middle class has carried this country, and helped fund assistance programs, but they can also find themselves caught without work or housing. Foreclosures have hit an all time high, and unfortunately some people were allowed to finance beyond their means and now have become homeless too.
The baby boom generation led to an economic high in the 1950s. “All history can show no more portentous economic phenomenon that today’s American market.” This quote was taken from the article, The Changing American Market. In the 1920s, the economy struggled, but there was a ton of new products that made life easier. These products included: electric vacuums, fans, toasters, washers and the greatest of them all, the Model T car. Cars were also a hot commodity in the 1950s.
Debt is something else that is very hard to overcome. Due to the fact that poor people are poor, there is less trust between them and banks. Therefore they pay more interest than many other people. High interest rates prevent people from coming out of debt. They will always have to pay more than other people even though they are the one making less money than everyone else.
America was in a convenient position as the World War One ended. The war had led to increased demand for American goods. This resulted in the rapid growth of industry. Industrial production virtually doubled in the 1920s, such as for every one fridge bought in 1921 there were 167 in 1929 or for everyone 9 million cars bought in 1919 there were 26 million in 1929. The most famous car was the T-ford motor car.
By 1890, several cities touted populations over 1 million people and by 1900, New York City was the second largest city in the world, outranked only by London. Huge population increases contributed to the poor living conditions of many urban Americans, which was characterized by filth, poverty and pollution. Economic change and growth were also evident. Mass production increased, and along with it, the availability of material goods. The nation’s workforce expanded and Record numbers of women and children joined the workforce.
In his article, “Keeping the Dream Alive,” Meacham mentions this issue in today’s economy. “The widening gap between the rich and the poor suggests the dream is becoming more elusive for more people than at any other time in our history” (Meacham 6). Income inequality has grown significantly since the 1970’s in America, widening the gap between the rich and the poor, resulting in shrinkage of the middle class. “PARADE surveyed more than 2,200 Americans, 84% describe themselves as belonging to the middle class…by international standards, they live a life of prosperity. Yet behind this prosperity is a growing unease... 39% have had cuts in their overtime, raises or bonuses… 47% say that no matter how hard they work, they cannot get ahead.
This gap has led to the decreasing of education’s quality, and the inequality in residents’ income. Income inequality has put the United States in bad shape. Because of this unfairness, the rich are getting richer whereas the rest are struggling to survive. According to Robert Frank, a New York Times writer, excessive spending by the wealthy has “made it even more expensive for middle-class families to achieve basic financial goals” (Frank; 582). The squeezed society’s neglecting of investment has put both the rich and the poor in a society with low quality infrastructure.
The income gap between the upper and lower classes is relatively easy to see when one examines the statistics. According to a USA Today entitled ‘Census: Income Gap between rich and poor got wider in 2009’," [during 2008] the top-earning 20% of Americans, those making more than $100,000 each year, received 49.4% of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4% earned by those below the poverty line," (1). Furthermore, "the wages of the college educated have grown by 22% since 1980, while the wages of high school drop-outs [have] fallen by 3%" (Thoma 1).And, if that isn't startling enough, Peter Whoriskey of The Washington Post wrote that inequality in America has reached levels, "not seen since the Great Depression" (1). The author goes on to explain that in 1975 the top .1 percent of America's earners garnered 2.5 percent of the countries income and now that same .1 percent is accountable for 10.4 percent of all income generated (1). This just goes to show the enormous growth that has been going on as the gap widens.