A recent article in Parade shed new light on the struggle to live the American Dream. The article dated April 23, 2006, posed the question, “Is the American Dream still possible?” Parade surveyed more than 2,200 Americans, of whom 84 percent described themselves as belonging to the middle class. What they found was that more and more middle class families are feeling the pinch. To be considered “Middle Class” once meant working right up until retirement age, living well, and enjoying financial security. Today that comfortable and contented family lifestyle is more elusive than it has ever been.
“The traditional American dream is based on the belief that hard-working citizens can better their lives, pay their monthly bills, give their children a start to an even better life, and still have enough left over at the end of the month to live comfortably when they retire.”
More Americans are struggling, squeezed by rising costs, declining wages, credit card debt, labor disputes, and diminished benefits with little left over to save for retirement. The article didn’t even go into the plight of the typical 401k plan or other non-existent saving plans.
Here are some of the startling numbers from that survey. The real median household income declined by 3 percent between 2000 and 2004. The percentage of households earning $24,000 to $100.000 shrank 1.5 percent during the same period. Last year, real average weekly earnings actually fell almost one half percent. The saving rate for Americans is the lowest it has been in 73 years, while credit card debt is at an all-time high, averaging more than $9,000 per household.
In the mean time, the average cost per one year of public education (college) has exceeded $12,000, an incredible increase of more than 25 percent since 2001. A year of private university education now costs more than $29,000 on average.
More than half of all working Americans say they live from paycheck to paycheck and no mater how hard they work, they can’t seem to get ahead. Almost 35 percent of these same workers worry about losing their job. In the last five years, half of all American workers have experienced either an increase in health care cost or a cut in health care benefits.
So what are your options? You can continue to do what you have been doing and continue getting what you have been getting, or you can make a change with your own independent Agel business. You make the call.
