Re: [Salon] Over 70% of Americans are Below the Poverty Line

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018664729/peter-temin-why-the-middle-class-is-vanishing-in-the-us
Peter Temin: why the middle class is vanishing in the US
Total wealth held last year in the United States was almost $US63 trillion, almost treble the second richest nation - China with $US23 trillion.

Despite that, one highly regarded economist says the US has regressed to "developing nation" status.

After having read this book I said to my wife, basically the USA are a failed state. This statement is independent from who is going to be the next president of the US. Donald Trump is the result of many mistakes and injustices. Joe Biden can only inherit a mess.

Yet the average income in the USA is pretty high, as are the standards in IT, finance and technology. Most Americans go to school. There is a dozen of privately financed top of the bill universities and think tanks. The military potential is still enormous. There are well-known institutions. So why a failed state?

Peter Termin is professor emeritus at MIT. His book elaborates on the question how the US have become dual economy, one for the (very) rich and one for the (many very) poor and hardly anything in between. Usually the middle class forms the backbone of economy. The answer lies back in the origin of the USA, a land op pioneers, slavery, immigration, ambition, money and power. Again, this publication is an indictment against US policy makers, more in particular against the shortsightness of the industrial sector, adding up to the ruthlessness of Wall Street brokers. Temin calls for strengthening of the public sector, education, urban planning, infrastructure, health care and so on. By doing so, he takes the risk to be labelled as a 'socialist' which has been a curse in the USA over a long time.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/peter-temin-vanishing-middle-class-pieter-lanser/
Peter Temin - The vanishing middle class.

Re: [Salon] Over 70% of Americans are Below the Poverty Line - Yes, Really.