Two out of three middle class American families on shaky financial groundMore than half of middle-class families have no net financial assets whatsoever.
Only 13 percent of middle-class families are secure in their asset levels- meaning that they have enough to cover most of their living expenses for nine months should their regular income cease; 79 percent are “at risk” in this category, meaning they could not cover the majority of their expenses for even three months.
This is the middle class they’re talking about. Thus, things are even more dire for those with less income. How did things get so desperate?
And it’s about to get much worse (see next post)
Tip: C&L
Nine months??? Wow. Very few people ever have those kinds of reserves. Here’s some perspective: in 2001, only 31% had enough to get them through THREE months of joblessness. So 2/3 of the population was already at risk. By 2004, the percentage that had three months of reserves had dropped to 29%.
There’s an interesting report on the trend here that leads me to wonder if the very existence of the middle class might be tied to the exploitation of cheap fossil fuels. Being one of the middle class, I don’t much like the possibility– but being a pragmatist, I also like to know what to expect.