There is an interesting article from 24/7 Wall Street: States Where the Middle Class is Shrinking Fastest The five are: 1.) California. 2.) Vermont. 3.) Maine. 4.) Rhode Island. 5.) Washington. California is hardly a shocker.
It is an interesting article. Maine was kind of surprising to me, but I think it is just because I am from the South. For some reason I think of people up North as being more well-off and having a larger middle class in general.
It seems that the gap between the rich and the poor is certainly getting bigger in these states. When around 53 % of all American workers make less than $30, 000 a year, this is hardly surprising. There is a phrase in the UK which describes this phenomenon perfectly - the "squeezed middle".
Not surprising to me at all. Liberal states can be nice if you are well off or poor. But the taxation and big government policies found in many of them really stifle and strangle the middle class. That's why you see so many middle class and upper middle class people from the North relocating south and west for the freer economies and lower taxation. States like Texas and North Dakota along with many southern states are really drawing in a lot of new migrants.
All of them have shocked me except California, I did not expect the rest of them to make that list, I guess things are changing drastically.
Well, middle class is about to disappear everywhere, the rich keep getting rich and the poor poorer, it's a nonsense.
