What is the squeezed middle?

Yes, that's my point; net wealth figures are meaningless. If you earn a million a year and spend a mission a year your net wealth is zero. If I earn €30,000 and save €1,000 of that then my net wealth will be higher than yours.
 
I think its largely missing the point of the squeezed middle to make comparisons between, Ireland and Sudan or someone with saving 50k. You can cherry pick all day where sweeping generalisations are invalid, or financial methodologies are flawed.

But the point is(and relevance of the US election) is how certain groups will influence govt policy, elections and even business, if they stop doing certain economic activity. Because they are genuinely financially distressed.
 
AlbacoreA said:
I think its largely missing the point of the squeezed middle to make comparisons between, Ireland and Sudan or someone with saving 50k. You can cherry pick all day where sweeping generalisations are invalid, or financial methodologies are flawed.
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The TASC report and the Irish Times fluff piece are both BS misinformation looking to further a left-wing lie. It is that sort of mis-information which has created the myth of the squeezed middle. The groups who have been most affected by the crash are the poor (bottom 10-20% income group) and the rich (top 20% income group). Those least affected are the retired and the middle income earners. We are moving from a credit bubble and public sector pay levels which were only sustainable due to the taxes from a credit fueled property bubble (which has now burst) to reality, or what passes for it here. That's all.

AlbacoreA said:
But the point is(and relevance of the US election) is how certain groups will influence govt policy, elections and even business, if they stop doing certain economic activity. Because they are genuinely financially distressed.
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The point is that lies are dangerous. Real incomes for middle and lower income families in the USA increased over the last 4 year for the first time in over 30 years. Unemployment is down, crime in down. Things are better than at any time in a generation for middle America. When you tell people lies, just like TASC and the Irish Times do, you end up with a cohort who feel disenfranchised. Emotive soundbites drown out facts and logic. These things lead to Trump and UKIP and Brexit and Marine Le Pen of the National Front in France and indeed People Before Profit and the AAA and all the reality denying nutters on the Left here.
We laugh at the Americans but we elect the Loony Left. We have some neck!
 
I think Donald Trump will bring a lot of jobs to the USA from Mexico,He could be a Sean Lemass type guy,There are factories lying idle in the USA Vacated by companies going to mexico,I know some will be suprised here, I work in Manufacturing Engineering Costing Department which has taken me to to the USA and Mexico,I was also involved in transferring manufacturing from north america to the southern states ,There are a lot of skilled people out of jobs who would have voted for Trump,I would say Trump spent more time talking to the real people who pay his wages than Hillary,Just look at the email scandal,
 
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I work in a manufacturing engineering SME here. The notion that Trump can put the Genie back in the bottle is laughable. The world has changed. Even if there was an increase in manufacturing jobs in the USA they won't be for unskilled and semiskilled people. The number of people with a 3rd level qualification working in manufacturing in the UK has more than doubled in the last 15 years. The era of manufacturing being the place to soak up unskilled people is over.
By the way, Lemass opened up Ireland to trade after decades of protectionism and reductions in real living standards.
 

How would he do what your suggesting?
 
Purple said:
Nobody is stupid enough to think a billionaire who never got his hands dirty in his life is going to be a champion of the rust belt disaffected.
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There are plenty of comments from such disaffected people suggesting this is exactly what they do think Purple. Clearly one thing this election has shown is that we here in Ireland are so far removed from life in these states that we don't really have a clue just how disaffected these people are. I'm not saying they were right to vote Trump but maybe it is a bit easier now to see why they could never vote Clinton.
 
People are on here about getting value for money,Donald showed you how it can be done,
 
Incentivised scheame for USA companies to return to USA 15% tax,Purple The new rust belt could be in a town near you ,None so deaf as those that will not hear,None so blind as those that will not see,The rust belt comment is very close to .r....t
 
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The issue is not about the States but Ireland. With respect you are guilty at only looking at the income and tax as measure of being squeezed. Its the cost of living that is squeezing the "squeezed" middle. Its could be argued that the squeeze middle are actually falling out of the middle class and and moving into lower class. Where they don't run a car, or run an old one (If they can insurance), don't have private health insurance, don't have a pension, have no savings, don't go to college, don't do to dentist don't go on holidays etc.

I'm not sure they'd call that a myth.
 
I know people who never got there hands dirty in there life, Who leave there offices everyday to talk to the people who pay there wages,Very hard to know what makes some people tick,
 
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We just had a major recession. Everybody was hit. The middle was hit less than most. The middle was squeezed less than most.
 
Purple are you saying we need to tax the top 20% more to protect them from themselves,
 
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I think a lot in Ireland don't know how disaffected many in Ireland are. Because they are not aware of it.

The media will play the populist card. So they must see that reporting about the middle increases sales. In the same way anti cycling articles will appeal to non cycling motorists.
 
The media are obviously playing up to a populist/socialist agenda. No doubt. Exactly as Trump has done. Certainly there was a certain amount of Turkeys voting for Xmas when voting for Trump. But that doesn't mean there isn't an issue here.
 
AlbacoreA /purple I spent almost a year in one of the southern states where there is very high unemployment due to companies moving to mexico,What I found was men and woman who were heartbroken , most had worked for around 20 years in companies closing and moving abroad,The company I was with moved there and were getting paid to train people who were unemployed as part of the grant for moving to this location,
These people just wanted to work and be good role model for there children ,Once the work went there was no money for the schools, Schools are paid from rates collected locally,
There are posters on here who are more right wing than Trump if they had there way they would cut the dole and we would have our own trump, I having never being out of work in my life,I am on good wages,Possibly up in the top 20%,I could earn more if I wanted to,I have no problem paying a bit more in tax ,When I read some of the posters on here I am glad we have a so called Populist Media,Long may it live,
 
The Irish economy is growing faster than any other European country. To my mind this should result in a higher standard of living for people in general terms, not selective terms. Otherwise what is the point of growing an economy in the first place?
In the US, it is supposedly in recovery for six or more years, yet clearly there is widespread disenchantment, not just Trump supporters but Democrat supporters too (Sanders). The US is in selective recovery, that is, only select segments of the population are benefiting disproportionately to the rest of the population. This cant continue without causing unrest.
 
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