Wage Crisis - The USA's new underclass
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Economic hardship in the world's biggest financial superpower For downloads and more information visit: http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=66149&bid=2 The squeezed American middle class has been at breaking point for some time. Now with politicians reluctant to raise the minimum wage and food stamps being cut, the social consequences could be devastating. Mike Doyle's plummet into the ranks of America's working poor is dramatic. He was a Wall Street trader - then the GFC clobbered his hedge fund and now he's mixing drinks at night for $2.13 an hour. Every day he takes the dawn ferry to Manhattan to try - so far in vain - to resuscitate his financial career. "I think it's a real big issue now. Every family I know, all of these people have two jobs", he tells us. As renowned economist Joseph Stiglitz points out, he's far from being alone. "Most Americans have seen their incomes stagnate or fall since 2008. Median income of a full-time male worker today is lower than it was 40 years ago." Yet despite the grind, some refuse to give up, like young mother of one Tayzia Treadwell. She works as a security guard in one of the toughest neighbourhoods in America, while raising her child and studying at business college. "I want the good life that everyone dreams when you're in school and you draw the little house and the picket fence and a dog. I just want a happy ending." But without help it is difficult to see even those like Tayzia achieving their dreams. The land of opportunity? Not anymore. ABC Australia
Comments
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1:58
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just a holdover thing to try....stop having fuckin kids...just for now. If you're poor, and you know you are, don't have a damn kid
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ok. the math looks a bit funny. 1st they put the tips in for taxes. after tax deduction, they took the tips out probably becoz she already got it in cold hard cash. so her take home cash is NOT $27.08, it's 27.08+ 168(tips) = 195.08 out of $227, they only tax her $33 bucks. and she works part time, so her hour is less than 40 hours / week. but look at the tips. it's more than double of her rate. she needs a 2nd part time job
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That leather couch is the picture of poverty.
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Reality is American corporations have built a vibrant middle class -- IN CHINA. All that wealth should have gone to the American working class. 'Free trade' is a scam. Our media, owned by global finance, has normalized economic decline. Both parties are in the hands of their corporate donors and have normalized economic decline. What do we get instead of good paying jobs with benefits? Tranny rights. Thank God for Trump, but it might be too late to save the USA.
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Pick yourself up by your bootstraps! If you're making minimum wage it's YOUR FAULT, Get a better job! Take out a loan you can't afford to go to a school to earn a degree you can't use and then grapple with crippling student debt you leeches!
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Yeah but EVERYONE tips in the US. Well, 99,2% of everyone. Talking base wages for bartenders is just weird.
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Yep, that say's it all about America , white girl gets bit and owes $250,000 bill, Oh your a "charity case"! Black or Latino girl gets bit"Oh you don't qualify" and will be dogging them for that money for the rest of their lives!
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why do they have kids if they can barely take care of themself?
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Good for Tasia despite her hardships, she is a hard worker and an inspiration.
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Was that Trump at 14:14 in center?
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can anybody tell me the name of the song at 22:00 i cannot find it
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Reagan, as well Nixon/Ford & the Bush family reversed the fortunes for the middle class started by the New Deal, WW2 & peak of the cold war (1950s/60s). Although white men had more privileges over blacks & women at the time before the Civil Rights movements, the middle class felt they're getting rich, now half a century ago they're getting poorer. +
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The US has to be second world - first world (lone global superpower) descending into third world status if you have 47% of Americans-esp 15-20% not able to afford basic needs or lives on government subsistence. The Great Recession, the 9/11 recession, ones of the early 1990s, the early 80s & stagflation of the 70s continues to haunt the middle class. +
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it's too vague to argue " I graduated college, why am I poor now?" what did you study? not all degrees are equal
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increasing wages is not the solution, productivity the only way, Chinese earn little and are very productive, 20 years ago they were not competition, new players in the world, how you solve it? isolation?
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20 and single mom. Yeah right... Quit complaining if you screwed it up
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the bargirl must have majored in the liberal arts not Stem
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Can someone please tell me how 12:03 Fits into this documentary ? LOL
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This has got to be one of the worst documentaries I've seen. Whoever did this has no understanding of economics or wages. Bartenders' wages are tips, and many do well. And the Walmart employee working 25 hours a week needs to find a fulltime job or a second job. I fully back the economically disadvantaged class, but this video is ridiculous. The woman who received $250,000 of medical care for free--what's the point this video is trying to make. If it wants to make the statement that working poor can't get the medical care subsidized, it needs to point out such cases, instead of this case where America's system did work properly.
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