Prior to the Industrial Revolution, there was virtually no "Middle Class"; there were the Wealthy and the Poor, with little in between. The poor lived miserable subsistence lives while the wealthy had fine clothes, servants, and good food. You may have been taught that the "Middle class" was the result of Unions or Government policies, but before any of that, there was the Industrial Revolution, which resulted in massive productivity improvements. These new factories needed laborers, and although they paid a pittance compared to today, they still paid much more than you could make as a subsistence farmer. So, a massive migration began, bringing people into the cities to work in the … [Read more...]
58 Facts About The U.S. Economy From 2015 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe
There are a variety of ways to look at things and putting the pieces together is almost like looking through a kaleidoscope as we try to piece the facts together in order to get an accurate picture of the economy. Some of the pieces appear to indicate that the economy is getting better and some appear to indicate that the economy is getting worse. And just like the kaleidoscope the pieces change on a constant basis. At the moment the economy is clearly better than it was at the bottom of the crash in March of 2009 when the NYSE was near 4800. So the current levels of 10,000 looks good but... we have to remember that back in 2007 the NYSE was also at 10,000. So if we adjust 2007 … [Read more...]