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Nonsense. Plenty of countries have not seen anywhere near the rise in inequality that America is witnessing, but is exposed to the same globalization and technology as everyone else.
You might want to fact check before saying things like that.
The UK just voted to exit the EU. Income and wealth stratification among the working class was certainly a root cause for Brexit.
Here are the top-10 for Gini coefficient for wealth distribution. All the first world countries are seeing it in huge amounts. The US is the wealthiest country on the planet so it has the most wealth stratification.
U.S.A. — 80.56
Sweden — 79.90
U.K. — 75.72
Indonesia — 73.61
Austria — 73.59
Germany — 73.34
Colombia — 73.18
Chile — 73.17
Brazil — 72.86
Mexico — 70.00
If you look at after-tax income instead of wealth, the US also leads the way (except for Chile) because it has the lowest tax rates. Pre-tax, there are a bunch of countries ahead of it including many of the European countries. In absolute terms, Ireland, the UK, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy are less equal than the United States. This is a worldwide issue.
Its just another screening tool. they might find something they like or something that be less than ideal. I've had to take them since the 80's no big deal
As a previous poster has said, try doing side jobs or starting your own business.
If you don't want to follow corporate America's rules, then don't play in their sandbox, make your own!
Why not work to change those rules? 90% of new businesses fail so creating your own "sandbox" is clearly not a viable option for most. You don't have to take any crap they throw your way and you're fully entitled to advocate for change.
You might want to fact check before saying things like that.
The UK just voted to exit the EU. Income and wealth stratification among the working class was certainly a root cause for Brexit.
Here are the top-10 for Gini coefficient for wealth distribution. All the first world countries are seeing it in huge amounts. The US is the wealthiest country on the planet so it has the most wealth stratification.
U.S.A. — 80.56
Sweden — 79.90
U.K. — 75.72
Indonesia — 73.61
Austria — 73.59
Germany — 73.34
Colombia — 73.18
Chile — 73.17
Brazil — 72.86
Mexico — 70.00
If you look at after-tax income instead of wealth, the US also leads the way (except for Chile) because it has the lowest tax rates. Pre-tax, there are a bunch of countries ahead of it including many of the European countries. In absolute terms, Ireland, the UK, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy are less equal than the United States. This is a worldwide issue.
No its not. The sharp increase in inequality is not seen in other developed countries like Germany, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Switzerland etc. They are subject to globalization and technology as much as anyone (actually much more than the US). The US income inequality story is a designed policy. Its not some random event. The donor class buy politicians in order to gain favors at the expense of the rest of the population. Some ways this is done is through weakening of unions, erosion of the minimum wage, weakening anti-trust legislation, deregulation of the financial industry and anti-worker trade/investment deals. Among other things. The US has a system of legalized bribery not seen in most other civilized countries.
Its ridiculous to compare "after tax income" in countries that actually spend taxes on quality of life of its citizens. In the US, people have to spend that after tax income on health care, education, retirement savings etc etc, which is part of the taxes in the countries you compare the US with.
That's the biggest irony of all!! The wages are SOOOO freakin' low relative to cost of living that even working a "McJob" or "any job" is no guarantee you will stay off welfare. So much for "work or starve" meme, nowadays you can literally work 160+ hours a month and STILL starve w/ rent, insurance, gas, utilities, etc gobbling up such a huge percentage of take-home pay
The quality of life of today's workers is a far cry from the previous generations who had life on EZ mode (by comparison) and could afford a giant house, late-model car, full-size family on "any job" and pretty much straight out of high school. I don't recall the last time I saw a large sq ft, clean, move-in ready house in a safe neighborhood selling for $50k or less? Or how about a brand-new car for $5000? Or how about $1000/year college tuition?
Plenty of these low-level Walmart and McDonald's workers collect welfare/food stamps on the side because they simply wouldn't be able to survive AT ALL on their $8/hour wage alone. The fact that a lot of these big corps such as Walmart even "instruct" and "coach" their min wage workers on how to apply for welfare is tacit acknowledgement from them that it's impossible to survive on the wage they pay.
This is the sad reality. Everything is so exspensive now.
The cheapest move in ready condition house I have seen in my area is $135,000. Mortgage companies require your income to be 3X the cost of the home. You income must be $45,000 a year to afford that entry level 2 bedroom 1 bath home that was built in 1968.
A crew member at McDonald's or Walmart cannot afford that house. Only the actual store managers of McDonald's can afford that house and the assistant/store managers of Walmart can afford it and they will still be living pay check to pay check to make the mortgage on that house considering the other necessary exspenses.
The cheapest brand new car on the market costs at least $15k for the bare bone most basic car on the lot. If you follow the extremely conservative finiancial advisors you should not spend no more than 10% of your annual income on a car purchase. So you have to be making $150k a year to purchase a base model Corolla with zero features according to the finiancial experts.
I got grilled on the personal finance forum for purchasing a 2014 Scion tC for $20k on a $50k salary. Spending 40% of my salary on a car was a poor finiancial decision according to them.
Due to the cost of everything a McJob doesn't pay enough for you to live in $450 a month apartment in the bad part of town nor does it pay enough for you to drive anything more than a $1500 car. I guess McDonald's workers can only afford to drive a yugo.
This is the sad reality. Everything is so exspensive now.
The cheapest move in ready condition house I have seen in my area is $135,000. Mortgage companies require your income to be 3X the cost of the home. You income must be $45,000 a year to afford that entry level 2 bedroom 1 bath home that was built in 1968.
A crew member at McDonald's or Walmart cannot afford that house. Only the actual store managers of McDonald's can afford that house and the assistant/store managers of Walmart can afford it and they will still be living pay check to pay check to make the mortgage on that house considering the other necessary exspenses.
The cheapest brand new car on the market costs at least $15k for the bare bone most basic car on the lot. If you follow the extremely conservative finiancial advisors you should not spend no more than 10% of your annual income on a car purchase. So you have to be making $150k a year to purchase a base model Corolla with zero features according to the finiancial experts.
I got grilled on the personal finance forum for purchasing a 2014 Scion tC for $20k on a $50k salary. Spending 40% of my salary on a car was a poor finiancial decision according to them.
Due to the cost of everything a McJob doesn't pay enough for you to live in $450 a month apartment in the bad part of town nor does it pay enough for you to drive anything more than a $1500 car. I guess McDonald's workers can only afford to drive a yugo.
Those people are outright delusional, if everyone is "rich" and "everything is great" than why are almost 50 million Americans on some form of government assistance? The economy is NOT "everything is fine", Wall Street numbers on a computer screen =/= main street America reality.
The reality is most folks make $50k or less.... while cars average $15-25k? While a DECENT house starts at $200k? A college education (to get a good job), will set you back $20-40k?
$150k jobs?? Not in this economy
10% of income on a good car?!? Good luck with that unless you're rich or clearing $300-500k a year
What planet do these "personal finance experts" live on?? Certainly not Earth. Essentially what they said is "let them eat cake".
I have been asked to take outrageous online personality test. These supposed "menial" jobs are not easy to obtain anymore.
Many of these online job application websites are not really about finding people to fill jobs, they are about gathering personal information to put into massively huge databases to sell to whoever pays the price.
You are giving a lot of personal information away to who-knows-where.
Back in the 90s, when outsourcing was first getting started, the massive labor-selling companies were publicly talking about what it would be like to have millions of workers in their databases, and being able to put their employees into companies' work environments all over the world.
I'm not saying you won't get a job filling out on-line applications, just that filling jobs is a secondary purpose of those websites. If you look at a lot of the service-sector jobs, you will see that the workers are usually from the same demographic group, which leads me to think that most of the jobs are filled by friends and family, or third-party contractors (who frequently discriminate in favor of their countrymen), rather than anonymous strangers from a website.
I suspect that for those low-wage, menial jobs, you might be better off networking and going door-to-door.
I think the problem is many people want someone to give them a job. Try watching a movie like Grapes Of Wrath on you tube. You think you have it bad? Forget a job and concentrate on making money. Fight for the lifestyle you want to live. That's the American way. Find a way.
No its not. The sharp increase in inequality is not seen in other developed countries like Germany, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Switzerland etc. They are subject to globalization and technology as much as anyone (actually much more than the US). The US income inequality story is a designed policy. Its not some random event. The donor class buy politicians in order to gain favors at the expense of the rest of the population. Some ways this is done is through weakening of unions, erosion of the minimum wage, weakening anti-trust legislation, deregulation of the financial industry and anti-worker trade/investment deals. Among other things. The US has a system of legalized bribery not seen in most other civilized countries.
Its ridiculous to compare "after tax income" in countries that actually spend taxes on quality of life of its citizens. In the US, people have to spend that after tax income on health care, education, retirement savings etc etc, which is part of the taxes in the countries you compare the US with.
No, they have the inequality problem too. It's global. Their politics also reflects economic anxieties and complaints about immigrants. It's also present to even greater extremes in developing countries like India or Thailand, but our news doesn't cover that. Asia
The U.S. does have more extremes than our European & former commonwealth colleagues (Canada, Australia) but the principles apply across all the industrialized counties. The U.S. does have a safety net & welfare system, but it's more of a mish-mash and less coordinated & efficient compared to them.
The U.S. does not have national health care, that is the big difference, as you say. It's a little easier to be unemployed if you can at least go the doctor.
I take my chances with a sales job before going minimum or very low wage jobs.
Depends on the job market. I live in a beach resort area. During the season there are signs everywhere and no trouble getting hired. Off season forget it. Even getting a job selling used cars is hard.
The U.S. does not have national health care, that is the big difference, as you say. It's a little easier to be unemployed if you can at least go the doctor.
it's a little easier to be unemployed if you have savings to fall on. Europeans general save more of their income as well.
I kind of see the european tax system as a "forced" savings for europeans, because they "can't do it themselves?" Not much different than buying a house and using the mortgage as a "forced" savings. neither is a real "savings", but if needed, there is some money there for people to draw on. the difference in tax rates between europe and american would be the "equity" that europeans have with their governments.
If americans did the same, saved the difference between the tax rates, they wouldn't have such a hard time with unemployment either. with about 20% difference in tax rates, for people making $50k, they could put aside $10k/year to fund their own "safety" net. Start with $10,000 and retire a millionaire - MarketWatch.
But a lot of people just don't invest/save as much as they should. And then save anything "extra" after that and they would be pretty set for retirement as well.
maybe I'm just talking crazy after a day of bbq and nice drinks
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The wages are SOOOO freakin' low relative to cost of living that even working a "McJob" or "any job" is no guarantee you will stay off welfare. So much for "work or starve" meme, nowadays you can literally work 160+ hours a month and STILL starve w/ rent, insurance, gas, utilities, etc gobbling up such a huge percentage of take-home pay 
Even getting a job selling used cars is hard.
