Marketwatch: "This is why Americans have so much trouble saving money"

[Pluvious]

As self employed, their health insurance figure is WAY off.

But I get that this is about the mean.

Surely, Americans must be the top of the most stressed societies... I do catch myself sometimes wishing I was a Dane

Cost-estimating website HowMuch.net crunched Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers to come up with this telling chart:

https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/4236046E-EB7A-11E9-90C4-C9B81E01788B

[guillaumeb]

1. Wages have remained essentially stagnant since the late 1970s.

And THAT is the main reason that most Americans cannot save enough money to really matter.

[Johnny2X2X]

2. Wages!

In 1980 if you made $30K a year it as like making $91K a year today.

And this is not all about blue collar job either. Low level White Collar jobs have been hit hard too. I am an engineer, feel pretty happy with my career, but my income today is nowhere close to what my father made as an auto worker in the 80s and 90s if you look at "real dollars".

We have the richest country in world history, by definition Americans should enjoy the nicest lifestyle in world history. Instead American workers have been convinced they deserve less and less. Pensions are all but gone, vacations barely exist for most workers. If wages and benefits would have grown at the rate the wealth has, we'd all be doing great, the American Dream would be there for all citizens, more than ever before. Owning a home, 2 cars in the garage, maybe a small cottage, vacations every year, health care, and free college, that's what is deserved by every worker.

Instead, we let the ultra wealthy take all of it for themselves.

[bdamomma]

10. George Carlin said it best.

and he was correct.

[Johnny2X2X]

11. It wouldn't be hard to fix it

A couple rules around corporate governance and it would reverse quickly. Corporations already want to move towards stakeholder value creation over shareholder value.

[UpInArms]

3. Compare that to ceo compensation

[maxsolomon]

4. "Pensions"?

Um...

How many people have PENSIONS at their work any more?

[ritapria]

5. Worker Productivity uo 100% since the late 70's

Worker's Compensation , adjusted for inflation , flat since the late 70's

[Vinca]

6. I totally agree with you on health insurance costs. We've been self-employed for decades

and there was a time during Dubya's reign when we had to throw in the towel and go without it. My husband got a type 2 diabetes diagnosis and it went up $1,000 a month to around $1,500 and it didn't cover anything since we had a huge deductible. Thankful to be on Medicare now.

[Iwasthere]

7. In 1980 I was making $17.00 an hour as a line cook. Today a line cook is lucky to be making that muc

[inwiththenew]

8. Where are Social Security and Medicare?

That's almost another 8% of pre-tax income. Is that counted in the Federal tax?

[Ron Obvious]

9. Those healthcare costs ARE a bad joke

My wife and I spent over $1,100 a month in premiums for a crappy Bronze plan for the two of us, and that still leaves an enormous deductible so that we deducted over $25,000 in medical expenses on our 2018 taxes. Hell, my one tooth implant cost around $4,000.