Savings: many fear job loss but few have savings and assets

[Mimosa]

An MSNBC story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38417262/ns/business-your_retirement



I get tired of having to drag up the economic stats showing the working class -both blue and lower white collar jobs- have lost at about 30% in inflation adjusted 'real dollars'. Middle class net worth is down in the negative figures all too often, and the middle class is paying a greater tax burden, proportionately, than the wealthy. (So I'm going to ommit the charts;) )Remember Warren Buffett's anecdote about his secretary actually paying more in taxes than he?

Many people have been hanging on by their fingernails for 20years or more. We have nothing left to save. It's all we can do to pay our $850 a month $10,000 annual deductible health insurance policies with the copays on drugs and office visits.

I'd love to be able to save money.


Damn outsourcing and the way our elected representatives have helped the rich become richer.

I hate what greed has done. I hate the fact that some of area where things were made in this country is now sometimes referred to as 'The Rust Belt.'

I hate that schools are cutting back on teachers and increasing class sizes.n

I hate that many rural areas are full of despair -and drugs and alcoholism- because jobs were taken away.

A few years ago I came to suspect that in the absence of a draft, employment opportunities including education and retirement benefits for young men and women had to become scarce in order to make fighting a dangerous war become a more appealing option.I may have been among the first couple of people who'd speculated about this evil possibility on D.U.

When will the greedmeister's bellies be sated with war? What will happen to our troops who do come home? Are there any plans to employ them?

[dkf]

1. Our health insurance obligation is one expense that didn't used to exist.

Nor did cell phone bills nor cable or broadband bills. There are a lot more "necessities" than there used to be a couple of generations ago.

[JVS]

2. Savings accounts don't keep up with inflation, so people had to switch to investments which...

went to hell.