Nearly half of U.S. is now poor or low income

AN ASSOCIATED PRESS story published Dec. 15 offers more evidence that America’s middle class is shrinking — and that working families are suffering. In fact, more than 146 million Americans, nearly half the population, are now classified as either poor or low income.

Citing the latest census data, the AP article noted that the middle class has been hammered by stagnating wages and high unemployment, compounded by eroding government safety nets.

The census data is alarming, but the trend is not new. Organized labor and its allies have long warned of the downward spiral of America’s middle class and the growing gap in wealth between the top one percent of the population and the other 99 percent.

Defenders of the super wealthy continue to block a fairer share of taxes on the one percent — even as the middle class dwindles and the ranks of the poor surges.