STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Black Friday, 23 November 2012

[Demeter]

11. THE PRAGMATIC POOR: More People Identify as Lower Class

http://www.forbes.com/sites/helaineolen/2012/09/10/more-people-identify-as-lower-class/

This week’s first communiqué on the hopelessness of the former middle class comes courtesy of the Pew Charitable Trusts, the organization which has been doing an estimable job of tracking the descent of the net worth and incomes of Americans over the past decade.

According to the folks at Pew, fully a third of Americans now admit they are either of lower middle class or flat out lower class economic status, an increase of 25% since 2008.

Even more distressing, the numbers are worse for those between the ages of 18 and 29, where almost two fifths of those polled told surveyors they considered themselves to be in the lowest economic brackets. Of course, this might well involve a certain amount of realistic thinking. Earlier this year, it was reported that half of all recent college graduates were either unemployed or underemployed relative to their credentials...