America We Need A Raise

America's Middle Class is not on the road to recovery that Politicians, economists, and the media would like you to believe. On the surface the numbers reported are very convincing. The unemployment rate went under 6.0 percent in 2014 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Indexes hit all-time highs in early 2015. Consumer spending for the 4th quarter of 2014 rose at its fastest rate since 2006 while the economy grew at a rate of 2.4 percent. Yet, like the dinosaur, the middle class is stuck in a tar pit and headed toward extinction. Middle class income continued to shrink while the prices of commodities and services grew. America’s median household income of $51, 900 has remained unchanged for 26 years. Higher paying middle class skilled jobs have been replaced with low paying retail and service work. The number of Americans living in poverty in 2013 was 48.7 million, or 15.5%. Seventy-five percent of Americans do not have enough savings to cover six months’ worth of bills. In this election season, politicians seeking your vote will talk about middle class struggles, even make promises to help. But 35 years of failed and harmful policies have decimated the middle class and its aspirations for a better tomorrow. All is not lost, we can fix this. In this book I offer twelve remedies, which if implemented, could vastly improve the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans today.