CA middle-class jobs shrinking
Life is good in California for the rich, who enjoy the most beautiful place on earth. And for the poor, who enjoy the country’s best welfare benefits.
Not so much for the middle class. The Times reported:
On the surface, California’s job market is booming.
The state has now recovered all the jobs lost during the recession, and done so at a faster pace than all but five states.
The growth, though, belies a troubling imbalance. The fastest job creation has come in low-wage sectors, in which pay has declined. At the high end of the salary scale, a different dynamic has taken hold: rising pay and improving employment after rounds of consolidation.
Most distressing, middle-wage workers are losing out on both counts.
“People talk about it like an hourglass,” said Tracey Grose, vice president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. “There are fewer opportunities for people in the middle.”
On top of that, California is the most expensive place to live in America. The 9.3 percent income tax rate, supposedly only on the “rich,” digs in at about $55,000 of income, barely into the middle class here. Severe government regulations on housing construction, especially by the California Coastal Commission and the LAFCOs, causing housing to cost twice to four times what it does in other states.
“California is back,” the politicians insist. Yes, if you’re a Silicon Valley billionaire. If not, then not so much.
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Had weekend breakfast at a tony winery inn located in Temecula Wine Country this past week. Gracious service out on the delightful patio among the vines. Waiter Back and forth, Bloody Mary here and refreshing ice water there, xtra butter, fair trade coffee….
Don’t tell Queeg…he will erupt!
The good wait staff personalize their existence differentiating themselves from those glassy eyed robots at corporate food joints.
The young man informed us he was a college graduate, and he and his parents sacrificed and scraped by to pay for his higher education.
-the middle class existence
It is wrong of you, Mr. Seiler, to characterize the CA State Income tax to readers in the way you do–and I have tried to tell you that, many times. If you look at the tax tables you will see that the tax liability kicks in after the various credits and deductions are taken. For a senior couple there are the added credits for advanced age, blindness, etc. And, there is a credit for Social Security tax that is paid to the IRS. My spouse and I had a gross income of approximately $97,000 last year and our State Income Tax liability was in the neighborhood of $1800. Don’t characterize this tax as something it is not. Personally, I don’t know how the state can operate on taxes like I pay–we do have over 38 million citizens and topography that is grand–not to mention infrastructure needs that are astronomical! (I wish the only problem were how to stop an egotistical billionaire from cutting it up into six pieces.)
SeeSaw: Notice I said top income tax RATE.
I didn’t say anything else.
“CA middle-class jobs shrinking”
Actually, it’s not just California. It’s the whole country.
(Except Texas, of course)
Despite the alleged “California miracle”, California’s unemployment rate remains higher than 43 other states, tied with 2.
While California just recently regained the jobs lost during the 2008 recession–after six years–Texas recovered in three years and has grown over 9%.
California is being smothered by the RAGWUS!! 🙂
You never had it so good. Your glass is more than half full, and you’re to blind to see it.
Everyone should look forward to the October stock market.
I won’t be able to, be on K2 mountain. Enjoy.
Milton— you doing K2?