Dear Editor:
Thriving or barely surviving in Wisconsin? Here are some sobering facts from several reports.
The ALICE Report is an acronym which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed Wisconsinites. The ALICE report reveals the struggles our families, neighbors, and co-workers experience on a daily basis who work hard, earn above the federal poverty level, but not enough to afford a basic household budget.
Over a third of ALICE households, 670,992, do not earn enough to cover the basic needs of housing, childcare, food, healthcare, transportation.
- A. In 2017, another 661,565 households lived below the official poverty rate. The poverty rate in 2016 had increased and is at its highest level since the Great Recession. The poverty rate for children rose to 12%. Children are now the poorest segment of the population.
- Most jobs pay less than $15 an hour. The minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and hasn’t been raised since 2009.
- Wisconsin’s middle class is shrinking as people fell out of the middle class to a lower tier from 2000 to 2014.
- Wisconsin’s tax system benefits the wealthiest individuals and corporations. The average tax cut in 2017 for the top 1% was $10,015 while individuals in the lowest 20% received about $175.
- Income inequality in 2017 was at its highest level since the Great Recession.
- Wages remain stagnant. The average worker has received an annual raise of three cents an hour since 1979.
- The suicide rate in Wisconsin is higher than the national average and has increased 25.8% from 1999 to 2016.
- Wisconsin lost 500 dairy farms in 2017. These losses impact farmers and their families, the local communities, and the state as a whole.
Do we care enough about our fellow Wisconsinites who are not thriving to vote for a change of direction on November 6th?
Joyce Luedke, Rothschild
Editor’s note: The views of our readers are independent of this newspaper and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wausau Pilot and Review. To submit a letter, email editor@wausaupilotandreview.com or mail to P.O. Box 532, Wausau, Wis., 54402-0532.
You are not making any sense!
“The average worker has received an annual raise of three cents an hour since 1979.”
“Do we care enough about our fellow Wisconsinites who are not thriving to vote for a change of direction on November 6th?”
To my recollection since 1979 we voted left & right, black & white. What makes you think it is going to change this time?
You want change? Liquidate 80% of useless government. Or you can get a government job and all of the above “ALICE” will not apply to you.
The letter writer listed facts that should concern all citizens and they make sense and a serious impact on our society…
In 2017 661,565 households lived below the official poverty rate.
highest level since the Great Recession.
poverty rate for children rose to 12%.
Most jobs pay less than $15 an hour.
minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and hasn’t been raised since 2009.
Wisconsin’s middle class is shrinking
Wisconsin’s tax system benefits the wealthiest individuals and corporations.
average tax cut in 2017 for the top 1% was $10,015
while individuals in the lowest 20% received about $175.
Income inequality in 2017 was at its highest level since the Great Recession.
Wages remain stagnant.
suicide rate in Wisconsin is higher than the national average and has increased 25.8% from 1999 to 2016.
Wisconsin lost 500 dairy farms in 2017. These losses impact farmers and their families, the local communities, and the state as a whole.
“You want change? Liquidate 80% of useless government.”
So would that be the military, Congress, education, health care medicare, medicaid, veteran administration, transportation. immigration, federal, state, local???
“Over the last decade, fund managers who oversee the pensions of the nation’s teachers, firefighters, police and other government workers have doubled down on an investment strategy that has cost U.S. taxpayers at least $600 billion, possibly more than $1 trillion, investment data and calculations by Yahoo Finance found. Because pensions are guaranteed, the underperformance has hit taxpayers in the form of budget cuts for schools, hospitals and libraries and decreased spending on infrastructure, health care and other public projects.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wall-street-managers-cost-americans-600-billion-past-decade-134658282.html
Liquidate these exclusive pensions and have your own 401k, Roth IRA, just like the hard working “ALICE” tax payers that are feeding this exclusive club at the expense of their own retirement. Same thing goes for your exclusive healthcare club. Just like all tax payers that are subsidizing your exclusive Cadillac healthcare while they are buying extreme catastrophic plans. Buy your own healthcare on the Obamacare marketplace that was created for the “ALICE”s. I am not sure what makes government employees special from the rest of the population?
Ron?
“I am not sure what makes government employees special from the rest of the population?”
More education and training, longer service on the job, the vetting and hiring standards, and dedication to the community!
So teachers, judges, firefighters, police officers, OC, nurses and doctors, and the highly skilled and educated department heads and office staff get things done and they do it with the limited support of the state legislature!
“get things done and they do it with the limited support”.
As in wasting $1 trillion to keep their arrogance and entitlements.
A basic video of “things done” and “limited support”
PragerU…. not a university, a serious right wing conservative outlet, five minutes to solve serious problems, no thanks Ron… I have more sense than to sell out to Prager…
feel free to read these sources… won’t be a cartoon and might take longer than 5 minutes… but then you can manage Ron…
https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/prager-university?utm_term=.fb0xY00RG#.iaX8N44yw
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/06/07/prageru’s-influence
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/inside-right-wing-youtube-turning-millennials-conservative-prageru-video-dennis-prager/
https://www.uspsoig.gov/blog/be-careful-what-you-assume
The truth will set you free!
I think we all agree that the middle class has been shrinking. Its not shrinking from the top down, but from the bottom up. Every time the min. wage is increased, the rest of us never see a wage increase. Prices increase, and now those who had worked to get ahead are back to square one.
I feel the min. wage should be cut or dropped all together. When I was working min. wage, I wanted to better myself. Go back to school, get a better job. I had to work for it.
Manufacturers and the IT industry can not find enough workers. These are good paying jobs. Instead of flipping burgers, they can get a job they can be proud of, and raise there families.