Standback & Standby
Stagnant Wages: The Beggaring of Us All
By Richard W. Wise ©2026
The current cost-of-living crisis – defined by the soaring cost of essential services – is not the result of excessive consumer demand or short-term inflation shocks. It is the product of decades of trade and industrial policy choices designed by the oligarchy to weaken middle- and working-class wage growth.
Based on a Forbes article "The Wage Crisis Of 2025: 73% Of Workers Struggling" by Bryan Robinson (published January 24, 2025), a 2025 Wage Reality Report now revealed significant financial distress among U.S. workers.
Key Findings:
73% of Respondents Struggling: Nearly three-quarters of workers are struggling to afford anything beyond basic living expenses.
Essential Costs: 12% of workers often cannot afford basic living expenses, while 24% struggle to cover daily essentials.
Savings and Debt: Only 6% of workers are able to save for the future, and 28% have taken on debt to cover living expenses.
Primary Concerns: Key financial pressures include rising housing costs (55%), increasing prices for daily essentials (41%), and salaries failing to keep up with inflation (34%).
Relocation: 29% of workers have moved to lower-cost housing or areas to handle financial strain.
Workplace Impact:
Low Morale: 55% of workers believe their salary is lower than it should be, and only 4% feel truly valued in their roles.
Employee Actions: 44% of workers sought financial help from friends or family, and 38% relied on community or government aid.
The article notes that this financial crisis affects workers across all income levels due to stagnant wages and rising costs. Median wages flat since 2000 while costs have skyrocketed. 1% wage growth has topped 2X middle class wage growths) and 3X (working class wage growth). READ ON
In the previous post, I discussed Trump's plan to reduce or eliminate Medicare, Medicaid and what little remains of the social safety net with the objective of beggaring the working and middle classes. This is not a new idea or a new plan, it has been the key strategy of the rich at all times and in all places and if they are able to retain control, it will be our fate as well. Notice I said retain, not gain.
Why the outsized focus on inflation. Simple, it's a big shiny object that allows the politicians to throw up their hands in frustration and pretend that there is nothing they can do. It allows the oligarchy to hide the real political actions and implement their true agenda of greed.
Consider the minimum wage set by Congress at $7.25 in 2009. Despite all the Republican whining about how $15 (now the state average minimum) will cost jobs. The $15 increase is no increase at all. In 1968 the minimum wage was $1.60. When adjusted for inflation, it is equal to $15.60 in today's dollars—a 50 cent increase in 57 years. Incidentally, 1968 marks the beginning of the decline in industrial union membership.
Look into your crystal ball and gaze back into history. Site, if you are able, a single society or civilization which was not composed of a vast numbers of the poor ruled over by a tiny elite composed of some combination of nobles, soldiers and priests. It was not until the birth of The Enlightenment that anyone found that objectionable.
Thomas Jefferson, the author of our Declaration of Independence was one of the first to make the practical suggestion that the people, not kings, dictators or military leaders, should determine how a society should be ruled.
Discussions of the affordability crisis have focused on the effects of inflation. Inflation, however, is not the main cause of our current problem. The main cause is wage stagnation. That's right! The working class has not had a pay increase in twenty-five years. Working class wages have remained almost flat since 2000 while the those paid the 1% have increased at three times that rate.
Is it any wonder that people are struggling as Forbes found in a 2025 study: READ ON
73% of Respondents are struggling: Nearly three-quarters of workers are struggling to afford anything beyond basic living expenses.
Essential Costs: 12% of workers often cannot afford basic living expenses, while 24% struggle to cover daily essentials.
Savings and Debt: Only 6% of workers are able to save for the future, and 28% have taken on debt to cover living expenses.
Primary Concerns: Key financial pressures include rising housing costs (55%), increasing prices for daily essentials (41%), and salaries failing to keep up with inflation (34%).
Trump's objectives are clear. He tells us we can't fight wars and support a Social Safety net. We can, however, cut taxes for the 1% and allow the rest of us to descend into beggery.
