Do you actually believe that there is room for everyone in the middle some place .?

I have looked in the paper at the help wanted adds .Lots of people needed to drive a truck -lots of health care workers needed . A few insurance people and sales jobs .By an far very few good paying jobs . Teachers ,police, postal service ,civil service , city managers engineers, prosecuting and defense attorneys needed .But all those jobs cost tax payers . Then I look at the firms hiring for Engineers ,Architects and find that the company doing the hiring is a government contractor in most cases . Without taking from one group and giving to another what kind of system do we have going here .

Taxes have tripled in the last 60 years and so has the number of people working for the government .I know we need services but at what cost . If a laborer on a government job earns 15 dollars and hour then all laborers should earn the same right . A carpenter on a government job earns 26 dollars so most carpenters should earn that much right . The government pays well to establish loyalty .Do you actually believe that there is room for everyone in the middle some place .?
What makes you think driving a truck isn't a good paying job? The average over-the-road company driver, a driver that drives a company owned truck, makes about $45K to $60K. An owner operator, a driver that owns his own truck, makes about $75K to $100K.

Now, how does that stack up to a job that requires $60K or so in college education and the lost of 4 working years while going to college?Do you actually believe that there is room for everyone in the middle some place .?
Your premise appears to be that the gvt pays better than the private sector. Gvt jobs, generally, have the best job security %26amp; benefits but not pay. Believe the room in the middle is primarily service related. Skilled tradesman can go independent and make a good living. $45.+ per hr for a carpenter. $85. per hr for a plumber. Electricians, automotive technicians, heavy equipment operators, cosmotologists, pharmacy techs, radiologists... all can earn extremely well. Can easily make $60k yearly as a trucker. Teachers are paid on the state level and school taxes determine that rate of pay. Police departments get a good portion of their funding from ticketing %26amp; liscensing. Post Office gets most of its funding through direct sales of stamps %26amp; package fees (similar to Fed Ex, etc) Trash pick-up, etc is bid on and contracted out -one can make $15.-$20.hr in the right cities. Expenses for that shows up on your city utility bill. Actual taxpayer money goes more the infrastructure, social security programs, etc. Many firms, manufacturing plants, have gvt contracts as well as private contracts from all over the world. Many people don't realize that American business is being slowly but surely bought out, more and more, by foreign buyers. Very little manufacturing here is American citizen owned. Engineers and architects working independent or for those companies can make some staggering money - way over what any gvt job can pay. Don't believe the gvt is trying to 'establish loyalty' - there are more applicants than positions. In the private sector there are mass openings in human resources and technical writing areas. Training schools can be a much sounder option for many people over generic college degrees. Room in the middle, again services and specialization. Telephone, electric, cable lineman....many more jobs. May start small pay but those jobs actually teach you while you gain experience. All pay better privately than by the gvt.Do you actually believe that there is room for everyone in the middle some place .?
Many high paying jobs don't advertise in the want ads. The government pays above market in some fields and below market in others, though where it pays below market you get a lot of dysfunctional people who wouldn't last doing the job in the private sector - often it's a complete boondoggle. Tolltakers, for example, make in the $50K range to make change. Do you think that's what supermarket cashiers should make or realize what things would cost if they did?



As for "middle" I am guessing you mean middle class. Economists often define middle class to mean households earning between 2X and 5X the poverty level of income. Over the last 25 years there's been a migration upwards - if you plot it on a graph with number of households on the Y axis and multiple of the poverty level of income on the X axis, in the 1970s there was a bell curve around 3.5X-4X and no fat tail on either end. The bell has bulged to the right over the last 25 years - many households have left that 2X-5X range but 92% of them have moved UP. There's still a "middle" but a lot of them now count as "affluent" even though most probably consider themselves upper middle class. Just so you don't think I'm making this up I've included some links below - one to Cato citing the Census Bureau and one to the Census Bureau.