The Rich Get Richer … and the Rest Just Drown! By James Reed

     I am sure that the same result would hold true for Australia, but the US middle class and others are slowing sinking under the economic waves, soon to drown all:
  https://www.axios.com/americans-who-cant-afford-middle-class-basics-united-way-5da1e2e6-046b-4a53-9a11-1106a77564ef.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twsocialshare&utm_campaign=organic

“At a time of rock-bottom joblessness, high corporate profits and a booming stock market, more than 40% of U.S. households cannot pay the basics of a middle-class lifestyle — rent, transportation, child care and a cellphone, according to a new study. Quick take: The study, conducted by United Way, found a wide band of working U.S. households that live above the official poverty line, but below the cost of paying ordinary expenses. Based on 2016 data, there were 34.7 million households in that group — double the 16.1 million that are in actual poverty, project director Stephanie Hoopes tells Axios. Why it matters: For two years, U.S. politics has been dominated by the anger and resentment of a self-identified “forgotten” class, some left behind economically and others threatened by changes to their way of life.

•    The United Way study, to be released publicly Thursday, suggests that the economically forgotten are a far bigger group than many studies assume — and, according to Hoopes, appear to be growing larger despite the improving economy.
•    The study dubs that middle group between poverty and the middle class “ALICE” families, for Asset-limited, Income-constrained, Employed. (The map above, by Axios’ Chris Canipe, depicts that state-by-state population in dark brown.)
•    These are households with adults who are working but earning too little — 66% of Americans earn less than $20 an hour, or about $40,000 a year if they are working full time.”

     In Australia, people are drowning in debt and personal debt is now one of the highest in the world:
  https://www.finder.com.au/australias-personal-debt-reported-as-highest-in-the-world

     This suggests that Australians are probably already at, or surpassing the crisis point that the US has reached. Disruption of oil through a Middle East war, or a China war, would plunge the country into something resembling a new Dark Age.