The tax burden has been increasingly shifted from corporations and wealthy individuals to working people. By 1994, the tax rate for this group had declined to 32 percent. In the 1950s, corporations paid 39 percent of US income taxes. By the end of the 80s corporations paid only 17 percent of the total US tax bill. The majority of working class families have seen their living standards fall steadily for two decades, and this downward trend has continued under the Clinton administration.
Economic insecurity dominates everyday life.
More workers have experienced layoffs and downsizing during the booming 1990s than during previous recessions. Between 1991 and 1995, nearly 2.5 million Americans lost their jobs because of corporate restructuring. Working class families are increasingly compelled to work more jobs and longer hours just to make ends meet. The low unemployment rate in the United States signifies not prosperity for the working class, but the prevalence of low-wage exploitation, especially of the younger generation. It is already a truism to say that the young workers of today are the first generation in American history to live worse than their parents.