Illustration: Luo Xuan/GT

Overall, the US retained its strong, global economic lead in 2019. Despite this, its middle class - a pillar of the American Dream - is falling into near poverty, indicating the country is facing a crisis beneath its superficial boom. 

The number of Americans living in poverty fell to 11.8 percent in 2018, down from 12.3 percent in 2017, according to an annual report released by the US Census Bureau in September 2019. But the same report also revealed a disturbing fact: While the country's median household income had risen for four consecutive years by 2018, the middle-class income level was almost equal to its level two decades ago, adjusted for inflation.

Over the past 20 years, the US has risen in strength, with its GDP more than doubling 1999's $9.63 trillion to more than $21 trillion in 2019. However, its large middle class did not enjoy the dividends of this economic growth. According to a survey conducted by GOBankingRates, 69 percent of US respondents had less than $1,000 in a savings account in 2019, compared with 58 percent in 2018.

The US middle class has also seen a rapid rise in debt, contributing to a new and growing number of poor Americans. Education, pensions, health care and other high-cost expenditures have become heavy burdens on the middle class. Generally speaking, personal consumption accounts for roughly 70 percent of the country's GDP, which partly reflects the increase in household debt over recent decades.

Of course, issues in the US economy are the main reasons for its falling middle class. The country's manufacturing outflow, strong financial sector, and "hollowing-out" of industries mean the rich are the only group that benefit from development dividends, resulting in deepening wealth inequality.

As the financial sector's share in output grows in the US economy, a small group of Wall Street elites are raking in the industrial profits, while the middle class faces stagnant or even shrinking wealth. The top 0.1 percent of the US' population owns nearly 20 percent of the wealth in the country - more than the bottom 80 percent combined - according to a research paper written last year by Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Poverty in the US is reflected by the country's diminishing welfare. According to the US Census Bureau, the number of people without health insurance rose from 25.6 million in 2017 to 27.5 million in 2018. Moreover, while social security benefits see modest increases every year, their buying power has shrunk by a third since 2000, according to calculations from the Senior Citizens League.

The best measure of a country's economic situation is the financial health of its middle class. When the majority of the US' working class is struggling with poverty - let alone its middle class - how exactly can the country boast of economic prosperity?

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn