The median U.S. household income in 2012 was $51,000, but that’s nothing to crow about. That same figure was first reached way back in 1989--- meaning that the living standard of Main Street America has gone nowhere for the last quarter century. Since there was no prior span in U.S. history when real household incomes remained dead-in-the-water for 25 years, it cannot be gainsaid that the great American prosperity machine has stalled out.
Even worse, the bottom of the socio-economic ladder has actually slipped lower and, by some measures, significantly so. The current poverty rate of 15 percent was only 12.8 percent back in 1989; there are now 48 million people on food stamps compared to 18 million then; and more than 16 million children lived poverty households last year or one-third more than a quarter century back.
Likewise, last year the bottom quintile of households struggled to make ends meet on $11,500 annually ----a level 20 percent lower than the $14,000 of constant dollar income the bottom 20 million households had available on average twenty-five years ago.
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4 comments:
Mr. Stockman's article is spot on, to bad only a few people will actually read it. Tyler Durden's Zero Hedge columns are always excellent. If the govt. would only double minimum wage in the next 10 years then all would be well.
If the rich create all the jobs we are so blessed to have, WHY has THEIR income increased so dramatically in that time period, while the rest of America has stagnated or went backwards? When the choice is between buying that 20 acre compound in Hawaii, or adding 50 new jobs, its the mansion every time. Condoned, promoted, and encouraged by the "representatives" who take their bribes and make the laws that pay off those bribes, I mean "campaign contributions". Keep cheering.
You can blame the fed/govt for the widening gap. The low interest rates and money printing punish the poor and flood Wall Street w cheap money which they use to lever up and inflate their stock prices.
If 51,00 is the same in '89 as it is today, then income has taken a terrible fall! Doesn't this dorkus know hat bread, milk, eggs, and fuel has gone up in price since '89????
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