Having just finished school in '82, I share the author's view about just how gloomy things were back then. Even though this article is upbeat by NYT standards, he does manage to find enough doom and gloom to remind me to consider the source.
The author claims The ’70s get a bad rap, and deservedly so in many ways. But median family income still rose 2 percent during the decade, after adjusting for inflation. Over the past decade, it has fallen. Huh? How does he explain real per capita consumption increasing by more than 2% annually over the past decade? He wants us to believe that median family incomes have declined even though productivity is rapidly increasing. Sure.
Me thinks he's forgetting that much more of our total compensation today comes in the form of benefits and conveniently forgets to include them.
Also, I'll bet he's using the CPI to adjust for inflation rather than the Implicit Price Deflator which, lo and behold, overstates inflation and understates wage growth. The net result is that wage growth appears to lag behind productivity growth even though workers are becoming more productive. Well done NYT's.
” How does he explain real per capita consumption increasing by more than 2% annually over the past decade? He wants us to believe that median family incomes have declined even though productivity is rapidly increasing.”
Real simple, people borrowed on their home equity and blew it on non important things and finally were unable to make the oayments which caused the housing crash.
There are more forclosures from re finances than purchases.
"...median family income still rose 2 percent during the decade, after adjusting for inflation. Over the past decade, it has fallen."
Some belief systems are a lot easier to hold on to by never actually looking at the record. Fortunately we live in an age when anyone who wants to can see the BEA numbers for themselves.
Current real family incomes have steady grown, while families took a huge hit from the Carter mess. From '73 to '83 incomes didn't even grow by 2/10ths of a percent, and in the worst of it they actually fell for years on end. Today's real family incomes are up 14% from ten years ago.
Talk about your 'bald face lies'.
