Income Slides to 1996 Levels

Wall Street Journal ^ | SEPTEMBER 14, 2011 | CONOR DOUGHERTY

[bolobaby]

The income of the typical American family—long the envy of much of the world—has dropped for the third year in a row and is now roughly where it was in 1996 when adjusted for inflation.

The income of a household considered to be at the statistical middle fell 2.3% to an inflation-adjusted $49,445 in 2010, which is 7.1% below its 1999 peak, the Census Bureau said.

The Census Bureau's annual snapshot of living standards offered a new set of statistics to show how devastating the recession was and how disappointing the recovery has been. For a huge swath of American families, the gains of the boom of the 2000s have been wiped out.

Earnings of the typical man who works full-time year round fell, and are lower—adjusted for inflation—than in 1978. Earnings for women, meanwhile, are a relative bright spot: Median incomes have been rising in recent years and rose again last year, though women still make 77 cents for every dollar earned by comparably employed men.

[NoGrayZone]

All of us in our office has lost hours....instead of having to lay off 1 person.

I have adjusted, but things aren’t getting better. I’m glad to still have a job and benefits(office in which has become a cut throat, backstabbing place to work).

I’ve had to adjust to the “new” atmosphere. I am none of what I’ve stated above.

Just had to spend $1000 to fix my beautiful beast, Ford Explorer, in which I expect to run into the ground.

Now my loving beast needs a rebuilt tranny. I’ve been saving for all this. I’m a few hundred behind because of this recent bill, but they are putting something into my tranny tomorrow that seals any stuff that has become unsealed (know nothing about cars, but I have trusted mechanics). They are helping me w/ a $5 bottle of this sealing stuff to help me out.

If I can wait one more year before I rebuild my tranny, I can not only afford it, but have some money set aside as well.

I am now a “statistic”.....ewwwww. Under employed. I have always been a full timer plus. Hard adjustment, but one that I must do, which I have.

[BenKenobi]

Man, tariffs work great! Yet another taxation layer.

How about we cut the size of the government rather then giving it, yet another revenue stream?

[Soul of the South]

“How about we cut the size of the government rather then giving it, yet another revenue stream?”

My preference is to substitute higher tariffs for some of the personal income tax revenue and all of the taxation on profits made from manufacturing in the USA. Tariffs provided most of the revenue of the Federal Government until 1914. They worked well for over 100 years.

[newzjunkey]

Husband's bank fraud and tax evasion convictions

On March 11, 2004, Schakowsky's husband, lobbyist Robert Creamer, the executive director of the Illinois Public Action Fund, was indicted in federal court on 16 counts of bank fraud involving three alleged check-kiting schemes in the mid-1990s, leading several banks to experience shortfalls of at least $2.3 million.[18] In August 2005, Creamer pleaded guilty to one count of failure to collect withholding tax, and bank fraud for writing checks with insufficient funds. All of the money was repaid. Schakowsky was not accused of any wrongdoing.[19] Schakowsky served on the organization's board during the time the crimes occurred,[20] and Schakowsky signed the IRS filings along with her husband.[21] U.S. District Judge James B. Moran noted no one suffered "out of pocket losses," and Creamer acted not out of greed but in an effort to keep his community action group going without cutting programs, though Creamer paid his own $100,000 salary with fraudulently obtained funds.[22] On April 5, 2006, Creamer was sentenced to five months in prison and 11 months of house arrest.[23] Creamer served his five-month incarceration at the Federal Correction Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana and was released on November 3, 2006.[24] Jan Schakowsky, wikipedia