Posted on 01/02/2012 9:21:59 AM PST by upchuck
New evidence suggests there’s a reason why this economic “recovery” hasn’t felt much like a recovery. Figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the “recovery” has actually been harder on most Americans than the recession from which they’ve allegedly been recovering.
According to Sentier’s report, the median American household income has actually fallen during the “recovery.” Not only that, but it has fallen even more than it did during the recession. Gordon Green, former chief of the Governments Division at the U.S. Census Bureau and co-author of the report (with fellow Census veteran John Coder), says, “Real income fell by 3.2 percent during [the recession]. And during the recovery it went down by 6.7 percent.” So “income [has] declined twice as much in the recovery as in the recession itself.”
According to the report — which has been referenced by both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times — in early 2000, Americans’ median annual household income was $55,836, in real (inflation-adjusted, June 2011) dollars. By the start of the recession (in December 2007), Americans’ real incomes had fallen 0.9 percent, to $55,309 — a decline of $527. During the recession (which ended in June 2009), their incomes fell an additional 3.2 percent, to $53,518 — a decline of another $1,791. During the first two years of the “recovery” (from June 2009 to June 2011), they fell an additional 6.7 percent, to $49,909 — a decline of another $3,609.
So, from the start of 2000 to mid-2011, the typical American household’s real income dropped nearly $6,000 — and more than 60 percent of that drop (over $3,600) came after the start of the “recovery” and thus squarely on Obama’s watch.
While the real median income of American households dropped 6.7 percent during the first two years of the “recovery,” the incomes of many households dropped even more than that. The income drop was steeper for those under 25 years of age (their incomes were down 9.5 percent), for those between 25 and 34 years of age (down 9.8 percent), for black Americans (down 9.4 percent), for families with three or more children (down 9.5 percent), and for families headed by part-time workers (down 11.5 percent). And that’s despite the fact that the report’s income tallies include unemployment compensation and monetary public assistance (both state and federal).
In fact, the anemic economy has meant that Americans’ incomes have declined during the “recovery” even without adjusting for inflation. According to Green, in actual (non-inflation-adjusted) dollars, the median American household income was $51,140 at the start of the “recovery,” but it fell to $49,909 two years later.
Suffice it to say, such declining incomes are giving new meaning to the word “recovery.”
Hope-and-change alert.
Pffft, it’s all part of that hopey and changey plan.... /s =.=
Tell me about it. Add that the OUTLAY has increased exponentially and whoever isn’t broke yet soon will be. If you have anything like a ‘normal’ income, you are screwed...and they aren’t finished trying to break our backs. Anyone trying to survive on a 401k or any other retirement account will be literally left destitute.
Nothing that a few new tax increases and loss of deductions can't fix.
Labor is hired by capital.
The Keynesians never quite got that bit. They think capital spending is an automatic by-product of increased spending. It isn't. Increased government spending, debt and inflation are consuming our capital base (not to mention EPA regs forcing the shutdown of coal plants).
It is capital that improves wages and living standards. We're eating ours. It's only natural that they're dropping.
I wish that were all it dropped for me...
Down 57% for me. thank GOD I lived well below my means during the good times. I am barely getting by now.
Obama
Must
Go
What recovery?
Why does anyone call this a recovery?
November 1, 2011; the ‘Recovery’?
Nov 30, 2011
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/30/usa-taxes-obama-idUSN1E7AT1RU20111130
Obama “It would also be a massive blow to the economy because we’re not fully out of the recession yet.”
U.S. recession ended June 2009, NBER finds
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-recession-ended-june-2009-nber-says-2010-09-20
The U.S. recession that began in December 2007 ended in June 2009, making the 18-month slump the longest since the Great Depression, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Yet the NBER also cautioned that its findings bear no relation to the current state of the economy and do not represent a forecast about the future. If another downturn occurs anytime soon, the NBER said, it would constitute a separate recession.
Incomes dropped as people took any job to get money coming in or pay cuts or hour cuts. And then health insurance sky rocketed and property and sales taxes rose.
True for me — no salary increase in over 3 years, but health insurance premiums have been rising every year, so my net has been decreasing.
Not just insurance premiums. With the real consumer inflation rate of about 7%, without significant raises everyone is falling behind, and fast. Three years of a steady paycheck would mean 25% less real income. Throw in declining paycheck numbers and, as families, many of us are close to a crisis.
not to worry, Obamacare will fix it. (if you got your Obamawaiver)
“All they really mean by this is that the stock market is up and members of congress’ individual wealth has increased.”
The voters have learned a lot since 2000; they realize now that companies’ stock prices soar as their American workforces are slashed and replaced with Asian slaves. Nobody believes in this “recovery”, and the elections in 2009 and 2010 indicate that Obama will probably not even carry Illinois. There is simply no way to convince Americans that our economy doesn’t suck even worse than 3 years ago.
Best estimates by people who should know are that the next bull market will not take place before the mid to late 2020s.
Inflation’s also affecting business as well.
A company’s profits growing at an annual 4% increase in an economy sufferring 7% inflation... is really shrinking, instead.
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