I never said that everything was great. And I also do not like the income reversals. And if the policies of President Bush had been allowed to continue without correction, I strongly suspect the downward spiral would be far more steep and the average person far far worse off today that under President Obama.
Let me be brutally frank here: Things are turning bad for the middle class and under Obama this has continued. Under ANY president this would have continued because there are far bigger forces and far more devastating trends at work here.
Among these are
1- a society were tens of millions of people simply are no longer needed for work
2- a decline in unions and their power which leads to lower wages , longer hours and poorer benefits
3- outsourcing of jobs overseas
4- an obsession with the short term evensong those most hurt by it, IE: the Wal Mart shopper of the working class
5- trade policies which have cost us jobs
Make no bones about it - Republicans are happy to quote statistics like you did about income decline but there is no doubt that republicans do not give two craps about average workers and their policies would be even worse for average people.
I hope that was clear.
You are blinded by partisan loyalty.
BOTH parties are working for the same thing.
The hogwash about Bush policies is just that. Barney Frank was proclaiming right up to the bubble bursting that there was nothing to worry about. So were the bought and paid for from BOTH parties. Bush weakly made something like 20 pleas to do something about the free money to the unqualified borrowers while loudly proclaiming that a higher percent of ALL citizens "owned" their won home.
The Democrats, AFTER the real estate bubble burst, were campaigning, AGAIN, for relaxed regulations that would allow more unqualified folks to get mortgages. This is insanity and reveals the coat of paint depth of their understanding of the issue.
The real estate bubble that burst was inflated by BOTH parties. If you can't see that and don't know that then you are attacking causes that simply don't exist.
Regarding the economy failing to grow at a rate sufficient to satisfy the needs of those that work within it: The reason is simply that the folks who could make growth happen have been sidelined by those that seek power to control.
Imagine Babe Ruth being coached by a novice, unqualified manager who would bench him every time he tried to swing his natural swing. He never would have hit a home run. This is what the regulation happy, snot nosed a-holes in government have done to the entrepreneurial class in our country.
The most risk embracing population of rich folks in the history of the world have decided that investment in risk ventures is no longer a good bet so they sit on the sidelines with a couple trillion dollars in their pockets to just sit it out until the conditions change.
Until the conditions are once again favorable to justify the expenditure of risk capital, there will be little risked.
The real effect of the real estate bubble bursting was that the government controllers gained too much control. Now the players that could win the game for us are afraid to play.
Those that have banned them from the game have convinced people like you that the failure of the government is the failure of the people that they have terrified into inaction.