US Median Income Lowest Since 1995

The median income of American households dropped to its lowest level since 1995 last year, extending its decline during President Barack Obama’s tenure and highlighting the depth of the damage to the middle class inflicted by the recession and weak recovery.

According to annual data from the Census Bureau, median income adjusted for inflation – a closely watched measure of the financial health of average Americans – fell to $50,054 in 2011, or 1.5 per cent below its 2010 level and 4.1 per cent below its score when Mr Obama took office in 2009.

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US median income lowest since 1995 - FT.com

mere confirmation of our own experience, what americans are living

what can we expect when so many more of our neighbors, friends and family members are filing for disability and food stamps than are actually gaining employment

what's new when four times as many of our associates and relations drop out of the work force than find a job

when 58% of the frighteningly few of our friends who do hook up end up pulling down between $10 and $12 per hour

CNN: Low-wage jobs explosion - Aug. 31, 2012

when real middle class incomes are down TWICE as fast AFTER the recession officially ended than they declined DURING the deepest, darkest days of depression

Household income fell 4.8% during economic recovery - latimes.com

food stamps at a record hi, poverty at a record hi

if the workforce were the same size today, even disallowing for natural population growth, as it was on jan 20, 2009, bls' unemployment # would be 11.2

we can never hit bottom til housing, which brung us here, finds its basement

Time: How ‘Shadow Inventory’ Is Killing the U.S. Housing Market

3 to 10 million homes haunt the shadow inventory

who's lying to you, time, cnn or ft?

maybe it's sigtarp you shouldn't believe

Bloomberg: Obama Loan-Modification Effort 'Failed Miserably'

Bunch of lazy buggers who should get off their buts and find better work rather then look to the government to save them

The ironic part..most of this is the fault of the GOP and the Bush administration.. they started the slide and it is damn hard to stop such a slide...

The Prof said:

US median income lowest since 1995 - FT.com

mere confirmation of our own experience, what americans are living

what can we expect when so many more of our neighbors, friends and family members are filing for disability and food stamps than are actually gaining employment

what's new when four times as many of our associates and relations drop out of the work force than find a job

when 58% of the frighteningly few of our friends who do hook up end up pulling down between $10 and $12 per hour

CNN: Low-wage jobs explosion - Aug. 31, 2012

when real middle class incomes are down TWICE as fast AFTER the recession officially ended than they declined DURING the deepest, darkest days of depression

Household income fell 4.8% during economic recovery - latimes.com

food stamps at a record hi, poverty at a record hi

if the workforce were the same size today, even disallowing for natural population growth, as it was on jan 20, 2009, bls' unemployment # would be 11.2

we can never hit bottom til housing, which brung us here, finds its basement

Time: How ‘Shadow Inventory’ Is Killing the U.S. Housing Market

3 to 10 million homes haunt the shadow inventory

who's lying to you, time, cnn or ft?

maybe it's sigtarp you shouldn't believe

Bloomberg: Obama Loan-Modification Effort 'Failed Miserably'

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4 More Years!!!

Economic woes decades in the making, but it's all Obama's fault!

Tax cuts for the rich! Program cuts for the ex-middle class! Mitt Romney to the rescue!

PeteEU said:

The ironic part..most of this is the fault of the GOP and the Bush administration.. they started the slide and it is damn hard to stop such a slide...

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That took a lot longer than normal.

The blame bush people are getting slow on the trigger.

Whereas the "It's not all Bush's fault" people have been slow all along. Bush is already ranked as among the worst Presidents in US history, and as time passes, that rating will only worsen. Eight years of miserable disgrace and failure. An indefensible record of utter malfeasance that will haunt us for decades.

Cardinal Fang said:

Eight years of miserable disgrace and failure. An indefensible record of utter malfeasance that will haunt us for decades.

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Go ahead man, let that partisanship out fully. Don't hold back.

"what's new when four times as many of our associates and relations drop out of the work force than find a job" ...

Ahem! ... This is a REPUBLICAN "talking point" ... Actually, approximately, 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring EVERY DAY ... That's about 300,000 per month of the approximately 400,000 who "drop out" ... IF you believe what the Republicans are trying to SELL ... YOU are not READING FOR UNDERSTANDING ...

As for the level of poverty and homelessness in America today ... THAT has been developing for YEARS! ... The DISPARITY in income accelerated under the Bush Administration ... and IF allowed to do so again, the Republicans will exascerbate that SAD statistic ...

The Middle Class DESERVES better and President Obama IS a champion of the Middle Class ... I have watched him since he won the Democratic nomination and although I supported then Senator Hillary Clinton, I have come to UNDERSTAND and TRULY APPRECIATE OUR great President! ...

Some of our fellow citizens NEED to learn GRATITUDE ... We were SAVED from another GREAT DEPRESSION ... We did however experience a GREAT RECESSION, the WORST since the GREAT DEPRESSION ... We should ALL feel a GREAT DEAL OF GRATITUDE to President Obama and his Administration for delivering us ALL from the BRINK ... which the Republicans left us with ... OPEN YOUR EYES, PLEASE! ...

supply side economics delivering for America's middle class once again, not to mention the decline of labor organization.

what we should try : more supply side!

lol

Arbo said:

Go ahead man, let that partisanship out fully. Don't hold back.

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As usual, not a fact in sight. Bush ACTUALLLY DID all the things that he gets blamed for. Stupid tax cuts. Stupid war. Stupid recession that his own stupid policies helped manufacture. He doesn't get to skate on those matters now or ever. History books will be maligning the Bush-43 presidency for as long as there are history books. Better get used to it -- you are backing one of history's great losers.

Yea so this "trickle down" theory is working out so well right? :roll:

TheDemSocialist said:

Yea so this "trickle down" theory is working out so well right? :roll:

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i have to admit that it is somewhat amusing when supply siders try to blame three years of one administration for trickle down not delivering.

barbnf said:

"what's new when four times as many of our associates and relations drop out of the work force than find a job" ...

Ahem! ... This is a REPUBLICAN "talking point" ... Actually, approximately, 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring EVERY DAY ... That's about 300,000 per month of the approximately 400,000 who "drop out" ... IF you believe what the Republicans are trying to SELL ... YOU are not READING FOR UNDERSTANDING ...

As for the level of poverty and homelessness in America today ... THAT has been developing for YEARS! ... The DISPARITY in income accelerated under the Bush Administration ... and IF allowed to do so again, the Republicans will exascerbate that SAD statistic ...

The Middle Class DESERVES better and President Obama IS a champion of the Middle Class ... I have watched him since he won the Democratic nomination and although I supported then Senator Hillary Clinton, I have come to UNDERSTAND and TRULY APPRECIATE OUR great President! ...

Some of our fellow citizens NEED to learn GRATITUDE ... We were SAVED from another GREAT DEPRESSION ... We did however experience a GREAT RECESSION, the WORST since the GREAT DEPRESSION ... We should ALL feel a GREAT DEAL OF GRATITUDE to President Obama and his Administration for delivering us ALL from the BRINK ... which the Republicans left us with ... OPEN YOUR EYES, PLEASE! ...

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And Romney's plan will take us right back to where we were. Same old policies that only help the wealthy!!

barbnf said:

Ahem! ... This is a REPUBLICAN "talking point" ... Actually, approximately, 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring EVERY DAY ...

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Well, let's be fair. The 10,000 per day number actually refers to boomers who turn 65. Many of them are already retired, of course, and many of them soon will retire, but some will choose to keep working, whether because they want to or have to.

barbnf said:

IF you believe what the Republicans are trying to SELL ... YOU are not READING FOR UNDERSTANDING ...

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Most often, you don't really need to read at all -- you know it's going to be a bunch of BS before you even begin. Notice that these folks talk about the labor force only when it goes down. Of course it doesn't always do that. Over the most recent 18 months in fact, it's gone up 10 times and gone down 8 times. Republicans don't care. It went down this past month, so they are here to shriek. It's up by 250K since the start of the year as well, but Republicans don't care about that either. They are simply here to shriek.

barbnf said:

As for the level of poverty and homelessness in America today ... THAT has been developing for YEARS! ...

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Yes, virtually all these negatives are simply extensions of trends that were set in motion by a previous administration. What Republcians actually argue here is that Obama should have had a Magic Wand and should have used it to make everything all better as of January 21, 2009. They won't accept any blame for where their heroes took us, and they certainly won't take any blame for the even more heinous acts of Republicans to prolong the recession that they made and extend the term of suffering for millions of Americans.

Obama does not have a Magic Wand. He is not a knight in shining armor. He is just a much better and more effective chief executive that anyone the Republicans have thought of in a very long time.

Carleen said:

And Romney's plan will take us right back to where we were. Same old policies that only help the wealthy!!

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But he's such a foreign policy sharpie...

Things have been stagnant for most of Americans since the 70's.

Cardinal Fang said:

Better get used to it -- you are backing one of history's great losers.

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As usual, more statements of fantasy.

'Helped manufacture'... how nice of you to skip all those that came before him that helped drive us into the mess as well. But that's what partisan hacks such as yourself excel at...

I may be wrong but I think that the reason all policies of Obama, and Bush before him, are failing is because they are all focusing on getting the banks happy enough to start lending more away to the american people... Lending credit or whatever. It seems to me that such a policy is a failure from the start since you are only encouraging people to be more and more in debt by themselves... then when they fail to pay off the debt, you need to bail them out... which in turn puts all the people, even the ones who didn't get loans... into debt... and that seems highly illogical.

Why not focus on a policy that encourages saving money... not lending or credit.

barbnf said:

"what's new when four times as many of our associates and relations drop out of the work force than find a job" ...

Ahem! ... This is a REPUBLICAN "talking point" ... Actually, approximately, 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring EVERY DAY ... That's about 300,000 per month of the approximately 400,000 who "drop out" ... IF you believe what the Republicans are trying to SELL ... YOU are not READING FOR UNDERSTANDING ...

As for the level of poverty and homelessness in America today ... THAT has been developing for YEARS! ... The DISPARITY in income accelerated under the Bush Administration ... and IF allowed to do so again, the Republicans will exascerbate that SAD statistic ...

The Middle Class DESERVES better and President Obama IS a champion of the Middle Class ... I have watched him since he won the Democratic nomination and although I supported then Senator Hillary Clinton, I have come to UNDERSTAND and TRULY APPRECIATE OUR great President! ...

Some of our fellow citizens NEED to learn GRATITUDE ... We were SAVED from another GREAT DEPRESSION ... We did however experience a GREAT RECESSION, the WORST since the GREAT DEPRESSION ... We should ALL feel a GREAT DEAL OF GRATITUDE to President Obama and his Administration for delivering us ALL from the BRINK ... which the Republicans left us with ... OPEN YOUR EYES, PLEASE! ...

Click to expand...

I hate your use of capitalization to the point I couldn't finish reading your post.

The Prof said:

US median income lowest since 1995 - FT.com

mere confirmation of our own experience, what americans are living

what can we expect when so many more of our neighbors, friends and family members are filing for disability and food stamps than are actually gaining employment

what's new when four times as many of our associates and relations drop out of the work force than find a job

when 58% of the frighteningly few of our friends who do hook up end up pulling down between $10 and $12 per hour

CNN: Low-wage jobs explosion - Aug. 31, 2012

when real middle class incomes are down TWICE as fast AFTER the recession officially ended than they declined DURING the deepest, darkest days of depression

Household income fell 4.8% during economic recovery - latimes.com

food stamps at a record hi, poverty at a record hi

if the workforce were the same size today, even disallowing for natural population growth, as it was on jan 20, 2009, bls' unemployment # would be 11.2

we can never hit bottom til housing, which brung us here, finds its basement

Time: How ‘Shadow Inventory’ Is Killing the U.S. Housing Market

3 to 10 million homes haunt the shadow inventory

who's lying to you, time, cnn or ft?

maybe it's sigtarp you shouldn't believe

Bloomberg: Obama Loan-Modification Effort 'Failed Miserably'

Click to expand...

Yeah, I love a failing America....oh wait...

Cardinal Fang said:

As usual, not a fact in sight. Bush ACTUALLLY DID all the things that he gets blamed for. Stupid tax cuts. Stupid war. Stupid recession that his own stupid policies helped manufacture.

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Stupid Keynesian Stimulus. Stupid Bailouts. Stupid Deficit spending.

TheDemSocialist said:

Yea so this "trickle down" theory is working out so well right? :roll:

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well.... how about you take the nations who practice socialism and break them out by GDP per capita. And then take the nations who practice more generally free market economics, and break them out by GDP per capita, and see which one spanks the other

cpwill said:

well.... how about you take the nations who practice socialism and break them out by GDP per capita. And then take the nations who practice more generally free market economics, and break them out by GDP per capita, and see which one spanks the other

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It will be hard to separate the 2, but lemme give it a try.

List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1. Luxemburg is described as: Luxembourg's stable and high-income market economy features moderate growth, low inflation, and a high level of innovation . so socialists, -1.
2. Qatar... not a socialist country by any means. -2 for socialists.
3. Norway -> a bit of both really. so still -2 for the socialists.
4. Switzerland... a bit of both really. still -2 for the socialists.
5. UAE -> -3 for the socialists.
6. Aussieland -> -3.5 for teh socialists.
7. Denmark -> -2.5 for the socialists (it is a socialist heaven... it is known, more so than it is a free market capitalist economy)
8. Sweden -> -1.5 for the socialists (same as denmark)
9. Canada -> -1 for the socialists (its more socialist than the US... but less so than Sweden or the other great socialist paradises)
10. The Netherlands -> -.5 for the socialists... Netherlands has extensive socialist programs, especially for migrants from arab and african countries... but they fail miserably. Anyway. It's almost a draw but the socialists come in defeat.

Ofc, these are taken according to the IMF... if we are to believe the CIA and their stat book... it would be a slightly different story.

Overall, socialism is a failure and can only exist if there is a solid capitalist base that will produce the huge amount of money needed to fund socialist programs... without it... you get countries like most in Eastern Europe. Countries who have been the victims of a failure communist mentality, with extensive social programs, and with no means of properly funding them. So you get universal healthcare and pensions... but healthcare is **** and pensions are always cut... you have no money to build up the infrastructure and thus, it leads to even less profit over time... and lack of tourism. So yeah, socialism sucks.