Income Fell For Most Americans In First Five Years Under Bush

New York Times:

Americans earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000, the fifth consecutive year that they had to make ends meet with less money than at the peak of the last economic expansion, new government data shows.

While incomes have been on the rise since 2002, the average income in 2005 was $55,238, still nearly 1 percent less than the $55,714 in 2000, after adjusting for inflation, analysis of new tax statistics show.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Ramirez]

11:50 AM on 08/21/2007

Here's a fine article from BizzyBlog that speaks truth to power on how the numbers are spun and re-framed to fit a political agenda.

Includes wonky stuff PLUS clear, easy-to-understand graphs. In color.


http://www.bizzyblog.com/2007/08/21/new-york-times-twists-data-to-make-great-personal-income-news-appear-awful/

[neoconcriminals]

11:43 AM on 08/21/2007

Funny listening to pundits speculate when the
foreclosure rate will let up.

DUH!

How about when we get an administration that is ever so slightly concerned with the welfare of the majority of this country?

None of them will say it—cuz they see no end in sight so long as the Chimpus Greedy Maximus is in charge.

[Nova16]

11:42 AM on 08/21/2007

Bush is the second coming of the dolt Reagan--"tickle down", voodoo economics, and the "Laffer Curve". Can the neocons who support this flawed economy deal with budget deficits, federal debt of nine trillion dollars and rising, heavy borrowing from China to the tune of 1.3 trillion dollars and additional borrowing from Japan and even Mexico, the loss of 3 million mfg jobs under Bush, outsourcing, layoffs, housing market and associated industries tanking, enormous personal and credit card debt, home equity that fueled this economy depleted, pensions and 401Ks in trouble, auto industry down, balance of trade spiraling out of control to almost 800 billion yearly, endless war costing to date 500 billion and growing exponentially, Federal Reserve in a quandry as what to do with the economy and credit, social security and medicare costs skyrocketing, Katrina unresolved and bush and his enablers in and out of congress with more time to continue their mischief to bankrupt the country.

[Grannysue]

10:43 AM on 08/21/2007

hey Sweaterman, exactly where were those jobs created? McDonald's, Wal Mart, Burger King? Yup, the economy is great, especially when you have a six figure income. I just love it when the Repubs say, the Dems will raise your taxes, no, they will raise the taxes on Corporations and those very well off.
George Bush the great economist? Well, let's see here, before George we had a surplus, a good portion of the American public, especially those at the bottom rung of the ladder, were employed and off welfare, gasoline prices were tolerable, groceries you could still afford to eat.
Since King George declared himself Dictator in chief of the World and decided he would invade whom ever the hell he felt like, we have seen our wages go in reverse, health care is unaffordable, or if your lucky enough to be able to afford it you certainly cannot afford the deductibles, mine is 3000.00 plus twenty percent. Prescriptions drugs well those drug companies have had a field day since this guy got in.
Housing market is taking a dump, along with a good many of those individuals who bought the American Dream with creative financing, another way for Bush to make certain he looked good, but only for a short while, until the loans renewed and everyone who took them found they could not afford the house payments due to higher interest rates.
And savings forgetaboutit! You have to save to be able to afford food and gas not to mention every single utility has gone through the roof.
Yup Sweaterman your guys a genius alright! I mean just take a look at our country can't you see how well it's going! pardon me now while I throw up!

[helonias]

10:36 AM on 08/21/2007

Well most Americans are not his base or his amp or even his pick.

I wonder how the have mores have done.

Anyone know?

[danejaneiro]

10:13 AM on 08/21/2007

It's Clinton's fault.
If incomes hadn't risen so much under him, we wouldn't be in this mess.

[factanonverba]

09:08 AM on 08/21/2007

Apparently a rising tide does not lift all boats nor does it trickle down nor does a massive tax cut for the wealthy translate into increased investment. Still one-third of Americans will not vote their economic interests and instead will vote theirs fears whether that be security, gay marriages or the like. What I find truly frightening is that since 1970 one only OECD nation, the wealthiest countries on the planet, has seen a widening gulf between rich and poor. That country is the United States.

[neoconcriminals]

11:44 AM on 08/21/2007

As Al Franken would say,
Bush's rising tide lifts all yachts.

[wanked]

08:51 AM on 08/21/2007

What percent of Americans now have manufacturing jobs..I think its 6 ! We have become a society based on consumerism..our beautiful green landscapes now littered with Bed and baths, and home depots...to buy shit for houses we cant pay for. We are pathetic.

[drkazmd65]

08:45 AM on 08/21/2007

And I would be one of those Americans whose income has fallen under Bush,... Except that I managed to get out of college and get a real job during that period.

I give Bush no credit for my advance - he was an idiot Governor for TX when I got started on my degree.

All he has managed to do is get interest rates raised, farm out tons of manufacturing jobs overseas, double what we are paying at the pump for gas, and multiply many times over what we citizens are in debt to bail out the country's debt.

Atta boy Georgie!
*what a friggin' incompetent putz*

[jdfast]

07:55 AM on 08/21/2007

Gee, you think? Jobs disappearing to India, Mexica and China. Companies moving offshore to gain favorable tax status. Think the middle class is in trouble? Who will pay the bills in 10 years? The rich? Wake up America before (it might already be to late) its too late.

[godlessclif]

09:38 AM on 08/21/2007

Sarah Lee corp just abandoned slave labor in Guatemala for cheaper slave labor in China.

Abe Lincoln fought a war to stop slave labor plantations from putting every Illinois farmer out of work.

He said in the Lincoln Douglas debates that if Kansas came into the union as a slave state the wheat grown on plantations by slaves in Kansas would destroy every free farm in Illinois.

"I do not oppose free trade if Louisiana has a barrel of sugar more than they can use and Illinois has a barrel of flour more than we can use. If the sugar is produced by slaves that is Louisiana's affair."
What I oppose is vast slave plantations on the fields of Kansas that no Illinois farmer can compete with and still stay free. In the future the lands conquered in the Mexican war have a potential for freedom, and a danger of falling into the peonage to which the Mexicans are accustomed. I would hope America will help these new territories choose freedom." Abe

[Jericho]

02:51 AM on 08/21/2007

Hmm, is this news? More like stating the obvious. What can you expect from men who call the elite their base and poverty the ultimate incentive for activating the unemployed while shamelessly making every effort to defraud the public of treasury to enriching themselves and the loyalest of Bushies at the Pentagon, the NSA, the other arms of the military and in most key places of the private sector. Sickening situation.

[MasterfullyInept]

02:36 AM on 08/21/2007

What a hoot this article was.
My favorite line was the last.Though the bit about the "internet bubble" produced a fine guffaw out of me.Anyway thanks to Mr McIntyre for informing me that trickled on economics, as I like to think of it, doesn't work.Now it won't surprise any working stiff that peruses Huffpo that getting trickled on isn't much fun.But its nice to see it in print lo these many years later.Heres hoping theres a historian somewhere trashing Reagans legacy this very moment!Who's up for a more equitable distribution of wealth in the good ol' USA?

[godlessclif]

09:28 AM on 08/21/2007

American wages have been dropping for 25 years with two obvious causes.

"Patently obvious to the most casual observer" as we used to say in engineering; meaning "How in hell did you miss this mistake". But we do miss them.

The first was reversing the 1938 law against hiring permanent replacement workers during a strike. This was reversed when Reagan took the Air Traffic Controller Union to court. Reagan argues he had to replace the workers or ground all aircraft. He further claimed the new scab air traffic controllers deserved to keep the jobs. A right wing supreme court agreed.

This defeat for organized labor has allowed thousands of unions to be broken.

The other force lowering wages is well known. It is Globalization. Reagan started that by allowing Japan to take over the US auto market
in the 1980s. He could have forced Japan to hire US union workers and/or allow Japanese workers to unionize in a trade agreement. Reagan allowed them to use low price non union labor.

We can see Europe took a different path, and they still make European cars in Europe at union wages. While Bush propagandists tell us "resistance is futile" Europe shows Globaliation can be resisted.

[MfromS]

02:07 AM on 08/21/2007

Yep, it was ALL because of Bush! Damn him!!!

[Hirnlego]

07:38 AM on 08/21/2007

Not all, but he certainly has played his part.

[andyboy]

10:08 AM on 08/21/2007

No. Actually it was you. You voted for his sorry, stupid, redneck ass. Thanks alot! You knew he was an idiot but you still voted for him just to stay "loyal". Way to go.

You partisan cranks will go to any lengths to prop up your foolhardy and ignorant choices in the voting booth.

Will you ever take responsibility? I guess it's useless to even ask.

[charon]

01:43 AM on 08/21/2007

I'll bet those tax-based stats don't figure in the low-paying jobs held by illegal aliens. If it did, the average would probably be about $10 to $15 thousands lower.

[situationcritical]

01:06 AM on 08/21/2007

"The War on Tourism"

+++++++++++

Well, that's the way the idiot in the White House pronounces it.