Americans' Access To Basic Needs Hits Recession Lows As Income Growth Slows

Americans' ability to access basic life necessities are at recession lows. And the country likely won't catch up with pre-recession incomes for a long time.

Gallup’s Basic Necessities Index fell to a level on par with lows measured in February and March 2009. At the same time, the U.S. median income has declined 7 percent in the past decade, and although economists predict incomes will rise in the next 10 years, the growth won’t be enough to get incomes back to pre-recession levels, according to the Wall Street Journal.

High levels of unemployment and plummeting home values have battered Americans' incomes, making it increasingly difficult for them to get access to basic necessities like food, health care and shelter. Nearly 20 percent of Americans say they've had trouble putting food on the table in the past 12 months, according to another recent Gallup poll. And while incomes dropped during the recession, the recovery has only exacerbated that trend.

Between December 2007 and June 2009, U.S. incomes fell 3.2 percent, while during the recovery between June 2009 and June 2011 incomes dropped 6.7 percent, a recent study from former Census Bureau officials found.

Even as incomes fall, companies are still squeezing as much as they can out of workers. Profits per employee went up for the second year in a row last year, according to financial analysis firm Sageworks.

Employers' ability to get the most out of their employees may be one reason the income gap between the wealthy and everyone else continues to grow. The total net worth of the bottom 60 percent of U.S. households is less than that of the Forbes 400 richest Americans.

And like the economists, Americans don't expect their situation to improve any time soon. Nine out of 10 Americans say they don't anticipate that they'll get a raise that will be enough to compensate for the rising costs of food and fuel, a recent American Pulse survey found.

A gauge of U.S. consumer expectations fell to its lowest level in 30 years on concerns about declining incomes, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment released Friday.

Comments

[i the ys]

02:07 AM on 10/21/2011

The Republican plan for America: TRICKLE UP POVERTY. So. So? What's wrong with THAT?

[Esteban Francisco]

04:24 PM on 10/20/2011

The grand scheme of Progressive Social Engineering has hit the wall- Liberal Progressives and their policies have created a world of government cloned sheep and followers...............level the playing field some more and continue the war on the classes.

"It is time for us to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever-the one who recognizes the challenge and does something about it" Vince Lombardi"

[farmilyman]

05:47 AM on 10/18/2011

Yet year after year they are fooled by GOP campaign slogans........so what can you say?

[i the ys]

02:08 AM on 10/21/2011

Say one thing and do another. The old bait & switch republican method; tried and true.

[Timma]

10:19 PM on 10/17/2011

...does anyone still wonder why Occupy Wall Street has sparked similar events worldwide?...

[treehugger5]

09:54 PM on 10/17/2011

watch 1939 movie Mr. Smith goes to Washington. I finally saw it for the first time today.
Then go to Wall Street and occupy for as long as it takes gosh dang it!
When one wave gets tired we need more people to come and march. Through rain, sleet, snow, ice do not let these heartless jerks deter you from your occupation. Please.

[Kenz300]

01:12 PM on 10/17/2011

Republican policies are destroying the middle class.

It is time to organize, register and VOTE.

Apathy has allowed a small group of well organized individuals in the top 1% to take over our politics.

[slickbottom]

10:37 AM on 10/17/2011

Three words. Occupy Wall Street.

[jtabs]

10:09 AM on 10/17/2011

All just part of the plan to get us to the bottom as fast as possible.

[dayzee10]

08:40 AM on 10/17/2011

The top !% to the rest of America......."Let them eat cake!!!" Translated..."Let them eat s**t!!!"

[dzadzey]

05:53 AM on 10/17/2011

"Americans' incomes have dropped since 2000 and they aren't expected to make up the lost ground before 2021, according to economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.

From 2000 to 2010, median income in the U.S. declined 7% after adjusting for inflation, according to Census data. That marks the worst 10-year performance in records going back to 1967. On average, the economists expect inflation-adjusted incomes to rise over the next decade, but the 5% projected gain isn't enough to reach prerecession levels." (WSJ, 10/14/2011).

And during that same time incomes for the wealthiest 1% of Americans have increased by 130% or more.

[sanfran55]

05:46 AM on 10/17/2011

We are the only western "civilized" nation that does not provide health care for its citizens as a basic right. What will it take for us to join the rest of civilization - how many more of our fellow citizens will suffer and die because of lack of health care? It's a disgrace.

[maverick9808]

03:33 PM on 10/17/2011

yea and every country which has developed lateral healthcare is faltering, its not like our country doesn't have enough problems with Americans who cant put one and two together to figure that buying from large corporations rather than small local entities is the real poison to our economy and general well being.

[SirReal1]

08:42 PM on 10/17/2011

I'm sorry, you are completely wrong.

There are SOME that are "faltering", just as we are WITHOUT universal Health Care, but most of those that are "faltering" are in the situation they're in because their Economies were intricately tied to OURS.

[Timma]

10:24 PM on 10/17/2011

The countries to which you are referring aren't faltering because of health care policies - they are faltering because like America greed has gone wild and corporations feel no obligation to give anything back to society...they are killing the proverbial golden goose...they are, in a word, Machiavellian...

[spinotter11]

10:56 PM on 10/17/2011

We are the model of an uncivilized modern country. Perhaps it's because of our Puritan roots, or the freedom of Appalachian hilltops, or the Wild West, or the isolationism before World War I. American exceptionalism has been a terrible experience for the whole world. The plunderers have free rein here as nowhere else in the world. Guns, religion, social conservatism, unwillingness to devote any resources to the common good. It is a disgrace and a pity, but I don't see it changing any time soon. If anything the banksters represent our future. Just like maverick boy trying to muddy the waters with his lateral healthcare comment. They are all in it to get the maximum for themselves, and never mind anyone else.

[sanfran55]

06:13 PM on 10/20/2011

I must be more optimistic, because I do see change - we need strict enforcement of laws and regulations with mortgages, banks, etc - we are seeing the result of unbridled capitalism, and it's a disaster. Next in line for the fall is big pharma, which also has free rein in the US to charge as high as they want - and it's not like this in the rest of the world.

God forbid that the banksters represent our future! I'll see a revolution before that!

[re-elect clinton]

03:39 AM on 10/17/2011

And people wonder why Occupy wall street is needed.

[miaontia]

10:50 PM on 10/16/2011

What kind of story is this? Am I reading FoxNews.com? We all know that BO saved the world and everybody is doing GREAT!

[slickbottom]

10:38 AM on 10/17/2011

And John McCain would have done any better with the Depression George W. Bush dropped in the lap of President Obama?

[kbrown2225]

10:40 PM on 10/16/2011

I am sure this can be fixed by giving more tax cuts to the rich and deregulating industry, just like the tea party says!

[Curtis Ellis]

03:30 PM on 10/16/2011

Our persistent unemployment and structural deficits at the local state and federal levels are the direct result of outsourcing jobs to cheap foreign labor markets.
When corporations outsource jobs they are not just laying off workers - they are laying off customers and taxpayers. People without jobs don't pay taxes and don't spend money.
The way to end this economic crisis is to reshore jobs so Americans produce more of what we buy and buy more of what we produce.
That's what we're about at americanjobsalliance dot com.

[Ashok Hegde]

07:16 PM on 10/16/2011

But how? (and why)...

Corporations offshore work because it improves their bottom line, and that is what management is striving to improve. Now, entire business processes can be offshored, and we have a competitive industry of offshore suppliers who will bid on such work.

Corporations are not responsible to any particular regions...many are multinational, and can not be firmly connected to any one region.

How do we "onshore" jobs back without the simple concept competing for them. But, the answer cannot be simple competition, because many developing societies can provide the same skill sets at a better price point.

In 20-40 years, when wage rates are more synched across the globe, perhaps we can have true competition...but, until then, what?

I suspect the western middle classes are going to be gutted, by the combination of offshoring any tradable labor, and automation, which will make areas like retail less labor intensive.

[Maggie K]

10:21 PM on 10/16/2011

"Corporatio­ns are not responsibl­e to any particular regions...­many are multinatio­nal, and can not be firmly connected to any one region."

So, a Pepsi bottling plant gets built in a rural village, and destroys and prevents access to the existing water supply, and the villagers are left with disease and unlivable conditions. Why do they not have responsibility? Because they are a multi-national corporation? Unfortunately it seems like you subscribe to the belief that making profit is always a neutral process, no matter whose lives or resources are destroyed. I would hope that as a species with imagination and intelligence, we could come up with alternative processes of trade and commerce that don't subscribe to the unsustainable idea that success is limitless growth no matter the ecological or human cost.

[webwzrd]

02:09 AM on 10/17/2011

Corporations are responsible for nothing more than making a profit for their shareholders. They have no other motive or concience, so they will do whatever they can get away with to achieve that singular goal. This is why the "free market" in practice is ALWAYS working towards monopoly, because competition drives down profit, and that is against rule #1.

Knowing that, it is our JOB to not support businesses that do not support our social objectives. In order for our labor market to currently compete head to head with the third world markets around the world, we would have to lower our standard of living to theirs. Our companies make BILLIONS from the current disparity. Interestingly, THEIR growth depends largely on our market, which is still the largest in the world.
In addition to that China imposes a tariff that is at least 10 times our towards them, as well as manipulates their currency to keep it low and their products relatively cheaper, so we are NOT competing on a level playing field.

Why? Because we cannot bear 30-40 more years of loss of middle class and increased poverty. How? Buy American whenever we can and convince Washington that "free" trade is not free at all.