One Decade Down, One Decade Wasted

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:




One Decade Down, One Decade Wasted
September 18, 2010

The 21st century has opened with ten years that have seen the vast majority of Americans go backward economically. Just-released Census stats tell that tale — but not the whole income story.

By Sam Pizzigati




The U.S. Census Bureau last week closed the book on the first decade of the 21st century. We now know, after Thursday’s release of Census survey data for 2009, exactly how Americans fared over the decade that began on January 1, 2000.

Average Americans, the new annual Census data make plain, didn’t fare particularly well — even before the Great Recession.

The middle fifth of America’s households opened the decade averaging $52,547, after adjusting for inflation. In 2007, just before America’s economic meltdown, this middle fifth of households averaged $51,691. Last year, after two years of Great Recession, that middle class average stood at just $49,534.

Our new century has begun, as Harvard economist Lawrence Katz noted after the new Census figures appeared, with a “decade of decline.”

And this decade of decline comes after a generation of income stagnation. America’s average incomes rose consistently in the decades right after World War II. But those crisp increases ended in the 1970s. Between 1969 and 1999, the Census data show, incomes of households in America’s middle fifth increased by an average of only $315 a year, less than 1 percent annually after inflation. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/one-decade-down-one-decade-wasted/

[ixion]

1. If you think we declined in the last decade, just wait

the next one will make the last one look like a cake walk.