Median Income falls for first time in post war era.

[edhopper]

From the ny Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/business/09leonhardt.html?ref=business

"The bigger problem is that the now-finished boom was, for most Americans, nothing of the sort. In 2000, at the end of the previous economic expansion, the median American family made about $61,000, according to the Census Bureau’s inflation-adjusted numbers. In 2007, in what looks to have been the final year of the most recent expansion, the median family, amazingly, seems to have made less — about $60,500.
This has never happened before"

Hey Bushy, you're doing a heck of a job.

[panader0]

1. Oh, WWII. I had to read the article to tell which war.

[edhopper]

2. 'post war' usually refers to

WWII.

[panader0]

3. Sorry. Just being a wise guy. I was hoping you mean Iraq......

[bronxiteforever]

4. Shrub grants us another that "never happened before" moment

:banghead:

[philb]

5. A significant Iraq casualty: Your standard of living –Robert Reich

A significant Iraq casualty: Your standard of living –Robert Reich

The cost of the Iraq war is estimated at between $1 trillion and $3 trillion. But commentator Robert Reich says as big as that number is right now, it's going to hurt us more in the future.

A dollar spent in Iraq is a dollar we do not have to spend here, not only repairing our own bridges, roads and water and sewage systems, but also giving Americans access to health insurance and our children access to good schools, fully funding Social Security and Medicare, investing adequately in non-carbon based energy sources and green technologies and borrowing less from abroad.

In other words, the real economic cost of the Iraqi War doesn't show up in the business cycle. It will show up years from now in a standard of living that for most Americans will be significantly lower than we might have enjoyed, because we spent trillions on a war in Iraq rather than investing here in America.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/09/reich_commentary

[AdHocSolver]

6. A bigger cause for a reduced standard of living is the huge trade deficit we now have.

Even without the cost of the war, and the cost is much more than just the money spent, by importing just about everything we use, and running up a huge debt to pay for it, this country was destined to experience a drastic reduction in its standard of living.

The capitalists have been exporting a lot more than just jobs, but they have exported (sold off for profit) the technology that the American taxpayers developed. The capitalists tell us that we should go to school and learn the new technology for the jobs of the future. Those jobs will be exported to Asia just as easily as the factory jobs.

Do you believe that Chinese, Indian, and Korean people can't earn advanced degrees in science and engineering? What nonsense! If the capitalists continue to have their way, those high tech jobs they told you to study for will be flying to Asia as fast as the corporations can ship them.

There is ONLY ONE solution to the economic problems we face. That solution is to get rid of NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, and all the corporate run trade set ups, as well as tax laws, that make it profitable to ship jobs overseas. Bring manufacturing back to America. If we need it here, manufacture it here. No more buying what goods we need on credit that puts us in debt at a level that we could never pay back. This debt situation is a major cause of the inflation we are experiencing.

It is a national security imperative also. If so many of our goods are imported from China, how quickly could China bring our country to its knees by stopping the shipment of goods. The drop in the supply of everyday items would create shortages of goods, and drive prices into the stratosphere.

Reich is pointing at a relatively minor cause of our economic problems. The Iraq war is evil and should be stopped. It won't help our basic economic problems, which stem from our loss of jobs, and our foreign debt.

[samsingh]

7. another scary piece of news in a recession

[Summer93]

8. Second choice

The governor of Massachusetts has suggested that jobs might be created by rebuilding the bridges here in this state.

After he had suggested casinos as a job creation.

[edhopper]

9. The reason is obvious.

Income has grown in the last 8 years. But median income has fallen. Thanks to tax cuts, pro-wealthy stance of this Administration, the obscene salaries by the Corporate leaders, the virtual theft of billions by hedge funds and money managers; the rich are taking a greater and greater percent of the pie and leaving everyone else with less.
This might be one of the biggest transfers of wealth in history.