LAT: Despite "economic growth," wage stagnation hits college graduates

[DeepModem Mom]

That Raise Might Take 4 Years to Earn as Well
Those with bachelor's degrees are finding their incomes stagnate despite a growing economy.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Times Staff Writer
July 24, 2006

....(David) Lewis worked his way up through a string of technology companies around San Jose, finally landing a $77,000-a-year Web design position. But in five years in that job, he received only a single 5% pay increase.

That was troubling for someone facing the rising costs of rent, food and raising a newborn daughter. But Lewis, 36, found it especially troubling because he had done what had traditionally helped Americans share in the benefits of a growing economy: He had earned a four-year college degree.

Wage stagnation, long the bane of blue-collar workers, is now hitting people with bachelor's degrees for the first time in 30 years. Earnings for workers with four-year degrees fell 5.2% from 2000 to 2004 when adjusted for inflation, according to White House economists.

It is a remarkable setback for workers who thought they were well-positioned to win some of the benefits of the nation's economic growth, and it may help explain why surveys show that many Americans think President Bush has not managed the economy well.

Not since the 1970s have workers with bachelor's degrees seen a prolonged slump in earnings during a time of economic growth. These workers did well during the last period of economic growth, 1995 to 2000, with inflation-adjusted average wages rising 12%, according to an analysis by the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute....

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-na-wages24jul24,0,939424,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[whistle]

1. Exactly what kind of "economic growth" has the U.S. and the rest

...of the world for that matter, been experiencing over the past 5 1/2 years? Over $1.0 trillion per year being spent on military defensive and offensive weapons of war, which we are now witnessing the economic plundering of millions of lives and trillions of dollars in destroyed property and infrastructure. That is not economic growth. That is plunder and spoils and economic stagnation as nations and countless individuals are reduced from self-sufficiency to slavery by those with these weapons and armies, the modern day warlords.

[LiberalEsto]

2. And how are they going to pay those student loans?

Bushistas to Middle Class: forget about college. It's only for the children of the rich.