Decline in 2009 personal income

[Hannah Bell]

Figures released by the US Commerce Department Thursday highlight the continuing decline in living standards for wide layers of the population, suffering from the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported earlier this month that personal income in the US declined 1.7 percent in 2009. The Associated Press noted that this was “the weakest showing since the Great Depression year of 1938, when incomes had fallen 7.7 percent.” The decline in personal income is the first in the US since 1949.

The Commerce Department statistics issued Thursday focused on state-by-state conditions. The average decline in state personal income was also 1.7 percent, ranging from a decline in Nevada of 4.8 percent, to a gain in West Virginia of 2.1 percent.

In total, the populations of 42 American states suffered personal income losses in 2009, while two states experienced no change and six, plus the District of Columbia, enjoyed gains.

California, once a beacon of economic and social progress, is undergoing a startling transformation. Personal income in the state fell 2.5 percent in 2009, the first decline since the Depression. As the San Francisco Chronicle commented, “State income plunged even more sharply in 2009 than the similar, historic drop that occurred on a national basis, a notable reversal given that California generally has beaten the national averages throughout the 80-year history of this report.”

The drop in statewide personal income, reports the Chronicle, “works out to $1,527 fewer dollars for every man, woman and child in California.” The newspaper notes that prior to 2009, personal income in the state had only fallen five times since 1929, when such records were first kept. In the 80 years covered by federal records, personal income in California has increased by an average of 7.3 percent.

Economic analyst Jon Haveman with Beacon Economics in San Rafael, California, told the San Francisco daily that “the figures confirm that this has been the worst downturn since the 1930s.” The pain has been widely felt, he noted, adding, “What we’re seeing is a decline in income among the middle and lower classes.”

Meanwhile, the financial and corporate elite continue to plunder the economy, becoming ever wealthier. Income inequality is at its highest point in decades, and the US is now home to 403 billionaires, according to Forbes magazine, who between them control 8 percent of the national wealth, while representing 0.00014 percent of the nation’s population.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/inco-m27.shtml

[blindpig]

1. Parasites. k&r