The collapse of household income in the US
9 September 2014
The US Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Consumer Finances, released last Thursday, documents a devastating decline in economic conditions for a large majority of the population during the so-called economic recovery.The report reveals that between 2007 and 2013, the income of a typical US household fell 12 percent. The median American household now earns $6,400 less per year than it did in 2007.
Much of the decline occurred during the “recovery” presided over by the Obama administration. In the three years between 2010 and 2013, the annual income of a typical household fell by an additional 5 percent.
The report also shows that wealth has become even more concentrated in the topmost economic layers. The wealth share of the top 3 percent climbed from 44.8 percent in 1989 to 54.4 percent in 2013. The share of wealth held by the bottom 90 percent fell from 33.2 percent in 1989 to 24.7 percent in 2013.
Disparities in income have increased along with the growing monopolization of wealth. While the annual income of a typical household plunged 5 percent between 2010 and 2013, the income of the top tenth of income earners grew by 10 percent, with even bigger gains for the wealthiest households.
The report presents other indicators of social regression. It notes that the percentage of the population that owns homes fell from 67.3 percent to 65.2 percent between 2010 and 2013.
Between 2001 and 2013, the share of young families burdened by education debt nearly doubled, from 22.4 percent to 38.8 percent. Over the same years, the percentage of these families with more than $100,000 in debt grew nearly tenfold, from 0.6 percent to 5.6 percent.
The Fed report irrefutably demonstrates that the claims of a broad economic recovery are fraudulent. Wall Street and the financial aristocracy, it is true, have never had it so good. But the conditions of most working people continue to worsen.
It should come as no surprise that the establishment media has buried the Fed report. The politicians of both big business parties, Democrats as well as Republicans, have likewise kept silent.
The Fed report is only the latest in a series of studies on the continuing growth of poverty and social inequality in the midst of what is billed as a recovery from the crash of 2008. They point to the fact that social tensions in America are at the breaking point. There is mounting social opposition, as reflected most recently in the events in Ferguson, Missouri following the police murder of an unarmed teenager. And the response of the ruling class, as seen in the police-military crackdown against protesters in Ferguson, is mass repression.
Meanwhile, Obama has launched another indefinite war in the Middle East and is all but inciting war with Russia in Eastern Europe, threatening a nuclear catastrophe.
Yet in the midst of this explosive situation, national elections, to be held in only eight weeks, are evoking virtually no public interest. The Center for the Study of the American Electorate noted that turnout in the 2014 state primaries was down by 18 percent from 2010, hitting record lows. In Iowa, only 9.7 percent of the population voted in the primary election.
The upcoming congressional elections are projected to inspire a similarly low rate of participation.
Alongside the social polarization, what is taking place is a political polarization, which to date primarily finds expression in the passive form of alienation, abstention and disgust. Broadly speaking, American working people do not believe the elections will change anything. Their experience with the Obama administration, which promised “hope” and “change” and then continued and intensified the reactionary policies of its Republican predecessor, has begun to open up their eyes to the dead end of the two-party system.
There is a growing sense that more fundamental change is needed and the problems people face are rooted in the entire existing economic and political system.
This belief is vindicated by the refusal and inability of either party to address any of the critical social questions confronting working people—unemployment, falling wages and income, school closings, the gutting of pensions and health benefits. They have nothing to propose except more austerity and more repression.
The Federal Reserve published its report one day before the Labor Department released dismal jobs figures for the month of August, showing that the US economy added fewer jobs last month than in any other month this year. It further showed that 268,000 people dropped out of the labor force, bringing the US labor force participation rate to its lowest level in four-and-a-half decades.
The response of the Obama administration and the Democrats, in the form of the weekly White House address given last Saturday by Vice President Joseph Biden, only highlighted the unbridgeable chasm separating the government from the working class.
Biden hailed the jobs report as a vindication of the administration’s policies. It was, he declared, “another reminder of how far we’ve come.” Biden presented Obama and himself as fighters for the American “middle class”—that mythical construction of capitalist politicians and academics who are petrified of acknowledging the existence of the working class.
He made, of course, no mention of the Fed report on the impoverishment of large sections of the population and further enrichment of the financial oligarchy. Nor did he speak of the savage cuts in food stamps or termination of long-term unemployment benefits under his and Obama’s watch.
The alternative presented to working people as their “democratic” choice is the Republicans, who are even more naked and ruthless in their promotion of the reactionary interests of the corporate-financial elite.
It is necessary to take stock and draw the appropriate conclusions. There is no way forward for workers and young people outside of a clean break with the existing political parties and the mounting of an independent struggle against the capitalist system.
Andre Damon
AMERICA:
NO LEGAL NEED APPLY!!!
It
started the day Obama moved into the White House and commenced the perpetration
of his “hope & change”.
24,639,000: Record Number of Foreign-Born Hold
Jobs in
U.S.
IMPERIAL AMNESTY to legalize Mexico’s looting and build the
DEMS’ LA RAZA party base of illegals…. and destroy the GOP!
The Constitution of the United States gives Congress—not
the Executive--authority over immigration. Article 1, Section 8 of the
Constitution says: “Congress shall have power…to establish a uniform rule of
naturalization.”
The president announced his intention to unilaterally
grant immigration lawbreakers living illegally in the United States “some
path…to be legal” in a wordy, multipronged answer to a reporter’s question.
MEXICANS
ABOVE THE LAW IN AMERICA… a nation under LA RAZA occupation
U.S.
capitulates (again) to LA RAZA SUPREMACY (mexifornia)
NARCOmex
AMBASSADOR ORDERS LA RAZA SUPREMACY FOR MEXICANS ILLEGALLY LOOTING IN AMERICAN
BORDERS and JOBS.
U.S. CAPITULATES ON THE SPOT!
U.S. CAPITULATES ON THE SPOT!
INCOME
PLUMMETS UNDER OBAMA… most jobs go to illegals.
AS HIS CRONY BANKSTERS CONTINUE TO LOOT, INCOMES PLUMMET FOR
AMERICANS (LEGALS).
GOOD TIME FOR AMNESTY FOR MILLIONS OF LOOTING MEXICANS?
MORE HERE:
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/09/and-still-democrat-party-wants-millions.html
“The yearly income of a typical US household dropped by a
massive 12 percent, or $6,400, in the six years between 2007 and 2013. This is
just one of the findings of the 2013 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer
Finances released Thursday, which documents a sharp decline in working class
living standards and a further concentration of wealth in the hands of the rich
and the super-rich.”
ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN WORKER RAGES ON UNDER THE GREAT HISPANDERER OBAMA!
Labor Day 2014
Temp labor at record levels in US
By Andre Damon
The Obama administration marked Labor Day 2014 with demagogic speeches by President Obama in Milwaukee and Vice President Joseph Biden in Detroit—speeches that were notable mainly for the brazenness of their dishonesty and cynicism.
Obama and Biden postured as partisans of what they referred to as the “middle class,” even as a number of reports emerged documenting the devastating decline in conditions for the working class under the current administration.
THE ENTIRE REASON THE BORDERS ARE LEFT OPEN IS TO CUT WAGES!
ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN WORKER RAGES ON UNDER THE GREAT HISPANDERER OBAMA!
Labor Day 2014
Temp labor at record levels in US
By Andre Damon
2 September 2014
The Obama administration marked Labor Day 2014 with demagogic speeches by President Obama in Milwaukee and Vice President Joseph Biden in Detroit—speeches that were notable mainly for the brazenness of their dishonesty and cynicism.
Obama and Biden postured as partisans of what they referred to as the “middle class,” even as a number of reports emerged documenting the devastating decline in conditions for the working class under the current administration.
WAGES
PLUMMET… and millions more illegals are arriving soon!
Low-wage males’ wages declined by an astonishing 31.2
percent, with mid-wage male workers seeing a 16 percent drop, the study found.
Workers without a high school diploma suffered a 46.3 percent fall in wages,
while workers with only a high school diploma lost 32.1 percent, and those
holding a bachelor’s degree lost 4 percent. VIVA LA RAZA SUPREMACY? DEMS
SABOTAGE E-VERIFY NATIONWIDE!
TED
CRUZ and the looting Mexican invaders
OBAMA
VOWS TO RATCHET UP THE LIES FOR LA RAZA
“Besides
this, many American workers are displaced, and the oversupply of cheap foreign
labor depresses the income of American workers by about $2,800 per year.”
“Scruggs
points out that there are two groups favoring amnesty and an increase in legal
immigration. First, the Democratic Party, that would gain millions of new
voters. Second, business interests seeking an endless supply of cheap labor -
who make large donations to GOP politicians. He argues that the GOP should take
a principled stand against Obama's amnesty and regain the respect of American
workers.”
THE ENTIRE REASON THE BORDERS ARE LEFT OPEN IS TO CUT WAGES!
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