A Lost Decade for US Households? Try a lost Generation (or two)!

This is hilarious -- in that a set of indicators that clearly delineates a prolonged and precipitous decline of America gets so little coverage, zero outrage, and generates complete inaction. Where's the patriotism (or is that now only defined by a willingness to engage in foreign misadventures or a burn money on boondoggles from outrageously overpriced defense contractors?), a concern for the collective us?  Where's the worry about our kids and our futures?  Nah, that kind of thinking doesn't work anymore.  As I said before:  Hilarious.   

The Census Bureau reported that median household incomes slid over the last decade.  Of course, this new figure also means that household incomes only increased ~$5k (inflation adjusted dollars) or ~11% over 35 years!  All of this so called gain has to do with improvements in the household's second income.  Given that median male incomes are lower than 35 years ago, it's likely that in order to produce this gain, households as a unit, worked much harder (I suspect that the total number of hours worked by the family went up much more than 11%).  

    Worse, this 'gain' occurred during a time period when the educational requirement necessary to get a middle class (or median) income in the US expanded to include a college education -- which is entirely funded out of pocket (so much for the idea of the level playing field).  If you factor out the rising (at many multiples of the rate of inflation) cost of college for a family's two workers, what does this picture look like?  

A lost generation (or two) doesn't even seem to cover the magnitude of this failure.  That characterization implies stasis and it is much worse than that. On the income side alone (counting education), it's a glide path to failure.  Add in rising household expenses (health, housing, autos, etc.) and debt (over leverage) -- the term collapse comes readily to mind.

Favelas ahead...

Comments

[TM Lutas]

As you hedge in a free market with bureaucratic rules, you can gain a temporary benefit but you will get a permanent sclerosis slowing down future growth. The accumulation of these rules is death by a thousand cuts and nobody has the mental bandwidth to chase down all the problems.

Outrage? I've got plenty. What is needed is a target that matters a damn to change the trajectory of this country.