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US income cut in half since 2000 when adjusted for inflation

Discussion in 'News & Current Events' started by billwald, Jul 19, 2012.

  1. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    http://lewrockwell.com/orig13/nielson2.1.1.html
    (Graphs don't format)

    We see two things in the chart above on average American wages. First we see how (in real dollars) wages for the average U.S. worker have been falling steadily for more than 40 years. Those wages have now fallen by more than 50%, all the way down to the same levels as during the Great Depression. And we see how the U.S. government’s lies about inflation have almost entirely concealed this relentless collapse in wages. How convenient.

    Meanwhile, we see the percentage of Americans who are actually working also plummeting downward, to a 30-year low. The collapse in wages has been accompanied by a collapse in employment levels. Combined, it translates into a collapse in consumer purchasing power of well in excess of 50%.

    The great Economic Myth (naturally perpetuated by the U.S. government) is that "the world can’t live without" the American Consumer. The truth is that the rest of the world has been gradually learning how to live without the American consumer for the past 40 years, as the American consumer is literally less than half what he used to be. The real-and-obvious question instead is how will the U.S.’s consumer economy be able to survive the Death of the U.S. Consumer?

    The relentless campaign by the U.S. government to transform its own Middle Class into the Working Poor has been an unmitigated success. Using the numbers of the Corporate Media itself, only about 10% of the U.S. population presently qualify as "middle class", now actually a smaller segment of the total population than the wealthy Americans who tower oppressively above them.

    The purpose of destroying wage-levels for U.S. workers has been to drive those wages so low that American serfs will be able to "compete" with the wages of Asian serfs…while they manufacture toys and consumables for the wealthy. This is the "prosperity" which the Corporate Oligarchs promised us when they rammed "globalization" down our throats. They had the gall to call it "free trade", when the only thing "free" about it was their ride – on our backs.

    However, this transformation comes at a terrible cost. Deprived of income, the Working Poor have been forced to use ever-increasing amounts of debt in a foolish quest to sustain an unsustainable level of consumption: mimicking the policies and attitude of the U.S. government itself. The result is the ultimate retail "perfect storm": consumers with small-and-falling incomes; loaded up with so much debt that they are incapable of borrowing any more; and with much/most of those incomes permanently going to pay interest to the Debt Parasites (i.e. banks). Perpetual debt-slavery.

    Of course the "collapse" to which I’m referring didn’t just start last month, or even last year. It began in earnest with the Crash of ’08, and has continued unabated since then. The propaganda-concocted "recovery" of government and media has been nothing but a cruel hoax, designed to placate the growing suffering of the Working Poor, and goad them into more overspending with the malicious lies that "things are getting better".

    The truth is the exact opposite. During every month of this sham-recovery, the real rate of inflation (as provided by John Williams of Shadowstats.com) has exceeded the percentage increase in retail sales (which are always unadjusted for inflation). Translation: every month of this "recovery" U.S. retailers have been selling less and less goods. This leads to another extremely obvious question: how can a consumer economy claim to be experiencing a "recovery" when it sells less and less goods each month, to consumers with ever-smaller incomes (and ever-larger debts)?

    This scenario become still more absurd when we note that rising costs of raw materials have put extreme pressure on retail profit margins. Selling less and less goods for less and less incremental profit is not a formula for retail success. Rather it is a prescription for annihilation, and this is precisely what we see before us.

    U.S. mall-vacancy rates have soared to all-time highs, and stubbornly refused to budge from those levels. Concurrently, margin-starved retailers are closing their storefronts and opting for more and more on-line commerce. In other words, they’re closing stores which generate significant numbers of jobs and tax revenues in favor of on-line operations which provide little of either. It is a self-reinforcing downward spiral which can only end in total economic disintegration. And we’re told that this collapse in sales, profit margins, employment, and tax revenues can all be taking place while the U.S. economy "recovers".

    This brings us (at last) to the actual numbers currently being peddled by this propaganda-machine. On Monday it was announced that U.S. retail sales had fallen by 0.5% in the month of June, and that this was the third month in a row that sales had (officially) fallen. For a consumer economy, this sounds bad enough even when we only contemplate the official propaganda. However, it’s only when we translate these numbers that we can truly appreciate the approaching U.S. economic holocaust.

    As noted previously, retail sales numbers are never adjusted for inflation. Living in a permanent era of high inflation, this makes absolutely no sense at all if you’re attempting to distribute information with this statistic, but makes wonderful sense if you’re a propaganda-machine with the sole goal of deceiving people every day of their lives.
     
  2. Jon-Marc

    Jon-Marc New Member

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    My retirement income is about $300 less per month now than it was when I retired in 2003.
     
  3. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    Knowledgeable consumers already know the "recovery" is phony.

    Prices on food , clothing, and fuel keep increasing, while the Obama administration says there is no inflation.

    The purchasing power of our checks keeps declining.

    Liars, all.
     
  4. Jon-Marc

    Jon-Marc New Member

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    Each year, 2009-2011, I received a letter from the government saying that there had been NO increase in the cost of living, and so I wouldn't an increase in my check. This is the first year since 2008 that I have gotten an increase--even though, as I said, I'm still about $300 behind what I was getting 9 years ago.

    The government is a reverse Robin Hood who (unlike Robin Hood) robs from the poor and gives it to itself, other governments, or for stupid and useless grants--like the one I read about many years ago about a grant given to someone to study the sex life of an insect. I remember what the insect was; I just can't spell it.
     
    #4 Jon-Marc, Jul 21, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 21, 2012
  5. freeatlast

    freeatlast New Member

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    Jon-Marc If you feel this too personal no problem. My question is how did they cut your benefits? What was the justification? I have never heard of this kind of thing before.
     
  6. Jon-Marc

    Jon-Marc New Member

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    Do you think the government feels a need to explain itself? They do what they want. Their reason was that I was getting to much.
     
  7. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    Real earnings have been declining for decades, but has been in absolute freefall since 2008. And the Obama administration keeps lying about there being no inflation.

    We all know better.
     
  8. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    Elect Romney and return to a slow but steady decrease in buying power and job security. <G>
     
  9. freeatlast

    freeatlast New Member

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    Elect Obama and we go further into Marxism.
     
  10. HankD

    HankD Well-Known Member
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    Early on in my higher education I took a course in Stastics which turned out to be a more difficult math course than say Vector Analysis.

    The first day of the course the professor said "With statistics you can tell any lie you want and yet prove it to be "true".

    That is what happens in the calculation of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Domestic Index( GDI) which are used to determine the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA).

    The statistical formulae and variables are juggled until the desired result is obtained.

    In addition, the government can affect (directly or indirectly) some of the costs of goods and services.

    There are always groups of goods and services the costs of which will decrease in a given fiscal year. Chose them and exclude (or lower the sequential value of the variable) the necessities of life (for instance) and PRESTO! pull a negative COLA out the COLA rabbit hat.

    That is why almost all goods and services for we the sheeple can increase yet the government can outright lie to us and say "there was no increase in the cost of living and therefore there will be no COLA" and/or issue a COLA which is not a true reflection of reality.

    The powers that be know that the sheeple, though "stupid", have a stupidity boundary and therefore only rarely come up with a zero or negative COLA. Usually a COLA of much less than a true reflection of reality is brought forth.

    The unions use the COLA for increases given to the flotsam and jetsam so the serfs are robbed twice, union dues and federal COLAs.

    Then the government printing presses are cranked up to print legally counterfeited money to cover the COLA increase.

    Nice?

    http://www.studyforex.com/gross-domestic-products.html

    November 6th, take the first step.

    HankD
     
    #10 HankD, Jul 23, 2012
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2012
  11. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    Good post, Hank. :applause:
     
  12. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    The capitalist/Republicans never cook the books?
     
  13. freeatlast

    freeatlast New Member

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    The republican party is a crooked as the democrats. One holds the knife in their left hand and the other in the right, but both are cutting our throats.
     
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