Wages and Incomes Down, Poverty and Debt Up

[teryang]

http://www.counterpunch.org/mishel12232005.html

This is the outline below. Go to the link for the terrible numbers. You'll never learn these facts listening to CNBC's cheerleaders of corporate greed. The reality is quite different.

Wages & Incomes Down, Poverty & Debt Up
The Economy in a Nutshell
By LAWRENCE MISHEL
and ROSS EISENBREY

1. Profits are up, but the wages and the incomes of average Americans are down.

2. More and more people are deeper and deeper in debt.

3. Job creation has not kept up with population growth, and the employment rate has fallen sharply.

4. Poverty is on the rise.

5. Rising health care costs are eroding families' already declining income.

[Warpy]

1. Don't forget inflation

which is set to get even worse, as imported goods are now costing something like 9.5% more over last year.

The costs of food, energy, health care, and now electronics and clothing are starting to inflate.

Pressure on wages is downward, downward, downward as corporate pigs expect people in the US to compete on a head to head basis with people paid in disadvantaged currencies.

[teryang]

2. "Growing economy," yet wages and benefits go down

Go figure. Also, percentage of population with jobs never recovered.

[shenmue]

3. The "good economy" people are not from this planet

B*** is rambling a lot about job creation, but maybe that's in the department stores, doing part-time checkout work for Christmas. And those are at low wages, no benefits, to end in a few weeks. The only other "creation" going on is the fantasy life in his own head.

[neuvocat]

4. CNBC's Cheerleaders

are paid to peddle a point of view that creates the sort of consumerism that leads to all that debt and poverty in the first place. Its just another form of advertising to get you to buy the products created by their corporate masters. They actively engage in doublespeak in order to do so.

[Digit]

7. Yep, duly noted

The sheeple must be led to believe the enonomy is wonderful, but the truth is getting more difficult to escape.
George * has screwed up the economy bigtime and things will be hitting the fan as heating bills continue to arrive in the mailboxes Americans.

[BuelahWitch]

5. Don't forget high energy prices

Price of gasoline and heating fuel....

[tularetom]

6. The "housing bubble" has fueled consumption

as people borrow against the equity in their homes, but now even this source of funding is running out of steam and the bills are coming due in the form of higher interest variable rate mortgages that will result in more foreclosures.

[American liberal]

8. Even NPR talks about our "growing economy."

Then why am I working 3 jobs just to make ends meet?! (and I don't have cable or a cell phone either!) :rant:

[NI4NI]

9. Has your local taxes increased?

Like property and school taxes?
I heard Bush's middle class tax cuts are worth a little over $600 a year, I think Dem.Senator from ND Kent Conrad said that any new state or local tax, along with gas prices, and winter heating bills will suck all that up plus some.

[cliss]

10. Look around at your average Americans.

Sometimes I can't believe what I'm seeing. We went out and bought a Xmas tree this week. The lady that sold us the tree was obviously dirt-poor. Her jacket was torn, she looked like she didn't have enough clothes to wear. Every other tooth was missing.

Earlier this summer, we went to watch my son's friends play in a band. The boys had bad teeth. They looked like they needed dental care. They looked raggedy. One of them went around the corner and smoked a cig during a break. I see this kind of stuff everywhere. In Portland, we have a huge homeless population. It's like big groups of people, just shuffling around. This country can NOT take credit for being the best country on earth.

I said to a friend, "Welcome to Argentina". We have now become a 3rd world country. This country does NOT take care of its people.

Just look around. You'll see what I mean.

[shrike]

11. Or the new Mexico

We were in Guadalajara last year, a city I enjoyed tremendously. We saw beggars, yes, but mostly street vendors -- they were everywhere. Selling every damned thing under the sun, even scissors. Or nail clippers. I looked at my husband and said, "This is our future."

Despite their poverty, the folks were fairly clean and well-kept. The children we saw were also clean and well-cared for, though I'm told Guadalajara has a large "young" homeless population that's most visible at night.

Bad teeth, though. Everywhere.

[teryang]

12. This is exactly what I see in my community

Obviously rampant poverty and homelessness. It is like nothing I have seen before except in the third world.