Incomes aren't recovering

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100926/NEWS01/709269927#incomes-aren-t-recovering

Published Sunday September 26, 2010

By Henry J. Cordes
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Click to see graph: http://www.omaha.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=OW&Date=20100926&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=709269927&Ref=AR&maxw=490&maxh=275

WORLD-HERALD EXCLUSIVE
As the recession raged last year, Jeff Minchew had to take a cut in pay.

A technician for an Omaha scale company, he understood why his employer needed to trim payroll costs. He just wishes someone had also slashed the costs of things like food, gas and mortgage payments.

“Your cost of living keeps going up and you just went the other way,'' he said.

Minchew's story has a familiar ring to thousands of families across the country. After a half century of steadily rising standards of living, incomes for families in Nebraska, Iowa and the nation have stagnated over the past decade, leading some observers to label it a “lost decade'' for ordinary Americans.

Figures released this month by the Census Bureau show real median household income in the United States declined 4.2 percent from 2007 to 2009, the height of the downturn. Nebraska's real income has now fallen for four straight years, a total drop over that time of more than 6 percent.

But even before the Great Recession hit, inflation-adjusted income figures indicate families have largely been treading water since the late 1990s.

It's making it hard for people from all walks of life to try to get ahead.

FULL story at link.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. They recovered for bankers, so what's your problem? nt

[Fire1]

2. LOL!!!

:spray:

[Fire1]

3. dupe.

[Starry Messenger]

6. Exactly!

It's the only "recovery" that is deemed real. The rest of us just get to suck it on a technicality.

[woo me with science]

11. You're good. nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. true enuff

[TBF]

4. Recommended. nt

[endless october]

5. quickest way to fix the economy is with disposable income.

cheap imported stuff isn't cheap.

[xchrom]

7. +1

[shireen]

8. why aren't they connecting the dots?

Many of these places have a substantial Republican electorate. And they're going to continue voting for the people who want to privatize everything?

Who do i trust, the government or private companies? The answer for most of us is neither. But at least we have the power to do something about the former. It's called voting.

[SoCalDem]

9. Lost money cannot be "made up" either

because companies who got workers to willingly take cuts, will enjoy the lower cost workforce, and when eventually raising wages, will do it gingerly.

[Andy823]

10. That's the republican plan!

They want a LOWER cost work force, and taking the country into the worst financial mess since the depression has allowed them to do just that, force wages down, get rid of benefits, and increase profits for the CEO's, and upper management!

[toddwv]

13. And they won't for a while.

There is zero incentive for corporations to hire right now so they will just continue to lay off workers, squeeze more productivity out of their workers and write huge fat checks to their CEO.

I say it's high time that we let the multinats fend for themselves, roll our sleeves up and make sure that REAL American companies, not the fake ones who set up a PO Box and then offshore all their accounts, are the first priorities. The American-in-name-only companies can have the scraps that are left over.