A Long, Steep Drop for Americans' Standard of Living

[Javaman]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/44962589

Think life is not as good as it used to be, at least in terms of your wallet? You'd be right about that. The standard of living for Americans has fallen longer and more steeply over the past three years than at any time since the US government began recording it five decades ago.

Bottom line: The average individual now has $1,315 less in disposable income than he or she did three years ago at the onset of the Great Recession – even though the recession ended, technically speaking, in mid-2009. That means less money to spend at the spa or the movies, less for vacations, new carpeting for the house, or dinner at a restaurant.

In short, it means a less vibrant economy, with more Americans spending primarily on necessities. The diminished standard of living, moreover, is squeezing the middle class, whose restlessness and discontent are evident in grass-roots movements such as the tea party and "Occupy Wall Street" and who may take out their frustrations on incumbent politicians in next year's election.

What has led to the most dramatic drop in the US standard of living since at least 1960? One factor is stagnant incomes: Real median income is down 9.8 percent since the start of the recession through this June, according to Sentier Research in Annapolis, Md., citing census bureau data. Another is falling net worth – think about the value of your home and, if you have one, your retirement portfolio. A third is rising consumer prices, with inflation eroding people's buying power by 3.25 percent since mid-2008.

more at link...

[surrealAmerican]

1. Well, that's depressing.

k & r

We all "knew" this was the case, but it's good to have the numbers.

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. "new carpeting for the house" That one in particular stings....

My master bedroom still has the original carpet from 13 years ago. That's just unhealthy, but every time we scrape up enough money to do something about it something else happens that bumps it from the top of the priority list.

[hunter]

8. Painted floors are wonderful.

I've never liked carpet or vinyl. If I don't have money for stone or wood floors, I use paint.

Here's a website I found:

http://www.thingsthatinspire.net/2011/06/painted-wood-floors.html

We once had an old house with some terrible wood floors that had been covered up with some kind of cheap fiber board and carpeted over. The carpet was disgusting so I pulled it up along with the fiber board, patched the major holes in the floor underneath with epoxy filler, patched the nail holes with water based wood filler, and painted.

Lots of labor, but it turned out nice, very much nicer than a cheap carpet would have been.

[Pacifist Patriot]

10. I've been trying to talk my husband in to that, but not sold yet.

[FarCenter]

3. It is likely to get worse

Expect earnings to be flat to declining slowly over the next decade and then to drop significantly as energy and other resources run out.

[The2ndWheel]

4. Fight for all the change you want

But while you do it, you might need to adapt to the environment within which you find yourself.

If that means, for example, possibly getting a roommate of some kind, even if you're older, or even if you really want to live by yourself(which is fine, but you live with the risks), you might need to do that to share the burden. You know, the same way we want society to get more resources pooled together. You might not be able to wait for that to happen.

The cheap energy we've had access to for the last few decades/centuries has created a situation where adaptation is a lost skill. Not for everybody, as those who have been on the lower side of the economy have always had to be creative and watch every dollar. However, increasingly, the answer has always been more. That's not adaptation, that's domination. It was our attempt at imposing our collective will onto physical reality. That path works until it doesn't.

Now we find ourselves in a world where you're needed less and less. Not only competing with more and more people around the world, but directly competing against technology as well. Technological advancement has become almost an end, instead of the means to it. People are losing control over that advancement, and so are just swept up in the tide.

You can't just fight. It's time to adapt in order to be better prepared to find the cracks to fight in.

The middle class in mass society is very recent. There is no reason to expect or assume that it will continue just because we want it to, for many reasons.

[raccoon]

5. "Maybe it's the evolution of the economy, but it appears large segments of the workforce

have moved permanently into lower-paying positions," says Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pa. "The economy can't grow at 4 percent per year when the middle class becomes the lower middle class."

No shit, Sherlock....

[libinnyandia]

6. Obama's fault

If only McCain/Palin had been elected. The big tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, maybe new wars would have fixed everything. Afterthe GOP wins in 2012, everybody will get high paying jobs. I wonder how many people believe that. Way too many.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Well, he does support free trade.

:shrug:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. We're just "levelling the playing field"...with the 3rd world.