Oh Dear, Middle Class Wages Down

Oh Dear! In 2008, President Barack Hussein Obama, while campaigning, said that George W. Bush caused wage losses among the middle class. Now we find, according to Mike Dorning writing for Bloomberg, that, after 39 months under Obama and his policies, wage losses are even more pronounced. All you Obama fan liberal/progressive/Democrat Kool-Aid drinkers who live in constant denial may want to watch this video from Bloomberg.

Dorning continues: Even among those who are employed, the rebound from the worst recession since the 1930s has generated relatively few of the moderately skilled jobs that once supported the middle class, tightening the financial squeeze on many Americans. “It started long before Obama, but he hasn’t done anything,” said John Forsyth. “He kept pushing this change, change, change, and he hasn’t done anything.”

Key phrase: “he hasn’t done anything.” As this source illustrates, median household income, both nominal and inflation adjusted, fell during the Obama presidency.

Dorning continues: Yet real median household income in March was down $4,300 since Obama took office in January 2009 and down $2,900 since the June 2009 start of the economic recovery…. Want “proof?” Dorning cites this study by Sentier Research. According to the Sentier Research study (page 3): “The February 2012 median annual household income of $50,065 was 5.7 percent lower than the median of $53,085 in June 2009, the end of the recent recession and beginning of the “economic recovery.” The February 2012 median was 8.1 percent lower than the median of $54,481 in December 2007, the beginning month of the recession that occurred just over four years ago. And the February 2012 median was 9.0 percent lower than the median of $55,031 in January 2000, the beginning of this statistical series.” This study, BTW, is a very interesting read.

Please see also Figures 1, 2, and 3 (pages 8, 9, and 10) in the same report.

Regarding unemployment, the report (page 2) says “A broader measure of employment hardship, which includes the unemployed, marginally attached (or discouraged) workers, and persons working part-time for economic reasons, declined slightly from 15.1 percent in January 2012 to 14.9 percent in February 2012.” Here the report is discussing the U-6 unemployment rate. Somebody has, in the past, said that the U-6 rate was more indicative of what the effect of unemployment is. That “somebody” was … ME!

And the same report (still on page 2) says “An important factor impeding the recovery of real median annual household income has been the recent up tick in inflation.”

But that’s just my opinion.

“It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.” – Ronald Reagan

Cross-posted at RWNO, my personal web site.