As a followup to the previous post and a commentary on the many conservative pundants who don’t understand the sour attitude of the American Public on the state of the economy I would like to point to this Washington Post Editorial:
Workers aren’t benefiting from growth.
Monday, September 4, 2006; Page A18
EMERGING FROM a meeting with his economic team at Camp David on Aug. 18, President Bush declared that “solid economic growth is creating real benefits for American workers and families.” This assertion was false. Mr. Bush should use this Labor Day to rethink his rhetoric and adjust his policies.
Of course between the Presidents yearly earnings, his advisors yearly earnings, the yearly earnings of the political pundants and the earnings of “American workers and families” is a divide that you cannot see across. If you live on the one side your concepts of how that other side lives is based on the bs shown in movies and television. With all of the attention being given to the “strong growth of the economy” the splash of icy water that hit everyone’s face when the latest census data was released should finally wake up the pendants and those members of the “mainstream media” who continue to report the fiction of this administration as if it were true.
Just look at the data and the real story begins to come thru…
Between 2001 and 2005 the income of the typical, or median, household actually fell by 0.5 percent after accounting for inflation, even as workers’ productivity grew by 14 percent.
You know, my oldest son just moved out and started a family. He is doing it on less of a salary in real dollars (no adjustments for anything) than I was making when he was born 22 years ago. When you factor in all of the expenses modern day living says you must have, he is starting out further behind. And yet, this President keeps telling us we are better off? The only person I see that is better off is him with his income for life and his full medical coverage. Give new meaning to the fairness of the American system doesn’t it?
Then you have the numbers on poverty:
The current growth cycle has also failed to dent poverty. In fact, between 2001 and 2005, the poverty rate rose from 11.7 percent to 12.6 percent. Again, this is exceptional: In the previous five economic cycles, the poverty rate fell during the first four years of the recovery. Moreover, 5.4 percent of the population now occupies the ranks of the extremely poor, with incomes less than half the poverty line. That’s the highest rate of deep poverty since 1997.
So, the next time you hear one of these upper income politicians (and they are all upper income even if they don’t think so check median wages in this country) tell you how much better off you are do me a favor…call them what they are…a damn liar.
If we start calling lies lies maybe people will stop believing them. When the press says there is some disagreement over the facts, they need to spell out what the disagreement is. Are we talking about a political spin teams disagreement or are there real “facts” which can be interpreted either way. Quit trying to explain the news and go back to reporting. The partisan rancor that has grown up in the last decade seems to be proportional to the number of partisan pundants out there spouting the party line on every news program that exists.
