Real inflation has doubled the price of necessities.


I do not get why the corporations seem oblivious to the fact that no middle class means no buying their stuff.
They seem pretty happy to abandon US markets entirely.

You're not needed. Whether it's the increasing abstraction of stock prices, or more of the world's population able to do the job anywhere, or just the simple act of getting more for less that everyone tries to do in every sphere of life, and I don't know why corporations and jobs would be any different in that regard, or automation and all that, any individual just isn't needed as much. Unless you're bringing something to the table that most other people can't or don't.

Evolution and adaptation can be messy.

you're not needed either, bubelah.

the chart doesn't come from the graphics department at Fox News.

I have no sympathy.

Kind of amounts to victim blaming, which conservatives relish.

or do you truly and seriously believe "vote Dem and all your problems will go away forever"?

children currently experiences at least one episode of hunger per month, comrade. And still you have no sympathy?

declined under Bush and the Great Recession and has turned up slightly in 2011 or 2012.

Real Median Household Income by Race

Please see the article linked in Reply 16.

there began a gradual increase until 2000. Then there was a slight decline until 2009 when there was a slight increase.

All-in-all not much of a change over 50 years from 1964 ($19.18) to 2014 ($20.67).

Thanks for the useful chart, merrily.

The chart I posted dealt with total family income so a little different from individual wages, reflecting more people working in each family.

a lot of other info that might make the total numbers seem less positive in the real world.

As one of my former partners used to say, "Figures lie and liars figure." (And he was the partner in charge of reporting financial info to the other partners! Any wonder that I went out on my own?)

anything related to The New Deal" and benefits working Americans. They have a vision of a two class society; the aristocracy and the working class poor (see Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" for illustrations).

Bankrupcy Act of 1934, replaced by Bankruptcy Code of 1978 (Carter and a Democratic majority inboth houses of Congress), thereby making it easier for officers and directors of corporations to pull shenanigans on stockholders; repeal of Glass Steagall, urged by both Clinton and Greenspan, Clinton also bragged about having ended "welfare as we know it," Obama put cuts to Social Security and Medicare on the table. Yes, Republicans dismantled as well, but pretending all economic issues that disadvantage the poor and the middle class were accomplished by Republicans alone is silly--and that's even before we get to sixty vote rules that Democrats did not use to block certain things and Presidential vetoes that Democratic Presidents, including FDR himself, did not exercise to stop dismantling of New Deal programs and legislation.

can do better than we did 60 to 80 years ago or more. But, I sure do agree that the pretense that all of the problems of the 99% are attributable to Republicans and only Republicans is a self-defeating form of tunnel vision. At best.

The people who supported and enforced Reaganomics were the most greedy, short sighted and flat out stupid lot of Americans since they stopped hanging witches in Salem.
But let's remember who we are dealing with when we speak of Reagan and the sort of voter that responded to him. Reagan's communications director was Pat Buchanan. Pat Buchanan. Here is a sample of Pat's 1980's style:
"The poor homosexuals -- they have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution (AIDS)."
"There were no politics to polarize us then, to magnify every slight. The 'negroes' of Washington had their public schools, restaurants, bars, movie houses, playgrounds and churches; and we had ours."
"Take a hard look at (David) Duke's portfolio of winning issues and expropriate those not in conflict with GOP principles, [such as] reverse discrimination against white folks."

Some on DU insist that Reagan and his Republicans were moderates, kindly and gentle, that the Republicans were different back then and that reasonable people often voted for their delightful messages and sound fiscal policies. They are incorrect. This was Reagan's communications director.

His admiration's polices were brutal towards the poor and non white segments of the US, and the 'party' atmosphere of the 80's masked their inherent deadliness to the middle class. The cold war was winding down - no matter what we did the USSR was going to collapse under it's own inefficiencies; it is largely a myth his extreme military machismo was the root cause of the defeat of World Communism. Instead, he expanded the military at great cost to the US's national treasure - this transfer of wealth into the dead end of arms spending was the initial body blow dealt to of the middle class - as designed by the oligarchs who were the real power behind the throne. They wanted no more 60's style demonstrations - and their solution was to destroy the leisure time the middle class enjoyed and put to use demonstrating for a better world.

This Neo-Guilded Age we are experiencing cannot survive.

The ONLY upside (if that's possible) is less mindless consumerism.
Hopefully people are looking closely at what they value and
what they truly need from our material culture.
Perhaps in a reflective moment the majority of US will recognize
that we are all in the same boat... that the divisions we imagine
will dissolve in the light of a new day?

The potential for a new mindset about our depleting resources,
the burden we all put upon the environment and the interdependence
we share will emerge once the neo-robberbarrons have amused themselves to death?

is held up by the consumer, that is bad for the economy? Nah, it can't be. Don't you know that if you make the 1% richer then the wealth will trickle down?

Marsha Marsha Marsha!

I wish I could think of DUzrs like that!

Thanks for the laugh!!

With law enforcement becoming more like a protection racket for the 1% who would rather not be bothered by those growing numbers of poor people.