The economy the cable news networks gush about is going gangbusters. We're hearing about 10 straight quarters of strong growth in gross domestic product, and jobs being created at a clip of over 2 million per year. Unemployment is down, and more Americans own their homes than ever before. And don't forget, Americans' net worth is at an all-time high! And all this prosperity, the corporate media will tell you, is thanks to five years of President George Bush.
But that's an economic picture you won't find hanging on the wall in any normal American house. Most of us know that we're not doing as well today as we were a few years ago. According to a recent Gallup Poll, almost two-thirds of those asked said the economy was "fair" or "poor," and almost six in 10 thought it was getting worse.
That disconnect has left many commentators -- especially on the right -- either scratching their heads with befuddlement or raging apoplectically at the bias of the "liberal media."
.......
Consider these numbers from the Economic Policy Institute -- a left-leaning think-tank (this essay leans heavily on EPI's excellent research):
*Salaries are still below where they were at the start of the recovery in November 2001. That, while productivity -- the growth of the economic pie -- is up by almost 15 percent. Meaning we're working harder, producing more, for the same money as five years ago.
*Since the recession ended in 2001, 50 percent more of the growth in corporate income was sucked up as profits than after past recessions. That's left less for those of us who work for a living.
*As a result, median household income has now fallen for five years in a row. It was 4 percent, or $2,000, lower in 2004 than it was in 1999.
http://www.alternet.org/story/30447/
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