Most People Still Losing Ground In This Faltering Economy

The pundits have been bragging for a while now about how the recession has ended, and to prove that they point to Wall Street (which is back to breaking records) and the giant corporations (who are making record profits and sitting on trillions of dollars) And that is all true. but just because the rich and the corporations are back on track doesn't mean the economy is well, or anyone else is doing well.

In fact, most people in this country are still yet to recover from the Bush recession. There are still way too many unemployed people, and many of the new jobs being created are minimum wage (or near it) and will just keep the worker in poverty. Half of the population is living on an income for their family that keeps them within 150% of the poverty level (which means they are just a paycheck or two from falling into poverty themselves).

And the Wall Street financiers and corporate CEOs are not helping. Productivity has been rising, but they are hogging it all, while worker wages are stagnant (and being eaten away by inflation). And as this happens, the middle class continues to shrink and the poverty rolls swell.

The chart above was made from a survey done by the Pew Research Center done between August 20th and 24th of a random national sample of 1,501 adults, with a margin of error of 2.9 points. Note that not a single demographic group believes their income is rising faster than the cost of living (inflation), and only one group (those making over $100,000 a year) even has a double-digit number of people whose salaries outpace inflation -- and that is only 15%. The truth is, as the chart shows, nearly every demographic group is falling further behind -- as prices rise, but their wages don't.

Then you have the chart below, also from that Pew survey, which shows that nearly half of all adults in this country (45%) have had financial problems in the last 12 months -- and in some groups that figure is much higher. These charts help paint a good picture of just what most people continue to face in this faltering economy -- several years after they were told the recession was over.

There is no excuse for the economy to be faltering this badly nearly five years after the end of the recession -- no reason except for the fact that the congressional Republicans have blocked every single attempt to fix the economy. They promised to do that after President Obama was elected, and they've done it. They simply don't care that they are hurting millions of Americans with their racist economic games. This is but one more, among many, reasons why they must be voted out of power this coming November.