Incomes Rise

"Americans enjoyed higher average income in 2006 for the first time since 2000, when the last economic expansion ended, the latest tax data show."

"Average income grew significantly in 2004, rising $2,291, and again in 2005, when the average increased by $2,210. Income growth continued in 2006, but at a much slower pace, increasing by $1,369 over the 2005 average once inflation is taken into account."

"However, salaries fell noticeably among the tiny slice of taxpayers whose total income was $1 million or more, a threshold that the I.R.S. does not adjust for inflation."

Vis wrote:Yeah cause people are losing their homes in foreclosure and filing bankruptcies in record numbers because they're doing so well. .

Jugomugo wrote:Heh. Old data considering that's for the 2006 tax year. Before the real estate crash, and high gas prices.

Vis wrote:You are out of your ever loving fucking mind. Go peddle your crazy somewhere else. Yeah cause people are losing their homes in foreclosure and filing bankruptcies in record numbers because they're doing so well. Consider yourself dead-zoned from me and that's quite an accomplishment; one even doe/moon hasn't managed. I wish we had an ignore feature.

Cincy Fan 44 wrote:

Vis wrote:You are out of your ever loving fucking mind. Go peddle your crazy somewhere else. Yeah cause people are losing their homes in foreclosure and filing bankruptcies in record numbers because they're doing so well. Consider yourself dead-zoned from me and that's quite an accomplishment; one even doe/moon hasn't managed. I wish we had an ignore feature.

Easy there Vis. LTRT isn't anywhere close to that territory. He just tries to balance out some of the thumping that Bman does all of the time for his candidate of choice.

floridafun wrote:long as your job isnt affected thats great for you.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/04/news/economy/jobs_march/

80,000 jobs lost, unemployment spikes
Employers slash jobs for third straight month while unemployment jumps to 5.1%, a nearly three-year high.

U.S. employers slashed jobs for the third straight month in March and unemployment rose to a nearly three-year high, offering the latest signs that the economy has fallen into a recession.

The Labor Department's much anticipated report, released Friday, showed a net loss of 80,000 jobs last month. That marks the third straight month that jobs have fallen - the longest period of decline since early 2003.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast that payrolls would fall by 50,000 in the latest reading.

The new report also pegged job losses in January and February at 76,000 each month.

Those revisions added an additional 67,000 job losses to previous readings. The Labor Department now estimates that the economy has shed 232,000 jobs in the first three months of this year.

cardinal5150 wrote:I've been hearing from the left for about 6 months now how we are in a recession, yet every time there are economic reports released, we're not in a recession. Always makes me laugh. My guess is by now they are just going to keep repeating it with the idea that someday they'll be right.. kinda like the stopped clock being right twice/day.

I think Factory workers are more and more considered firmly in the middle class these days. How many of us know someone who works at GM and isn't exactly struggling when it comes to their paycheck.. now.. maybe they've made bad choices, but to get $50K+ in FW to put a seat in a Silverado isn't exactly what I'd call underpaid.

So to suggest that middle class wages are going up but factory wages are falling seems to be a bit contradictory to me. But like I said.. I view factory workers at middle class, so I guess it's all on your view of who's middle class.

Jugomugo wrote:

cardinal5150 wrote:I've been hearing from the left for about 6 months now how we are in a recession, yet every time there are economic reports released, we're not in a recession. Always makes me laugh. My guess is by now they are just going to keep repeating it with the idea that someday they'll be right.. kinda like the stopped clock being right twice/day.

I think Factory workers are more and more considered firmly in the middle class these days. How many of us know someone who works at GM and isn't exactly struggling when it comes to their paycheck.. now.. maybe they've made bad choices, but to get $50K+ in FW to put a seat in a Silverado isn't exactly what I'd call underpaid.

So to suggest that middle class wages are going up but factory wages are falling seems to be a bit contradictory to me. But like I said.. I view factory workers at middle class, so I guess it's all on your view of who's middle class.

I wouldn't use the GM plant as your point of reference. A LOT of factories are only paying $9-10 and hour, which is barely a living wage.

Jugomugo wrote:I wouldn't use the GM plant as your point of reference. A LOT of factories are only paying $9-10 and hour, which is barely a living wage.

Report Card: Workers worse off on pay, employment
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 7:08 a.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- This Labor Day finds workers in worse shape than they've been in years, according to a scorecard released Monday by Rutgers University.

In its first national labor scorecard, the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations said more than 10 percent of Americans are unemployed, discouraged from seeking work or underemployed. That is a nearly 25-percent increase from one year earlier.

Professor Douglas Kruse, a labor economist who created the scorecard, said a sharp decline in the number of Americans able to find full-time jobs, along with growing consumer debt and health care costs, were causes for concern.

''But there are some bright spots long term,'' Kruse said, including improvements in workplace safety, a small but growing percentage of employers offering support for childcare and employee wellness programs, and more Americans who are completely satisfied with their jobs.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department last week said the number of people signing up for jobless benefits declined for the third straight period, but remained above 400,000 -- an indicator of a slowing economy.

The Rutgers labor scorecard offered other sobering findings:

-- About 530,000 were subject to mass layoffs in the last year, growth of nearly 5 percent, but a lower rate than five and 10 years ago.

-- The median weekly earnings for American workers have not grown in real terms over the last eight years.

-- At $6.55, the federal minimum wage is worth 40 cents less per hour, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than it was a decade ago.

-- While employer-assisted childcare and employee wellness programs have grown quickly over the last decade, they still cover less than one quarter of American workers.

-- Roughly 4 percent of the workforce wants to work full-time, but is working part time because they can't find full-time work.

The scorecard, which doesn't assign grades but charts whether indicators are improving or getting worse, is based primarily on data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Mort wrote:you would not last a week in there Card