For Esteemed Posters on the Left - Evidence that Republicans Were Better for the Middle Class and the Poor than Democrats

The Census Bureau reported median household income for 2019 a couple of weeks ago.

Please note that "median" doesn't mean the same as average. It means the middle number. Fifty percent of American households in 2019 made less than the median income and fifty percent made more. So this number is very representative of how the middle class is faring.

The 2019 figure is striking, $68,703 per household, up 6.8% from 2018. During Obama's entire 8 years in office, coming out of a recession which should have goosed growth and wages, the increase was only 5.8%

This is very good news. The middle class did not do particularly well during the period of time when George W. Bush and Barrack Obama served as presidents. (Aside: I don't place the blame primarily on those two leaders -- there are many other factors that affect income growth besides what the president does or does not do.)

In fact, median household income when Obama left office had barely budged since 1999 and 2000, when the policies of a Republican Congress and President Clinton (welfare reform, a balanced budget, free trade, a lower capital gains tax) helped usher in a golden age. See this chart and click on "Max" for some historical perspective: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

So what happened? I believe a huge part of the reason for the growth in median household income last year was the Ryan/Trump tax cuts for corporations, and for pass through businesses with lots of employees, in 2017. Trump's deregulation helped as well. Businesses expanded. There was more competition for labor. Unemployment went down. Wages went up.

The Wall Street Journal published a piece on the Census numbers. It wasn't just the middle class that did well:

Poverty fell 1.3 percentage points last year to 10.5%, the lowest level since 1959, and declined more for blacks (2 percentage points), Hispanics (1.8), Asians (2.8), single mothers (2.6), people with a disability (3.2), and no high-school diploma (2.2). The black (18.8%) and Hispanic (15.7%) poverty rates were the lowest in history.

As family household incomes increased, the child poverty rate also declined to 14.4% from 16.2% in 2018 and 18% in 2016. The decline in childhood poverty last year was nearly twice as much as during the entire Obama Presidency. The most pro-family policies are those that increase jobs and wages.

Income inequality last year also declined by most measures as the bottom quintile’s share of income grew 2.4%.

The share of households making less than $15,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars declined to 9.1% last year from 10.4% in 2016 and 11.2% in 2010. At the same time, the share with income between $75,000 and $200,000 increased to 36.1% from 34.4% in 2016 and 32.8% in 2010 while the percentage earning more than $200,000 ticked up to 10.3% from 8% in 2016 and 5.9% in 2010.

In other words, all Americans were gaining economic ground. But lower and middle-class Americans enjoyed the largest gains relative to the Obama Presidency.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-hig...s&page=1&pos=1

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Eccieuser for participating in my series of "For Eccieuser" threads, and for reciprocating with a couple of "For Tiny" threads as well. I am trying to enlarge my audience, and in the hopes that three or four people who are left of center will read this post instead of just one, I have titled it "For Esteemed Posters on the Left", instead of "For Eccieuser."

I would also like to thank some of the posters here who suffer from TES (Trump Enlightenment Syndrome), who showed me that there's a way to put words that start with t, like Tiny and Trump, in tiny text.

But you focused on one year. 2019 turned into 2020, and unemployment skyrocketed, incomes plummeted, and 204,000 are dead from a virus the President basically called a Fake.

of course, every year is good for Trump. He never has to pay taxes.

just get your 500 dollars per week from PUA/LWA

But you focused on one year. 2019 turned into 2020, and unemployment skyrocketed, incomes plummeted, and 204,000 are dead from a virus the President basically called a Fake. Originally Posted by Chung Tran

I've been as critical as anyone here about the USA's response to Covid, although I don't put as much of the blame on Trump as you do. In terms of the total number of deaths and the deaths per day adjusted for population, we're doing a suck ass job.

However, in terms of the economic decline, we haven't done any worse than other large non-Asian economies. We've done better than the Europeans. Here's 2nd quarter YoY GDP growth for a sampling,

USA -9.1%
Germany -11.3%
France -18.9%
United Kingdom -21.7%
Australia -6.3%

of course, every year is good for Trump. He never has to pay taxes. Originally Posted by Chung Tran

Agreed. There's a fascinating article on this that came out in the New York Times today.

So we beat a few European Covid-denying Countries, LOL.. The UK, in particular, denied so hard, you listed them twice!

Meanwhile, Asia is whooping the US. China recovered much faster than us.

So we beat a few European Covid-denying Countries, LOL.. The UK, in particular, denied so hard, you listed them twice!

Meanwhile, Asia is whooping the US. China recovered much faster than us. Originally Posted by Chung Tran

The Europeans weren't Covid denying,. I tried to be representative, those are the big European economies. Germany's done a good job in the way it responded to Covid. In terms of the economy, I don't think Hillary Clinton would have done any better than Trump if she'd been elected.

Yes, Asia is whipping the USA. There are some countries like Thailand and Singapore whose economies have suffered worse than ours, but then you have examples like Taiwan, South Korea and China which are coming through in very good shape, both in terms of lives lost and their economies.

So we beat a few European Covid-denying Countries, LOL.. The UK, in particular, denied so hard, you listed them twice!

Meanwhile, Asia is whooping the US. China recovered much faster than us. Originally Posted by Chung Tran

Pray tell - why is the orient and China - which caused the pandemic - doing' better"
Define' better' , and what these countries did to do 'better'!
Enquiring minds would like to know!

Pray tell - why is the orient and China - which caused the pandemic - doing' better"
Define' better' , and what these countries did to do 'better'!
Enquiring minds would like to know! Originally Posted by oeb11

Ask your Comrade Xi

Pray tell - why is the orient and China - which caused the pandemic - doing' better"
Define' better' , and what these countries did to do 'better'!
Enquiring minds would like to know! Originally Posted by oeb11

He's right Oeb. The east Asian and southeast Asian countries have all done much better in terms of deaths per capita. Some have done better in terms of economic decline and some have done worse. Here are YoY GDP figures for 2Q2020 for developed countries in Asia, and the USA:

USA -9.1%
South Korea -2.7%
Japan -9.9%
China +3.2%
Taiwan -0.58%
Hong Kong -9.0%
Singapore -13.2%

You can find deaths per capita here,

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...n-inhabitants/

The USA is #9 on the list with 597 deaths per million. The highest in east or southeast Asia is the Philippines, with 43.7 deaths per million. The highest developed country would be Japan, with 11.6 deaths per million.

What did they do differently? It varied from country to country. Japan mostly let it rip, without a lockdown and with little in the way of contact tracing. The difference may have Japanese are smarter (when it comes to health) and healthier than Americans. There's a lot more mask wearing in Japan, and for that matter in all these countries. I suspect they take social distancing , hand washing staying home when sick, and the like more seriously too. South Korea was very good at contact tracing, and only had to resort to limited lockdowns. China's a police state -- they just locked people up in their own homes.

Some of the Asian countries went through SARS, so they were better prepared for the next dangerous coronavirus.

Mole-Xi is your icon to worship - a DPST hero of XiNN and Comrade Xi of China and the CCP - a good friend of Bernie's .

Until China takes over after harris capitulation to them - and executes ever US Senator, congressman, and administration official.

surprise - Bernie!

He's right Oeb. The east Asian and southeast Asian countries have all done much better in terms of deaths per capita. Some have done better in terms of economic decline and some have done worse. Here are YoY GDP figures for 2Q2020 for developed countries in Asia, and the USA:

USA -9.1%
South Korea -2.7%
Japan -9.9%
China +3.2%
Taiwan -0.58%
Hong Kong -9.0%
Singapore -13.2%

You can find deaths per capita here,

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...n-inhabitants/

The USA is #9 on the list with 597 deaths per million. The highest in east or southeast Asia is the Philippines, with 43.7 deaths per million. The highest developed country would be Japan, with 11.6 deaths per million.

What did they do differently? It varied from country to country. Japan mostly let it rip, without a lockdown and with little in the way of contact tracing. The difference may have been people are smarter and healthier in the USA. There's a lot more mask wearing in Japan, and for that matter in all these countries. I suspect they take social distancing and hand washing and the like more seriously too. South Korea was very good at contact tracing, and only had to resort to limited lockdowns. China's a police state -- they just locked people up in their own homes. Originally Posted by Tiny

Thanks tiny - for a rational response
seems the DPST's have a new 'cause celebre' - $750.
foolish DPST's - if it was Biden returns it would not matter - just like his sexual assault accusations - but trump - oh -that's different. . Hypocrisy - and no proof whatsoever. To my knowledge -Trump has no released his returns.

So where did business Week get this - from the IRS - and what are the legalities of acquiring and releasing such information???
does not matter to the DPST's - but if it was Biden's returns released illegally - Oh -that is different.



China may well have done better because of a totalitarian lockdown - possible in China - but the DPST's will have to wait a bit before they can enforce such - although they are waiting in great anticipation of destroying the US economy with a total lockdown.

Oeb's comrade Xi played Trump like a fiddle early on

China recovered much faster than us. Originally Posted by Chung Tran

A commie country said so....RIGHT CHUNGSTER??

But you focused on one year. 2019 turned into 2020, and unemployment skyrocketed, incomes plummeted, and 204,000 are dead from a virus the President basically called a Fake.

of course, every year is good for Trump. He never has to pay taxes. Originally Posted by Chung Tran

do you really think Biden could have prevented 200k deaths and somehow kept the economy from tanking? he's on record as wanting more lock downs.

none of you can claim Trump caused those 200k deaths and none that his pre Wuhan Virus economy wasn't very strong at the least. the pre virus numbers are clear.

the Left and many voters (D/R/I) also know that Trump had 3 strong years to begin his tenure and only this virus is the driver of the crash. they also hear Biden himself talk about raising taxes and who exactly looks better on the economy and a fast rebound?


did i mention Biden wants federal mask and lock down mandates. yeah. that'll help recovery
NOT

...Japan mostly let it rip, without a lockdown and with little in the way of contact tracing. ... Originally Posted by Tiny

They took extra precautions around their elderly populations. Sort of the exact/polar opposite of Cuomo.