U.S. Median Income Falls To $26,364 As Pessimism Reaches 10-Year High

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Americans' incomes are falling, perhaps a reason why pessimism about their personal finances is now the lowest it's been in a decade.
The median income fell in 2010 for the second year in a row to $26,364, a 1.2 percent drop from 2009, and the lowest level since 1999, according to David Cay Johnston at Reuters.
Meanwhile, U.S. households are growing increasingly concerned about their finances with more than 20 percent of adult Americans rating their financial situation as "poor," a Gallup poll finds. That's a larger share than the 16 to 19 percent of Americans who viewed their finances as poor during and after the recession. It's also the highest percentage since 2001, the first year of the survey, according to Gallup.
In some ways, the financial crisis has taken more of a toll on the employed during the recovery. Indeed, Americans' incomes have fallen more during the recovery than they did during the recession. Incomes dropped 6.7 percent during the recovery between June 2009 and June 2011, compared to a 3.2 percent drop during the recession from December 2007 to June 2009, a study from former Census Bureau officials found.
And it will take some time to get incomes back to where they were before the recession. The U.S. median income has declined 7 percent in the last 10 years and while economists expect incomes to rise over the next decade, it likely won't be enough to return to pre-recession income levels, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Not everyone is suffering, however. The number of workers making $1 million or more actually rose to nearly 94,000 last year from 78,000 in 2009, according to Reuters.
Still, most employed workers don't expect much in the near future. Nine out of 10 American workers say they don't expect to get a salary increase in the next year that will be enough to compensate for rising food and fuel prices, a June American Pulse survey found. Meanwhile, Gallup's Basic Necessities Index -- a measure of Americans' access to food, shelter and health care -- fell earlier this month to lows on par with recession levels.

Corporations may finally be feeling the pain of a sluggish recovery too, MSNBC reports. As CEOs continue to report their company earnings for the last quarter, their outlooks for the future will likely include belt-tightening measures, according to MSNBC.

Hey!!!! Trickle down economics really works....lets give some more incentive to the job creators to create some more great paying jobs...

Hey!!!! Trickle down economics really works....lets give some more incentive to the job creators to create some more great paying jobs... Originally Posted by Raa1965

+1

Hey!!!! Trickle down economics really works....lets give some more incentive to the job creators to create some more great paying jobs... Originally Posted by Raa1965

Yes, in fact, it does, it is the only kind that does in fact. Too bad we've not tried it in a while.

I know! Let's send billions to political cronies in the "alternative (to reality) energy" sector so they can funnel some back to the DNC! Oh yeah, that's the ticket!

Interesting...

GPs article from HuffPo
2010 median income falling from sourced from a Reuters Reporter
Income concerns from a Gallup Poll
Biggest drop (6.7) in income during June 2009 and June 2011 - Obama's Prime Years
The U.S. median income has declined 7 percent in the last 10 years..so was the .3 percent in the last of GWB year?
Says: The number of workers making $1 million or more actually rose to nearly 94,000 last year from 78,000 in 2009, according to Reuters. I wonder why they don't quote a US govt source directly?

So generally this article is more class warfare from Obama narrators.

How about this article sourced directly from IRS data? http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_b...he-number.html

Wall Street Journal editorial, Millionaires Go Missing: There's Nothing Like a Recession to Level Incomes:

Speaking of "millionaires and billionaires" (see Warren Buffett's Middle Class Tax Increase), the real tax news is that there are fewer of both these days. This month the IRS released more detailed tax data for 2009, and the nearby table records the decline of the taxpaying rich.
In 2007, 390,000 tax filers reported adjusted gross income of $1 million or more and paid $309 billion in taxes. In 2009, there were only 237,000 such filers, a decline of 39%. Almost four of 10 millionaires vanished in two years, and the total taxes they paid in 2009 declined to $178 billion, a drop of 42%.
Those with $10 million or more in reported income fell to 8,274 from 18,394 in 2007, a 55% drop. As a result, their tax payments tanked by 51%. These disappearing millionaires go a long way toward explaining why federal tax revenues have sunk to 15% of GDP in recent years. The loss of millionaires accounts for at least $130 billion of the higher federal budget deficit in 2009. If Warren Buffett wants to reduce the deficit, he should encourage policies to create more millionaires, not campaign to tax them more. ...
Well, if equality of income is the priority, liberals should be thrilled with the last four years. The recession and weak recovery have been income levelers. Those who make more than $200,000 captured one-quarter of the $7.6 trillion in total income in 2009. In 2007 the over-$200,000 crowd had one-third of reported U.S. taxable income. Those with incomes above $1 million earned 9.5% of total income in 2009, down from 16.1% in 2007.
It's an old story: The best way to produce income equality is to destroy trillions of dollars of wealth. Everyone loses, but the rich lose relatively more than the poor and the middle class. By that measure, if few others, Obamanomics has been a raging success.

August 18, 2011

The article referenced "median paycheck" not household income. Get your facts right!

Big difference between paycheck and med hhld incomes.

The 2010 med hhld income was about $50,000.

Excellent gnadfly very interesting articles. Makes sense but I'm sure others won't get it. So SAD.

Reagan was the champion of trickle down economics.

We've given the "Trickle Down" theory a 30 YEAR TRY and it hasn't worked.

The only way most families survived or did better was to go from one breadwinner to two.

We've got a guy who won in South Carolina who makes his living scamming Americans with fake "awards" his staff sells you by direct mail and telemarketing telling you that you've "won". Then they con you into flying to Washington to have dinner or lunch with the Scammer-in-Chief for $10K-$20K! LMAO!

Gotta hand it to the guy. He certainly learned to up-sell from the old "powerboat" win where you just paid the shipping and eventually got a rubber boat and a wind-up "motor".

There is where he earns 80% of his $4 Million a year.

Stevie, what the fuck are you talking about? Larger print and different colors don't help you make sense.

And remember, Obama's plans to give tax credits to employers who hire certain people is supply side economics. I thought you liked Obama?

OK, COG, since I don't want you to continue to be clueless can you tell me how Newt earns a living and keeps his $500K line of credit with Tiffany's?

hint: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/polit...-62981992.html

I think the postal inspectors put the rubber raft people in jail. Maybe they won't catch the Newtster before he serves four years as President and Scammer-in-Chief. We are so lucky to have such a stellar Teapublican field!

I didn't know that about Newt's PAC! LOL! That's funny. I think you got one right, Stevie! But I already knew Gingrich was a crook, but this is the first I heard about this scam. It is a funny one!

I would have cited the Rachel Maddow Show but nobody would have believed it! I didn't see much coverage on Fox "News" either.

Gingrich took back the award but his scam was so pervasive the owners got ANOTHER offer for a different one of his phony awards at their HOME address.

While none of us can really speak about his fidelity issues, Stephen Colbert "praised" Newt for his honesty by saying, "Most guys play around on their wives and keep it a secret. At least Newt had the courage to ask his wife for an 'open marriage' even if it was 'after the fact'."

The article referenced "median paycheck" not household income. Get your facts right!

Big difference between paycheck and med hhld incomes.

The 2010 med hhld income was about $50,000. Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Let's be accurate. It was $49,445, down from $50,599 in 2009.

http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf at p. 6.