I heard on the news this morning the standard of living
in America has fallen since the recession *ended*.
That seems odd. I found some data on a government site:
I heard on the news this morning the standard of living
in America has fallen since the recession *ended*.That seems odd. I found some data on a government site:
Median income is an almost meaningless statistic. All it tells you is half the people make more and half make less. There is no indication of range of income, or distribution of income. Those are the stats that are valuable.
I find this other data from the same site to be much more informative. Although it upsets me that the data is over 10 years old and no updated report has yet been made.
What this report essentially shows is from 1967-1980, the poorest 20% were improving and the top 5% were becoming less rich. Then, from 1980-1992, that trend reversed--dramatically. 1993-1998 held a status quo.
My "projection" of 1999-2011 is even more inequality at an even more dramatic degree than the 1980-1992 period. I suspect when the actual data is published, it will corroborate with what you heard on the news--wildly disproportionate distribution right after a recession, similar to the data from 1982 in figure 1, with the "lower 80%" having lost a lot of the share of wealth.
EDIT: Found it. Page 14, figure 4.