The numbers quoted in the article do take inflation into account. Stephen Rose is an economist, and if you've taken any economic courses you would know that they only work with real numbers, not nominal figures. Thats why in the piece I quoted it says real incomes above $100k with the key word being "real" meaning the numbers are adjusted for inflation. For example, I get a 5% raise this year while inflation is 3%. An economist would say my real wage grew by 2% because my nominal wage is increased 2% beyond inflation. Also, if you read the article you would see that people with real incomes below $75,000 dropped by 14%. The middle class is moving up, not down. As people begin to understand how to take advantage of the enormous opportunities in our country they become richer. Those who choose to not advance themselves will remain in the poverty class. Its all about personal choice, not about inequality.
First off, working class or middle class people in general don't CHOOSE not to advance, and it's not a personal choice.That is such a right wing myth engraved in their eroded thinking. The choice is made for them by Corp execs, Hedge Funders,Bankers,Investors,Insurers,Healthcare,......Reagonomics.
So, what your telling people is don't become a Teacher, eventhough they have the same Education level if not more than an Investor, they just don't understand the opportunities to be rich. BTW.....It takes Teachers years to payoff their school loans. If we had no Teachers, who would teach us Economics that graduates use the opportunity to get rich quick scams by starting Poker and Porn Internet sites?
Secondly, yes, by googling, studies showing that a lot of middle-class families are actually earning a good deal more than they used to, if by “middle class” you mean working parents with college degrees. The median household income in America, which should be a useful guidepost here, is something like $48,000.
But Thirdly showed—convincingly, it seems to me, by attacking the methodology—that if you remove single teenagers and senior citizens from the equation (not the people we generally think of as “middle class families,” after all), the median income is actually about $20,000 higher than that.
Yes, real Income is adjusted with Inflation.The question is how is the Inflation measured? For the article one can question the Author's methology in obtaining inflationary mearsures in accurately calculating the price of targeted goods and services, or does the price changes with OVERALL goods and services between 79' and 04'
Because we are usually more interested in knowing how the OVERALL cost of living changes, and therefore instead of looking at the change in price of targeted goods, we want to know how OVERALL price of a large 'basket' of goods and services changes. Just look at the OVERALL inflation measures from your four year old 2004 article to today 2008.
Compared with a generation ago, today's middle-class families earn about 75 percent more (that figure ajusted somewhat to a measured inflation average), thanks in large part to Mom's entrance into the work force. But after shelling out for four fixed expenses - mortgage, health insurance, child care or education, and car payments - today's median-income family has less left over, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than the single-income family of the 1970s.
That’s because it is political decisions driving the distribution of income. Since the 1970s, union busting, tax cuts for the wealthy, and politicians that play possum to business interests have help create the gap between the extremely rich and the rest of us.
For instance, when the Bush Administration talks about “tax-breaks,” who gets the break? About two-thirds of the benefits from 2001 and 2003 tax cuts went to households in the top fifth of the income bracket. Though many low income Americans did receive a tax refund (in 2004, the bottom fifth received—whoopee!—$250), the enormous loss of revenue at the TOP resulted in budget cuts for social programs like schools, financial aid, and Medicare, and resulted in huge budget deficits. Yes, keep talking about cutting taxes, and simply pass the deficit to our future generation.
Some of the Administration’s tax cuts are simply irrelevant for many Americans. Those with lower incomes or without investment portfolios don’t usually benefit from capital gains and dividend tax breaks because their money isn’t tied up in stocks and bonds. When the Administration cut these particular tax rates, half the breaks went to those Americans who make over one million dollars.