By Owen Paine on Thursday October 28, 2010 11:51 AM
So how's the national pay packet doing? Let's ask a tax guy:
"Measured in 2009 dollars, total wages fell to just above $5.9 trillion, down $215 billion from the previous year. Compared with 2007, when the economy peaked, total wages were down $313 billion or 5 percent in real terms... Every 34th wage earner in America in 2008 went all of 2009 without earning a single dollar... Total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined, but at the very top, salaries grew more than fivefold."The sorry history buried in these returns "... is one of a strengthening economic base with income growing fastest at the bottom until 1981" -- That memorable year, when Jodi Foster's biggest fan put a slug in Reagan's ass!
"Since then the base has fared poorly while huge economic gains piled up at the very top."Our man here attributes this dramatic pivot in the trend line to "an abrupt change in tax and economic policy."
Yeah, I'd say maybe that played a role. Here's a nice stat: in '09 the top 74 pay earners made as much as the 19 million lowest-paid.
Postwar middle America, God shed his grace on ye; and then came Ronnie.
