The fed has released their triennial report on American wealth and it’s not good:
The recent recession wiped out nearly two decades of Americans’ wealth, according to government data released Monday, with middle-class families bearing the brunt of the decline.
The Federal Reserve said the median net worth of families plunged by 39 percent in just three years, from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010. That puts Americans roughly on par with where they were in 1992.
Kevin Drum even adds more disturbing news:
Despite these setbacks, consumers have continued to spend surprising amounts of money in recent years, helping to keep the economy growing at a modest pace. The survey underscores where the money is coming from: Americans are saving less for future needs and making little progress in repaying debts.
….The report highlighted the fact that households had made limited progress in reducing the amount that they owed to lenders. The share of households reporting any debt declined by 2.1 percentage points over the last three years, but 74.9 percent of households still owe something and the median amount of the debt did not change.
That is really bad news. Americans aren’t saving or paying off their debt. Instead they are using all their money to either survive or purchase materialistic needs. That puts a lot of families one illness or layoff away from tragedy.
And as far as economic warfare? Well look at this chart and you decide if it’s happening:
The only ones to see a gain in wealth were the top 90% while the biggest losses hit the bottom 40%. Seeing it in graph form tells you there is class warfare happening in this country.
As matter of fact one of the GOP talking points was always “the top earners lost a lot of money when the recession hit”. Well yeah they did, but not enough to put them into negative wealth territory like the rest of us. But that shouldn’t matter, since we should all bow down to the nation’s wealthy and feel lucky they employ us or even let us be Americans. Just ask any Republican.
This country is on a path to economical class catastrophe. The next time some Republican says “we should go back to the 50s”, someone needs to tell them “fine – we will, let’s raise the riches taxes back up to 80% and get rid of the huge gap between CEO pay and worker pay”. That’s what helped create an atmosphere of security and one that let a family with only one person working survive rather well.