Middle Class Sqweeze:

[liberal N proud]

Economists don't have a standard definition for the "middle class." But the percentage of households having a pretax income of between $25,000 and $75,000 -- a group occupying roughly the middle half of Census income tables -- has declined by 1.2 percentage points since President Bush took office, after adjusting for inflation.

In the same 2000-2003 period, those making less than $25,000 grew by 1.5 percentage points to 29% of households. Those making more than $75,000 declined by 0.4% to 26% of all households. These numbers were crunched by FactCheck.org, a project of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center to examine campaign statements for accuracy.

The trends in wages are linked to the question of job creation. Even though the recovery may no longer be "jobless," economists say employers need to hire more vigorously -- picking up the slack in a growing labor market -- before workers will be able to command higher wages.

"These are not great times for the middle class," says Isaac Shapiro, an economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CollegeandFamily/P94152.asp?GT1=5100

[Warpy]

1. The real problem with that is that the formula

for the poverty line is so totally out of date. That formula assumes a family pays 1/3 of its budget for food, and relies on a "market basket" full of ordinary foodstuffs to determine how much they'd spend.

The problem is that the food budget is now 1/6, since other costs have inflated much more quickly than food has. That means that the poverty level for a family of four is really $36,000/year, not the measly $18,000/year the BLS pretends it is.

Middle class has traditionally meant that class able to afford household help (whether or not they have it) and able to invest for the future. I'm afraid that line for a family of four is up around $100,000/year at the bare minimum.

What we're seeing is a huge increase in poverty, masked by outmoded statistics and government lying that deliberatly substitutes the word "poverty" for what is in fact destitution.

The middle class has shrunk to practically nothing.

[AP]

2. And there's a record number of billionaires who are making money from

companies which area getting huge profits from low wage rates and people going into debt to buy their overpriced crap (thinking about the banks and drug companies in particular).

[mhr]

3. Unemployed 51 Months - It Is Still A Jobless Recovery In Dallas, TX

See how GW screwed Dallas below. This chart is from the Dallas Fed.