Where Art Thou, American Economy?

In case you've been too busy trying to make ends meet to notice, the American Economy is in the tank. For a sobering look at

• The Current US Trade Deficit (continually ticking up),

• Wage Stagnation statistics

• An economic slideshow of the American Economy (called Charting the Economy)

go to American Economic Alert (this blog title links to it). The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, reports data showing American workers today have increasing job security (see http://www.heritage.org/), what they don't say is how valuable that job is in today's market. In a June report in USA Today (go to http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-06-08-dream_N.htm) :
"Today's economic malaise caps a prolonged period during which the typical American lost ground.

From the end of the 2001 recession through last year, median household income fell almost every year even as the economy expanded and individual workers became more productive. The most recent official data indicate that in 2006, half of all families made more than $58,407 and half made less. That compares with an inflation-adjusted peak of $59,398 in 2000.

This financial stall marked the first time since World War II that the typical family was worse off at the end of an economic expansion than at the start, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-of-center think tank in Washington, D.C.

"This is the first business cycle on record where the median family income failed to recover its previous peak," EPI economist Jared Bernstein says. "It's been a uniquely disappointing cycle from the perspective of the median-income family."

As the report goes on to remind us, this data was before the financial crisis and huge increase in oil prices. It should be no surprise that expensive health care premiums, college tuition rising twice the rate of inflation, and increased food & energy costs add to the mess. The middle class is being squeezed out--some say purposefully, a literal "war on the middle class" (i.e., Lou Dobbs, Thom Hartmann, http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=PR&pubid=27).

This attack seems to have been going on since Reagan took office, from the firing of air traffic controllers (reducing union impact), to reduced regulation on banking (resulting in the S&L crisis), to NAFTA/CAFTA, and even more during the Bush Administration (see http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=7638). Reduced taxes to the top 1%, deregulation on banking (again), reduced environmental controls--they're all part of the current admininstration. So, within 3 years of Bush getting into office, the economy reportedly lost 2 million jobs (http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=7639). He revised agreements so that foreign nations did not have to follow US labor protections, he cut worker-training programs, he proposes using "guest workers" (importing workers who get paid lower wages & can also be kicked out of the country at any time), he has harassed labor unions, he also repealed the federal ergonomics standards (as well as other health & safety regulations). This war on labor, when the largest population of workers is the middle class, can hence be construed as a war on the middle class.

What will it take for Middle America to wake up and insist on change?