Scary New Wage Data

[subterranean]

The writer of this article was on Thom Hartmann today. As shocking as these income figures are, the numbers for those at the top are even more mind-boggling. Keep in mind this data is just for wages and bonuses, and does not include capital gains or other income.

http://www.tax.com/taxcom/taxblog.nsf/Permalink/UBEN-8AGMUZ?OpenDocument

Every 34th wage earner in America in 2008 went all of 2009 without earning a single dollar, new data from the Social Security Administration show. Total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined, but at the very top, salaries grew more than fivefold.

Not a single news organization reported this data when it was released October 15, searches of Google and the Nexis databases show. Nor did any blog, so the citizen journalists and professional economists did no better than the newsroom pros in reporting this basic information about our economy.

...

For those who did find work in 2009, the average wage slipped to $39,269, down $243 or 0.6 percent, compared with the previous year in 2009 dollars.

The median wage declined by the same ratio, down $159 to $26,261, meaning half of all workers made $505 a week or less. Significantly, the 2009 median wage was $37 less than in 2000.

[blue sky at night]

1. you know if i didn't work.....

i would be working everyday making money. i know how to do things...lot's of things and i would not go for a whole fucking year without making one dollar! so i really think it behoves people to find a way to earn money outside of a "job" bigtime in this economy. i would rake leaves or sweep a sidewalk before i went a whole year without making ONE DOLLAR!

[Hannah Bell]

2. if you raked leaves, it wouldn't show up in any official tally of income, unless you reported it to

the census people.

[blue sky at night]

3. so what...

so what!!!

[Hannah Bell]

5. so probably many of those people have some income, just not income that doesn't show up in official

stats.

you're obviously not the first person who thought of raking leaves.

[blue sky at night]

6. thanks for pointing that out to me...

i understand your point, i hope you understand mine... i know people who are sitting around fretting instead of earning some money. i have always had a second and third stream of money, it is the only way i can survive.

[blue sky at night]

7. sorry, dupe.

[readmoreoften]

14. Yes, all the unemployed people in the country are obviously too stupid to think to themselves...

Hey maybe I can rake some leaves! Or babysit! Or sell lemonade!

Either you're a Republican or you're in high school.

[billlll]

15. those jobs get oversupply of seekers too

Nt

[blue sky at night]

19. ya, i am a republican...

go f yourself. how dare you!

[blue sky at night]

20. i have had a couple of days to think about your response...

you couldn't have called me a dirtier name than a republican...perhaps you should re-read my post so you might get to the heart of what i was saying, "readmoreoften"....how about read the first time??

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

11. most likely they did

you wouldn't report babysitting, housecleaning, selling your stuff on ebay.

[Hannah Bell]

16. draining your 401k, cashing out your pension....not "income" because you already earned it, but

income to you.

[dkf]

4. Does this include drug dealers who didn't make a penny?

[subterranean]

8. Only if they reported wage income in 2008.

[dkf]

10. Makes you wonder how many are flying under the radar.

[Hannah Bell]

17. um, if you have no formal job, you pretty much *have to* "fly under the radar".

and if your society denies you income by its rules, i have no problem with people "flying under the radar". one is not obliged to lay down & die simply because the capitalist system has deemed him a "loser" in the great game of dog-eat-dog.

[OlympicBrian]

9. And here's why...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9395482

[billlll]

12. Jobs for all.. would create upward push on the wage ladder

Permanent WPA = ZERO unemployment forever

Site for JOBS FOR ALL info at link below....
site's Advisory Board -----------

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor

2 Nobel Laureates - see below

John Kenneth Galbraith, (deceased) Harvard

Frank Roosevelt, Sarah Lawrence College

Pete Seeger, Folk-singer

Cornel West, Ctr for African American Studies, Princeton Univ.

J Nadler, US Congress, House 

Weakland, Archbishop of Milwauke
----------------------------
--- late advisers

Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon - Economics

Nobel Laureate William Vickrey - Economics - advocates "chock-full" employment

Rudolf Meidner, architect of Swedish full-employment welfare state
--------------------------
Member Organizations (In formation)
-Americans for Democratic Action     
-Unitarian-Universalist Service Committee 
----------------
Why would you ever tolerate ANY unemployment... ever? Before the RW lied its way into power in the early '90's, Sweden had usually kept unemployment below 1%. We can also keep it there. Speak up.

-national JOBS FOR ALL coalition.. site--

www.njfac.org

[Trajan]

13. This is exactly my cause ....

Wages is everything .... What has happened to wages has everything to do with the malaise we see in society ...

No money in wages ? ... No money to buy fancy things - Simple as that ....

And they wonder what the fuck is wrong with the economy ? .... Sheesh ...

[Greyhound]

18. K&R. The crux of the biscuit, n/t

[Greyhound]

21. ..