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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday September 17 2016, @11:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the where's-my-trickle-down? dept.

The World Socialist Web Site reports

The Obama administration, the Democratic Party, and their allies in the corporate-controlled media have hailed the Census Bureau report released [September 13], claiming it demonstrates that the US economy has "turned the corner" and that the supposed "economic recovery" is now providing big dividends for working people and even for the poor.

[...] A careful examination of the figures presented in the Current Population Survey (CPS), the formal name of the study, suggests that the hosannas by Obama and the media are premature. The statistical data is not fabricated, but it has been packaged in the light most favorable to the Democrats in the final two months of a hotly contested presidential election.

[...] Many workers who were limited to part-time work in 2014, or were unemployed entirely, went back to work or worked longer hours in 2015. This does not mean they got a raise. A minimum-wage worker who went from 15 hours of work a week in 2014 to 30 hours of work a week in 2015 would see a doubling in his or her income, a 100 percent increase, entirely from longer hours, even as their pay remained abysmally low.

[...] Most new jobs taken by previously unemployed workers were in the low-pay service sectors, like healthcare, restaurants and bars, nursing homes, retail outlets, etc.

[Continues...]

[...] The only section of the population which saw an outright decline in median household income were people living in rural areas, already lower paid on average than people living in cities or suburbs. Their median household income fell 2 percent, to $44,657 annually, more than $15,000 a year behind people living in metropolitan areas (combining cities and suburbs). During the presidential primaries, these areas saw some of the largest votes for Trump, as well as for Sanders.

[...] Obama and the media also hailed the reported drop in the poverty rate.

[...] If one adds up those excluded from the survey--2.3 million prisoners, 1.4 million nursing home residents, 1.2 million in hospices, and 1.1 million in other long-term care settings--that means that some 6 million people are left out.

In addition, as the Census report explains, "Since the CPS is a household survey, people who are homeless and not living in shelters are not included in the sample." Again, a large group of people, at least half a million and perhaps many more, who are all living in poverty, but not counted in the Census report. [...] [If those folks were added in,] the total number of people living in poverty [would be] closer to 50 million Americans.

[...] "During the 4-year period from 2009 to 2012, 34.5 percent of the population had at least one spell of poverty lasting 2 or more months." The number is staggering: about 110 million people. The official poverty line is absurdly low, set now at $24,250 for a family of four, or $11,770 for an individual. But more than one-third of all Americans fell below that abysmal marker for a significant period of time.

An interviewer on my Pacifica Radio affiliate suggested another reason why the *household* income numbers seemed to go up a bit: Adult children moving back in with their parents and adding their part-time poverty-wage income to the total.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Saturday September 17 2016, @04:53PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Saturday September 17 2016, @04:53PM (#403176) Journal

    That must explain the rise of Trump, right, that the economy is actually doing so great?

    Obama and Hillary and the Establishment are using statistics to paint a false picture of success, but they are failing because the 99% can see the reality of their own lives, with their own eyes. In other words, they're saying, "Don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining."

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 17 2016, @06:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 17 2016, @06:21PM (#403188)

    No, the rise of Trump is for two reasons:

    1) There are a lot of gullible idiots around. That's always been true, but rarely if ever has such a skilled and accomplished conman run for the highest public office in the U.S.

    2) The extreme right wing, fascists, and other extremists, encouraged by Trump, are crawling out of the woodwork. For the first time in decades, they are interested in voting.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 17 2016, @07:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 17 2016, @07:47PM (#403206)

    > That must explain the rise of Trump, right, that the economy is actually doing so great?

    The single strongest predictor of a person's support for Trump is racial anxiety. [fusion.net] Not economic, racial.
    The average income of Trump voters [fivethirtyeight.com] during the primary was $10K/yr more than the average income of a democratic primary voter, inline with other republicans and $16K more than the average adult.

    > Obama and Hillary and the Establishment are using statistics to paint a false picture of success,

    Nope. If the census were deliberately rigged we'd hear about it from legit economists and data scientists, not just the cuckoo brigade.