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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory
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To: anachronist who wrote (51039)1/23/2006 7:30:59 PM
From: GraceZ  Read Replies (3) of 110194
 
That is exactly what I'm talking about when I say people quote articles written by economic illiterates. Find the original data they are supposedly quoting, from the BLS and you'll find out just how deceptive their claims are because they ignore the bulk and data mine what supports their prejudice.

Just take a simple broad measure like per capita income:

In 1979 it was $9146
In 2003 it was $31,632

Neither of these figures is far from what was the typical crap job in 1978, I remember thinking $7/hour would be terrific but I couldn't get one even with affirmative action in full force. Most of the jobs I went looking for paid around $5/hour and that was with the college degree. I remember thinking 10 grand would be a nice income back in 1978-79.

If we use a CPI calculator we see that $9146 in 1979 yields only $23,179.94 in 2003 dollars so anyone making 31k is ahead of inflation.

Let's take household median if you prefer:

Back in 1982 (the labor force participation rate for women was still rising although not as sharply as it did in the 60s and 70s, but so was the number of households headed by women) the median for the US household was $24,000 and in 2005 it was $58,500.

The CPI calculator yields:
$24,400 in 1982 is $49,204.56 in 2005.

As for the erosion of those high paying manufacturing jobs, I have one, I'm officially a manufacturer of photographic prints. My base hourly rate is 6.4 times what it was in 1979, the year I started doing what I do now.
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