It’s silly to wonder how the U.S. economy is doing. We have two vastly divergent economies in this country, one for the rich, who are often linked in one way or another to Wall Street; the other for the poor and the increasingly-ground-down middle class. The former economy is doing just fine, thank you. Not so the latter.
Here’s a couple of numbers that encapsulate this neatly. According to an estimate reported in the Wall Street Journal, compensation for the worthies on The Street came in at a record $135 billion in 2010, up from the previous record of $128 billion the year before.
Today’s employment numbers from the Department of Labor about yet another month of pathetic job growth hints at the other side of this two-pronged tale. Just 38,000 new jobs were created in January, when approximately 150,000 new jobs a month are needed just to keep up with population growth.
This jobs number is just the tip of the fast melting Middle America lifestyle, however. A report from the National Employment Project found that in the first seven months of 2010, more than three-quarters of new jobs actually created were jobs with hourly wages ranging from just $8.92 to $15. Multiple the top end of this wage range by a 40-hour week, figure in tax deductions and maybe some health care costs, and you don’t come up with a standard of living that’s the envy of the world.
Welcome to the much heralded “economic recovery” we’re supposedly now enjoying. For them what’s got it certainly does seem there’s reason a’plenty for rejoicing. For most everyone else, not so much.
More from this writer at http://blog.wallstreetpoet.com/