# America's Economic Recovery ?



## Knight (Dec 8, 2016)

Unlikely anyone will take the time to sift thru the report. I took the time in order to confirm what I see as deterioration in America. I don't particularly like wording used to hype information. I don't think this report is a shocking new study it's only a massive amount of information outlining the why of where America is economically. 
Quote
President Obama has staked a great part of his legacy on the idea that he skillfully engineered a great recovery from the financial crisis. The Obama-friendly media routinely parrot the idea. But in fact, as a shocking new study from the nonpartisan U.S. Council on Competitiveness and the Gallup organization suggests, the so-called recovery doesn't exist.

http://www.compete.org/storage/reports/gallup_norecovery_final_report_120516.pdf


----------



## Buckeye (Dec 8, 2016)

But it was all Bush's fault...


----------



## Knight (Dec 8, 2016)

Hoot N Annie said:


> But it was all Bush's fault...




Hoot N Annie
As you can see the cost to use uber gets far more attention than reading about an economic condition affecting present & future generations.

The report covers 30 years and as it indicates the recovery is bulls&&&. The reality of it is mainstream media has distorted what the general population should know but either doesn't care or HOPES politicians will somehow make the decline go away. 

Kind of, if I don't know nothing bad will happen. 

The question now is since Trump doesn't owe favors to lobbyists and other political insiders will he take steps to reduce the impact of the debt and rising deficit? That will take some painful adjustments but less now than in the future if nothing is done.


----------



## 911 (Dec 8, 2016)

I skimmed over the report and printed it out to read at my leisure. It appears to be very concise and technical. It will make good bedtime reading. Thanks for posting.


----------



## Buckeye (Dec 8, 2016)

I voted for Donald, but my hopes are not all that high that he can nudge things enough to make a difference.  I too skimmed the Gallup analysis, and the numbers speak for themselves.  I am not encouraged.


----------



## Ed B (Dec 8, 2016)

I was not able to open the link at the office but I will read it soon.  But I am in agreement with the sentiment of this thread that the "recovery" is a media/government created mirage for most Americans.  

One of the statistics I read and heard on occasion over the long course of this POTUS election cycle was that real household income has been more or less stagnant since about 1990. I had felt that household income had been pretty flat for the past 15 years for blue-collar households but stretching back 25 years seemed hard to believe.  So I looked up some household income stats from the US census bureau and I found that, sure enough, adjusted for inflation, median household income has remained flat since the late 80's, but Mean household income has indeed grown.  In fact, the Median and Mean have been separating further apart since after the Reagan years - but not so much during the Reagan years.  

Since the Median is well right of the Mean, that means well over half US households are making less than the average income.  It would be easy to say this is caused by the very rich getting very much richer, but I don't believe that is causing the separation.  I believe it is rooted in the loss of higher paying blue-collar manufacturing jobs in the US.  Those blue-collar families that were once fed by steel mill or coal miner wages are now having to get by on service sector jobs that pay a fraction of manufacturing jobs and don't provide anything close to the benefits of the older, now lost, heavy manufacturing jobs.  

However, people with marketable college degrees or post-secondary training in marketable careers generally are paid well about the Median.  I know I am blessed with with a very good salary and benefit package.  My projected retirement revenue for a planned early retirement in a few years will still be much higher than Median Household Income in the US, but taking the pay cut from my current salary to my retirement income is still scary.  I really don't know how young working-class families get by.   

I put these charts together using US census bureau data.  A true statistician could make better sense of it, but what I see is well more than half of households steadily falling behind.  I think this had as much to do with Trump's victory as anything.  While president Obama pats himself on the back for helping laid off steel and autoworkers get $9/hr jobs at McDonald's and Dollar General, those people aren't looking for that type of job.  They are willing to work hard and want reasonable compensation for their hard work.  Donald Trump spoke explicitly to this demographic particularly in the rust belt.


----------



## Knight (Dec 9, 2016)

I voted for Trump only because he isn't a D C insider. 

IMO the report was more about the media not reporting accurately about the steady decline over the last 30 years. Mentioning Obama was more about the rapid increase in the national debt and the future rise in the deficit. Considering the lower paying jobs and over all wage issue going forward unless something takes place soon it's bound to catch up.


----------

