The editors of the Wall Street Journal explain why Americans aren’t doing victory laps over the state of the U. S. economy:
Real median earnings for full-time workers last year declined 1.6% and even more for high-school grads (3.3%). This means inflation outpaced wage gains for most low-wage workers. One culprit may be that workers logged fewer hours and less overtime as the labor market started to soften, especially in leisure, hospitality and manufacturing.
The upshot is that real median household income remains lower than in 2019 and has barely grown since 2020.
Americans have short memories but possibly long enough to remember when their wages were growing faster than inflation. Also, we’re spending a lot more on healthcare but not getting a lot more for it:
All told, federal healthcare spending has increased by more than $500 billion since 2019, yet this money hasn’t bought better health or coverage. The Administration has dangled more money for states to expand Medicaid for working-age, healthy adults under ObamaCare. Small employers have responded by paring back their health coverage.
The percentage of uninsured people is the same as it was in 2019 but more people are on Medicare and Medicaid.
It would be interesting to see the chart at the top of the page broken down by income quintile.
This clearly tied into the election and they are trying to make Trump look good, however it really looks like propaganda when they somehow keep forgetting that Trump was POTUS in 2020. They choose Trump’s 3 best years then dump all of the covid years during the Biden/Harris admin. I know you think they are centrist but isn’t this pretty obvious partisanship?
Steve
Yeah, that struck me as peculiar. I’m not sure what to make of it.
I DO think I am centrist (everybody thinks they’re centrist) and I think the editorial staff of the WSJ is center-right. Some of their columnists are highly partisan Republicans, some of their columnists are partisan Democrats, some not particularly partisan at all.
I do not believe the WSJ board is pro-Trump. I think they’re pro-business. I you think the WSJ board is pro-Trump you might consider recalibrating.
I have added a new post taken directly from the Census Bureau’s report.
I believe you are still thinking about the old WSJ before Murdoch. The news section is still OK but the editorial board is now clearly anti-Democrat. So while they may not be pro-trump per se they will support him and engage in what is obviously, not even making much of an attempt to hide it, partisanship to get him elected. They would do the same for any other GOP candidate.
Steve
Looking at your chart above reminds me that Obama was POTUS in 2016 and 2016 looks like a pretty good year on the graphs.
Steve
People are not happy about the economy because it sucks. The vast majority cannot discuss the ins and outs of inflation, employment or taxes. But they do have household finances. They stink.
Steve. Seriously? Try real analysis some time.