Jon Henke discusses the claim that real wages have declined during the Bush administration. Henke points out that real compensation has gone up, even while real wages have been essentially stagnant. I have been unable to find a government produced chart that tracks real wages, but here is one that tracks real median household income, which is a close approximate:
What do we see?. Declines in real median household income seem to anticipate and then follow recessions. The precipitous decline in income occurred in 1999-2000, just before the 2001 recession and, I should point out, before George Bush even became president. Bush's numbers begin in 2002, as that is the first year any of his programs, especially tax cuts, would have a significant effect. What we have seen is essentially a stagnation of household income. Given the amazing amounts of wealth lost by the bursting of the tech bubble (before Bush took office*), the attacks of 9-11, and the corporate scandals of 2001 (again, which largely took place before Bush took office), and a brief recession in 2000-2001, what is amazing is that we did not see a large drop in wages. We'll have to wait to see 2005 numbers. I did read recently where income in Louisiana dropped 25% in the wake of Katrina, while every other state saw an increase in income (it was in a Bureau of Labor Statistics report which I now cannot find). It remains to be seen how the shattering of the Louisiana economy will affect nationwide numbers.
*Go here and you'll see that the NASDAQ lost half of it's value from January 1, 2000 to January 1, 2002, when Bush's policies took hold. It continued to drop in 2002 and has since rebounded by about 800 points.
Recent Comments