10 Year Real Wage Gains Lower Than During Depression « naked capitalism

The reality of wage gains in the US is dismal.  Regardless of how great the stock market has recovered or that we have "maintained 9%" unemployment, the government working hand and hand with corporate American and their lobbyists, have turned the country on its ear.  An Article from Naked Capitalism explains that we have had 10 year decline in real wage growth. 

Really?  How can this be true if the economy is in such a state of recovery and Wall Street Execs are getting billions of dollars in bonus payments even as they trash the overall economy?  There is something wrong with this picture and it is something wrong with our country.  We have allowed the government to become a government by the elites and wealthy.  It is clear that the policies of the country have turned heavily in favor of the large companies and those that run those large companies.  They are given free reign to maximize profits for themselves, not including shareholders, with no accountability even if what they are doing has always been considered criminal in the past. 

How can the overall middle class be better off with wage patterns shown in this graph?  Inflation is running wild despite the claims by the government.   If people are earning less and less income by being squeezed by corporate America because the lack of job creation has taken all the cards away from employees Americans have less and less to set aside for their future. 

Here a few examples of inflation:

gas prices nearly double since 2008
food costs increasing continually
electricity rates increases in spite of billions in profits by the monopolistic energy providers
Health Care costs and insurance sky rocketing with personal  health insurance seeing over 30% increases in the past 2 years. 

Of course we have seen the deflating home prices but all of the necessary items that are unavoidable to most consumers have increased dramatically.  The manipulation of economic statistics is one of the most outrageous scams of our lifetime.  We would you want to have food and energy prices calculated in the real inflation rate?  Of course politicians are against this because it would reveal just how much they have screwed the citizens of our country.  But this goes in line with the general laundry list of political abuses committed by all politicians, even those from the so called "tea party" movement for change.  They are fast become typical politicians. 

Another factor weighing on the collective psyche, and thus voter attitudes, is the inability of most people to get ahead in real economic terms. Reader Francois T pointed out an article in Investors Business Daily that highlighted that real wage gains in the last ten years are even worse than during the Great Depression:
The past decade of wage growth has been one for the record books — but not one to celebrate.
The increase in total private-sector wages, adjusted for inflation, from the start of 2001 has fallen far short of any 10-year period since World War II, according to Commerce Department data. In fact, if the data are to be believed, economywide wage gains have even lagged those in the decade of the Great Depression (adjusted for deflation).
Two years into the recovery, and 10 years after the nation fell into a post-dot-com bubble recession, this legacy of near-stagnant wages has helped ground the economy despite unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus — and even an impressive bull market.

Over the past decade, real private-sector wage growth has scraped bottom at 4%, just below the 5% increase from 1929 to 1939, government data show.

10 Year Real Wage Gains Lower Than During Depression « naked capitalism