06 September 2013 (15:14 UTC-07 Tango)/01 Dhu ‘l-Qa’da 1434/15 Shahrivar 1391/02 Xin-You (8th month) 4711
“We’re in an income depression. Incomes have been flatlined for a very long time.”-John Coder, Sentier Research
Recently Gallup conducted a survey to see how much money most people in the U.S. think they make. 58% said they are making more money now than five years ago!
A study by Sentier Reseach (Household Income On the Fourth Anniversary of the Economic Recovery: June 2009 to June 2013) says yes and no. It depends on who you are.
Lets break down the study’s government supplied data: Since the official ‘end’ of the recession in 2009, incomes of people with no more than a high school education actually dropped 9.3%. The average person with a two year college degree saw a drop of 8.6%. People with four years of college saw an income drop of 6.5%. People living in the West, South and Northeast are experiencing reduction in average incomes.
So actually most working age people in the U.S. are making less money than they did at the official end of the Great Recession, just four years ago!
Who saw an increase in income? People ages 65 to 74 saw an increase of 5.1%. People 75 years or older had no change in income levels. People living in the Midwest (and still employed) had no change to average incomes.
The recent Gallup survey also showed 46% of people said they were making less money, and 18% claimed no change in their incomes.
The Sentier report and the Gallup poll shows that young ‘mericans are the dumbest frogs in the slowly boiling over pot. Gallup reports that 55% of young adults think they’re making more money now, yet, the Sentier study shows that average incomes for people under age 25 dropped 9.6%. Incomes dropped 4.5% for people 25 to 34 years old. Clearly the young adults of America are income delusional. Researchers say this is because young workers have yet to develop the ability to gauge the affects of inflation on their incomes (basically when they get a piddly pay raise they think they’re makin’ big money).