Bush recovery continues
Even Wal-Mart is hurting in the Bush economic "recovery"
Americans' incomes fell for two years
Report: IRS data shows first-ever consecutive-year drop; loss of jobs blamed.
July 29, 2004: 7:05 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Americans' overall income shrank for two consecutive years after stocks plunged in 2000, the first time that has effectively happened in the since the current tax system was put in place during World War II, according to a published report Thursday.
The New York Times, reporting data from the Internal Revenue Service, said gross income reported to the agency fell 5.1 percent to $6.0 trillion in 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, down from $6.35 trillion in 2000. Because of population growth, average income fell even more, by 5.7 percent, and adjusted for inflation the decline was 9.2 percent.
The paper said the decline was due to a combination of the big fall in the stock market and the loss of jobs and wages in well-paying industries as the recession started in 2001.
The paper said before the recent drop the last decline posted for even one year was 1953.
The drop in income has hit government tax collections -- the paper said individual income taxes declined 18.8 percent between 2000 and 2002. Part of that was due to tax cuts passed in 2001.
Yeah, so how is the GOP going to spin this. At the end of the Christmas season, Nieman-Marcus made a large profit, Wal-Mart didn't. Guess where most Americans shop. Now people's incomes are going backwards, new jobs pay less and are less secure and the GOP is going to swear everything is working just fine.
Oh yeah, the deficit is $420 billion. There was no deficit in 2000. Guess where most of our money went: into the pockets of Bush and his friends.
Jen, who sent this along, said the following:
Gilly--Attention America, the economy still sucks! Remember, even though a lot of the "loss" was from multi-millionaires, who took a loss on paper only, the fact that there has been zero growth for anyone else is startling. What the hell does "grew by 1% or dropped by 2% mean anyway? Also, remember, this doesn't count the vast armies of unemployed--the IRS only looks at tax revenue taken in, and if you're off the books, you don't pay taxes.
posted by Steve @ 10:11:00 AM
