American Income Does The Macarena

I hated that song...and I'm somewhat tickled that it is now in every reader's head.

In any case, a report today shows that American incomes dropped for the third straight year, leaving the average American earning roughly what they did in 1996. To put that in perspective, the last time American incomes were this low, the Macarena was the #1 song, gas was a little over a dollar a gallon, and no one had even thought to impeach a president over his sex life. Back in 1996, Newt Gingrich was only on his second wife (although he was allegedly already tapping his soon-to-be third wife) and was still Speaker of the House. Oh, and OJ Simpson's trial began. Are you feeling old yet? According to the Census Bureau, average American income fell by 2.3% last year, dropping it to $49,445. This is 7.1% below its 1999 high point. For men, the story is even worse. The average man's income fell even further. After adjusting for inflation, men now earn roughly what they did in 1978. This also means that the boom of the 2000s is not only over — for most Americans, it's as if it never happened. Their gains: in 401k wealth, housing values, income, and job security are all gone In their place are poverty and wide-spread dissatisfaction with the direction of the country. A whopping 15.1 percent of Americans now live in poverty, each earning less than 0.001% of what an average CEO makes in a year. Worse yet, 22 percent of America's children live in poverty. It does not take an economist to see how this is, and will continue to be, the biggest impediment to getting the economy back on track. The American economy is fueled by consumer spending. If consumers are only earning a fraction of what they once did, they simply do not have the money to buy goods and services. Without an increase in demand for those goods and services, businesses have no reason to hire new employees or increase purchases of materials and goods. Without those new hires, the demand for goods and services stays low and the recession cycle continues. Who knows...maybe we can sit on our thumbs another 12 months and see if we can drop American incomes back to 1950s levels. Given these new statistics, what will the government do in response? President Obama has already introduced a jobs bill (The American Jobs Act) and called on Congress to pass it. Democrats are complaining that they want to see more, while Republicans are quite content to do nothing and watch the economy burn to the ground. Why? So they can get Obama out of office. Seriously. They're willing to let you keep earning those 1996 wages (if you can even find a job) and, rather than fix the economy and risk an Obama re-election, sink the economy by doing nothing...all so they can be King of the Mountain in 2012. Don't take my word on it. Straight from the horse's (censored), I mean, mouth. "Obama is on the ropes; why do we appear ready to hand him a win?" an anonymous senior House Republican aide told Politico. "I just don't want to co-own the economy by having to tout that we passed a jobs bill that won't work or at least won't do enough." Yes. It would be horrible to show a tiny bit of leadership and patriotism to get the economy re-started because, in addition to helping Americans find jobs, it might help the black guy keep

job. And Zeus knows that the most important thing in this crisis is whether or not the Republican Party or the Democratic Party gets credit for the recovery or blamed for the downturn. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go practice my Macarena. If we're going to live like it's 1996, I'm going all-in on the endeavor.