Friday, August 7, 2009

The Cost...

Of course, the reason more people are finding it difficult to pay their mortgages is because their wages and salary are continuing to drop. In 1973, the median male weekly wage was $486.10. Source: The State of Working America by Lawrence R. Mishel, David M. Frankel, p. 78. Corrected for inflation, that is $2,361.45 in 2009 dollars, or $122,795.40 annually. In its report entitled "USUAL WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WAGE AND SALARY WORKERS: SECOND QUARTER 2009", the BLS reported the median male weekly wage is now $815, or $42,380 annually.

So, that's what immigration, offshoring, and women's rights have accomplished for the country, a two-thirds reduction in male wages. Inexpensive debt has hitherto concealed some of the ramifications of that collapse in real wages for a while, but as the chart shows, it can't do it forever.

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