Monday, June 18, 2012

What We Knew Already: US Working Class Decimated By "Free Market" Economics

According to the US Census, US median wealth declined 38% between 2007 and 2010. While some working class people may have recovered economically since 2010, few have been untouched by structural changes. As we have noted in previous posts, inequality has been increasing in the US since the late 1960s and working class wages have been stagnant. The so-called middle-class adapted to structural changes by having smaller families, going to college and borrowing money for housing, education, and medical costs. But in 2007, the first bubble burst and the financial and housing foreclosure crisis ensued. In response, neoliberals and neoconservatives responded by bailing out large banks, investment firms and insurance companies (2008-2009) then calling for austerity at the federal, state, and local levels (2010-). "Banks" have consolidated power while the working class remain in peril.