We all know Fresno housing is located ground zero in the zone of total destruction so a little whistling past the graveyard is almost inevitable but...
A fact and fiction campaign
Five things candidates say about poor middle class that are myths.
By Stephen Rose
The American middle class is fighting for its life -- or at least that's what Lou Dobbs would have you believe. The CNN anchor's rants about "the war on the middle class" are probably the most prominent examples of such economic doom-saying, but he isn't alone.
Democratic presidential candidates pepper their debates with references to the assault; leading liberal thinkers argue that supply-side conservatives captured the Republican Party during the Reagan administration and implemented policies that continue to privilege the super rich today. They tell a compelling tale of middle-class decline. Pity it isn't true.
The middle class is shrinking.
True, fewer people today live in households with incomes between $30,000 and $100,000 (a reasonable definition of "middle class") than in 1979. But the number of people in households that bring in more than $100,000 also rose from 12% to 24%. There was no increase in the percentage of people in households making less than $30,000. So the entire "decline" of the middle class came from people moving up the income ladder. For married couples, median incomes have grown in inflation-adjusted dollars by 25% since 1979.
What a nasty lying bastard. I mean come on does he think all his readers dropped out of grade school? He "mentions" inflation but then makes his point by ignoring it.
An income of $100,000 in 1979 dollars would need $285,710 in 2007 dollars. And then we can see how much the middle class has further fallen by looking at the trend of two income households.
I'll be tearing this jerk a new one a myth at a time over the morning.