Two days ago, I noticed a news story about the U.S. economy growing 4 percent in the second quarter of 2014 -- April 1 through June 30. Today, I saw a report that the U.S. economy gained 209,000 jobs in July.
Earlier this week, though, I saw a news story that is about 100 times more important than the two above news stories. Those two stories portray short-term developments and are statistically based rather than people based. They don't convey whether people are making a decent amount of money or have enough money for a decent education for themselves or their children or are saving for the future, including retirement.
This story -- "The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less" -- is a better portrayal of how Americans are faring. Unfortunately, they're not faring very well. It says that the median net worth of an American household has decreased from about $88,000 in 2003 to just over $56,000 in 2013. That's a 36 percent decline. That's a tremendous amount of lost money. (for those who don't know, median is the 50th percentile so half of American households are worth more than the American median net worth).
At the same time, the household net worth of the wealthiest 5 percent of the population increased 14 percent between 2003 and 2013. The article says that previous studies have shown that the household net worth of the 1 percent, people like fictional character Montgomery Burns of "The Simpsons," are increasing way..................................way more than that.
American policies need to be changed drastically or the American middle class will continue to grow smaller.
On Friday, I will post another important news story about how Americans are really faring.
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