Incomes decline, poverty rises for Americans

09.14.09
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It seems that the rising rate of unemployment isn't the only thing causing problems for people trying to make credit card payments or home loans, as a new report from the Census Bureau finds that Americans saw their personal incomes fall in 2008 while the poverty rate increased.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's report titled Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States:2008, real median household income fell to $50,303 in 2008 - down 3.6 percent over the previous year.

This drop is after three straight years of gains for American households and the Census Bureau notes that the decline coincides with the recession which officially started in December 2007. The 2008 drop in incomes is similar to the two most recent recessions, according to the Census. However, the 3.6 percent drop is more than twice as large as the 1.7 percent decline during the 1969-1970 recession.

Lawrence Katz, an economist at Harvard University, says the income losses take away any gains Americans made earlier in the decade.

"We've basically seen a lost decade," he told the Washington Post. "We had a plutocratic boom. Then we have egalitarian recessions. Taken together, only the top ends up growing, on average. For the typical American family, the 2000s have been a disaster."

While the amount of money Americans take home in their paychecks each week seems to decrease, the number of people falling below the poverty line appears to rising.

The Census figures show that the nation's poverty rate increased to 13.2 percent in 2008 - up from 12.5 percent in 2007 and the first rise in the rate since 2004. Last year 39.8 million American were in poverty - the second straight increase and the most since poverty levels began being counted by the Census.

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Americans are making less money with more falling below the poverty line