The "Lost" Economic Decade 2000-2010

by **Rev Scare** Thu Mar 08, 2012 4:19 am

New Census Numbers Make it Official: 2000-2010 Was a Lost Economic Decade
September 13, 2011 (Poverty Byte)

By Shawn Fremstad

This morning the Census Bureau released its annual report on income—including median income, inequality, and income poverty—and health insurance coverage in the previous year. As expected given continued high unemployment, the report shows a substantial deterioration in Americans' economic security between 2009 and 2010, including substantial income losses for middle- and working-class Americans, and an increase in the number of Americans without health insurance. These declines cap off what can only be described as a "lost decade" in economic terms. At the same time, things could have been worse. Both the 2009 Recovery Act and the 2010 Affordable Care Act, as well as existing social insurance, moderated the declines.
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This excellent but disturbing statistical summary of capitalism's most serious crisis since the Great Depression portrays its devastating impact upon the living condition of the proletariat at the end of the last decade. We are far from recovery and the future of the economy is bleak. It will require at least a decade to restore the unemployment rate to levels prior the late-2000s financial crisis, provided the economy does not stumble into a yet more severe downturn. On the other hand, with rising wealth disparities, the "job creators" will doubtlessly save us if left unfettered by big government. Rolling Eyes