Bernie Sanders Explains Why Low Unemployment Doesn’t Mean Americans Are Better Off

Bernie Sanders recently told the LA Times,

"If I want to go out and get a job today, I can get a job. That's true, but on the other hand … I can't find a job that pays me a wage that allows me to deal with health care and pay my rent or put gas in the car. So the economic crisis that we're facing now is not unemployment, which is low. It is wages."

The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.5% in November ― the lowest it's been since the 1960s, but a lot of economists argue that the prime-age employment population ratio is a better measure of employment.
According to the Epop, employment stands at 80.3%, which is still the best it's been since 2001.

But I agree with Bernie Sanders that employment is not the most important economic indicator because we could, of course, achieve 100% employment by reinstituting slavery so the real question is are you getting to keep more of the fruit of your own labor?

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And under this metric, we've also seen an upward trend.
Since Trump took office wages have increased by 2.4% from an average of $308 per week to $315 per week in May. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

But wages aren't the best indicator either because wages and salaries have fallen from approximately 51% GDP in 1970 to 43% GDP in 2013, which means there is a shift in income from labor (persons who derive income from hourly wages and salaries) to capital (persons who derive income via ownership of businesses, land, and assets).

So the bigger economic picture is to look at real median income…
Under George W. Bush, real median income went down by $2,660 or 4.2%. Under Barack Obama, it went up by $1,000 or 1.8%. And now under Donald Trump, it has gone up by $1,638 or 2.7%.

But income is only one half of the picture. We also have to consider expenses (where the picture isn't quite as rosy)…

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Money in vs. money out.

I couldn't find any 1 indicator that could tell the whole story so I think the best solution is to look at what Americans spend the most money on and whether or not costs went up or down in those areas: healthcare, housing, education, energy.

Healthcare: we saw a 4.4% increase in 2018, and according to the journal Health Affairs, they estimate an average annual growth rate of 5.5% from 2019 to 2027. Most of the increase was due to higher prices, not increased use of services.

Housing:
Education:
Gas price:

In other words, maybe you made a little more money in wages/income than you did a few years ago, but your increased income isn't going into your own pocket, but instead, you get the distinct privilege of writing fatter and fatter checks to the "owners of the economy" who never have to get out of bed to earn their income.

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Keep in mind too, that Americans are working more hours and extracting more productivity out of each of those hours than they did in the past. Just considering those two facts alone you'd think we'd see a far faster rise in median income, but instead, much of the financial gains attributed to automation and innovation are going to the top 1% where 400 Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 64% of Americans.

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The Trump administration will continue to tout their economic numbers (and with some justification as I've mentioned), but it is easy to increase median income on the back of deficit spending, i.e. using a Chinese credit card to cut taxes and increase spending on the military-industrial complex.
But the reality is that if you were chanting, "Make America Great Again" because you wanted to see some real change then it makes no sense that after seeing little to no change that you'd now be out there on your pickup truck chanting, "Keep America Great!"

It's like the desperate guy who says whatever he thinks the girl wants to hear,

"Oh, I really hate that movie! Wait, what? You like it now? Actually, come to think of it I think it's great too! The best!"

As a consistent conservative, I thought the economy was mediocre under Obama and so I think it is under Trump.

A little bit better than mediocre doesn't equal "great."

I remain alarmed by the centralization of economic and political power, the growing national debt, ballooning thousand-page budgets that Senators don't even read before voting on, and cronyism that benefits Wall Street at the expense of Main Street.

#KeyEconomicIndicators