The dream is slipping.
Middle-class incomes have shrunk nearly 10 percent since 2000, after enjoying mostly steady growth during the previous decade.
Specifically, a typical American household made about $51,017 in 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That was 8.3 percent lower than the median income of $55,627 five years before in 2007 (the year before the recession) and nearly 10 percent lower than the peak of $56,080 (adjusted for today’s dollars) that occurred in 1999.
In fact, the typical American household income in 2012 is frighteningly similar and slightly lower than in 1989 – a quarter of a century ago. Median income in 1989 was $51,681 when adjusted for inflation.
In other words, the American Dream of ever-increasing incomes has flat-lined. Most of us are losing ground. All but those in the top 5 percent – the wealthiest of the wealthy – who keep making more and more and more.