Chart of the Week: The Squeeze Play

Not only are workers taking home a shrinking paycheck due in part to a larger share taken by benefits (primarily healthcare) as the first chart shows, but the dollar they do take home is worth less:

'Obamacare' will not hold down healthcare costs; the people of Massachusetts where a similar scheme is already in place will tell you that. A single payer system or at least a non-profit insurance option would. Naturally those policy choices were eliminated by the insurance lobby and its hired politicians.

It is clear working Americans are not happy with the economy's performance. A Gallup poll says 55% believe we are in a depression or a recession. And the pessimism is growing. The sad fact is there has been no increase in total payroll jobs for a decade. Whether their dissatisfaction will be reflected in the polls against their national leader, who just bagged the biggest bogeyman in the world (Col. Qaddafi is a close second), remains to be seen. A sadder fact is that it is easier to kill dictators and terrorists than create middle class jobs in a global economy that relies on cheap labor markets. Does the middle class economic gloom concern Obamatron? Apparently not. Post Citizens United, ordinary votes may not matter as much as Wall Street cash. Over there in bubble land, things are just hunky-dory because almost everything you can invest low cost money in--commodities, stocks, mortgage bonds--is up.