Chart of the Week II: Downhill Since Nixon

While the European Union totters on the edge of financial dissolution, US Person gives equal attention to the facts bringing impoverished American youth into the streets:

When weekly wages are adjusted for inflation, American workers are making 12% less than they did in 1971. Using statistics not adjusted by the government, that figure is actually 30% less. Again, using unmanipulated statistics the current unemployment rate is reaching Great Depression levels of 23%:

The mass unemployment is reflected in the fastest growing welfare program, food stamps, in which participation has increased 43% in the past 3 years. 14.7% of the US population now use food stamps. It is no coincidence that JP Morgan Chase makes millions administering the program:

One usually associates depressions with falling prices. But the current reality is that some prices fall while other rise. At the playground of plutocrats, the stock market and other financial markets, prices are bid up using inexpensive leverage while housing prices, the traditional major investment of the 99%er, are down due to weak demand and oversupply. Commodity prices including food are also higher:

All of these charts support the same basic fact of life in 21st Century Amerika. The middle and working classes are becoming increasingly impoverished, not just in body, but in mind and spirit. So get out your pepper spray and elbow your way to that wide screen TV made in Asia. Watch your favorite pixels delivered to your eyeballs at light speed by Madison Avenue while the Plutocracy mugs you. The TV promises it won't hurt; but if you complain, they will libel you a terrorist. God help you then.