Real, inflation-adjusted compensation per hour fell every year from 1993 through 1995 but has risen by at least 1 percent a year ever since -- even during the nasty energy shock of the past few years. Falling profits would not make the recent pay gains look any better, but falling oil prices will.

Real compensation adjusts for inflation, including costs of medical care and education, but Webb hopes to count those twice. "Medical costs have skyrocketed," he says. But most people pay only a small fraction of their medical bills because 85 percent have health insurance that is largely financed by taxes or tax deductions and because deductibles and co-payments are usually small. The poor and near-poor face no medical costs because of Medicaid.

"College tuition rates are off the charts," he says, confusing sticker prices with actual expenses. Statistics on "tuition per full-time equivalent" measure what colleges receive, not what students pay, including all tuition paid by third parties, such as Pell grants. What students pay is commonly cut in half by institutional aid (discounting), and further reduced by government and private scholarships and aid.

Webb went on: "Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas. Good American jobs are being sent along with them. In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table. Our workers know this, through painful experience. Our white-collar professionals are beginning to understand it, as their jobs start disappearing, also."

Manufacturing dismantled? "Over the 12 months ending in December, total industrial production increased 3 percent," reports the Federal Reserve, "to a level that was 112.4 percent of its 2002 average." U.S. production of cars and trucks rose 3.5 percent in 2004, 5.9 percent in 2005 and at a 7.3 percent rate in the first three quarters of 2006. Overseas auto plants were sent here, not the other way around.

U.S. jobs are disappearing? Employment was 145.9 million in December, up from 142.8 million a year before. If only bad jobs are increasing, why are average and per capita U.S. incomes rising? Why are so many U.S. shopping malls, restaurants and highways so infuriatingly crowded?

I sometimes wish that people who don't know what they're talking about would simply refrain from talking. Personally, I'd rather watch "Desperate Housewives" than despairing politicians.