Our attention is focused abroad at the moment, and rightfully so, but there are also little details like this cropping up in the news:
The number of Americans living in poverty stayed at a record high in 2011, while the median household income fell for a second straight year, the Census Bureau announced Wednesday, as it released its latest look at how Americans live. In all, as in 2010, 46.2 million Americans lived in poverty last year, the bureau found. But the rate of poverty fell slightly -- from 15.1 percent to 15 percent -- amid continued population growth. That comes after more than one million more Americans fell below the poverty line in 2010 and as experts anticipated that the data for 2011 would show an even greater percentage of Americans below that line. The bureau also found that Americans' median household income fell 1.5 percent to $50,053 last year -- 8.1 percent lower than it was before the start of the recession, and even lower than it was in the late 1990s.
As we learned last month, household incomes are actually dropping faster since Obama's "recovery" began than they did during the recession. Here's Paul Ryan (remember him?) hammering on the choice voters face in Ohio:
The last few days have been disheartening at times. Here's a pep talk or two. And a sobering note.
UPDATE - More bad news as the middle class' share of earned income dropped to an all-time low last year, and weekly jobless also jumped up.