According to government data, the net worth of the average American family is down almost 40 percent from 2007. In 2007, the average family’s median wealth was $126,400; by 2010, it was just $77,300. A dramatic dip in housing value accounted for much of that decline. “Recovery from the so-called Great Recession has also been particularly slow,” said the Fed.
Much of that decline must be laid at the feet of the Obama administration, which has presided over the most tepid “recovery” since FDR prolonged the Great Depression by eight years with similarly Keynesian policies. It will be difficult for Americans to rebuild that wealth with the housing market remaining stagnant – while prices are stabilizing, so is demand – and with the high rates of unemployment and low rates of growth. Companies in the Standard & Poor’s index are expected to grow just 2.2 percent this quarter, as opposed to an average 7.3 percent increase every quarter since 1998.
Nonetheless, President Obama’s approval rating remains somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 percent, which begs the question: how many Americans even hope to build net wealth rather than living off government largesse in coming decades?
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