More Post-Election Good News: Wages Rising Faster Than Any Time Since 1997

November 20th, 2006 11:28 AM

The economy isn’t doing well, correct? The average American is going backwards, right? Isn’t that all we heard before the elections?

Well, in another post-election stunner, the Christian Science Monitor has chosen to share the truth with Americans, sadly almost two weeks after the nation went to the polls. In an article amazingly titled “A brisk rise in American wages; Pay rose faster than the cost of living for the first time in years” (h/t to Drudge), author Mark Trumbull wrote what many on the right have been claiming for quite some time:

American paychecks are rising again at a pace not seen since the 1990s.

The pay increase amounts to 4 percent on average over the past 12 months, and it comes at a very helpful time for millions of households.

Wait a minute. The press have been saying for years that wages are declining. How can this be? Trumbull continued:

Four percent may not sound like much, but you have to look back to 1997 to find a calendar year with a gain that big.

Equally significant, tamer energy prices mean that the "real" wage gains, after inflation, are above 3 percent for the past 12 months. That, too, hasn't happened since the 1990s, even though the economy has been expanding over the past five years.

Wait a minute. Doesn't this mean that wages are rising faster now than in the last three years under Clinton? Didn't the media tell us that was the greatest economic period known to mankind?

Shocking. Think such news relayed to the electorate prior to the elections might have had an impact on the results? What did Roger Daltrey say in the famous song by The Who? Anybody think that media control of information dissemination is totally out of hand?

As a post script, NBers should be aware that we have done our darnedest to keep you apprised of the truth concerning wages. Most recently, NewBusters published articles here and here on the subject.