  Anybody out there heard of the concept of the constant dollar? ADVFN Financial Glossary defines constant dollars as: "Dollars as if in some base year, used to adjust for the effects of inflation. " Basically, constant dollars can show you a comparison of the purchasing power of x amount of dollars at some time in the past compared with the same amount of dollars today. Example: in 1997, the federal minimum wage was raised from $4.75 to $5.15. It has not been changed in the seven years since, so if your constant (base year) is set at the purchasing power of 1996 dollars (as it was in the handy-dandy chart I used for this post), $5.15's purchasing power is actually less now(about $4.40) than $4.75's in 1996, the year it was put into effect.
In fact, the latest increase lost eleven cents in value in its first year alone, and was lower in value in 1996 dollars than the 1996 increase by the year 2000. The Federal Minimum Wage is at its lowest value in constant dollars in almost 50 years. But dood, I make more than minimum wage, you say? If you don't get a yearly pay increase of at least as much as inflation has increased, you are being given a pay reduction.
Wages in constant dollars have fallen to 60's era levels. That means that on average, the American people haven't had a lasting pay raise since the sixties. Some economists theorize that my generation will be the first to fail to attain a higher standard of living than it's predecessor since the industrial revolution. Simple economics, bud. This is why Bush & his rich white corporate buddies don't want you to pay attention to details, especially now that inflation is becoming a problem. They don't want you to feel it when they bend you over and fuck you with a flashlight. This is why nobody has a stay at home mom anymore.
This is why nobody can get by on what they pay you at Mc Donalds. Below is an excerpt detailing the results of decomposing wage levels in America. Of course, the poverty of the soldiers involved in prison torture makes them neither more guilty, nor less. But the more we learn about them, the clearer it becomes that the lack of good jobs and social equality in the US is precisely what brought them to Iraq in the first place.
Despite his attempts to use the economy to distract attention from Iraq, and his efforts to isolate the soldiers as un-American deviants, these are the children George Bush left behind, fleeing dead-end McJobs, abusive prisons, unaffordable education and closed factories. And they are his children in another way too: it's in the ubiquitous thumbs-up sign that they flash, seemingly oblivious to the disaster at their feet. This is the quintessential George Bush pose. Convinced that US voters want a positive president, the Bush team has learned to use optimism as an offensive weapon: no matter how devastating the crisis, no matter how many lives have been destroyed, they have insistently given the world the thumbs up.
Donald Rumsfeld? "Doing a superb job," according to the optimist-in-chief. The mission in Iraq? "We're making progress, you bet," Bush told reporters one year after his disastrous "mission accomplished" speech. And the US job market, which has driven so many into poverty? "Yes, America can! " The excerpt came from urlLink The Guardian . Definition thanks to urlLink ADVFN Financial Glossary . Federal Medium Wage history in 1996 constant dollars thanks to urlLink Infoplease . Additional research thanks to urlLink The Maine House Democrats . In depth analysis on constant dollar "Real" wages & inflation thanks to urlLink The University of Rhode Island's Macro Economics program . 
