The median net worth of American households has dropped to a 43-year low as the lower and middle classes appear poorer and less stable than they have been since 1969.
According to a recent study by New York University economics professor Edward N. Wolff, median net worth is at the decades-low figure of $57,000 (in 2010 dollars). And as the numbers in his study reflect, the situation only appears worse when all the statistics are taken as a whole.
When a society spends a million million (a trillion) dollars a year more than it “takes in,” it is really only an illusion that we don’t somehow, pay that bill. In this case, that is where most of the decreased amount in net worth has gone; it has gone, through inflation and hidden tax, to pay the piper.