So, if you’re wondering why some pundits and analysts are starting to worry that consumers may be thinking about pulling back from opening up their wallets, you can take the two obvious reasons–none of which are surprising to anyone with their eye on real people, as opposed to Wall Street hype and free market pablum. The first is the crash of the housing market–now well-documented, though predictable. And the second is the not surprising information in today’s New York Times on incomes:

Americans earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000, the fifth consecutive year that they had to make ends meet with less money than at the peak of the last economic expansion, new government data shows.

While incomes have been on the rise since 2002, the average income in 2005 was $55,238, still nearly 1 percent less than the $55,714 in 2000, after adjusting for inflation, analysis of new tax statistics show.

    I’d first like to say that since I normally give the traditional media a hard time and, in particular, The New York Times, it’s worth noting that the reporter of this story David Cay Johnston is one of the regular standouts in terms of detailing the class warfare underway in America. He doesn’t–and perhaps can never–use those words but his information is damning as he dissects where money is flowing and how the rich get away with gobbling up the lion’s share of the income growth in the country.

    He does it again today:

The growth in total incomes was concentrated among those making more than $1 million. The number of such taxpayers grew by more than 26 percent, to 303,817 in 2005, from 239,685 in 2000.

These individuals, who constitute less than a quarter of 1 percent of all taxpayers, reaped almost 47 percent of the total income gains in 2005, compared with 2000.

People with incomes of more than a million dollars also received 62 percent of the savings from the reduced tax rates on long-term capital gains and dividends that President Bush signed into law in 2003, according to a separate analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, a group that points out policies that it says favor the rich.

The group’s calculations showed that 28 percent of the investment tax cut savings went to just 11,433 of the 134 million taxpayers, those who made $10 million or more, saving them almost $1.9 million each. Over all, this small number of wealthy Americans saved $21.7 billion in taxes on their investment income as a result of the tax-cut law.

    And as for the slobs like you and me:

The nearly 90 percent of Americans who make less than $100,000 a year saved on average $318 each on their investments. They collected 5.3 percent of the total savings from reduced tax rates on investment income.

    I hope you are spending that $318 wisely thank you very much…