Parade Magazine has a very interesting recap on the last year’s economy and how it applies to the public. How Did You Do? gives a view into the state of the nation. There are quite a few statistics that I found surprisin, such as:

• “Last year’s 1.1% average raise was their first real pay increase in a long time. Workers’ productivity grew an impressive 18% between 2000 and 2006″”but most people’s inflation-adjusted weekly wages rose only 1% during that time.”
• “The cost of health care keeps rising faster than wages or inflation. Fewer employers offer health coverage””and fewer employees can afford to buy it. The upshot: Almost 47 million Americans now are uninsured, and most of them are in families with at least one full-time worker.”
• “In the last five years, inflation-adjusted wages rose less than 1% a year for the vast majority of households. But for the top 5% of earners, they jumped 2.5% a year. And for the top 1% of earners, the gains were much bigger: In 2005, the average CEO made 369 times as much as the average worker, compared with 131 times as much in 1993.”

The article also adds some anecdotal evidence by surveying many Americans. My favorite was, “Marie Ouano made $75,000 last year performing X-ray and MRI exams as a radiology technician but says housing in San Francisco is so expensive, she’s not sure she can afford to buy a home on one income.” I wish her good luck, but I think it’s an uphill battle on that income. Perhaps she can manage a small starter condo.

On the flip side of the coin, Miserly Bastard says that the rich are paying too much tax. I believe this is a direct effect of the rich getting richer as the Parade magazine suggested.

Which side are you on?

The spring edition of USAA Magazine arrived in the mail yesterday. Most of the information is extremely basic fundamentals such as “make your coffee at home to save money.” I seriously doubted I’d find anything worthwhile, but on magic page #33, there was a great article that caught my attention.

The focus on the article was the cost of regulating auto insurance. In New York, one of the highest regulated states, the insurance department budget was $179 million. In Illinois, one of the least regulated, it was $18 million. Despite having the same big city (New York vs. Chicago) and rural areas, that difference is huge. This leads to each NY driver paying about $444 more for the same coverage.

Lastly the article brings up Massachusetts. I had been paying for Massachusetts auto insurance for years. The Massachusetts regulators make it so difficult for insurers to make a profit that many don’t even try. Sometimes when I’m really bored, I call up Geico to ask if they can save me money in 15 minutes. Of course they can’t because the insurance is standardized across the state, yet it doesn’t stop them from making the claim four times a day when I’m watching TV.

The Boston Globe has crunched the math on what the average employee is making a Goldman Sachs this year. It’s an outstanding $622,000. I think there are probably more than a few employees getting multiple millions and many more getting nothing. Here are a couple of numbers from the article:

• “Anne Wass, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, noted the average pay of a Goldman employee would allow a Massachusetts school system to hire 11 more teachers, who makean average of $53,000.”
• “Richard Gulla, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Medical Society, said it’s the equivalent of four primary-care physicians, who make around $150,000 a year on average.”
• “Meizhu Lui, executive director for United for a Fair Economy, a national nonprofit group based in Boston, added that the average Goldman salary is 58 times the annual earnings of minimum wage worker in the US.”

And Energi Gal was wondering why I was thinking of getting my MBA.

It seems appropriate to talk about the gas prices on the day that the US announces they have found a huge reserve. Having driven across the country almost entirely on Route 80, I feel I can give a pretty good commentary on the prices.

For the most part it seemed the average was about $2.85 for the cheapest unleaded option. In Ohio, it got as cheap as $2.49. In parts of Nevada and California, I’ve seen $3.39 right next to $2.99 stations. That’s something that I had never seen in Boston. The usual difference is 10 cents or less.