9 Ways The Dow's Record High Shows Wall Street Is Out Of Touch With Reality

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high Tuesday and as The Huffington Post's Mark Gongloff will tell you, it doesn't really matter. That's because while investors are cheering a return to boom times for Corporate America, real America still hasn't totally recovered from the Great Recession (which was, incidentally, kind of caused by Wall Street).

As these nine economic indicators reveal, things still haven't returned to the way they were in 2007 before the financial crisis.

(Editor's Note: We compared 2007 data to the most recent full-year data. This explains why some most up-to-date data is from 2011.)

• Unemployment

  When the economy was roaring in 2007, the U.S. unemployment rate <a href="http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2012/recession/pdf/recession_bls_spotlight.pdf">was 5 percent</a>. In January 2013 the unemployment rate <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/january-jobs-report-unemployment-rate_n_2597751.html">was 7.9 percent</a>.

• Income And Wages

  The U.S. median <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/12/news/economy/median-income-poverty/index.html">income fell to $50,054 in 2011</a>, which is the most recent full year in which that data is available. That's down 8.1 percent since 2007. Wages also fell to a record-low <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/sunday-review/americas-productivity-climbs-but-wages-stagnate.html?_r=0">43.5 percent of the economy</a> in 2012, according to the New York Times. Meanwhile, corporate profits are still booming.

• Number Of People On Food Stamps

  The number of Americans on food stamps <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/48898378/Record_46_Million_Americans_Are_on_Food_Stamps">surged to a record in 46 million </a>in June 2012. That's compared to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/us/31foodstamps.html">26.5 million in 2007</a>.

• Uninsured Americans

  More<a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2012/september/12/census-number-of-uninsured-drops.aspx"> than 16 percent of Americans</a> -- or 48.6 million people -- were uninsured in 2011, according to Kaiser Health News. This number is higher than what it was in 2007, when the share of uninsured Americans was <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26404454/#.UTYwAnyfHEl">15.3 percent</a>.

• Student Loan Debt

  The average student loan debt for a class of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/education/report-says-average-student-loan-debt-is-up-to-26500.html">2011 graduate was about $26,500</a>, according to the Project on Student Debt data cited by the New York Times. Since 2007, when the<a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/09/26/a-record-one-in-five-households-now-owe-student-loan-debt/"> average student debt was $23,349</a>, student loan debt has increased for almost every demographic and the size of that debt has gone up as well, according to Pew.

• Homelessness

  In 2011,<a href="http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/01/18/10177017-homeless-numbers-down-but-risks-rise?lite"> 644,067 Americans experienced homelessness</a> on any given night, according to data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness cited by NBC News. Though that number is <a href="http://www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/the-state-of-homelessness-in-america-2012">actually down 13 percent from 2007</a>, the decrease is largely attributed to a boost in the number of programs to help keep the homeless off the streets.

• Children In Poverty

  More <a href="http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-244.pdf">than 16 million children</a> -- or about 20 percent of American children -- were in poverty in 2011, according to the Census Bureau. That's up from nearly <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/03/child-poverty-20-percent_n_1181548.html">18 percent of American children</a> in 2007.

• Homeownership

  We're on our way to becoming a renter nation. The homeownership rate in the 12 months leading up to May 2012 was <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/30/real_estate/home-ownership/index.htm">65.4 percent</a>, according to Census Bureau data cited by CNNMoney. That's the lowest rate in 15 years. In the last quarter of 2007, the homeownership rate was <a href="http://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/qtr312/q312press.pdf">67.8 percent</a>.

• Foreclosures

  There were <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/12/real_estate/foreclosures/index.htm">2.7 million foreclosures</a> in 2011. That's up <a href="http://www.realtytrac.com/content/press-releases/us-foreclosure-activity-increases-75-percent-in-2007-3604">from 2.2 million foreclosures in 2007</a>.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/05/dow-jones-record-high_n_2812380.html

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