Monday the Census Bureau issued the imaginatively titled Income in the United States: 2024. This is the latest installment in an annual statistical summary of the level and distribution of income in the United States. It is also a stark reminder of why U.S. voters emphatically rejected the Biden-Harris economic stewardship in the 2024 elections.

As matter of key background, recall that inflation exploded on Biden’s watch in 2021, reaching a peak of 9.1 percent in June 2022 (measured year-over-year using the Consumer Price Index, or CPI). By 2024, it had come down dramatically to 3.1 percent over the course of 2023. The decline stalled, however, and inflation in 2024 was 3.0 percent.

This was a problem because, as the report reads: “Median household income was $83,730 in 2024, not statistically different from the 2023 estimate of $82,690.” Even taking the change at face value, median income growth was only 1.3 percent, which translates into a decline of 1.7 percent in purchasing power during 2024. Declining real standards of living are unpopular.

The report elaborates: “Household income at the 90th percentile increased 4.2 percent, but did not significantly change at the 10th and 50th percentiles between 2023 and 2024.” So, the top 10 percent had a (modest) real increase in their incomes, while the remainder suffered losses. For the equity-obsessed Bidenites, this is a complete mission failure.

Finally, to add insult to injury:

Among full-time, year-round workers, median earnings increased 3.7 percent for men, but did not change significantly for women between 2023 and 2024.

For full-time, year-round workers, the female-to-male earnings ratio in 2024 fell to 80.9 percent from 82.7 percent in 2023. This is the second consecutive annual decrease in the female-to-male earnings ratio.

So much for the vaunted Biden gender equity.

None of this comes as much of a surprise for those who watched the Biden Administration attempt to resuscitate the greatest hits of Soviet economic policy. Concentration of power in the government is the shortest route to stagnation and vastly unequal economic outcomes.

It also provided a huge opening for Donald Trump. Candidate Trump, obviously, got a great report card last November. Time will tell whether President Trump repeats that success or suffers a fate similar to his predecessor.