While the *total* wealth of Americans has recovered from the hit of the recession, those gains are, of course, not evenly distributed. The rich are doing great. Regular Joes, however, are not nearly back to where they started. And young people are truly fucked.

Floyd Norris today notes that the average household wealth in America is— you ready for this?—$613,635. We're doing great! But the median wealth, the actual midpoint between the top and bottom halves, is about one-sixth of that, which is a lower proportion than has been seen in the past two decades.

That means the rich are getting richer and the poor are, etc. etc., god bless America.

Even among the regular folks, the recovery is not equally distributed: "While all age groups have yet to recover to their 2007 wealth, when adjusted for inflation, older households are down just 3 percent on average, while those headed by middle-age people are down about 10 percent. But the decline is nearly 40 percent for the younger group."

Good luck with that student debt, yall.

[NYT. Photo: Fred Benenson/ Flickr]