The standard of living for most Americans has plummeted more over the last three years than it has in five decades, new research shows.

The average individual has $1,315 less in disposable income than he or she did three years ago at the onset of the Great Recession, which technically ended in mid-2009.

Real median income, meanwhile, is down 9.8 percent since the start of the recession, according to Sentier Research in Annapolis, Md., citing census bureau data, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
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Net worth is taking the plunge as well, as evidenced by declining home values and retirement portfolios.

"In a dynamic economy, one would expect Americans' disposable income to be growing, but it has flattened out at a low level," economist Bob Brusca of Fact & Opinion Economics in New York tells the Christian Science Monitor.

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Other experts say the U.S. has spent decades running up debt and is now doomed to spend some time in either recession or periods of sluggish growth while paying its bills.

"The way we measure progress today is in terms of economic growth. And economic growth depends on consumption growing, and 70 percent of the U.S. economy is consumption. And that cannot continue growing because of the debt," author and economist Graeme Maxton says in an exclusive Newsmax.TV video interview.

"We can't have growth because of the amount of debt that's in the system. We have to find a way to get rid of that debt, and that means paying it back. And that's going to constrain our growth for perhaps even decades to come."