Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity

[ShockediSay]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/business/28wages.html
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Documented: there are two economies

that belonging to the top one per cent income bracket
(which is going great guns, great economy, great growth)

and that belonging to the rest of us trying to live off a paycheck
(and we're going down deeper and deeper, and have been doing so
since 2001)

[MannyGoldstein]

1. A Big "Thank You!"...

...to Ronnie, George, Bill (& Hill), and W for making this marvelous achievement! And to the Amercan voters for putting you in power!

25 years of war on the Middle Class have paid off big time - well done!

[razors edge]

2. Leaves little incentive to the lower wage employees

to even try to move up, I manage Teamsters in the nation's largest local. senior men take layoff over lowered "off season wages" (asphalt business) and turn down overtime since they will in their own thinking, just pay more in taxes. No reason to work if someone is just going to take it away from you.

[Ready4Change]

3. Hence the overall economic slowdown and downward spiral.

The slowdown has been covered up by convenient adjustments of the economic yardsticks. But it's slowing down. It's a large contributor to the increased deficits, and a subconsious hindrance on the recovery of consumer confidence.

However, the top 1% are still gaining ground, and that is the reported measure of success.

[ShockediSay]

4. To your point: "Average family income....

"Average family income, adjusted for inflation, has continued to advance at a good clip, a fact Mr. Bush has cited when speaking about the economy. But these gains are a result mainly of increases at the top of the income spectrum that pull up the overall numbers. Even for workers at the 90th percentile of earners —making about $80,000 a year — inflation has outpaced their pay increases over the last three years,according to the Labor Department."

[ShockediSay]

5. And where's it going? Corporate profits!

"a growing share of the economy companies instead of workers’paychecks....

wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s."