10-Year Real Wage Gains Worse Than During Great Depression

[notesdev]

The past decade of wage growth has been one for the record books — but not one to celebrate.

The increase in total private-sector wages, adjusted for inflation, from the start of 2001 has fallen far short of any 10-year period since World War II, according to Commerce Department data. In fact, if the data are to be believed, economywide wage gains have even lagged those in the decade of the Great Depression (adjusted for deflation).

Two years into the recovery, and 10 years after the nation fell into a post-dot-com bubble recession, this legacy of near-stagnant wages has helped ground the economy despite unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus — and even an impressive bull market.

...

To put that in perspective, since the Great Depression, 10-year gains in real private wages had always exceeded 25% with one exception: the period ended in 1982-83, when the jobless rate spiked above 10% and wage gains briefly decelerated to 16%.

...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/573982/201106020800/10-Year-Real-Wage-Growth-Worse-Than-During-Depression.htm

[dkf]

1. Full employment pushes up wages. Anything that releases that pressure pushes wages down.

Really how difficult is that to understand?

[ejpoeta]

4. that makes sense. saw a story this morning about jobless claims. showed people looking for work.

showed a guy said he had put his application in all over tennessee. Then they said something about people accepting minimum wage and people that had once made a certain amount now making minimum wage. That's what happens. You have mouths to feed.... You take what you can get. So many people are out of work. employers have their pick and can say, I'll pay you $8/hr.... so what if you were making $30 before. I guess you're going to swallow it and take $8 now.

[madrchsod]

2. i was making 10+ an hour in 1970`s

i was making 10-12 in 88-92

i was starting at 10-13 in 96-2003

the first three were in heavy industry with two under union contracts


after 2003- 2008-less than 10

those years were shit jobs.

i gave up in 2008 and now i`m drawing 125 a week on social security.

[Sherman A1]

3. This inflation calculator might be of interest

http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

not sure how accurate it really is, but at least it's something.

[canoeist52]

5. From that site. $1.00 in 1980...

$1.00 in 1980 had the same buying power as $2.86 in 2011.

Annual inflation over this period was 3.45%.

http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

[mistertrickster]

6. And union-busting . . . which the MSM article won't mention. nt

[golfguru]

7. During the Great Depression competition from low wage countries

was non-existent in mass manufacturing. Now we have China and India with 8 times larger population and they can manufacture
anything we can here in US. And their wages are much lower!

[George Wythe]

8. Today, twice as many people work for the government than in manufacturing.

In 1960, the numbers were reversed.

[Supposn]

9. Trade deficits are always detrimental to their nation's GDPs.

Excerpted from http://www.usa-imports.blogspot.com :

Manufacturing's economic significance
Free trade benefits both trading nations. It’s the trade deficit that harms USA??s economic and social welfare, (Refer to the post of “David Ricardo’s Comparative Advantage”). Even with adjustment for the dollar’s inflation over a half century, our annual deficits and their harm increases. The world's and the USA's production and consumption of goods continues to increase. The proportion of USA goods consumed both within the USA and the entire globe continues to decrease. There is no national benefit from a trade deficit.

A completely automated factory employing no production labor, requires the support of materials and other services. Accountants, maintenance, janitors, transportation of materials and components, are all required before the finished products reach the factorie’s shipping platform. Those supporting goods and services are generally of domestic origin. To the extent domestic goods and services are utilized, all domestic production contribute to our GDP and median wage.

The production of foreign goods contibute little or nothing to the USA’s economy. Domestic and imported goods do not economically differ after arriving at a USA port of entry or a USA producer’s shipping platform.

Manufacturing is of greater importance because the goods and services supporting factories are generally great as or greater than what's required for most other industries. Manufacturing has a great (multiplier) effect on our GDP. Individual businesses are more or less unique, but a domestic factory's contribution to GDP is generally much greater than that due to a service site such as an administrative office or a retail outlet. Excluding the value of unrefined petrolium, manufactured products account for almost our entire global trade deficit.


I believe there’s a symbiotic relationship between manufacturing and technological knowledge. USA’s deindustrialization has begun to cost us our technological edge. Our colleges and universities are not producing the creators of the globe’s technical future. Due to USA's deindustrialization, we invest less and others more for research and development. Those who sow less, harvest less. As we manipulate materials, and create products, we learn more of the materials, tools and the products. If we do not manufacture today, will we be able to resume manufacturing in the future?

Many are concerned about our military’s dependence upon foreign manufacturers. There’s of course some concern regarding security of information and prevention of sabotage. If national governments of our suppliers disagree with our policies, will it affect the production and delivery of our strategic needs?
/////////////////////////////////////////

Refer to: www.USA-Trade-Deficit.Blogspot.com ,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Import_Certificates
or Google: Wikipedia, import certificates
Respectfully, Supposn

[progree]

10. An impressive bull market? S&P 500 down 0.45% from beginning of 2001 to 7/12/11 close

The increase in total private-sector wages, adjusted for inflation, from the start of 2001 has fallen far short of any 10-year period since World War II ... Two years into the recovery, and 10 years after the nation fell into a post-dot-com bubble recession, this legacy of near-stagnant wages has helped ground the economy despite unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus — and even an impressive bull market

Impressive bull market? At the beginning of 2001, the S&P 500 was at 1320. At the beginning of 2011, the S&P 500 was at 1258 (a decline of 4.7%). It closed today, July 12, 2011 at 1314 (a decline of 0.45% from the beginning of 2001).
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=%5EGSPC&a=11&b=31&c=2000&d=11&e=31&f=2010&g=d

Maybe he's talking about the Obama bull market?

The S&P 500 closed Jan 16, 2009 (the last full day of the Bush II presidency) at 850. It closed today, July 12, 2011 at 1314 (an increase of 54.6%).

(Contrast that to Bush II's bear market: from the close of Jan 19, 2001 (the last full day of the Clinton presidency) to the close of Jan 16, 2009 (the last full day of the Bush II presidency), the S&P 500 fell from 1343 to 850, a decline of 36.7%.

Anyway its a fun fact to know and tell when some CONNEDservative goobers ask you why you were so stupid to vote for Obama -- tell them because you weren't willing to endure another 37% stock market decline like we had under Bush II; and that you much prefer the 55% gain that we've had under Obama so far.