Pundits Still Dumbfounded, Even As Workers' Share of Gains Hits 40-year Lo

[Jon8503]

David Sirota:

As I noted last week, media pundits like Sam Donaldson simply cannot understand why polls show the public is so down on the economic direction of our country. These commentators - who are supposed to reflect the true pulse of America - look at today's Wall Street Journal headline blaring that "Corporate Pretax Profits Jump 14.4% - Strongest Gain Since 1992" and wonder: why, oh dear god why, aren't ordinary Americans aren't jumping with joy? The answer, as I note in my upcoming book Hostile Takeover, is simple: if you take the five seconds it takes to actually look at the underlying data, you see that those profits aren't actually benefitting ordinary workers - they are increasingly benefitting only those at the very top of the economic ladder.

To see the full post, go to http://www.workingforchange.com/blog
--------------------
David Sirota is the author of the upcoming book Hostile Takeover, due in bookstores Spring 2006. To advance order the book, go to Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Powell's Bookstore.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. K & R - Smoke & Mirrors economy...

:grr:

[marmar]

2. People are realizing that these corporate profits...

are coming on their backs. Do you ever remember a time when there has been so much payroll slashing, salary and benefits concessions, pension plan-dumping, wholesale layoffs and outsourced production? Now wonder corporate profits are doing great - they're coming out of our hides!

[freesqueeze]

3. Great point

"they are increasingly benefitting only those at the very top of the economic ladder."

...like Sam Donaldson. He's thinking "why aren't they reading their stock portfolios?" Not stopping to think that most of us either have no stock or not enough to make a differenct. Most of America are now "have-nots" in Bush's "have" economy.

We can only hope they'll vote.

[adigal]

6. Why do you think Whores like Hannity

and Limbaugh love these Republicans? Between their increased salaries, and their tax cuts, they are rolling in the dough.

[ellie]

4. I though Sam

Donaldson retired?

[Oversea Visitor]

5. Get a brain

Better profit after all the outsourcing
and operation in other country very profitable

[liberal N proud]

7. They got their tax cuts and their stock portfolio looks good

What more do you need to measure the economy?

Remember in grade school when the teacher would grade on the curve, then throw out the highest and lowest scores before forming the curve?

These turd brains forgot to throw out the high points and don't even consider the low points.

[oasis]

8. Wake up America. Please, wake up. (eom)

[Vinca]

9. Of course corporate profits are up -

they've done a world class job of screwing the little guy under the Bush administration. Low wages, pension cuts, health insurance cuts . . . and the savings go to the upper echelon in the company. If you only look upwards, the economy is hunky dory.

[LaPera]

43. And outsourcing, cheap immigrant labor...Bust those unions for even

more profits...Destroy what's left of the middle-class...Global economy, multinationals corporations don't give a fuck about the American families or workers...and be sure to get rid of democrat's "New Deal"...It's coming next to your town, they aren't going to stop because of 33%...Steal the votes, (is their plan) and they will absolutely succeed!!!

[Neil Lisst]

10. the talking heads on TV news don't know anything about business

So they gobble up the press releases that come out of Wall Street, through its various shills.

Wall Street was doing just fine in 1920s, too, while the Midwest died.

[HughBeaumont]

11. Because it's all BUUUUUUULSHITE, Sammy!

Whether Bill Lumbergh's stock goes up a quarter of a point means shiznit to the Samirs and Michael Boltons of the world. They're still the ones living in fear of a job loss, chasing a carrot they'll never likely get. We're still the ones waiting for new emerging industries to pop up in the face of the current ones flourishing in the far East. We're still the ones who have had our careers and degrees instantly devalued because, damn it, that CEO and his cronies simply aren't rich enough. WE'RE still the ones who are going to be playing the games of going to school for life and employment musical chairs for life. And we're going to be the ones who may likely end up working in our 70s, whether we want to or not.

None of us can save. We're keeping less than ever. Our wages have flatlined since the 70s while working longer hours while the fatass Fiorinas of the world earn 3 to 10 lotteries a year (whether they had a hand in building their companies or not), lay off workers by the score to earn an extra lottery and get upwards of 21 million bucks when they leave for either running the company into the ground or spend three times as much to earn the same dollar revenue they did five years ago.

So don't sit there and blatantly be a dick with your head buried up your ass, telling me and the rest of the eternally working population we should be happy with the current state of the economy just because the people you smoke cigars with in the Hamptons are making out hand over fist. We're going to be turning into South America Part II if this keeps up, slappy. Just in case you were wondering.

[Vidar]

12. Trickle down economics= piss on the peons. Works perfectly.

[rman]

13. Ordinary Americans aren't jumping with joy maybe because

their profits (or rather losses) are completely excluded from any 'official' debate about the economy.

Or to put it another way: the corporate economy is not the same as the worker's economy. And people are catching on to that.

[Inland]

14. Paul Krugman explains it like this:

Neighborhood bar has ten people at the bar. Their average income and average wealth is whatever. One leaves, and Bill Gates takes his place. The average income and average wealth at the bar has skyrocketed. But nine barflys haven't had any change in their personal lives at all.

In the US now, a sliver of Americans are experiecing the best of times, particularly if you consider the after tax income and wealth. That changes the average, and the aggregate measures, but the vast majority of americans are doing eh-eh or worse.

[Supersedeas]

17. but the Sam Donnies of the World are just shocked

[anitar1]

35. Wait til Sam has to security fence his ranch and hire guards to patrol it.

Hope to see it.

[annabanana]

47. the day will come

when America remembers what a "lefty backlash" really looks like....

[Blue_Tires]

41. not to mention the WSJ op-ed board

[Cobalt Violet]

15. I can't wait until these peoples' bubbles burst.

And I do believe it will.

[BiggJawn]

16. Inflation averages 3.5% a year, my pay increases about 2%...

I paid $2.76 for "The Precious JUICE" yesterday, and that will last me maybe a week.

I don't get a specific COLA. Traditionally, we get a 2% or so raise if we come in sober and don't get caught with our pee-pee's in an undergrad's mouth in our cubes. That's Management's version of "COLA".

Until the failed Dot-Commers took over the IT department 5 years ago, now "At Expectation" performance will get NO increase whatsoever. You're at expectation, well, that's what we pay you for. You need more money, re-invent fire and cure AIDS EVERY day and maybe we'll give you 3%...

The Middle Class is dead. I had a TASTE of what it could have been like to be Middle Class, then that rotten bastard Reagan got in office and his buds raped this country bloody, then we got a little respite from the Big Dawg and I was able to get off food stamps and stop having to scrounge butts out of public ashtrays like some homeless guy, then the Bush Family Crime Syndicate gets in and I get shoved back into the Working Poor. Everything I saw come my way during Clinton's era has been gobbled up by Bush's greedy fucking Pioneers and Rangers.

Every year, I have less money for fuel, food, and medicine, yet I'm supposed to "drive this economy" by signing my paycheck over to Wally-World and Ditech-Dot-Com.

I quit smoking, only to see the $30 a week savings get gobbled up by other things increasing in price.

This ain't "Middle Class", people, it's "Working POOR", just like the poor bastards who ruined their health 14 hours a day, 6 days a week for the likes of Ford and Carnegie and Vanderbilt.

[Efilroft Sul]

19. I haven't had a pay increase in six years.

Prior to that, I was doing quite fine as a middle-class worker. Bought a car, paid it off, and rolled the money I saved into a down payment on a townhouse in 2000. And then came Shrub.

Since then, I've gotten married, my wife and I had a son, another kid's on the way in August, and daycare is going to kill us. And everything else is going up, up, UP!

BiggJawn, I know your agony. And anger. While the corporation I work for has been underperforming the last five years, the idiots at the top and their rubber-stamp board of directors have reaped the lion's share of wealth while the workers got jack shit. Yeah, so much for pay for performance.

[Jose Diablo]

22. During Reagan's funeral, what struck me was how much it resembled

some party of wealthy aristocrates. I tend to think about things as happening as directed from far above. The truth is though, I'm leaning more toward thinking what we see going on at the top, is more like millions of greedy fucks spread out all through business, right on down to some dipshit just one or two levels above the working stiffs. In other words, what we are seeing is driven from the bottom-up, not top down.

There is gonna be a civil class war alright, and it won't be just fighting between armies, it will be going on right to the bottom, up close and very personal.

It's only a couple missed meals away. It's like a flash fire fueled by dry grass. Having large disparities in wealth and income makes a society unstable, just like having dry grass just waiting for a spark.

[BiggJawn]

26. It *IS* an "aristocracy".

Last month I had to attend a "lunch" given by the Senior VP (I guess so he can tell himself he's "human" and a nice guy "in touch with the smelly little people") And I'm sitting there feeling very self-conscious because I was the only person in the room who gets his hands dirty for a living. Sort of like having one of the Black Gang from the stokehold attend dinner at the Captain's table.

Anyway, I'm sitting there flashing on the fact that this sonofabitch makes SIX times the money I do.
SIX fucking times as much. Now, any given person can only eat so much, drink so much, and can waste only just so much gasoline with his play-toys, so I'm thinking "This guy has abso-fucking-lutely NO gawd-dam idea in the world what's its like to have to turn your thermostat down to 58 at night, and shut the heat off completely during the day, or play musical utility bills, or squeeze your feet into a pair of too-small bike shoes and ride because you can't afford the $60 for a new pair.

It makes me angry. I just looked at our Org chart. Senior staff makes between 2X and 6X what I do. They have NO fucking idea what it's like to live on my pay.

And they probably could give a Shit, y'know?

"How can a Man who's Warm understand a Man who's Cold?"-Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, Odin den iz zhizni Ivana Denisovicha

And I'm about to tell DOCTOR Howard Dean to take his Democratic flavour of the Capitalist Party and blow it up his rich ass, I'm turning Socialist.

[Jose Diablo]

31. As for "Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn"

read the "First Circle", for a look how the nomenclatura in Russia resemble our own 'elite' try this:

Are we seeing once again “reforms from the top”?

We can only understand developments in Russia over the past decade if we can answer the key question: why are Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and some other countries of Eastern Europe successful and why is Russia unsuccessful?

My answer goes as follows: in 1989-1991 these countries experienced a democratic revolution, accompanied by a complete change to the state system and also the ruling elite. In Russia all this happened in a completely different way: an apparent coup d’etat was carried out by the nomenclatura in Russia – the same people from the Politburo of the Communist Party, its Central Committee, security services, came to power. They came out on top. They simply changed their suits an instead of talking about Lenin, communism and socialism, began talking about reforms, democracy and a market economy…

It goes without saying that the international community, which had eagerly awaited democratic transformations in Russia became concerned. To conceal the real picture, the nomenclatura hired a large group of young and talented specialists who were considered by the Western political elite and Western community to be democrats and reformers. Presenting this decoration to the West, the Russian “old-new: nomenclatura managed to obtain about 50 billion US dollars in loans and credits from the West.

Here is the deal, this 'nomenclatura' and our own nomenclatura, of both parties, staged this so called "cold" war. And the result? They, sucked the savings, the wealth, that the working stiffs produced into their own safes.

We been suckered, for the last 50 years, into fighting their wars, working to give them the better part of what we have produced and for what, a slave-wage. They have rigged the prices to take whatever the increased profits of productivity gains we made. It's a rigged game we been playing.

[bobbieinok]

37. well, hey, it's YOUR FAULT for not being Bill Gates

during Clinton's presidency there was a TON on NPR about the economy......the professors/guests were talking about how great the economy was and how everyone was doing so well

a caller said she was having a very hard time as were many of her friends.....she was a retired school librarian and just was not doing all that well

I really freaked at their response......it was basically 'well, you were stupid enough to waste your time at a low-end job like school librarian so what can you expect???'

the bottom line for them was obviously go solely for the money, do not care about the well-being of others or of society

....and they just assumed that everyone was in a position to get the education (have the $$, the genes, the family position, etc) to get the high paying jobs

[BiggJawn]

48. That's what the Yuppies told me during the early 90's.

"I did just fuckin' GREAT during Reagan, I don't know what the fuck YOUR problem was... You must be lazy or stoo-pid!"

[Viva_La_Revolution]

39. Excellent Rant BiggJawn!

Please post it on it's own.

I felt that lump of fury inside me rising up into my throat when I read this. You have such a way with words.


" then that rotten bastard Reagan got in office and his buds raped this country bloody, then we got a little respite from the Big Dawg and I was able to get off food stamps and stop having to scrounge butts out of public ashtrays like some homeless guy, then the Bush Family Crime Syndicate gets in and I get shoved back into the Working Poor. Everything I saw come my way during Clinton's era has been gobbled up by Bush's greedy fucking Pioneers and Rangers."

f*ckin RIGHT ON!! I've always been dirt poor, but I got a glimpse of hope for about 5 years, and then... it all dissolved. I should have realized what was coming, the Republican "profit is god" that I worked for finally realized he had to lay of 1/3 of his work force to keep the place open. That was December. I hear things aren't going all that well for them since. (too bad. I'll cry for him later)
That 2% has us by the balls again, and no matter how hard, or how many hours I work a week, I don't make any progress. Now I'm looking for work again, and I can't find a damn thing in my field that pays what it did just 5 years ago. I was getting hours at a temp agency that paid more than what companies are willing to pay for permanent hourly. WTF?

[AndyA]

18. The Attack On America

Forget about No Child Left Behind.

America is being left behind. One family at a time.

The problem with trickle down economics is that very little actually trickles down. Bush #1 proved that with his recession that didn't exist. Anyone remember that? Bush denied there was a recession, but everyone else could sure see it.

And the morons put his son in office a decade later. Fools. Sheep.

[EVDebs]

25. 'The Race To The Bottom', immigration, and R's hypocrisy

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=200504&mesg_id=200504

R's want to hire illegal immigrants, or any immigrant for that matter, at lowest possible wage. The entire process works against Keynesian economic's "marginal propensity to consume", which favors the vast majority of the population who receive stagnant wages for the past 30 years.

An economy that is treading water and the tax cuts go to the top 1 and 1/2 percent of taxpayers. Lovely. And then they wonder why the economy is limping. Trickle down, supply side, all part of the same b.s. factory.

[Arkansas Granny]

20. I have heard several economists remarking on this in the past

few months. Most have stated that things are looking great for corporate profits, but the benefits have yet to reach middle America. It's just a rerun of Reagan's "trickle down" economy. Didn't work then, won't work now.

[Jim__]

21. The April issue of the American Prospect has an article on this.

The article is actually on the auto industry, but it contains this paragraph:

The decline in income is hardly limited to manufacturing. A new survey of the nation’s 361 metropolitan areas, which account for 86.3 percent of the nation’s GDP, has found that the average wage of jobs lost in the recession of 2001-2003 was $43,629, while the average wage of jobs created in 2004-2005 was $34,378 -- a tidy 21 percent decline. While productivity increased by 11.7 percent between 2001 and 2004, median household income rose by a scant 1.6 percent.

More...

[Richard Steele]

23. Corporate profits: All-time HIGH. Take-home pay: 40-year LOW.

And they still wonder why people think the economy isn't so great.

They can't figure out, if we can't afford bread,
why we don't just eat cake instead.

[elehhhhna]

24. Look, employees are being told "Do more with less" by managers

who make quatrillions of dollars. It's enough to piss a person off.

[FredStembottom]

27. During the go-go 90's my pay was frozen in place for 8 years!

Since then there have been little 1% insults a couple of times all while my company is roaring ahead AND employees are not replaced to full levels, ever. Because those of us left can just work at 110% franticness for every second of every day.

I need to make up about 23% more to get back my buying power of 10 years ago!

Slide. Slide. Slide. Ever backwards........ while working ever harder.

Yep. I'm freakin' THRILLED.:mad:

[Norquist Nemesis]

28. I've got an idea for those pundits! Let's pay them the average salary

or there abouts of the average Joe Citizen--the 80% of wage earners, not the upper 20%. Maybe then they'll begin to get a clue.

[TrogL]

29. So they're finally finding out "trickle down" economics doesn't work

[starroute]

30. Here's another article

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BC4257910%2D8351%2D437A%2D8C00%2DE4CF3B782091%7D&dist=newsfinder&symbol=&siteid=mktw

U.S. corporate profits have increased 21.3% in the past year and now account for the largest share of national income in 40 years, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Strong productivity gains and subdued wage growth boosted before-tax profits to 11.6% of national income in the fourth quarter of 2005, the biggest share since the summer of 1966. For all of 2005, before-tax profits totaled $1.35 trillion, up from $1.16 trillion in 2004 and just $767 billion in 2001.

Meanwhile, the share of national income going to wage and salary workers has fallen to 56.9%. Except for a brief period in 1997, that's the lowest share for labor income since 1966.

"It's a big puzzle," said Josh Bivens, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute. "If this is a knowledge economy, how come the brains aren't being compensated? Instead, the owners of physical capital are getting the rewards."

Despite the flood of cash coming in the door, corporations are investing comparatively little in expanding their operations. Capital spending has been below average, especially considering the strength of the economy, the level of profits and the special tax breaks given to boost investment.

[Canuckistanian]

32. I once got a 2c/Hr raise

And it bumped me up into the next tax bracket. So, the raise was a net loss for me.

[kath]

34. That doesn't make sense - being in the next tax bracket doesn't cause

a net loss - you need to understand the concept of *marginal* tax rates.

[Canuckistanian]

36. Things are a little different in Canada

And I was not making the lowest wages at the time.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

40. I had the same issue...

and I'm in the US. I got a $250 a month raise, but only saw $110 increase in my paycheck. New tax bracket. :eyes:

[MrPrax]

33. Sam Donaldson wouldn't see a

problem, because Sam Donaldson is super rich. Just like Sam Donaldson didn't see the dead bodies on his huge ranch or just like Sam Donaldson didn't see a problem for the taxpayer to take care of his ranch.

This is the standards to which people like Sam Donaldson measure economic success--if workers are economically flattened, then guys like Sam Donaldson can buy their labor much cheaper...so of course Sam Donaldson would see some distress that people aren't responsing as enthusiastically to ebbs and eddies of Sam Donaldson's bank account as they once did.

[unkachuck]

38. you know....

....fellow Americans, someday soon, Socialism is going to look very good to you....Socialism, the only proven antidote to Capitalism....

[LaPera]

42. Rich talking heads who have their heads up this ass...They have

and don't want to lose their summer homes...Keep the media rich and in your pocket and they'll say and do anything to continue their privileged lifestyle...It's a fact and Rove & the republicans know it oh so well.

[bluestateguy]

44. Forgive me for not getting excited when gas is $2.54 a gallon

Which means it costs more to truck food in, so groceries cost more.

45 million Americans have no health care.

Many Americans are underemployed, doing jobs that are not commensurate with their levels of education and skill.

[Jon8503]

45. Ya, coming home from work the richies on CNBC, listening on Sirius,

was talking about gas at 3.00 a gallon and us consumers did not care or mind, we would keep on driving. Ya sure, right, we keep on driving because we have to keep on driving, work, school, grocery store, we do what we have to do to get by.

Again, it shows they don't have a clue or care on Wall Street. I honestly think they believe everyone lives like them and their CEO friends who have got millions in pay raises while cutting the workers and piling on more work to those of us left.

[nonconformist]

46. "Bush Rolls Middle Class In Shit; Sets Fire"

"Pundits are dumbfounded as to why there is no parade in his honor."