The Wage Disparity is (Not Quite) Worse Than You Think (Updated)

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6595/the_wage_disparity_is_worse_than_you_think/

Thank goodness for David Cay Johnston, the former New York Times and current Tax Analysts' columnist who this week reported on some very disturbing news hiding in plain site. He noticed some shocking stats released by the Social Security Administration (SSA) on October 15, stats that went entirely unnoticed by all media:

One out of every 34 Americans who earned money in 2008 earned nothing in 2009. What this means, Johnston writes, is that U.S. underemployment and unemployment is worse than we are generally told—around 22 percent, all told. Fewer people are working (you know this), but those that are on average are making less than before (you probably didn't know this):

Only 150.9 million Americans reported any wage income in 2009. That put us below 2005, when 151.6 million Americans reported wages, and only slightly ahead of 2004, when 149.4 million Americans held at least one paying job.

For those who did find work in 2009, the average wage slipped to $39,269, down $243 or 0.6 percent, compared with the previous year in 2009 dollars.

More (and video) at the link --

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr. & median wage is below average wage.

[Zephie]

2. My husband and I both had steady income in 2008

All of 2009, neither of us had any. When he finally got employment in 2010 he got $8.21 an hour. He got a better job in december, but it's still rough.

[HughBeaumont]

3. Unemployment, Underemployment and Stagnation: Three Anvils on the backs of the American Worker.

I make, in 2010 dollars, $300 more PER YEAR than I did in 2001.

In America, that's considered lucky.

In unionized, industrialized nations, that's disgraceful.

[rfranklin]

5. But ...but America is great...John Paulson made $5 billion!

In America anyone can be a billionaire!

[HughBeaumont]

7. "CREATE the Chair, lazy!!"

"Yew just aren't workin' HARD enufffff!"

"Innovate, compete or git LEFT BEHIND!"

Yeah. Anyone CAN be a billionaire. By the rules of probability, anyone CAN also get a sex change, win the lottery or walk backwards across the earth. What they don't seem to get is that doesn't mean anyone WILL.

[leftstreet]

4. K&R

[bvar22]

6. It took Congress less than a week...

...to deliver $850 BILLION dollars of YOUR cash to the failed bankers after Paulson made his extortion demand.

Now THIS is “Bi-Partisanship” !
Better get used to it!!
Hahahahahahahahaha!


Anyone who says that Congress can't act quickly,
or is "gridlocked" because of obstructionist Republicans,
is blowing smoke.
The unemployed and under-employed in the US aren't getting help from our representatives
is because our "representatives" don't represent the lower 98%.

When YOU are ready to deal with this reality,
we can "change" this.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[HughBeaumont]

8. More like "BUY partisanship".

"Too big to fail", my ASS. Those pigs ain't too special for the pitchforks. If what's happening in Egypt comes to America (God Forbid), they'd better have their helicopters ready.

[Agony]

9. "Citizens United is to the growth of corporate power what the Big Bang was to the Singularity"

David Cay Johnston Ya gotta watch this 7 min interview with him. at the link in the OP

and while you are at it... read his book "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else" from 2003... should have been required reading to be able to vote in 2004... it would be a different world, perhaps.

I have not read his latest book "Free Lunch" anybody?

Cheers,
Agony

[Agony]

10. looks like Johnston's Free Lunch book is a must read for anyone interested in the

issues of economic warfare that are playing out too often unnoticed around us.

excerpt from books.google about a train wreck near D.C. that took the lives of 8 people.
"CSX cut corners to inflate its profits, which in turn meant riches for its executives, whose pay packages were tied to reported profits and the price of CSX shares."

about a switch held together with a rusty nail...

Agony