Only Rich Know Wage Gains With No Raises for U.S Workers

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-19/only-rich-know-wage-gains-with-no-raises-for-u-s-workers.html



Call it the no-raises recovery: Five years of economic expansion have done almost nothing to boost paychecks for typical American workers while the rich have gotten richer.

Meager improvements since 2009 have barely kept up with a similarly tepid pace of inflation, raising the real value of compensation per hour by only 0.5 percent. That marks the weakest growth since World War II, with increases averaging 9.2 percent at a similar point in past expansions, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data compiled by Bloomberg.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has zeroed in on faster wage growth as an important milestone for declaring the job market healed and ready to withstand policy tightening, even as other labor measures improve. Stagnant earnings also explain an economy that’s having trouble sustaining a rebound in housing and consumer spending, according to David Blanchflower, a professor of economics at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

“The bottom line is, we’re a million miles from full employment,” said Blanchflower, a Bank of England policy maker from 2006 to 2009. “Workers are struggling, and they don’t see signs that things are suddenly going to change.”

[theHandpuppet]

1. Let them eat cake?

We are fast approaching critical mass.

[cstanleytech]

3. Didnt work out to well for alot of the rich the last time they tried that to and they might have the

money but what they forget is that money can only buy some much protection from the guillotine.

[groundloop]

2. Hmmm.... here's an article that says job markets are tightening and wages will go up

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/12/us-usa-economy-employment-idUSKBN0GC1CW20140812

" The share of unemployed Americans competing for each open job hit a six-year low in June, suggesting a labor market tightening that could give way to faster wage growth."


Clearly one view or the other is wrong. I have a cynical theory.... corporations want us to believe that wages are going nowhere, creating a self fulfilling prophesy.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. Corporations want you to believe times are tough,...while they're competing in a yacht race.

[xchrom]

6. any movement on wages for the masses is making up for some lost ground.

http://www.businessinsider.com/95-of-income-gains-since-2009-went-to-the-top-1-heres-what-that-really-means-2013-9

95% Of Income Gains Since 2009 Went To The Top 1% — Here's What That Really Means

This month, Berkeley economics professor Emmanuel Saez put out an update to his estimates of income inequality, and the headline figure has everybody outraged: 95% of income gains since 2009 have accrued to the top 1%.

This is indeed outrageous, but not quite for the reason that most people think.

What the 95% statistic obscures is that the last three years' recovery haven't been very good for anybody, including the rich. They've been terrible for the bottom 99%, whose incomes are barely rising at all: just 0.1% per year in real terms. But top 1% incomes are also growing more slowly than they did in the last two economic expansions. That's because the same slack labor market that holds down wages also deprives businesses of the customer base they need to invest and grow.




***wage gains aren't going to close that gap -- not any time soon.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/95-of-income-gains-since-2009-went-to-the-top-1-heres-what-that-really-means-2013-9#ixzz3AqigTO8h

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. The way I put it is the rich betrayed Reagan...

They promised all the extra wealth from the tax cuts and deregulation was going to go into payroll and they pocketed the cash.

[Skittles]

7. they didn't betray Reagan, they were COMPLICIT with him

that bastard never cared about the American workers

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. Yeah, but you can't convince Reagan Worshipers of THAT.....

Last edited Wed Aug 20, 2014, 10:09 AM - Edit history (1)

Tell them the rich betrayed Reagan and they stop in their tracks.

It is something totally outside of their rehearsed talking points and you will be shocked at the look on their face as they do something they don't normally do. It's called "thinking".

[Sherman A1]

9. I don't believe so

rather I believe it was a very orchestrated long term plan to shift more and more wealth to the top. I simply don't see it as Reagan being betrayed, however you could be right and I wrong on this point.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. The Right has turned Reagan into a Christ-like figure....

The typical brainwashed follower will immediately go into full out hyperventilation if you attack their Holy One so you claim the RICH are the ones who spoiled it all with their greed. You can't even say the rich TRICKED Reagan. That would imply their Holy One didn't have the special powers they believe He had.

You have to remember that the Republicans spent the entire Clinton Years rewriting that history. They HAD TO. Between the twin disasters of trickle down and Iran Contra anyone working in his administration would never be able to get a job in DC ever again. Too many prominent people who should have been driven out in disgrace got jobs working in think tanks. These people now boast about the picture standing next to that old fool and act like his Holy Prophets,....carrying on the Good Work.

There are young Reagan Worshipers who weren't even alive back in the 80s who are CONVINCED that was a magical time when America was at it's PEAK and it's all gone downhill since and they blame Clinton and Obama. Mention either Bush and it's like those 12 years are a blank. I would love to drag them back in time to show them the suicides linked to factory closures as proud blue color workers on the job for twenty years were suddenly broke. Then flip on the TV to see the Hearings as members of the Reagan Administration all claimed to have memory loss.

[riverbendviewgal]

11. Wall Street and Corporations profit with low wages

Stock prices rise when bad times are here. Good news brings down the Stock Market.

This is crazy.

[Populist_Prole]

12. True. And every time wages even MIGHT go up for the 99 percent

You hear all this panicking by the oligarchs about "inflation worries" and the need to "cool down the economy".

This is about class and nothing more.