Good Jobs Are Where the Money Is (NYT)

[fencesitter]

Bob Herbert Jan. 19th

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/opinion/19herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slo

Mr. Herbert says it so well, are our candidates mute?

I think of the people running this country as the mad-dashers, a largely confused and inconsistent group lurching ineffectively from one enormous problem to another. They’ve made a hash of a war that never should have been launched. They can’t find bin Laden. They’ve been shocked by the subprime debacle. They’re lost in a maze on health care.

Now, like children who have eaten too much sugar, they are frantically trying to figure out how to put a few dollars into the hands of working people to stimulate an enfeebled economy.

They should stop, take a deep breath and acknowledge the obvious: the way to put money into the hands of working people is to make sure they have access to good jobs at good wages. That has long been known, but it hasn’t been the policy in this country for many years.

Big business and the federal government have worked hand in hand to squeeze the daylights out of working people, stripping them (in an era of downsizing and globalization) of much of their bargaining power while ferociously pursuing fiscal policies that radically favored the privileged few.

*****

From 1980 to 2005 the national economy, adjusted for inflation, more than doubled. (Because of population growth, the actual increase per capita was about 66 percent.) But the average income for the vast majority of Americans actually declined during that period. The standard of living for the average family has improved not because incomes have grown, but because women have gone into the workplace in droves.

The peak income year for the bottom 90 percent of Americans was way back in 1973 — when the average income per taxpayer (adjusted for inflation) was $33,001. That is nearly $4,000 higher than the average in 2005.

It’s incredible but true: 90 percent of the population missed out on the income gains during that long period.

******

more!

[madrchsod]

1. 1973 is the year the american dream died

only dennis has a clue on how to begin to restore our country so all people will have a chance to succeed. the top three`s plans do nothing to fundamentally change the course of our country.

[midnight]

2. First of all Binladin was never a man who was ever thought that

much about according to Bush after he started his war of Money. It’s incredible but true: 90 percent of the population missed out on the income gains during that long period. Any one see Fun with Dick and Jane.....

[Demeter]

4. Both of The Versions

and it was more painful the second time.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

3. Okay, what jobs? nt

[Demeter]

5. Manufacturing, Science, Technology

Throw out the marketeers and the Business school graduates! All they have done is perpetrate fraud after fraud on the rest of us--globally. We are worse than Nigeria in that respect.

Lock out the multinationals---they can't sell here unless they manufacture here and pay tax here.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. I'm with you! Yes indeed! nt