U.S. Wages Are Stagnant, While Cost of Living Has Skyrocketed -- And It's All Because of Greed

[marmar]

Shakesville, via AlterNet:




U.S. Wages Are Stagnant, While Cost of Living Has Skyrocketed -- And It's All Because of Greed


Number of the day:

4%: The real private-sector wage growth over the past decade, which falls "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.

Over the past decade, real private-sector wage growth has scraped bottom at 4%, just below the 5% increase from 1929 to 1939, government data show.

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%.

...The long dry spell for real wage gains tests the natural resilience of America's consumer economy.

To say the least. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/606214/u.s._wages_are_stagnant%2C_while_cost_of_living_has_skyrocketed_--_and_it%27s_all_because_of_greed/

[Vanje]

1. ......and the recession is over

(sarcasm)

[dkf]

2. Full employment pushes up wages. Anything that lessens the upward pressure of full employment brings

Wages down.

11,000,000 illegal immigrants does not promote increases in wages.

Add that to increases in productivity and you have the present circumstances.

[Initech]

3. Vulture capitalism, it's called, and it's a disease.

It happened to Borders, Chrysler, Enron, Adelphia, you name it. These fucking CEO leeches will swoop in, drain the host of all available money and assets and then move onto the next, while leaving us left to fight for what's left of the scraps. George Carlin was right - it's a big club - and we're not in it.

[provis99]

4. the Empire is falling.

We might as well just wait for the barbarians to come knocking at the gate.

[xchrom]

5. Recommend

[blindpig]

6. It's the Capitalism. n/t

[Taverner]

7. Capitalism Sucks.

Rampant Capitalism Sucks the most

[Turbineguy]

8. Well maybe, but

the economy feeds a lot of people who produce nothing of value. They have jobs, but produce nothing, yet consume. An economic and social distortion. There is probably a critical mass percentage in there somewhere. A village can only support a limited number of village idiots.