"Wages aren’t stagnating, they’re plummeting" - the Washington Post

[applegrove]

Wages aren’t stagnating, they’re plummeting

at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/31/wages-arent-stagnating-theyre-plummeting/

[Newsjock]

1. And costs are soaring

But yet the plutocrats demand more.

[girl gone mad]

8. Next up on the plutocrat agenda:

Cuts to SS and Medicare.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/beating-back-the-ceo-atta_b_1748330.html

[woo me with science]

21. After the election, of course. nt

[xchrom]

2. Du rec. Nt

[BOG PERSON]

3. i thought for a second you thread title meant

they were making salary cuts or laying off people *at the Washington Post*. but as the Washington Post reminds us every day, the world is an ugly place that doesnt make sense.

[Third Doctor]

4. I've

seen this first hand. We are also working 3 times as much for a lot less pay and no benefits.

[elzenmahn]

7. I've seen it as well...

...at one of my favorite cafes, many of those employees are working three to four jobs to make ends meet - if they can.

And remember how Bachmann and Bushiebaby reacted to facts like this - that it's WONDERFUL to be working multiple jobs?

[Initech]

5. Meanwhile CEOs are making 10000x the average worker and companies are stockpiling trillions.

Yet the right is complaining about "freeloaders".

[spanone]

6. damn, maybe we'll have to resuscitate the unions?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

9. "Reasonable people can disagree about what ... should be done to fix it."

If the Democratic Senators block the pending job-transferring, wage-lowering "free-trade" agreement, that can help.

On the other hand, both Rmoney and the Obama Administration are in agreement on one point. Both support another let's-send-more-jobs-to-foreign-countries "free-trade" agreement.

Trans-Pacific negotiations have been taking place throughout the Obama presidency. The deal is strongly supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the top lobbying group for American corporations. Obama's Republican opponent in the 2012 presidential elections, Mitt Romney, has urged the U.S. to finalize the deal as soon as possible.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/obama-trade-document-leak_n_1592593.html

[NNN0LHI]

24. No "free-trade" agreement or politicians sent my job out of the country during the 1980's

Along with millions of other well paying union jobs.

It was my fellow citizens purchasing imports who did that.

Pesky facts.

Don

[Bandit]

25. You buy an American Car and most of the parts came from some other country.

What can you buy in this day and age that is completely American?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

29. Actually, some jobs were sent first. Prices for imported TVs, etc., were lower. People bought

the lower-priced imports. More jobs were sent to foreign countries. And the cycle continued.

[kenny blankenship]

30. "The US supported Japan joining (GATT)... extended most-favored-nation status ... in 1955."

Historical Encyclopedia of American Business
Japanese Trade with the United States
http://salempress.com/store/samples/american_business/american_business_japanese.htm

When Japan regained sovereignty on April 28, 1952, the United States accepted Japan's export-oriented trade strategy. This was done from a position of strength and with the goal of helping a Cold War ally. The United States supported Japan's joining the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and extended most-favored-nation status to Japan in 1955. In 1961, the United States accepted Japanese tariff policies that set low rates on desirable American imports, such as raw materials and essential goods, but imposed barriers on goods that were being produced by Japan's rebuilding industry. The United States championed Japan's becoming a member of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1964. All of this was done in the spirit of free trade with Japan, even though American companies setting up branch offices in Japan, such as International Business Machines (IBM), could not transfer their earnings from Japan to the United States.

(BTW: Nazi Germany imposed a similar ban on repatriation of profits for foreign industries operating on its soil. Profits had to be reinvested in Germany. US industries found great rates of return there, with all the labor problems that irked business in the US and the UK being conveniently quashed by the Fascist terror state, and so they put up with the capital restrictions. Their avid participation in building Hitler's thousand year Reich was a major reason behind the difficulty we later had in defeating him.)

The US Govt. pursued "free trade" with both its WWII enemies, Japan and Germany, following their periods of postwar occupation and reconstruction, to keep them from going Commie. We accepted the blatant protectionism of both countries as necessary to rebuild their societies and to secure their long term cooperation with the capitalist bloc. As you can see, there were indeed "free trade" negotiations, including treaties, eg: GATT (an iterative, neverending, multilateral negotiation process to extend capitalist rules of engagement across the globe, which commenced as soon as the shooting stopped in 1945). Also, then just as now, "free trade" has never been free or fair. Countries were and are allowed to cheat massively without prejudice to their "Most Favored Nation" status, in order to secure their cooperation and thus advance the banner of trade and capitalism. Some domestic industries were likewise favored, receiving sympathetic assistance from our government when they encountered anti-competitive trade barriers abroad, others perhaps considered troublesome politically, or too unionized, were thrown to the wolves.

[Romulox]

33. Yeah, your "Free Trade--FOR REVENGE!" theory is not very compelling. nt

[bhikkhu]

10. That's a bit of an exaggeration

Not that things are all peachy, but "stagnating" fits the case pretty well. Plummeting is not what the data describe.

on edit - Nominal wage growth is still positive, as it has been since 1980. That's pay increases. Adjusted for inflation, pay increases haven't always kept up, however, and the adjustment does move net wages back into the negative slightly.

My problem with exaggeration is that I hear it regularly applied to all sorts of data. usually fabricating some point about how we need to get some common sense back into government - code for you-know-what.

If you can't make a case with facts, then don't make a case!

[Fuddnik]

16. Read "Bad Money" by Kevin Phillips.

He shows how every President since Eisenhower has manipulated inflation data and GDP, among other things, to make themselves look better. It continues today.

Here's an excerpt from the St.Pete Times, reprinted from Harpers.

Hard numbers: The economy is worse than you know

Kevin Phillips, Harper's Magazine
In Print: Sunday, April 27, 2008

Ever since the 1960s, Washington has gulled its citizens and creditors by debasing official statistics, the vital instruments with which the vigor and muscle of the American economy are measured.

The effect has been to create a false sense of economic achievement and rectitude, allowing us to maintain artificially low interest rates, massive government borrowing, and a dangerous reliance on mortgage and financial debt even as real economic growth has been slower than claimed.

The corruption has tainted the very measures that most shape public perception of the economy:

• The monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI), which serves as the chief bellwether of inflation;

• The quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which tracks the U.S. economy's overall growth;

• The monthly unemployment figure, which for the general public is perhaps the most vivid indicator of economic health or infirmity.

Not only do governments, businesses and individuals use these yardsticks in their decisionmaking, but minor revisions in the data can mean major changes in household circumstances — inflation measurements help determine interest rates, federal interest payments on the national debt, and cost-of-living increases for wages, pensions and Social Security benefits.

(snip) much more

http://www.tampabay.com/news/article473596.ece

[Romulox]

26. You're making a distinction without any difference. It hurts your case more than helps. nt

[Brickbat]

11. As long as people continue to accept it, it will keep happening.

[lonestarnot]

12. Yes it will.

[gateley]

14. But what choice do we have? We take what we can get, or we get nothing.

It's great in theory to stand one's ground, but when one is standing one's ground, somebody else is stepping around him to take the job.

They've created the perfect storm, haven't they?

[Zalatix]

19. And soon we will get nothing anyway? At some point people must realize..

we've already got nothing to lose.

We are like a person whose throat has been cut. You're not dead yet but you are bleeding out far too profusely.

[Brickbat]

28. Organize.

People don't, however, because it's actually easier to take a shit wage and hope for the best instead of organizing for better wages, conditions and work rules.

[gateley]

36. People don't because they're afraid, or literally don't have the time or the energy.

And, I think not enough have realized what's happening.

[Brickbat]

37. I think miners and steelworkers were plenty afraid and didn't have a whole lot of energy left over

either. I do agree with you about people not realizing it happening, however.

[woo me with science]

35. Indeed.

Are we waking up yet?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. They forgot "The rent is too damn high".

[rockingirl]

15. little charts and graphs

little charts and graphs like that one never impress me much because i know that i could take some time and create some too and have them portray anything that i wanted them to just as it does...
they wouldn't look like that one above for sure.
there is no disputing that wages for those of us who are still working aren't keeping up with the cost of living and no little chart or graph offered that says otherwise is going to convince me when i, and all of those that i know, live the really true consequences every day.

[Fuddnik]

17. Kick and rec!!

[B Calm]

18. Meanwhile Republican governors are turning their states

into Right to Work for Less states.

[bvar22]

34. The 30 year War on the Working Class has been Bi-Partisan since 1980.

!

[woo me with science]

20. K&R

[MannyGoldstein]

22. Someone ought to do something about that

Who can we turn to? Where can we find a party or politician who'll fight for working Americans?

[quinnox]

23. The economy has been bad for a long time

If Obama does lose, it will be because he was blamed for this continuing poor economy. That is why Romney can't be counted out.

[Romulox]

27. But how will I afford my KIA SOUL????? nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

31. I'd buy all the hemming and hawing and endless excuses for this generational disaster

if it weren't so completely obvious who is screwing us, how badly they're screwing us, and how easily they could be stopped from screwing us. But here we are 40 years later and even with a supposedly progressive group of educated, experienced policy wonks, we accept and debate the blatant bullshit the traitors spew as if lies were valid simply because someone said so.

We are living in exactly the America that so many people warned us we would create if we continued to buy the lies.

Well here we are and even today the traitors are still arguing; There is nothing that can be done. It isn't as bad as you think it is. That your pain is bringing freedom and a good life to hundreds of millions in the third world. That it has always been inevitable. That it is any or everybody's fault but theirs.

The Ultimatum Game.

[woo me with science]

32. Psst. Nobody in government cares.

Nobody with any power, anyway.

There has been no urgent response, and there won't be.
We have been sold out, and the theft will continue with Medicare and SS, after the election.


Are we awake yet, America?

[hack89]

38. Certainly makes the case for both college degrees

and more unions.