Overworked America: 12 Charts That Will Make Your Blood Boil

[G_j]

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speedup-americans-working-harder-charts

In the past 20 years, the US economy has grown nearly 60 percent. This huge increase in productivity is partly due to automation, the internet, and other improvements in efficiency. But it's also the result of Americans working harder—often without a big boost to their bottom lines. Oh, and meanwhile, corporate profits are up 20 percent. (Also read our essay on the great speedup and harrowing first-person tales of overwork.)

You have nothing to lose but your gains
Productivity has surged, but income and wages have stagnated for most Americans. If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000.



Growth is back...


...But jobs aren't


Sorry, not hiring
The sectors that have contributed the most to the country's overall economic growth have lagged when it comes to creating jobs.


..more...

[former9thward]

1. Yes, these are depressing charts.

It is also the reason that people should not focus on the monthly jobs gained and unemployment rate. The main issue is what kind of jobs are those and what they are being paid.

[Hotler]

2. I have no hope. I see no future. n/t

[pleinair]

6. I've been that way from time to time

but luckily I have a family member who is a historian, and he can always tell me, "Oh, it was much worse during the Harding administration," or some such perspective that gives me comfort. We've been through times like these before, and things go in cycles.

[Brigid]

8. Maybe we need a system that doesn't run in cycles.

Normalizing hardship for the non-wealthy is no way to build a stable and just society.

[pleinair]

12. "Normalizing hardship" - that's a good way of putting it

Making egregious conditions seem to be OK. We badly need social justice. Most definitely.

[Enthusiast]

15. PLUS ONE, a whole bunch!

[DirkGently]

3. If you want people to buy into a system of doing things,

... you have to show them how they benefit. Work harder, produce more ... aaaand we send your job overseas and give the CEO another solid gold yacht.

Problem is, Americans all think they're tycoons-in-waiting, and it's the other poor slobs working for peanuts.

[ffr]

4. It would appear the GOP got it right.

When they've been able to control congress, they've seen fit to reward their donors.

Which is why I'm getting involved with democratic GOTV drives in the upcoming mid-terms.

Phuck the GOP!

[nashville_brook]

5. where's my damn beta blockers!

[Brigid]

7. Yep, I need mine too.

[closeupready]

9. There looks like correlation between high taxes & higher employment,

superficially when you compare the middle chart with the last chart. Which makes intuitive sense to me.

[Igel]

10. Productivity doesn't increase just from working harder.

It's often measured in $ earned for $ invested or $ paid in labor.

The student union I was with improved productivity in the '90s with "just in time" ordering. We disposed of warehouse space and a couple of workers there and sharply reduced inventory. Less stuff to write off, less stuff at year end to pay taxes on, and it was easier to have stuff to sell that was hot this month but not last month or next month. Productivity went up, but the sales folk didn't do much more work. The back-of-house people had to place smaller orders more frequently, but that was all by computer so they didn't work harder.

Automation has the same effect. You get a gadget that replaces somebody and productivity soars. Even if nobody's working harder.

In some cases employees do work harder. Or because of automation and decreased staffing the workplace is more dangerous.

And in some cases making employers work harder is fine. Retail has a minimum staffing level. Sales may drop, but you need to keep the place open and staffed. As business picks up, income and productivity increase for a while before you need to hire more staff. Employees tend to think of their period of least effort as "baseline." I know I tend to. I'm an employee.


As for the GDP numbers, you respond to your own objection. Look at the areas that saw the biggest growth in output with small increases in employment. They're mostly paper-pushers or things that had increasing costs/prices. Big increase in money with small increase in manpower. Note that these are more "desirable" occupations. Lawyering and pushing paper in an office as opposed to working in a sewer or mowing the grass when it's 98 degrees out.

Something else that skews the numbers for GDP was a decision to start counting R&D as investment instead of expense. Suddenly this isn't an expense any more. It counts towards "product" for GDP purposes. R&D is big in some industries. It bumped up the GDP. Most news sources just reported it as a sign the economy was improving. The change didn't require a single new employee or a single additional dollar being spent, however, so it was strictly status quo on the ground whatever was inferred from the paper-based accounting change.


It's also not quite right that MJ does the usual trick of making the charts not comparable. The income chart ends right at the recession. The top 1-5% took a bigger hit to their incomes in late 2008--mostly investment--than the bottom 50%. Such charts usually stop at 2008 or start at the end of 2008, nicely dropping out the part of the curve with a steep negative slope because it spoils the intended "blood boiling."

If your blood boils you're likely to buy their product and help increase their bottom line with a minimum increase in employment, thus improving their productivity numbers.

[lark]

11. After years of losses, our income is finally stabilized and growing.

My husband and I are doing OK. I really worry about my daughter and son-in-law though. They got an apartment, want to live on their own, on the basis of a promised promotion and huge raise that was supposed to happen in July. Guess what didn't happen yet? They're saying it will happen by mid-August . She went ahead and signed the lease based on their earlier promises and will barely be able to afford food until she gets her raise. Son-in-law is Brazilian, getting his resident visa is taking forever, and what jobs will be available when he does? He's college educated, worked 4 years for Nestle in Brazil, and is very smart and charming plus very fluent in English - but is that enough?

Parents shouldn't have to worry about smart, hard working, college educated mid-20s children, but we do. Add to that the stress of beiing a Medical Guardian of my 90 year old widowed mother who's in bad health, plus working 50+ hrs. a week and life just isn't what it should be at this age. American workers are so over-worked and under paid, it's really ridiculous and we're now working more years than ever - because we have to.

Sad and very frustrated.

[hunter]

13. Our national wealth is stagnant. The scum have risen to the top.

Fairly and transparently taxing the wealthy -- those who benefit the very most from our national infrastructure of education, public health, transportation systems, and laws -- that is how we keep the waters of our economy clear, sweet, and aerated.

The waters of our economy are murky now and stink of corruption. Taxes on the wealthy need to be increased, and everyone ought to be guaranteed a comfortable living wage for work. And everyone who cannot find work, everyone who is unable to work, everyone who is retired, all ought to receive generous public assistance.

Nobody in this nation should be homeless, hungry, or illiterate. Nobody in this nation should suffer because they can't pay for appropriate medical care.

We are still a wealthy nation, but that wealth is rotting away in very dark places.

[progressoid]

14. And we're supposed to cheer becuase the Dow is up during a Democratic administration.

Fuck that.