General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Meet the CEO Who Cut Worker Pay in Half While Pulling in $21 Million Last Year [View all]hfojvt
(37,573 posts)you make it sound like in the 1960s and 1970s that EVERYBODY was rich. That EVERYBODY had one of those good paying union jobs.
But that was never true. Those jobs were never THAT widely available. Just like now, they only went to those who, for whatever reason, either family connection, skills, luck, determination, somehow won the "job lottery" and got a winning ticket.
Some people got their ticket on the good job train, and they rode through life in comfort and style, while others, even in the 1970s and 1960s (the glory days of pre-Reagan) others did shitty jobs that they hated for shitty pay and benefits, or they pounded the pavement basically begging for work.
I mean, here is some data from the glory days of 1977, shares of aggregate income by quintile - 4.4%, 10.3%, 17.0%, 24.8%, 43.6%, 16.1%.
The richest 5% got 16.1% of the income in 1977. The poorest 40% got 14.7%. The richest 20% got 43.6% of the income in 1977.
1967, which is as far back as i go shows the top 5% with 17.5% and the bottom 40% with 14.8%.
Somehow, I don't believe that the bottom 40% was just rolling in good-paying union jobs.
As for acrimony, I believe I am only asserting that $19 is not that bad for pay in this country. It is not as much as it used to be, but it is still more than many other Americans are making, and those others often have much worse benefits.
I went for many years working jobs without getting paid vacation or paid holidays or paid sick leave.
Maybe somebody should cry for that part of Argentina.