Wage erosion cuts deeper in U.S.

[flashl]

Source: IHT

...

The $20 hourly wage, introduced on a huge scale in the middle of the last century, allowed masses of Americans with no more than a high school education to rise to the middle class. It was a marker, of sorts, but it is becoming extinct.

Americans greeted the loss with anger and protest when it first began to happen in big numbers in the late 1970s, particularly in the steel industry in western Pennsylvania. But as layoffs persisted, in Pennsylvania and across the country, through the '80s and '90s and right up to today, the protests subsided and acquiescence set in.

Hourly workers had come a long way from the days when employers and unions negotiated a way for them to earn the prizes of the middle class - houses, cars, college educations for their children, comfortable retirements. Even now a residual of that golden age remains, notably in the auto industry. But there, too, wages are falling below the $20-an-hour threshold - $41,600 annually - that many experts consider the minimum income necessary to lift a family of four into the middle class.

...

"The most important model that rolled off the Detroit assembly lines in the 20th century," said Harley Shaiken, a labor economist at the University of California at Berkeley, "was the middle class for blue-collar workers."

IHT

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/20/business/wage.php

---

A good point, results from 'wage erosion' plus protracted downsizing, rightsizing, and outsourcing, to increase profits, defeat claims that 'only if' Americans' had more education their lifestyles would improve.

IF higher education IS the answer. No one seem to be paying attention to, 'the gap', that suppose to resolve itself in a 'few years'. Colleges are reporting difficulties to meet the high volumes of high school graduates applications. How will 'the system' accommodate or absorb the Americans within 'the gap'?

[gatorboy]

1. This was the beauty of America at one time.

That you could still live comfortably without having to get a higher education. The work was hard, yes. But you still had a chance to improve your life and to make a better one for your children. Those days seem to be over. :(

[Itchinjim]

2. It's been my experience with co-workers and friends that

when they were making $20 an hour too many of them started thinking of themselves as Republicans and started voting against their own best interests. Look no further than the so called "Reagan Democrats"

[Lorien]

6. $20 an hour? That's lower middle class now. Were they voting that way

because they were struggling? If so, that hardly makes sense. I've had plenty of friends (myself included) who went from lower middle class incomes to six figure incomes (some seven figures) and no one changed their politics because of it. I did know one woman, though, who lost her job and six figure income who then joined a Baptist church and became a repug because everyone there was one too. The church caters to the wealthy, so I guess that she thought she could regain her social status just by being in the company of those who had what she wanted. She was very status conscience to begin with, so none of it was a surprise.

[Winterblues]

11. Then there is the Teamster's Union

They decided to vote Republican to try and get ANWR opened up where they thought they would cut a fat hog. When a major Union goes against the Democratic Party then Propaganda (FOX) has definitely prevailed...

[xchrom]

3. recommend.

with all the different jobs i've worked -- since bush 1 -- the only time i had a significan pay rise was during the clinto years -- other wise my wages have been stagnant -- same amount no matter where i work.

i'm a retail worker -- so i'm sure there are others who know the experience.

[Lorien]

7. I had a huge pay raise during the Clinton years

went from $38,000 a year to $!50,000 -but BushCo sent much of my work overseas and left hundreds of my coworkers unemployed, so now I make less than 50k a year. That's the story the media ISN'T telling; that wages aren't only stagnant for much of America, they are dropping. There are probably far more "undere-mployed" people in the US than unemployed, and they aren't counted.

[izquierdista]

4. "The system"........is dysfunctional

"You can't have an economy heavily invested in tradable goods and services that is completely oblivious to global wages."

Which is a good observation. The answer to this observation is not to be heavily invested in tradable goods. There is no need to import floor tile from China and olive oil from Spain. There are plenty of clays and olive trees in North America that hauling these across the oceans is not only unnecessary, it is a waste of environmental resources to do so. There are two different kinds of trade; exchange of goods unique to one area, which can be rationalized, and exploitation trade which has no rationale, except to take advantage of the poor in one area by taking their goods at an unfairly low price.

Right now, Chinese workers are very poor when it comes to control of their own destinies, so Wal-Mart and others take advantage of them as mediated by the Chinese factory owners and government. When they have had enough and an armed revolt throws out their upper class, then exploitation trade can be shut down.

It works the other way too. When American workers tire of being on the receiving end of exploitation trade and have no wealth except piles of worthless crap, they too, can throw out the upper classes and shut down exploitative trade.

[OKthatsIT]

13. In other words...END the WTO

bad policies, bad for our health and welfare in every regard.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. K&R

[Kelvin Mace]

8. I did a study of the minimum wage and its buying power

based on 1978 and 2008. Interesting reading:

http://thoughtcrimes.org/s9/index.php?/archives/2377-Are-you-better-off-now-than-you-were-30-years-ago.html

[maxsolomon]

9. that "Golden Age" of the middle class is a historical anomaly

the american plutocracy's design will return wealth distribution to that of the late 1800s. same as it has always been.

why do you think Bush was installed anyway?

[OhioChick]

10. Kick

:kick:

[Supersedeas]

12. nothing to see here -- feed them more Business Bimbos with their finger on exports