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http://americaneconomicalert.org/view_art.asp?Prod_ID=1177
Some excerpts:
"The facts are beyond dispute except among Washingtons bought and paid for globalization cheerleaders. Adjusted for inflation, total U.S. private sector wages peaked at $8.62 per hour (measured in 1982 dollars), in April, 1978 scant years after the great opening of the U.S. economy to imports began in earnest. Real manufacturing wages peaked at roughly the same time, at $8.97 per hour. (We wont bother with public sector wages because theyre not directly set by the market.)
Since these peaks, real private sector wages have fallen 4.4 percent a performance previously unheard of in American history. And manufacturing wages, which are most affected by international competition, have fallen 5.6 percent. Worse, even though the economy has technically been recovering from the last recession for nearly three years, real private sector wages during this period are up only 0.4 percent, and real manufacturing wages are up only 1.4 percent.
More disturbing, signs keep appearing that the link between work and economic viability is growing weaker in America. Last months announcement that the official national poverty rate had risen in 2003 for the third straight year, to 12.5 percent, attracted deserved attention. At least as important, however, is the large and growing number of impoverished Americans who are working Americans. One in every four working Americans today earns less than $8.70 per hour (in 2004 dollars) the effective federal poverty-level wage. As social policy analyst Beth Shulman wrote on Labor Day in the Washington Post, this trend undermines our most fundamental [national] ideal: that if you work hard, you can support yourself and your family."
"It should be obvious to everyone why stagnant and falling incomes will doom the opportunity society. Tax cuts will only marginally help workers who earn increasingly meager wages and, therefore, have less and less taxable income to begin with to cut and transfer to private health and retirement accounts. The idea that these workers will be able to buy a business or a home after tax cuts is downright moronic. Tax cuts will be equally pointless for workers deciding among job training programs if the economy keeps losing job opportunities that can pay a living wage."
Some excerpts:
"The facts are beyond dispute except among Washingtons bought and paid for globalization cheerleaders. Adjusted for inflation, total U.S. private sector wages peaked at $8.62 per hour (measured in 1982 dollars), in April, 1978 scant years after the great opening of the U.S. economy to imports began in earnest. Real manufacturing wages peaked at roughly the same time, at $8.97 per hour. (We wont bother with public sector wages because theyre not directly set by the market.)
Since these peaks, real private sector wages have fallen 4.4 percent a performance previously unheard of in American history. And manufacturing wages, which are most affected by international competition, have fallen 5.6 percent. Worse, even though the economy has technically been recovering from the last recession for nearly three years, real private sector wages during this period are up only 0.4 percent, and real manufacturing wages are up only 1.4 percent.
More disturbing, signs keep appearing that the link between work and economic viability is growing weaker in America. Last months announcement that the official national poverty rate had risen in 2003 for the third straight year, to 12.5 percent, attracted deserved attention. At least as important, however, is the large and growing number of impoverished Americans who are working Americans. One in every four working Americans today earns less than $8.70 per hour (in 2004 dollars) the effective federal poverty-level wage. As social policy analyst Beth Shulman wrote on Labor Day in the Washington Post, this trend undermines our most fundamental [national] ideal: that if you work hard, you can support yourself and your family."
"It should be obvious to everyone why stagnant and falling incomes will doom the opportunity society. Tax cuts will only marginally help workers who earn increasingly meager wages and, therefore, have less and less taxable income to begin with to cut and transfer to private health and retirement accounts. The idea that these workers will be able to buy a business or a home after tax cuts is downright moronic. Tax cuts will be equally pointless for workers deciding among job training programs if the economy keeps losing job opportunities that can pay a living wage."
