Reich: Higher Wages Aren't Coming Back, and Here's Why

We have them -- DAMN rare in our business -- but it's a major part of why I've stayed, even for offers of far more lucrative salaries in other cities. It does inspire some loyalty.

 

That's fine. If you want to say things are tougher for many people than they were during those five decades, you at least have an argument. But Ragu brought up the "Depression" word, which for most people means something a hell of a lot different than the video he linked. I simply took issue with that. And I probably will until the day comes when there AREN'T millions of people standing in lines waiting to buy the latest Apple gadget.

Of course, my dad, a 40-year federal government worker, SOLD most of his vacation time when we were kids simply to make ends meet. So maybe I don't recall the 60s and early 70s quite as bountifully as you do.

 

Are those the same people who don't have enough for food, shelter and clothing? Or is "Apple gadget" the new "welfare queen"?

We have two economies. There's one for people who are making $100,000 or more. Their incomes go up, they get stock, they do fine. The other economy is for everybody else who falls further and further away from what middle class used to be. That's the point of what Reich is saying -- the incomes of those folks are depressed by the fact that industry can keep playing them against each other.

We used to call it labor, skilled or unskilled. It was enough to provide a lifestyle. That level doesn't exist anymore.

 

I agree with everything you say, but as to your first point, unfortunately some of them ARE the same people. BTE has a point, but I think the income divide is a much bigger issue.

 

Boy the way Glen Miller played
Songs that made the hit parade.
Guys like us we had it made,
Those were the days.

And you knew who you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men,
Mister we could use a man
Like Herbert Hoover again.

Didn't need no welfare state,
Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee our old LaSalle ran great.
Those were the days.

source: All in the Family Lyrics - Theme Song Lyrics

 

Well played !

 

The rise of echnology and a global economy are the biggest factors, overall, but the 30-year war on collective bargaining rights has also taken a huge toll on the middle class.

The Erosion of Collective Bargaining Has Widened the Gap Between Productivity and Pay | Economic Policy Institute

 

China was comatose when our dads were working. Eastern Europe might as well have been. India, too.

It's a different landscape now. This IS the "new normal". And instead of gnashing our teeth about how much better things used to be, just be glad that much of the world allowed it to be like that for so long. Gave us a nice head start on a lot of things. Frankly, the party lasted a hell of a lot longer than it should have. Good news is, it can still continue for those who make themselves indispensable to their employers. It's never been easier to learn new things.

 

The original dream was prosperity for all.
Hard to attain, but USA is going backward again.

 

Good take. I will file this away with your theory that newspapers are no worse off now for employees than they were in the 1980s.

Yes, that's it. Lazy goldbricking workers aren't living up to their employers' expectations, that's why we have a middle class that is stagnating or falling behind while the upper class gets richer every year.

 

Appealing to Keynes as an authority in the same thread that you huff about deficit spending is rich.