olly

Great article describing some causal factors in stagnating wages,,, read the article to see the parallels w FDX (huge stock buybacks, increasing dividends etc) Why salaries don?t rise - The Washington Post

highlights:
we find that the funds corporations earmarked for their own investment, research, technology and raises during the 20th century have been redirected to shareholders in the 21st, Over the past decade, more than 90 percent of Fortune 500 corporations’ net earnings have been funneled to investors…..
The power of major shareholders to appropriate corporate revenue has grown as the power of workers to win raise increases has dwindled —

…The decimation of private-sector unions has flatly eliminated the ability of large numbers of U.S. workers to bargain collectively for better pay or working conditions. But the ability of financiers to threaten the jobs of corporate managers unless they fork over more cash to shareholders has greatly increased.

At the root of our great pay stagnation is the appropriation by major investors of the funds that used to go to businesses’ research, modernization, expansion and workers. Full employment will certainly boost workers’ wages, but unless the power shift from workers to investors is reversed, the stagnant middle class we will always have with us.

Actions such as Gov Walker's right to work, and ALEC's pushing this model legislation thru other Midwestern states will further suppress wages. Hypocritical that Walker & his ilk, along with his ALEC resource sponsors now spout about helping the middle class, but their action is opposite.

Mark2792

+1!

Good post, food for thought.

FDXLAG

The legisaltion the people of Wisconsin wanted will have almost no impact on private sector union numbers, it will have tremendous impact on the public sector unions which is why the Democrats and their wapo lapdogs are squealing. Mercedes, Toyota, BMW, Hyundai, Nissan, and Subaru all employ more auoworkers in the US than they did thirty years ago. GM, Ford and Dodge all employ more in Mexico. Funny thing is they are all taking advantage of RTW to the disadvantage of states that are not RTW.

If you would like to go into big government croney capitalism reasons for the shift from investment in infrastructure and R & D to returning money to investors we can discuss that to.

FoxHunter

http://youtu.be/Y0rhuKmC0Cw

Archie has a commentary, but there is an unplanned message for today. Does anyone see it?

jungle

The Post always has a certain smell, it smells like that same old keeping the unions down theme, it really is old.

A few more facts with a more enhanced view:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014...49723138161566

Klsytakesit

Looking forward once again to the day that pilots are hired to fly airplanes and not white collar democrat and republican college boys.....

FoxHunter

Sorry Jungle, your facts happen to be false. When Mr. Boudreaux says "It is true enough that, when adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, the average hourly wage of nonsupervisory workers in America has remained about the same." He is not close to being accurate. Wages, adjusted for inflation have not remained the same. They have been reduced 30-60% over a long 40 year period. This goes for airline pilots, corporate pilots, engineers, school teachers, truck drivers, janitors, and fast food workers.

In 1966 I was a 18 year old brand new flight instructor paid $6 an hour. Today that would be $43.28 an hour. Today the the job pays less than $25 an hour. In 1974 Delta signed the first contract that paid a 747 Captain over $100,000 a year. That would be over $474,000 today. The previous YouTube link I posted was about Archie Bunker's views on equal pay for women. The man Irene is replacing was paid $6 an hour and she will only get $5.50 an hour which much to Archie's chagrin that happens to be the same pay Archie earns. The $5.50 is $31.74 today and the $6.00 is $34.62. Today a forklift operator earning $15 an hour would be one of the high paid ones.

I had a conversation with the plumber that replaced my hot water heater a couple of weeks ago. I made a comment about having a skilled trade probably good today. He said not really. He said he ran his own business for a few years, but was tied to his phone with customers that wanted the job done now, not in the morning. He talked to a number of owners of larger plumbing firms. As a master plumber with ovr 20 years experience he was offered $17.50 an hour. If you adjust that number back to 1971 it would have been $3.03 an hour.

If you watch Nick Hanauer's TED Talk about what has happened to the economy it has a different take on the issues.

http://youtu.be/bBx2Y5HhplI

Jungle, you just have to accept the fact that you and 99%+ of the population of the USA are earning 30 to 60% less than the man/woman doing the same job 40 years ago. Then if you include what has happened with pensions things really start to look bad.

jungle

So we can conclude unions have been ineffective and gov benefits are just dandy.

We might also conclude that working for or investing in a profitable enterprise is helpful to income.

Or you can wait for some mythic belief to correct things for you.

Gunter

To prove the slide in wages is a myth is tough jungle. This opinion piece doesn't really help to support that contention.

Globalization is real. It has moved slowly at times but is a steady slide over time. Our wages are coming down and the developing world is coming up, slightly. Not going to debate that or offer proof. I think you need to prove otherwise. Inflation indexes are horribly poor at telling you how much it costs to live today vs. yesterday.

jungle

The Post offers the view that corporate greed is crushing the middle class and unions can save them.
In fact we now fund an ever growing dependent class of about 90 million people in the US largely funded by those corporations.
The Post worries about profits without connecting the dots, without free enterprise there is no middle class, no unions and no chance for economic improvement.

It looks like they stumbled over the truth and ignored it yet again.
There are many easy methods to improve the economy, but we never hear The Post or the unions mention them.
Ever wonder why?