Why should one strive when one's pay isn't based on productivity anymore?
Working families have BUSTED THEIR ASSES to be more productive and what do they have to show for it?
Wages where working families get their incomes, have remained stagnant.
While median incomes have gone up...that's the rich getting their fatter slice of pie than the rest of us.
Government is the only mechanism left open for the poor and middle class to transfer wealth BACK to them since the rich have decided to keep MORE of the spoils for themselves and paid politicians well to do so. That Christie fails to recognize this only shows how utterly oblivious he is. If you don't like having government be the mechanism for this wealth transfer, perhaps you should reinstate high top tax rates which force the rich to reinvest the money that would be otherwise taxed in GROWING their business...you know...like they USED to...build factories...hire workers....that sort of silly stuff?
1. The percentage of households with real incomes higher than $50,000 increased from 24.9% in 1967 to 44.1% in 2003, and the percentage with real incomes lower than $35,000 fell from 52.8% in 1967 to 40.9% .
More On The Certain Equality Of Reaganomics - Forbes
a. “…in 1967 only one in 25 families earned an income of $100,000 or more in real income, whereas now, one in six do.
The percentage of families that have an income of more than $75,000 a year has tripled from 9% to 27%. But it's not just the rich that are getting richer. Virtually every income group has been lifted by the tide of growth in recent decades.”
Great American Dream Machine
Thus, the
middle class was growing richer, and moving up, rather than shrinking. Further, what is the basis for decrying workers having higher incomes, or, to put it another way, how can same be harmful to other workers with ‘less-skilled’ jobs?
b.”Today, the country has gone a long way toward an appearance of classlessness. Americans of all sorts are awash in luxuries that would have dazzled their grandparents. “
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/national/class/OVERVIEW-FINAL.html?pagewanted=all
2. Wage stagnation? There is the allegation that there has been little or no improvement or even a decline in the standard of living or wages or compensation of all but the top earners since 1970 or 1973. This, based on a misreading the data of the Bureau of Labor Statistics “average earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers.” This stat is not a measure of the wages of “blue collar workers,” as “nonsupervisory workers” includes physicians, lawyers, accountants, nurses, social workers, research aides, teachers, drafters, photographers, beauticians and musicians.
a. Further, average earnings reported have been heavily diluted over the years by the rise of millions of part-time employment by spouses, mothers, students, seniors, and others. Over the last 40 years, more and more have taken part-time jobs…this, in itself indicates a rise in the standard of living of Americans…but their averaging in their earnings appears to bring down the earnings of full-time workers.”… the rapid increase in part time workers is pretty stunning.”
Calculated Risk: Over 8 Million Part Time Workers
b. And, most measures of wages, earnings and income growth do not include employee benefits, such as health insurance and retirement benefits, which have become a larger share of worker compensation over the last forty years.