The end of the American dream?

[Truthmatters]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5303590.stm

Its a scary thought that the midlevel income number has gone down over the last five years.

 

[Truthmatters]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5303590.stm


The end of the American dream?
Analysis
By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News website



Wage growth for average workers has been stagnant

The US economy has been generating strong economic growth over the past few years as it has come out of recession.

After growing at more than 3% a year in 2004 and 2005, the pace picked up to a blistering 5.6% annual rate in the first quarter of this year - although the pace has since then slipped back to 2.9%.

So far, though, little of that growth has translated into the hands of the average worker, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

For real household incomes, the median point - the level at which half of households earn more and half less - has actually fallen over the past five years.

The unprecedented split between growth and living standards is the defining economic agenda

Jared Bernstein, Economic Policy Institute

That marks a notable contrast with the 1990s, when the economic boom boosted both jobs and incomes.

 

[Truthmatters]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5303590.stm


The end of the American dream?
Analysis
By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News website




"Where has the increase gone?

One way to comprehend what is happening is to look at the split between how much of the economy is won by profits and how much by wages.

The share allotted to corporate profits increased sharply, from 17.7% in 2000 to 20.9% in 2005, while the share going to wages has reached a record low.

Meanwhile, a large section of the workforce - the unemployed or those not seeking work - have not benefited from economic growth.

Unemployment has remained stubbornly high despite the economic recovery, with the latest figure at 4.7% compared to 4% at the end of 2000. Overall job growth in the first half of the current decade has been just 1.3%.

In the 1990s, job growth of some 12% goes some way towards explaining why prosperity in that earlier period spread down the income scale."

 

[Truthmatters]

I know the information in this article will be very hard for many to stomack but unless we face what is really happening to our country we can never change it for the better.

This is not the trend that will keep America strong and make it the kind of country we want our kids and grandkids to inherit.

 

[Toro]

This is an over-reaction.

There have been periods throughout American history when economic growth skewed to capital and other times when it skewed to labor. We are in one of those times where economic growth is biased towards the owners of capital.

But the fundamental backbone of the US economy is strong, and will be so for decades to come.

 

[Bern80]

I think it more aptly shows your complete misunderstanding of what the American Dream is.

The American Dream essentially means that given the economic and politcal make up of this country one can come here and achieve anything.

That is far different from comeing here or even being here and expecting to be given everything

the American dream isn't something that just happens to you, nor is it something that should just happen to you. A considerable amount of effort is required.

 

[JeffWartman]

I think it more aptly shows your complete misunderstanding of what the American Dream is.

The American Dream essentially means that given the economic and politcal make up of this country one can come here and achieve anything.

That is far different from comeing here or even being here and expecting to be given everything

the American dream isn't something that just happens to you, nor is it something that should just happen to you. A considerable amount of effort is required.

 

[The Man @ Lunch]

I think it more aptly shows your complete misunderstanding of what the American Dream is.

The American Dream essentially means that given the economic and politcal make up of this country one can come here and achieve anything.

And, no matter how hard you work, or how smart you are, you still can't do it without one crucial thing: luck.

Too bad so many have fallen for the lie that luck doesn't matter.

 

[Truthmatters]

Pretty sad they dont understand what Henry F ord so well understood.

You pay your people enough to make them your own customer.

You see the corporations are not "trickling down" the stuff they are supposed to be trickling down to keep our country strong.

Its not a matter of something for nothing here ,its a matter of paying your people a fair share of the profit generated by their contributions to the company.

Why do you think its great CEOs make 400 times what the average worker does?

The companys only seem to trickle up instead of down anymore.

It just blows me away how middleclass and lower Americans like you people can support swinging the wreaking ball at the middle class as if it was good for America.

 

[Annie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5303590.stm

Its a scary thought that the midlevel income number has gone down over the last five years.

Hmmm, growing in 05 and 06. So not growing perhaps in '07, 6 months into. Oh well. Why not throw in 5 years, and you wonder why you are not taken seriously?

 

[onedomino]

And, no matter how hard you work, or how smart you are, you still can't do it without one crucial thing: luck.

Too bad so many have fallen for the lie that luck doesn't matter.

There is such a thing as good fortune. But for anyone with even an average amount of capability, the idea that luck is necessary is false. That is an attitude that shifts responsibility for the outcome to someone or something else. Blaming lack of luck is an excuse. You make your own destiny. There is no such thing as fate. And it is true that the harder you work, the luckier you get.

 

[Truthmatters]

During the five years from 2000 to 2005, the US economy grew in size from $9.8 trillion to $11.2 trillion, an increase in real terms of 14%.

Productivity - the measure of the output of the economy per worker employed - grew even more strongly, by 16.6%.



But over the same period, the median family's income slid by 2.9%, in contrast to the 11.3% gain registered in the second half of the 1990s.

The wages of households of African or Hispanic origin fell even faster.

And new entrants to the labour market fared particularly badly.

Average hourly real wages for both college and high school graduates actually fell between 2000 and 2005, and fewer of the jobs they found carried benefits such as health care or company pensions.

The poor performance of the US economy in delivering fuller wage packets may be one reason why the public gives the Bush administration's such a low rating on economic policy.

Steve Schifferes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5303590.stm

 

[Truthmatters]

This thread is NOT about luck its about just compensation.

Why the fuck are the corps not sharing the profits the worker helped generated with the workers Yet they are paying the CEOs jackpots even when they screw up and leave after a year or two?

 

[Annie]

LOL, the Truthmatters thead. It's official.

 

[The Man @ Lunch]

...for anyone with even an average amount of capability, the idea that luck is necessary is false. That is an attitude that shifts responsibility for the outcome to someone or something else. Blaming lack of luck is an excuse. You make your own destiny. There is no such thing as fate. And it is true that the harder you work, the luckier you get.

Absolute nonsense.

This nation is full of smart, hard-working people who are struggling because of bad luck (and the world as a whole is worse). Unless you have $1-2 million set aside, there is NO way to protect what you've worked to earn.

You, and yes I mean you, are responsible for helping those around you who have had bad luck. Call it your civic duty, or call it "love thy neighbor;" I don't really care which you prefer. The bottom line is simply this: if you won't accept the responsibility, you're nothing more than a selfish son of a bitch.

 

[BaronVonBigmeat]

Henry Ford's comment about paying his workers enough to afford their own products was good PR, but actually he was having problems with high turnover. Repetitive brain-dead work on an assembly line is not something people naturally enjoy. He raised wages because he had to, basically.

http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1714

 

[Truthmatters]

Hmmm I guess I was right huh?

 

[syrenn]

The American Dream was rather simple

Work hard and better your life situation.
Work hard and PAY for a good education for your children.
Work hard and buy a home.


The American dream is about coming from nothing and having nothing, working hard and having a better life.
The American dream is about being a productive human being.
The American dream is about having the freedom to do and be what ever it is you want to be.


The American dream was not to live off a government hand out every month.
The American dream was not to see your tax dollars spent on the rest of the worlds problems.
The American dream was not giving up what you have earned to make life better for everyone else.
The American dream was not being an illegal but a full fledged American citizen.

 

[jeffrockit]

I think it more aptly shows your complete misunderstanding of what the American Dream is.

The American Dream essentially means that given the economic and politcal make up of this country one can come here and achieve anything.

And, no matter how hard you work, or how smart you are, you still can't do it without one crucial thing: luck.

Too bad so many have fallen for the lie that luck doesn't matter.

Complete BS. There is no substitute for brains and hard work. To infer that those who have achieved something in their lives all comes down to luck is silly and an insult to those that have sacrificed so much to earn a comfortable living. It also implies that some of those who have nothing is simply because of bad luck and not bad choices in their lives.

 

[jeffrockit]

This thread is NOT about luck its about just compensation.

Why the fuck are the corps not sharing the profits the worker helped generated with the workers Yet they are paying the CEOs jackpots even when they screw up and leave after a year or two?

That is asinine. You think that someone who made sacrifices creating a product (widget for the sake or argument) or service, spent years in college or borrowed money to get the company going, worked 100 hour weeks with no paycheck or vacation, missed out on his children growing up, should "share the wealth" with an employee that puts those widgets in a box or answers the phone or delivers the product. What have they done that compares to the guy that built it?
Liberals and their "fair share" garbage