Some fun facts about the American worker and what
WE are up against:
1. American workers are
the most productive workers in the world;
2. Average inflation-adjusted wages today are only 15% higher than in 1980, despite a
67% increase in productivity;
3. Employees’ pay declined to 51.6% of national income, from the previous low of 52.4% in both 2005 and 2004, according the CBPP’s analysis of federal government data. Small percentage declines can make a big difference because each one-tenth of 1 percent amounts to $117 billion in national income, CBPP said. In contrast, corporate profits’ share of national income has increased sharply each year since the 2001 recession, when they bottomed out at 8.5 percent, and hit 13.8 percent in 2006, matching the record high set in 1942.
4. Since 1960, the average federal tax rates for middle-income households have increased and then declined modestly. Over the same period, high-income households saw sharp drops in their federal tax rates. As a result, writes the CBPP:
the share of the nation’s total income going to the top 1 percent of households jumped from 8.4 percent in 1970 to 19.3 percent in 2005, an increase of 10.8 percentage points. In 2005 terms, that increase works out to about $550,000 more in income per household for those in the top 1 percent. In other words, households in this income group received an average of about $550,000 more in income in 2005 than they would have if the group’s share of national had remained constant since 1970. 5. Of the slightly less than $2.7 trillion the federal government spent in fiscal year 2006, some 21 percent of the budget, or $557 billion, went to pay for defense, homeland security and security-related international activities. Another 21 percent of the budget, or $549 billion, went to Social Security, which provided retirement benefits averaging $964 per month to 34 million retired workers (and dependents of retirees) in the last month of fiscal year 2006. Meanwhile, social safety net programs—such as unemployment insurance, child care assistance and low-income housing—made up only 9 percent of the budget hardship.
6. While U.S. workers are feeling the pain of a decline in compensation and decreasing share of the national budget pie, those with jobs have even more to fear: Under the Bush corporate-greed economy, nearly any worker in the United States also faces the same risks as the 3,400 Circuit City workers laid off because they are being paid too much and the 17,000 Citigroup workers, professional employees who are seeing their presumably safe jobs shipped overseas.
Now, I know I am stepping out of subject here, and I apologize for it, but I must say what I have in mind. It's not the American worker who is fucking up the economy, WE ARE THE FUCKING ECONOMY! All we have to do is look at income disparity graphs, JUST ONE GRAPH, and you tell me, with a straight face, that it's the unions who are fucking up the economy. I'm not asking you to trust my word, reasearch it yourself, just one graph please.
The productivity vs wages relationship:
Union activity is not anywhere close to what it used to be back in the 20s to the 50s. You connect the dots.
Warning: The disconect between productivity and wages is now so large that even though you may be getting paid more than your father did, in real terms, meaning time vs compensation, you are getting paid a lot less than your dad did. Furthermore, the cost of living has gone up dramatically, so in essence, again, in REAL TERMS, we are, as a whole, making less money.
