Posted on 06/09/2021 6:12:55 PM PDT by blam
Ok, where is the wage inflation? I don’t see it....
Charles Hugh Smith is one of the smartest folks in the room.
He is an expert on systemic issues with the economy—always worth a read.
Quick summary of his view:
Late stage empires create huge bureaucracies that strangle their economies by creating monopolies. Then momentum keeps them muddling through for a while—until the collapse.
The wage inflation hits the lowest cost areas first—in the case of a worldwide economy we are talking China and other Asian low cost producers.
By the time it gets to Europe and here (high cost producers) the inflation rate will already have gotten out of hand.
Good article. I work in manufacturing. I only work for mid size companies. Publicly traded companies only care to please the share holder. Employee relations and quality is the first thing to go.
2,000 dollar signing bonuses everywhere you look for one.
What is the point of this screed?
We are so screwed.
The real problem to me is that you can’t buy quality goods (furniture for an example) at any price.
I am 71 years old. I have the maple bedroom set my parents bought for $49 at Macy’s in 1947 when they got married.
It’s the best furniture I own. I’ve sanded and refinished it once.
When I entered the workforce, the minimum wage in California was $1.65.
One Dollar and sixty five cents per hour.
.
Are you really that stupid? This is a put on, right? Can you adjust for inflation???
This inflation hype is really overdone. Food and fuel, yes, but not labor, especially because Biden is opening the immigration and H!-B floodgates, which will suppress wages.
I don't see one. Navel gazing at its worse...
Using this definition it isn’t clear to me that we’ve seen any inflation over the last generation.
If standard of living is used as a proxy for purchasing power I’d say we’re doing pretty well in the material sense.
Every public policy initiative over the last 30 years has been to reduce wages and earning power of US workers. This is leads to economic insecurity and a rush to bigger government.
A couple hundred years ago, craftsmen were fairly rare and revered. The Mayflower brought a Cooper with them aka barrel maker but more generally, a bad ass with wood. One hundred, craftsmen were plentiful and could make a good living. Henry Ford broke processes down to repetitive tasks so he could hire less talented people for less money and end up with a more consistent product that could be mass produced for that day and age and it all went downhill from there.
I worked for 25 years building electric signs in Ctrl FL with a lot of them going to places like Disney and Universal Studios. Electric sign fab is still a craft and I knew spray painting well enough to paint cars, welding, wiring, installation and there was some artistic aspects yet the pay wasn’t much better than a welder or spray painter etc because the price had been reset for blue collar, period.
I believe the point is: “We’re royally screwed and there is nothing we can do about it”.
“Publicly traded companies only care to please the share holder.”
I worked in sales support in a number of public companies. The effort to hit revenue, bookings, and profit goals each quarter was incredibly intense...right down to midnight on the last day of the quarter. Nothing else mattered.
Of course, pleasing the company owners was a high priority mission.
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