It's true. Since NAFTA consumers are making less and less because all the high paying jobs are being replaced by lower paying jobs.
As you can see from this chart.
It's true. Since NAFTA consumers are making less and less because all the high paying jobs are being replaced by lower paying jobs.
As you can see from this chart.
we've had this debate before, in order for that stat to be meaningful, you would have to:
- remove all government workers, because I'm only interested in how private sector workers are doing. government workers do not add to the tax base, and they have contracts with built in wage increases, their salaries never go down. I could also make the case that people who work in health care are also "part time" government workers, since so much of the $$$s spent on health care (and on their salaries) come from government (medicaid, medicare).
- I would also remove all workers making over $250K a year, I don't want to see their wage increases in those figures. The reason is that if you include them, you include the concentration effects of what is happening in industry with offshoring. When oracle sends 1000 $75K engineers from the US to India, their US executives get big bonuses, while their now unemployed US workers are likely taking lower wages. When the executives at a US furniture company send their manufacturing jobs to China, they also increase their compensation as a result, their laid off workers are working at Home Depot now. The stats mean nothing if those concentration effects are not excluded.
Show me what is happening to the stats with those two filters applied - I guarantee you that middle class private sector wages have fallen over the last 5 years.
Regarding your chart. Wages went up 60 cents in 10 years. BMFD!!!. Also notice how in the last 2 years they are leveling out and have actually gone down in the last year??? I would like to see what 2004-2005 chart shows when it comes out.
