Posted on 07/31/2005 7:43:44 AM PDT by Willie Green
Incomes are growing smartly for the first time in years, spurring unexpectedly robust spending by consumers. The revival, however, is mainly among top earners who receive stocks, bonuses and other income in addition to wages.
The nearly 80 percent of Americans who rely mostly on hourly wages barely maintained their purchasing power, according to the Labor Department. Raises have been meager, averaging about 2.7 percent in the past year -- a tad above the 2.5 percent inflation rate.
Incomes are up a more robust 7.5 percent when bonuses, stock compensation, commissions and other wage supplements are added, according to the Commerce Department.
Most of the boost, though, is felt by those at the top end of the income scale.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan expressed concern in testimony earlier this month about the disparity between wage-earners and high-income executives and professionals, which by some measures is the biggest in the United States since the Roaring '20s.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Here we go again -- more class envy, more liberal divide-and-conquer. Barf.
NAFTA, GATT, and CAFTA anyone?
The "income gap" is the biggest bunch of hooey since the Single Tax Movement. As the economy expands, the right-hand edge of the bell curve of incomes naturally gets farther away from the left-hand end. This is usually thought to be a _good_ thing.
Don't feel bad - the wage gap between men and women is still big too!
We have cheap, illegal labor bringing the lower wages down to an all-time low. In many cases, the wages fall below the legal minimum wage, automatically displacing legal citizens from an opportunity to fill those jobs.
As low and lower-middle class citizens realize lower salaries, they also realize lower purchasing power. They buy less. They spend less. That effects the rest of the economy, except, where you bring in enough lower class citizens (AKA, illegals) to fill the void with pure numbers.
I was listening to a show the other day complaining abuot the $300/month the average illegal alien sends back to Mexico to their family. That $300 comes straight out of the US Economy. Local goods and services will not be purchased, for the most part. But, let's think about what will be purchased.
Wal-Mart goodies come to mind. I'm not a Wal-Mart hater. Don't get me wrong. When it comes to Latin American expansion, Wal-Mart is the model. Just look at their investment portfolio and growth over the past decade.
So if wages decrease at the bottom and in the lower-middle in Amerca, and $300/month goes back to Mexico, and that money is used to buy basic, subsistence goods like thsoe produced by Wal-Mart or a Proctor and Gamble, I would think the situation I've outlined would foster the kind of bonus and stock compensation mentioned in this article.
In other words, it makes perfect sense to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be about class envy or warfare. It could be the reality of the economic shift we are seeing as our politicians continue to ignore the border and exploit cheap labor. Some "class" of Americans is undoubtedly going to be far less classy. The money has to be sucked from somewhere.
Well the GOP isn't going to make much headway in '06 or '08 if they keep undermining 80% of Americans for the benefit of the upper crust.
When voters start paying attention.
Since we'll always have the poor among us, a widening gap between rich and poor is a good thing.
When will these idiots admit that when incomes narrow between the rich and the poor, we're all in trouble?
The "have nots" ALWAYS notice the prosperity of the "haves".
It's human nature.
The thing that is missing from this article is that one's worth shouldn't be compared to the worth of another. This isn't a keep up with the jones's type issue.
Let's look at the poor's standard of living. I'm not talking about the homeless that want to be poor either. i'm talking about those with kids and making about $28K and trying to make an honest living and not waste it on alcohol and cigs. They have cable TV and place to sleep and a good family life (typically). And they too have opportunities to improve because they see the light at the end of the tunnel.
It could be the reality of the economic shift we are seeing as our politicians continue to ignore the border and exploit cheap labor.
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There is NO RATIONALE for what Washington is "DOING" by deliberately avoiding closing our borders. None. It is destroying our soverignty, our system of laws, the Constitutional duties of Washington AND THE PRESIDENT, making a mockery of U.S. citizenship, the national security integrity, placing a huge tax dollar burden on the public, and the list goes on. Every fundamental building block of America is being ripped up and ignored for whatever purpose (and we all have our opinions) Washington is doing this to our country.
The price being paid FAR EXCEEDS ANY BENEFIT.
Everybody knows the hard-working, honest family man has been stuck in a subsistence wage for decades while the CEOs with their profligate lifestyles just keep buying yachts and mansions and keep getting the deeds to family homes handed over to them by city councils so they can build shopping malls and condominiums.
A rising tide lifts all boats.
But it sounds like you'd prefer a low tide so the big boats will get grounded. Thereby making yourself feel better because now your neighbor doesn't have a big boat.
Haa, haa... I remember our conversations four or five years ago when I tried to explain to you that the ecomony was coming out of the recession. It was an impossible task.
You were all doom and gloom and facts meant nothing. This morning I look up and you're still marred in the thought that the ecomony stinks? You are persistant to say the least and life must be misable.
All I got to say is put on a happy face; the glass is half full. Not visa-versa.
This is from the Wash Times, not Post. When I look at CEO and board management bonuses pegged to how many jobs they can eliminate of shift offshore, I am tending to agree.
See post #6. The "benefits for the rich" have nothing to do with the 'Pubbies' election chances (realistically,) but the ruin of the middle and lower socioeconomic strata due to millions of illegal aliens will doom conservatism and the U.S.
A rising tide lifts all ships.
The rich getting richer has never bothered me. Someone having "more" has never meant that I have "less." I'm lower middle class and I have all I could ever hope to have in this great nation; A home, a family, a garden, my own business, an education, and having had the opportunity to serve my country in the military. Hell, yes! I've had a GREAT life so far and it's only getting better!
I WANT rich people in this country to keep getting richer. They pay the brunt of our taxes and keeping the economy cooking by creating jobs for those of us lower on the food chain. They invent stuff to make my life richer. They are the Movers and Shakers. They should be handily rewarded for their efforts.
Rich people don't bother me one tiny little bit, with the exception of maybe the Heinz/Kerry family and of course those Kennedy's. But my ire for them comes from their morals and how they've squandered their fortunes promoting socialism.
I hope to be a rich person one day. That's more than possible in American, moreso than anywhere else on Earth. Ain't that cool? ;)
Exactly.
If one guy makes $30,000 per year and the other guy makes $40,000 per year, the "income gap" is $10,000.
If you double the income of both men, the income becomes $60,000 per year and $80,000 per year respectively and the "income gap" increases to $20,000.
The liberal envy regarding the "income gap" reminds me of an old Russian joke.
A certain Russian farmer was extremely bitter that his neighbor had a dairy cow and he did not.
As he was a hard-working man, his guardian angel came down to him and offered him one wish so that he would not be so bitter about this matter and could thereby have a happier life.
"One wish? Really? Anything I want to solve this injustce?", asked the Russian farmer.
"Yes", replied his guardian angel, "Whatever solution to this matter that you desire."
The Russian farmer gleefully wished "Kill my neighbor's cow!"
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