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Wages of Stagnation
www.townhall.com ^
| Tuesday, September 26, 2006
| By Bruce Bartlett
Posted on 09/26/2006 5:20:47 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
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To: tickmeister
Get any job in the country, show up and do your best for 7 years, and your wages will likely double or more in that time. I one thought that too.
21
posted on
09/26/2006 7:43:23 AM PDT
by
lucysmom
To: hedgetrimmer
You ignore the fact that wages have deflated significantly. The cost of housing, not inlcuding interest rates, is sky high. Energy is sky high. Wealth producting industries are closed or declining. People whose wages have been cut do not have extra money for investing. Dunno where you live, but NONE of this is applicable to where I live (Des Moines/Omaha).
22
posted on
09/26/2006 7:44:42 AM PDT
by
HeartlandOfAmerica
('... we want the human rights officers, we want the Americans to come back' - Abu Ghraib Prisoner)
To: Fudd
On the other hand, some in government think we keep too much of the money we earn, and are trying hard to "rectify" the situation. Yes, and some think they can pass out tax cuts and put the difference between revenue and expenditures on the national credit card.
23
posted on
09/26/2006 7:47:41 AM PDT
by
lucysmom
To: hedgetrimmer; BillM
You ignore the fact that wages have deflated significantly. Where in the article does it say that? If this is not in the article where did you get your information from?
The cost of housing, not inlcuding interest rates, is sky high
Long term interest rates have been falling for five months and are still at historically low levels. The cost of housing takes a smaller chunk of our budget today than it did a generation ago.
Wealth producting industries are closed or declining
Is that why our household net worth is at record levels and has almost doubled during the last ten years?
People whose wages have been cut do not have extra money for investing.
Yet, the percentage of working Americans who are invested in the stock market has increased from about 25% in 1980 to almost 60% today. You should probably get some facts before posting your doom and gloom nonsense here.
24
posted on
09/26/2006 7:53:35 AM PDT
by
Mase
To: Alberta's Child
If a worker who earned $50,000 five years ago is earning $51,000 today, his "wages" have grown only 2% over that period of time and he's basically lost ground to inflation. But if his employer-paid benefits have increased from $4,000 to $8,000 in that same period of time, then he's actually earning $5,000 more today than he was back then -- a 10% increase. And it the cost of the benefit, such as health insurance, has doubled, has his compensation increased or is his increase due to inflation?
25
posted on
09/26/2006 7:54:33 AM PDT
by
lucysmom
To: lucysmom
Health care costs are increasing at a far greater rate than inflation, and for a multitude of reasons.
26
posted on
09/26/2006 8:02:31 AM PDT
by
1rudeboy
To: raybbr
I also notice how he conveniently leaves out the increases in local taxes. I'm disappointed he left out the fact that for the median family of four the Bush tax cut has increased take-home pay after taxes by about $1,450 a year.
If you can't afford the increase in your local taxes maybe you should vote with your feet.
I also can't wait for the super-capitalists who will come here and poo-poo the idea of adjusting for "real" wages
In all the debates I've seen with the doom and gloom squad over wages, real numbers are always used. What good are wage and salary numbers if they're not adjusted for inflation?
27
posted on
09/26/2006 8:02:42 AM PDT
by
Mase
To: .cnI redruM
So, if # of households is a reasonable analogy to population size, the US economy had 150,000 fewer poor people than it did last year. (Assuming a poulation of 300M)You dropped a decimal. With 300 million people (100 million households, IIRC) 0.5% is 1.5 million people or 500,000 households.
The number of rich people went up by 120,000
0.4% would be 1.2 million people or 400,000 households.
28
posted on
09/26/2006 8:04:54 AM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Goldbugs, immune to logic and allergic to facts.)
To: Mase
Poor hedgetrimmer. Math was never her strong suit. Maybe that explains her poor career prospects and sour attitude?
29
posted on
09/26/2006 8:08:25 AM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Goldbugs, immune to logic and allergic to facts.)
To: lucysmom
And it the cost of the benefit, such as health insurance, has doubled, has his compensation increased or is his increase due to inflation?If the discussion involves "real" compensation, inflation is already included so his compensation has increased.
30
posted on
09/26/2006 8:09:41 AM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Goldbugs, immune to logic and allergic to facts.)
To: A. Pole
See my tagline See my chart and then tell us why employers covering the rapidly increasing cost of benefits for their workers should not be included in the equation?
31
posted on
09/26/2006 8:12:12 AM PDT
by
Mase
To: lucysmom; tickmeister
Get any job in the country, show up and do your best for 7 years, and your wages will likely double or more in that time. While that isn't strictly true, it is true that you can increase your income within that 7 years by moving to a higher-paying job, either through promotion or by moving to another company.
Assuming you're somewhere where there's another company to work for.
32
posted on
09/26/2006 8:17:18 AM PDT
by
Oberon
(What does it take to make government shrink?)
To: Toddsterpatriot
Math was never her strong suit. I'm anticipating a quote (no link) from the E.P.I., AFL-CIO, CISPES or Media Matters any time now to support her bogus claims.
33
posted on
09/26/2006 8:18:45 AM PDT
by
Mase
To: hedgetrimmer
You ignore the fact that wages have deflated significantly. The cost of housing, not inlcuding interest rates, is sky high. Energy is sky high. When minimum wage was $1.25, regular gas was 26 cents a gallon, now minimum wage is $5.15 and regular gas is around $3.00 a gallon. A cottage that rented for $65 back then rents today for $1,200. A minimum wage worker would need to work 52 hours to pay $65 rent and 233 hours (assuming no taxes) to rent the same cottage today. A $1.25 would buy 4.8 gallons of gas contrasted with $5.15 buying 1.7 gallons of gas at $3.00 a gallon.
34
posted on
09/26/2006 9:00:12 AM PDT
by
lucysmom
To: Mase
I'm disappointed he left out the fact that for the median family of four the Bush tax cut has increased take-home pay after taxes by about $1,450 a year. For those that inflation and the tax cut has made victim of the AMT, the tax cut is far less and for some, nonexistent.
35
posted on
09/26/2006 9:05:11 AM PDT
by
lucysmom
To: .cnI redruM
Indeed, the rising cost of health benefits is a key reason for the flatness of wages. From the point of view of employers, their total labor costs have risen sharply. But all of the increase has gone into benefits, with nothing left over to raise wages. Workers may not like this fact, but accept its reality. According to the BLS, wages and salaries have fallen from 72.6 percent of total compensation in 2000 to 70 percent in June of this year. At the same time, health benefits have risen from 5.9 percent of compensation to 7.7 percent. The flip side is that there is a lot of money in the health care sector. Not just for health care workers, but the companies that make and supply medical equipment and pharmaceuticals.
36
posted on
09/26/2006 9:35:10 AM PDT
by
doc30
(Democrats are to morals what and Etch-A-Sketch is to Art.)
To: lucysmom
How does a cut in the marginal tax rate expose one to the AMT? I'm getting a sneaking suspicion that you don't know what the hell you are talking about.
37
posted on
09/26/2006 9:35:13 AM PDT
by
1rudeboy
To: lucysmom
Great anecdotes! How many people worked at the minimum then and now? Never mind, I'll go to a WalMart thread for my daily dose of anecdotes.
38
posted on
09/26/2006 9:44:21 AM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
(Goldbugs, immune to logic and allergic to facts.)
To: .cnI redruM
In other news, despite being touted as "people movers", almost no escalator in the United States has budged so much as an inch upwards from where it was installed...
To: lucysmom
Yeah, let's repeal the AMT for GWB's next round of tax cuts!
40
posted on
09/26/2006 9:53:39 AM PDT
by
.cnI redruM
(Robert Heinlein's 5 grades of coffee: Java, Cafe, Jamocha, Joe, Carbon Remover)
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