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Productivity is misleading because it is reported by Corporations. So, for example, General Motors is an American Corporation which has moved some of its manufacturing to other countries to seucre cheaper labor. So (and I'm making these numbers up), perhaps prior to the move, the average GM laborer in the US made $20 an hour and produced X cars. When the manufacturing moved to a cheaper labor source, X cars are still manufactured but the laborere to produce it costs $10 an hour. Immediately the productivity number goes up while the benefit to the American worker has decreased. This explains how wages can remain flat despite the seemingly low unemployment rate and gains in productivity.

Sorry to butt in Newland,

Hi again DC,

Your "under-employment" example is hardly fair. Corporate outsourcing is a direct reaction to the cost of labor here due to unions.

No one in thier right mind can suppose that ANY corporation can support almost two generations in retirement and one actual working generation. Ridiculously high wages matched with health packages and retirement packages have nearly driven meaningful large corps under.

The Auto Big3 are a splendiferous example. Why is it that Toyota is making big money in the South and the Big 3 are dying in Detroit? Take a guess.

The big unions have been living a fairy tale. They've damn near killed the goose that lays the golden egg. Add in restrictive environmental regulations and OSHA and your kerplunkt. Welcome to the real world.

In my business (no longer due to illness) I bid on contracts. We loved to get in on Gvt jobs because we had to bid using Davis-Bacon wages/rates (determined by current union scale)... This results in my bid totaling THREE TIMES what it would be under normal circumstances. That means, a job I normally do for $50k costs $150k.

Now, under normal circumstances, how can the union shop possibly compete with me? They couldn't keep up w/ me on quality or performance and I was 1/3 the money.

PS, I am not off-shore, but I was one of those businesses things were getting out-sourced to, and I paid my boys better than most... in the top 5% in my industry/area.

Bruce