Another year, another wage loss

[Amelia]

Another year, another wage loss

By Robert Kuttner

The Boston Globe

September 2, 2006

LABOR DAY was created by the machinists union in New York in 1882 as a ``workingmen's holiday." Unions all over America adopted the idea. By 1894, Congress passed legislation making Labor Day an official holiday. The day also celebrated the act of organizing, politically and in the workplace, to improve livelihoods and lives.

Today, the politics have largely been leached out of it. Labor Day is a long weekend that marks summer's end.

And that extra day of rest is needed more than ever. Government statistics show that the typical family works about 500 more hours a year than families did 30 years ago, because it takes two incomes to make it. Even so, family incomes are failing to keep pace with the cost of living.

This past week, these items have been in the news:

The Census Bureau reported that median incomes for working-age families were down again, for the fifth straight year. Real median income for households under age 65 is down by 5.4 percent since 2000, even though the economy has grown every year. All of that gain has gone to upper-bracket people and corporate profits.

The Pew Research Center released an extensive survey on public attitudes about the economy. Pew reported, ``The public thinks that workers were better off a generation ago on every key dimension of worker life -- be it wages, benefits, retirement plans, on-the-job stress, the loyalty they are shown by employers." And, statistically, the public is right.

The Globe recently reported that chief executives of nonprofit hospitals now routinely make more than $1 million. University presidents are not far behind.

The Economic Policy Institute (on whose board I serve) has released its annual, encyclopedic report, ``The State of Working America." Among its findings: The economy's productivity increased by a remarkable 33.5 percent between 1995 and 2005, but real wages have declined since 2000. Employer-provided health coverage declined from 69 percent in 1979 to 56 percent in 2004. The top 1 percent's share of interest, dividends, and capital gains has risen from 37.8 percent in 1979 to 57.5 percent in 2003.

Politically, it's evident what is occurring. Those in a position to capture astronomical incomes are awarding themselves an ever-larger share of the national economic pie. Meanwhile, ordinary incomes, job security, health security, and retirement security are eroding.

The political mystery is why everyone else is not kicking up a fuss. After all, as the Pew report suggests, it's not as if people are unaware of what's happening. Here's a clue to some of the puzzle: Polls show that people do want more reliable wages, pensions, and health insurance. But too many people have given up on the idea that the political process can be used to restore the American dream.

Theda Skocpol, author of several books of social history, tells of interviewing a hard-pressed woman with small children and a low-wage job. Her only social support was that her mother-in-law -- the children's grandmother -- looked after her children while she worked. As Skocpol observes, this was possible only because Social Security enabled the grandmother not to have to work herself.

Skocpol asked the woman whether she thought there was anything government might do to improve her economic circumstances. The woman replied, ``Nothing they do there ever makes a difference for people like me."

But that was not always so. Social Security, Medicare, college aid, the GI Bill, government wage-and-hour laws, and government protection of the right to unionize made a real difference in people's lives.

These policies, which benefited the vast middle class (and helped to create it), did not just happen. They were the result of political organizing and a public awareness that government could affect the economic opportunity and security of ordinary Americans, for better or worse.

It's understandable why politics today is often a turnoff. But if a great many middle-class and poor Americans have given up on politics, you can be sure that the economic elite is invested in politics as never before. The changes in the tax code and regulatory laws and workplace practices that benefit America's super-rich did not just happen, either. They are the result of relentless maneuvering by the financial elite and its political allies.

So this Labor Day, at the beach or in town, we suffer not just from reduced economic opportunity but diminished political imagination. You can ignore politics, but you can't escape it. So we might as well reclaim democracy to benefit the many rather than the few.

[Dr. Shane]

The Boston Globe is such a liberal-slanted newspaper it is hard to lend them credibility. It is like the kids the cry wolf, one just doesn't know if they can place any trust in what they print.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

Government statistics show that the typical family works about 500 more hours a year than families did 30 years ago, because it takes two incomes to make it.

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I doubt this is true in most circumstances. What has changed is our lifestyles and the cost of real estate in many cities. Most families can live off one income if the choose a more humble lifestyle and to live in a city with reasonably priced real estate.

[Naomi]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

Shane said:

The Boston Globe is such a liberal-slanted newspaper it is hard to lend them credibility. It is like the kids the cry wolf, one just doesn't know if they can place any trust in what they print.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

Government statistics show that the typical family works about 500 more hours a year than families did 30 years ago, because it takes two incomes to make it.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

I doubt this is true in most circumstances. What has changed is our lifestyles and the cost of real estate in many cities. Most families can live off one income if the choose a more humble lifestyle and to live in a city with reasonably priced real estate.

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

Shane,

I must question your statement. Having relocated to an area with reasonably priced real estate, having no children and no debts. Without some form of government assistance, of which I am not a believer in receiving, it is still difficult to live on one ... average income.

Tithe, offerings, utilities, health insurance, perscription costs, food, gasoline, auto and home owners insurance, home and auto maintenance and taxes leave nothing ... not one red cent .

I know families who have children in school; church and public. Schools in the humble areas and in more expensive areas.

In the lower grades you can get by with dressing them in 'ordinary clothing' They become outcast in mid-school and high school if they do not dress and have things like the other kids. I don't think that has changed in the past 100 years nor is it likely change. Kids and kids.

Then there is the problem of employment in the areas with reasonably priced real estate ... usually employment is limited and the pay scale is less.

If you drive farther for a better paying job you are away from your family more hours, fuel and auto expense increases.

That is one reason that housing is more expensive in many heavily populated areas.

Ofcourse, most cities have areas less expensive in which one can live. Then you have to be aware of gangs, drugs being sold on your street, drive-by shootings, your children unable to play in their own yards, and schools infected with the desease of the century ... undisciplined, youth raised with the tv and internet as a nanny.

[there buster]

It's always interesting to look at the actual facts.

For example:

U.S. census data on median income

Here we find that median income has risen steadily for the last six years for which data are available.

Looking throughout his op-ed piece, we seek in vain for an actual number -- the actual amount that is the median income.

The census data I cited indicates its $65,093 for the last year available.

Then there's the whole matter of the median which is determined by the middle number in a ranked array:

1 2 4 6 9 11 15 17 19

In that array, '9' is the median.

There are just as many households above the median as below it. With the millions of illegal immigrants arriving every year, and representing households with lower incomes, it must mean that for legal residents the median would actually be increasing significantly.

We could go on and on about Mr. Kuttner's sleight-of-hand.

He can't understand why everyone else is "not kicking up a fuss." That's because he's got it wrong.

A similar analysis went into a book called, "What's Wrong With Kansas?" Asking why Kansas votes Republican when it's supposedly been hurt by Republican policies.

As it turned out, Kansas has experienced significant economic growth, and has actually benefitted. So the author's question is answered. Nothing's wrong with Kansas, Kansas is voting wisely.

And the answer to Mr. Kuttner is the same. Everyone else is not kicking up a fuss--to use his words--because they know their situation better than he does.

[Parade Orange]

I live by myself with a cat.

I live in an apartment on the wrong side of town.

I drive an old old station wagon with no heat or cooling agent. I have no fan.

Everything is electronic.

I cant lock my doors and the electric window is stubborn in closing.

My car has been broken into 3 times in the last year.

I dont know what they are looking for. My gobs of mulah is under the matress not in my glove compartment.

I am a diabetic. My mom was diagnosed type 1 when I was a kid. She was 30. My sis is type 1 also. She was diagnosed when she hit 30.

The only money I owe is to the doctors and hospitals. I cant afford test strips. My doc wont see me untill I pay my outstanding bill. Anyhoo..

I have health insurance that dont pay anything. 2500 deductable ( a year!). 10% off prescriptions. And I pay the cost of lab mostly.

so much for my health insurance.

I get paid every two weeks. much less than 600 every two weeks.

Rent is half a months paycheck.

Tithe

offerings

Phone

PGE

gas

medicine

food

clothes

entertainment

gifts

cards

anytime u step out it seems.

and when I have car trouble or miss a day or two or more(No I have no sick days-welcome to my world)

This is so depressing.

[singing to one self] 'look on the sunny side of life' whistleing blissfully.

I understand what the first article says. And people wonder why I am not turned on by the powers that be?

walk in my shoes.

Have your 22 year old son calling his father cause his mother wrecked the car and they needed $1000 deductable to have the car repaired. And I had to tell my son I had no money for him. I had no money. I am suppossed to be there for him and I wasnt when they were in dire straights.

Nothing to brag about!

I better stop typing.

I didnt come to the key board to do this.