Incredible Shrinking Workers’ Income

[luke]

Incredible Shrinking Workers’ Income



Workers’ share of U.S, national income is collapsing.

Two questions for the Republican presidential candidates:

1) Is this a problem?

2) If yes, what can be done about it?

http://www.frumforum.com/incredible-shrinking-workers-income

strange that david frum even needs to ask if this is a problem! maybe he should have addressed the issue when he was writing speeches for bush!

while this is going on, the richest are getting even richer;



seems to me that the system is working exactly how those in power want it to work - maybe thats why frum has to ask if its a problem, and maybe its only really problem because people might realise they're getting screwed





Workers’ share of national income plummets to record low

Over the last decade, the share of U.S. national income taken home by workers has plummeted to a record low.

Check out the chart ( top ), compiled by the Labor Department, and posted this week by conservative writer David Frum. It shows that the decline began with the brief recession that followed 9/11 in 2001. But it continued even as the economy picked up again, and got even worse once the Great Recession hit. In the weak recovery since then, workers' share of income just kept on falling.

Why are workers taking home such a reduced share of the pie? Opinions differ, but many experts think that the trend has to do with a number of factors, including a decline in the bargaining power of labor, and increased competition from foreign workers. Similarly, over the last year or so, U.S. companies have made record profits, while unemployment has stayed high and wages have barely risen.

The chart jibes with other data, which show that since the 1980s, income for the richest 1 percent of Americans has exploded, while hardly budging at all for everyone else.

Still, there's little sense that either Obama administration or Congress plan to do much about this growing inequality. Indeed, any serious action to boost the economy and cut unemployment now seems to be off the table.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110614/bs_yblog_thelookout/workers-share-of-national-income-plummets-to-record-low

so, couchtrippers, is this a problem? and if so, what should be done about it?

[major.tom]

I think that this graph is the most telling:



This says that before tax income has stayed flat for the bottom 80% of workers. After tax, their income has actually declined since 1979. This clearly shows that despite the rich getting richer, they are, in fact, contributing less than their fair share, a disparity that is being taken from the bottom 80% of earners.

Anyone paying attention to politics and current events such as tax cuts (for the rich), corporate tax rate decreases and gov't sticking its nose into labour disputes through back-to-work legislation or removing workers' right to collectively bargain will not be surprised by this.

Since gov't seems uninterested in remedying this, whether through lack of will or loyalty to lobbyists and campaign contributors, the only solution is to throw out the lot of them and elect true representatives. Tax revolts, public protests, letter-writing campaigns and gov't lobbying have questionable results. (Though I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from pursuing them.)

Our own recent election in which 40% of Canadians handed a majority of seats to Harper's Cons shows that our electoral system is woefully flawed, effectively rigged against us. But at least we're not alone. The U.S. get to choose between 2 parties with little if any difference between them on anything of importance.

Perhaps we need an Arab Spring.

[Bradley]

I wonder if there is a graph that shows politician's share of the national income.....

Here in the UK, many of the cabinet are millionaires and keep saying that "we are all in this together" when referring to the recesssion and then they wonder why people don't believe them!