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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Bush economy

No surprise, just confirmation.
With the economy beginning to slow, the current expansion has a chance to become the first sustained period of economic growth since World War II that fails to offer a prolonged increase in real wages for most workers.....

As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s.

posted by mikevotes at 9:30 PM

6 Comments:

  • Man, each succeeding paragraph in this article gets more and more depressing. Even the 90th percentile of workers (those making $80,000 a year) haven't kept pace with inflation the last three years, so you can imagine what has happened to everybody else under them. Productivity up 16.6% from 2000 to 2005, total compensation for the median worker up just 7.2%. It's the "golden era of profitability." Yeah, for the top 10%.

    I don't understand why middle america isn't more upset by this. The Ruling Grand Old Party enabled this class warfare against the middle and working classes and yet the stupid fuckers keeping voting them in.

    By Blogger Reality-Based Educator, at 10:38 PM  

  • Since America is a classless society there is no reason to begrudge the wealthiest Americans their tremendous fortunes. Due to the grace of gawd they have had fortune shine down on them and they have been rewarded materially for their superiority.

    If we want to be wealthy we simply must put our best foot forward, pray and hope.

    At least that's the way the propaganda goes out here in the 'heartland'.

    Ironically farmers have been the largest bunch of whining welfare queens that have ever existed. They are always wanting the government off their back and then scream and scream for a bailout when they have a bad year. These are the ones that vote GOP year after year. Call them what you will but I find hypocritical asshole much more 'fitting'.

    In 1982 my dad was laid off and it's the same year that farmers in Iowa had overextended themselves on credit because they were f**king clueless and had never heard of an economic 'bubble'. They blamed everyone but themselves for going so deep in debt on speculative land values. There were dozens of little white crosses on some of the road sides and farms on main highways. My family sucked it up and dealt with it while farmers were getting 'Farm Aid' concerts. I did my part by pulling every damn cross out of the ground and tossing them in local creeks and rivers.

    That Summer completely radicalized me and I learned everything I could about Capitalism, then Marxists critiques. Then the Anarchists, AMEN.

    There's no Government like, no Government.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:41 PM  

  • Reality, that's why it grabbed me so. On the NYTimes website, this article has moved up from a tiny little headline way down the page to the top story now.

    And I don't think it's had the impact because I don't think it's sunk in. It's a stagnation more than a decline, and there has been little coverage by the press and not much pressure by the Dems. (And the whitehouse has been pushing good economy since Jan.)


    Anonymous, I liked your anecdote. It's really pretty sad the way that government policy has been skewed away from those who need aid the most. But, as I often say, the poor don't have lobbyists. No $1000 dollar lunches for the congressman who helps the poor. No golf trips to Scotland. No one speaks for them on Capitol Hill.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 9:11 AM  

  • Good post MV. I don't think the middle class gets it yet, but are starting to notice they've got a lot less cash. The poor never had any... but at least the hospitals didn't used to turn them away.

    I remember farm aid - seemed cooked up by the Country Music industry as a way to showcase their talent.

    Finally, just a side note, in the early '80s, I know the HiPo in South Dakota and, I think, Iowa, Minnesota and a number of adjacent states launched a program to mark the positions of traffic accident fatalities with roadside crosses as a visual reminder to drive safely. Don't think they were about farming unless we're talking about different crosses. They're still doing it in S.D.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:15 PM  

  • Nah, them crosses were put out there for the farmers that went tits up when they got greedy and so deep not even subsidy and grant programs could pull their butts out.

    Roadside shrines are popping up all over the place in central Iowa. It's a bit annoying to me. I understand your pain but transplanting the intensely personnal into the public is, to me, selfish. After a while it's just more roadside clutter. You're in pain, I get that, but I would rather see native grasses and wildflowers planted in the by way than weather worn crosses and faded plastic flowers.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:20 AM  

  • Can't speak for Iowa, nor do I care for cluttering nature, but it had nothing to do with personal pain in SD. I was a (yeah, I know) reporter there years ago, and the cross program was Gov. Janklovich's p.r. machine trying to score points against highway fatalities. Remember, he's the ex-gov. who was, much later, charged with manslaughter after running a stop sign and killing a motorist. Way before that, he had a fistful of DWIs that blemished his image.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:16 PM  

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