Right. Certainly wage growth negative in real terms causes this "misery" to surface, but if growth were negative in nominal terms, even with no inflation, it would still be enough to upset anyone. This is because we're conditioned to believe costs only rise (mostly because it's always true). So getting a lower salary for future years for the same amount of work is instinctively bad. Fortunately, this is much more rare.
And prices across the board rise....? Because they will. Why not make minimum wage $100 an hour? If that's all that is required to balance the budget, we can just print our way into prosperity.
The realization that all of the debt - both public and private - can never be repaid without inflating.
So it all about the handful of top executives. You feel it unfair that 50 to 100 top executives get obscene rewards and the 100,000 other employes fight for scraps. A fortune 100 company with 20 billion in revenue might pay out 200 million to its top people. About 1% , yet this get Liberals all worked up.
You feel it unfair that 50 to 100 top executives get obscene rewards and the 100,000 other employes fight for scraps. -------------------------------------------- I wonder if the soundman for a Jay-Z concert is bitchin about what Jay z makes.
Well, if we can socialize banking losses, while they keep their profits private...I know, different subject. Had to get that in. You are correct in saying that efficiencies have driven profits to a great degree, and technology in general has eliminated many jobs. So goes progress and I have no issue with that. However, to make the claim that all increased profits are a result of that technological efficiency just isn't true. The worker makes a contribution and as their time on the job grows, so does their performance, in most cases. Profits go up as a result. What I'm saying is that those highly efficient and very productive employees are not being rewarded to a degree anywhere near what exec's have been. I'm in no way claiming that the pay should be equal, or anywhere near equal, but the proportion is skewed heavily towards the exec's. The equilibrium you refer to is under the complete control of the exec's, and it is those exec's who determine pay scales more than market demands. If that is not the case, then explain how exec pay continues to rise, even in a down economy, while employee pay and benefits are slashed regardless of good times or bad as we've seen happen over the past 3 decades. The pay raises the exec's reward themselves, even in a down economy, are on the backs of those underpaid workers who are still highly productive. I don't believe for a minute that a more sanely proportional pay scale will save the economy, or even come close. I'm just talking about getting paid a living wage for the job you do as a experienced and skilled worker who has many years of experience. In a thin market, it is extremely difficult to just pack up and take those skills down the road as one could do in better time. I can attest to that from personal experience.
That minimum wage thing is a tax on business. Democrats only tax and spend. I'm conservative in my thinking but the situation is very unusual nowadays. For one thing the Marx thingy wherein the machines replace workers has really done a number on what a person can earn. That is a simple fact. In olden times it made a lot of sense for people to be stalwart workers, they were producing food and they had to work to the natural rhythms, not when they felt like it. Nowadays maybe a little stipend for those that can't work is a necessary and good thing. The good adjunct to that is for people to produce their own food. With Square Foot Gardening and Aquaponics any population anywhere can feed itself. The biggest deterrent to food production is violence. Government should focus on rule of law and entrepreneurs can distribute the food production via franchising. Anybody that won't work at growing their food can go f%^k themselves.. I really would let people starve, some would get the lesson and some wouldn't. I'd vote for a nice mixture of socialism/entrepreneurship/social Darwinism if it were available, all we have available is a cacaphony of bad ideas from crooked politicians.