The reason people are working so many hours is that they're doing the job of 2,3, sometimes 4 people. I can take you in to any number of manufacturing plants, small to huge, and show you examples of companies that have, or are in the process of downsizing the workforce, and then requiring mandatory overtime for those that remain employed. It's been going on for nearly 3 decades. You can also find stat's which show growth in annual income while wages have remained flat for years. O.T. is how that happens. It's hard to say who is really at fault here. The weathly are an easy, and deserving target, but the average worker has just bent over too easily. I remember years ago when I was on the other side of the fence, a union member, we had a policy. If the company had people on layoff we wouldn't work any overtime until all were called back to work. Unions willingly gave that up, which was a huge mistake. When the union "brotherhood" fell apart, all other industries followed suit. The slave masters smiled!
i found these stats interesting. most of these happened during that last period of republican control of government. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The following are 24 statistics about the United States economy that are almost too embarrassing to admitâ¦. #1 Ten years ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. In 2010, the United States has fallen to seventh. #2 The United States once had the highest proportion of young adults with post-secondary degrees in the world. Today, the U.S. has fallen to 12th. #3 In the 2009 "prosperity index" published by the Legatum Institute, the United States was ranked as just the ninth most prosperous country in the world. That was down five places from 2008. #4 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th. #5 The economy of India is projected to become larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2050. #6 One prominent economist now says that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040. #7 According to a new study conducted by Thompson Reuters, China could become the global leader in patent filings by next year. #8 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. Approximately 75 percent of those factories employed at least 500 workers while they were still in operation. #9 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000. #10 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975. #11 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of all U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented only 11.5 percent. #12 The television manufacturing industry began in the United States. So how many televisions are manufactured in the United States today? According to Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder, the grand total is zero. #13 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time that less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941. #14 Back in 1980, the United States imported approximately 37 percent of the oil that we use. Now we import nearly 60 percent of the oil that we use. #15 The U.S. trade deficit is running about 40 or 50 billion dollars a month in 2010. That means that by the end of the year approximately half a trillion dollars (or more) will have left the United States for good. #16 Between 2000 and 2009, Americaâs trade deficit with China increased nearly 300 percent. #17 Today, the United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that China spends on goods from the United States. #18 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone. #19 American 15-year-olds do not even rank in the top half of all advanced nations when it comes to math or science literacy. #20 Median household income in the U.S. declined from $51,726 in 2008 to $50,221 in 2009. That was the second yearly decline in a row. #21 The United States has the third worst poverty rate among the advanced nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. #22 Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the U.S. dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power. #23 U.S. government spending as a percentage of GDP is now up to approximately 36 percent. #24 The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that U.S. government public debt will hit 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080
Maybe co's are reluctant to hire new employees due to all the govt mandates? That has certainly been the case in the EU, where it is nearly impossible to fire an employee.
Your statistics require historical background. The period of 1945-1965 established the US as the leading manufacturing country in the world, not because of our manufacturing prowess, but rather because of our military might. At the end of WWII, the US had 5% of the world's population and 70% of the world's intact manufacturing and transportation infrastructure because most of Europe and Asia has been bombed to ashes during the war. For about 20 years, the US had the highest manufacturing price/wage structure in the world. By the mid-1960s, the rest of the world had rebuilt and the US had to actually compete against countries like Japan and Germany. Our market dominance began to erode in the 1970s, and increased in velocity during the 1980-90s as India and China entered the world markets. When hundreds of millions of people enter the global manufacturing workforce and are willing to work for fifty cents an hour, wages are going to fall, manufacturing is going migrate, and there's nothing anybody can do to stop it. It's inevitable that the economies of China and India will overtake the US because China's poplulation is 4X the US and India is 3X. Do the math. The collapse of our US economic system can be traced to two events that occured during 1999. First was the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act that had, until 1999, created a firewall between traditional banking activities and risky investment activities. This legislation (repeal of Glass-Steagall) was supported overwhelmingly by both Democrats and Republicans and signed into law by President Clinton. The second critical event was the lowering of lending standards, ostensibly so that more people could buy homes with cheap money, and was also strongly supported by both Democrats and Republicans. An article appeared in the New York Times in 1999 that predicted that the lowering of credit standards would result in the collapse of the banking system (paragraphs 7-8). (http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html) Regarding education in this country, it can be tried directly to parenting. Every study ever done on the subject shows that the most import factor in educational success is parental involvement. The last 30 years has seen the collapse of the 2-parent household, parents spending much less time with their children, and a generation of young adults who think that the way to get ahead in life is by sexting.
The point is that if people are dying to come and live here, this is a great place to live. I always go to the busiest restaurants and trade the stocks that are in play, it makes sense to go with the flow most of the time. Have you read the classic "How to Lie with Statistics" by Darrell Huff? Your original post looks like it fits in there perfectly. Remember, as they say, if you torture your data long enough, they'll tell you whatever you want to hear...
Mexicans are dying to come and live in the US, but then they're also exiting the other way. I don't see Canadians flocking to illegally immigrate to the US. So perhaps the US is somewhere in between, figuratively and literally.
There isn't huge Norwegian, Canadian and Swedish immigration. The US: provably better than the third world.
Marijuana's for kids. You may not like the message, but that's the message that's being sent. Look at the migration rates for various countries -- Canada gets almost double the migrants that the US does for its size. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/imm_net_mig_rat-immigration-net-migration-rate