Rising Tide
Aug 26th, 2005 at 5:24 pm by Susie
Because employers don’t have to raise wages to get workers, wages are lagging behind the cost of living. According to Labor Department statistics, the purchasing power of an average nonsupervisory worker’s wage has fallen about 1.5 percent since the summer of 2003. And this may understate the pressure on many families: the cost of living has risen sharply for those whose work or family situation requires buying a lot of gasoline.
Some commentators dismiss concerns about gasoline prices, because those prices are still below previous peaks when you adjust for inflation. But that misses the point: Americans bought cars and made decisions about where to live when gas was $1.50 or less per gallon, and now suddenly find themselves paying $2.60 or more. That’s a rude shock, which I estimate raises the typical family’s expenses by more than $900 a year.
You may ask where economic growth is going, if it isn’t showing up in wages. That’s easy to answer: it’s going to corporate profits, to rising health care costs and to a surge in the salaries and other compensation of executives. (Forbes reports that the combined compensation of the chief executives of America’s 500 largest companies rose 54 percent last year.)
The bottom line, then, is that most Americans have good reason to feel unhappy about the economy, whatever Washington’s favorite statistics may say. This is an economic expansion that hasn’t trickled down; many people are worse off than they were a year ago. And it will take more than a revamped administration sales pitch to make people feel better.
what it is is bullshit and we’re fools to let this continue to happen.
This is only going to get worse; and how much longer can we watch teevee while the rich get richer and the poor get fucked? seriously??
Bought a used scooter 3 weeks ago, already saving 40$ a week. Have an old SUV , when we bought it we lived 35 miles from town. Live in a more suburbane area now. Be creative, car-pool, not just for work. Walk to the store, use a bus, Do something, complaining will get you no where with the group in charge.
Join a union. My union job has guaranteed me a 3 percent raise the past three years, plus kept my employer paying most of my health care coverage. That has helped a little with George’s windfall for oil companies–although impeachment would help a lot more.