Yes, wages are rising in China but from a very low level. It will take decades of wage increases before the Chinese worker can get a fair share of the wealth he creates. There is an arbitrage between wages in the east and west, creating a downward pressure on wages in the developed world.
Wages are going down in the western world due to the integration with lower wage countries. there has to be controls otherwise you undermine jobs and wages. The loss of incomes was offset with increasing debt to facilitate this integration and global slavery by a syndicate of corporations and political parties.
A big part of the problem is central banking and how monetary policy is conducted. Instead of the central bank dealing with large international banks for monetary policy it should deal directly with the public.
unions are the solution. unions lost thier strengh because of contractors greed. unions keep employers to a better standard of living for the employes. in the 70's and early 80's the unions had strengh and unity and everyone made a good income. now all the uneducated non union tradesmen drive the price of quality work down. therefore driving down the quality of life for the educated tradesmen.
Wall Street is pegged to put $200 Billion in BONUS MONEY into the pockets of their so-called genius work force that nobody else can understand don't ya know unless your a G.DAMN. CROOK! Now where do you think all your raises are going while the Thief's in Washington Sit on their LAZY FAT Butts doing absolutely NOTHING ABOUT IT? In this next election people do not vote for these BUMS AGAIN PLEASE. We have to make the change at the Ballot Box First and foremost.
Is it possible the only real solution is a flat wage? The Rethugs what a flat tax, why not encourage a flat wage, with maybe small percentages of increase for education, and high risk types of jobs.
And nowadays the current ruling class is simply holding up their FYIGM card while trying to send their Robin Hood to destroy the very services many of them relied on to get to where they are. Fuck the rich. Fuck the politicians. All throughout history they always manage to do things like this. We're just never told about it because it would ruin the image of the so-called 'Founding Fathers', for example.
Why haven't wages kept pace with productivity? Because productivity since the 70s is driven by automation (capital) and computers (capital). We reward capital because capital investment is what is driving productivity.
China - At 5:40 he mentions 8-9% increase in wages but China has double digit productivity gains. At 6:04 China is pegging to CPI meaning increases match inflation and has nothing to do with productivity.
Excellent piece. I have ever felt that as long as cost of living was light years away from wages, and the gap expanding....the shit was going to hit the fan. And here it is.
Good interview; good guest. Even though he never said it, I think this whole discussion pretty much destroys the idea of a "jobless recovery". There MUST be jobs in order for us to recover and we can't have jobs unless we PRODUCE something.
Factories are not worth anything if you can't sell the products. You can't sell the products to people who don't have money. Flassbeck is one of the real thought leaders.
Back in the 90's, I used to work in I.T. and made $60,000 annually. Now, similar gigs are paying $45,000. The 60k jobs of today want you to do everything and anything - basically the responsibilities of what used to be 2-3 people for the salary of 1 person now. Meanwhile, the CEO still makes seven figures and drives a Mercedes - I drive a Chevy...
The rich are squeezing the poor as much as they can in the name of greed. Some people say to the Occupy Wall Street protesters, "Oh, you are creating class warfare. That's bad." But the rich wage war on the poor every single day! They are the ones who are creating the class warfare. Look at the rapidly widening gap between the rich and the poor in the world. It is amazing. The bankers have become much more brazen and aggressive over the past couple decades and they don't even hide it anymore.
The terms "wage slavery" and "worker owned business" are communist ideas. Wages rise because of the increase in wealth and productivity. The more capital that exists, the more productive each individual worker can become. Since worker need tool to do their job, the more tools and equipment they have the more they can accomplish and produce. Increased productivity will lead to more sales and revenue. Then wages can rise because the business men will be able to afford higher value employees
@mjbarrowful Moron, the graph show & the whole piece is about how wages haven't grown with productivity. In fact, through taxes and deregulation we've incentivized speculation and fraud -that is the story from 2000 right up to MF Global. And you're only seeing the tip of iceberg.
@derfilmmacher Ad hominems will get us nowhere. The financial sector is not productive. period. The whole banking system is currently based on fractional reserves and centrally manipulated interest rates. The Fed is the core reason we don't have a free market in this particular area of the economy. The central banking simply creates new money and "loans" it banks at basically 0% interest. I agree the the government has created incentives for irresponsible speculation of wall st.
@derfilmmacher Exactly. While mjbarrowful fairly accurately described what's supposed to happen in theory, he completely misses what the graph clearly illustrates. Workers continue to be productive, but their share of the increase in prodcutivity appears to go straight into the pockets of the capitalist. How could he miss such an obvious point? It's also interesting how the initial divergence of the two values generally co-incides with the start of Reagan's 1st term.
The graph is grossly misleading as it shows wages, not total compensation. Non-wage benefits as a proportion of tc have been rising, this explains stagnant wages not decoupling of compensation w prod. Ironically, some of the increasing wage inequality is explained by a *greater* link between prod and wages with increasing prevalence of performance pay. When you adjust for likely consumption baskets, wage inequality also seems overstated. Not as simple as suggested here.
Slave masters never really went away. The form of slavery changed, however, much money is still made off the sweat (and suffering) of those who have no, or only very limited, choice. It's a fucking disgrace!
I refuse to be a wage slave. I will live off the land before I waste my skills on you rich pigs. My skill are worth NO LESS than $20 an hour. Period. I refuse to work for $10 an hour and pretend like I am happy. That will not happen. I will sabotage your company if you refuse to pay fair wages. Its as simple as that. I would rather destroy you than be your slave.
@bamboo4tameshigiri you're not a slave, you CAN quit. Stop being so melodramatic, everyone has shitting jobs. That should motivate you to improve your skills and seek a company that appreciates your skills. They are out there, quit making excuses.
@bamboo4tameshigiri In a money and market system... I am sad to say, only some human beings will have value. Most will be valueless. If your skills were that in demand you would be making a mint. You aren't, and thus according to our society, you are human excriment and deserving of slavery. The people that hate what I just said to you, a lot of them, hate it because it is true... and they hate it because they love the system that makes it true. Money and Markets have to go.
Workers can find the perfect balance between wages, and investment. They have an incentive to keep wages up, and to keep the business growing because they own it.
@SonicYouthXXX Actually we didn't have that in Soviet Russia. The workers did not control the means of production. The soviets has a central planned economy, not market socialism.
@PhysicallyMental We all know this will never be allowed as a viable model. That's because a minority wants to always rule over the majority. Sadly the majority will always cave in to the demands of a elite few ruling over the working masses.
@ogrish84 I disagree, the majority always fights for its fair share, sometimes this takes time. If the elite doesn't review their history books, they're going to be slaughtered. People forget history is cyclical.
@PhysicallyMental Great solution, at least for a while. How will this solution deal with planned obsolecence and technological unemployment? (Hint: in a money and market system you can't). The days of human labour and limitless resource wastage are coming to a rapid close. The old paradigms, one of which you are advocating, are all rapidly becoming obsolete. Pick up a hobbie my friend, you will live to learn what it is to be much freer, no money, no labour, no war, no gov't.
@PhysicallyMental :D funny thing is, that is the true definition of "socialism" and is exactly why the term has been skewed into what it is. So the idea is then lost into the battle of the false definition of that word. Agentina is big into this right now, there are also some places in Wisconsin and rural Illinois doing this. Pre WWII there was a company in Louisiana collectively owned, but can't find the source material atm...
Yes, wages are rising in China but from a very low level. It will take decades of wage increases before the Chinese worker can get a fair share of the wealth he creates. There is an arbitrage between wages in the east and west, creating a downward pressure on wages in the developed world.
707hoser 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
Comment removed
besner 2 months ago
Wages are going down in the western world due to the integration with lower wage countries. there has to be controls otherwise you undermine jobs and wages. The loss of incomes was offset with increasing debt to facilitate this integration and global slavery by a syndicate of corporations and political parties.
daniel987878 2 months ago
A big part of the problem is central banking and how monetary policy is conducted. Instead of the central bank dealing with large international banks for monetary policy it should deal directly with the public.
daniel987878 2 months ago
unions are the solution. unions lost thier strengh because of contractors greed. unions keep employers to a better standard of living for the employes. in the 70's and early 80's the unions had strengh and unity and everyone made a good income. now all the uneducated non union tradesmen drive the price of quality work down. therefore driving down the quality of life for the educated tradesmen.
gordogreen 2 months ago
This is so obvious its not true, Suppressing wages, suppressing demands, which suppresses the economy.
theindiekidable 2 months ago
This is an exceptionally informative video. I was unaware of the fact that Chinese wages were rising consistently with their GDP.
leoclub626 2 months ago
Money doesn't dissapear it is just shared differetly over the population. Right now the 1% have a bigger share of the cake.
freshhug 2 months ago
Comment removed
Anonymous247n 2 months ago
Wall Street is pegged to put $200 Billion in BONUS MONEY into the pockets of their so-called genius work force that nobody else can understand don't ya know unless your a G.DAMN. CROOK! Now where do you think all your raises are going while the Thief's in Washington Sit on their LAZY FAT Butts doing absolutely NOTHING ABOUT IT? In this next election people do not vote for these BUMS AGAIN PLEASE. We have to make the change at the Ballot Box First and foremost.
BabylonsKing 2 months ago
Is it possible the only real solution is a flat wage? The Rethugs what a flat tax, why not encourage a flat wage, with maybe small percentages of increase for education, and high risk types of jobs.
rebecaha 2 months ago
If you let wages rise, what should the finance cancer live from then? ;)...
r0ll0t0masi 2 months ago 2
And nowadays the current ruling class is simply holding up their FYIGM card while trying to send their Robin Hood to destroy the very services many of them relied on to get to where they are. Fuck the rich. Fuck the politicians. All throughout history they always manage to do things like this. We're just never told about it because it would ruin the image of the so-called 'Founding Fathers', for example.
Homer177 2 months ago
Why haven't wages kept pace with productivity? Because productivity since the 70s is driven by automation (capital) and computers (capital). We reward capital because capital investment is what is driving productivity.
China - At 5:40 he mentions 8-9% increase in wages but China has double digit productivity gains. At 6:04 China is pegging to CPI meaning increases match inflation and has nothing to do with productivity.
This guy is talk himself into a corner.
Benwoodruff 2 months ago
Are pre-peeled oranges peeled?
JanRichardus 2 months ago
Excellent piece. I have ever felt that as long as cost of living was light years away from wages, and the gap expanding....the shit was going to hit the fan. And here it is.
So much for greed.
axelgrz 2 months ago
Good interview; good guest. Even though he never said it, I think this whole discussion pretty much destroys the idea of a "jobless recovery". There MUST be jobs in order for us to recover and we can't have jobs unless we PRODUCE something.
duezeri1968 2 months ago
Factories are not worth anything if you can't sell the products. You can't sell the products to people who don't have money. Flassbeck is one of the real thought leaders.
SteveHovland 2 months ago 2
for wages to rise, the govt needs to be shrinked and taken out of the economy.
JackofOneTrade567 2 months ago
@JackofOneTrade567 Agreed.
EndTheFedRes 2 months ago
36 Million humans Starved to death in 2010. Democracy in the economy Please.
noprofitmaximierung 2 months ago
How can i support you from europe?
pcuimac 2 months ago
I love Dr. Flassbeck
brianestoll 2 months ago
Does this mean I'm gonna get a raise soon?
shavis001 2 months ago
pay ppl by productivity. I worked what is called "piece work" for a few years once and NOTHING will every make you want to work harder.
bnewton81 2 months ago
Back in the 90's, I used to work in I.T. and made $60,000 annually. Now, similar gigs are paying $45,000. The 60k jobs of today want you to do everything and anything - basically the responsibilities of what used to be 2-3 people for the salary of 1 person now. Meanwhile, the CEO still makes seven figures and drives a Mercedes - I drive a Chevy...
marcomariaz26 2 months ago 4
The rich are squeezing the poor as much as they can in the name of greed. Some people say to the Occupy Wall Street protesters, "Oh, you are creating class warfare. That's bad." But the rich wage war on the poor every single day! They are the ones who are creating the class warfare. Look at the rapidly widening gap between the rich and the poor in the world. It is amazing. The bankers have become much more brazen and aggressive over the past couple decades and they don't even hide it anymore.
burnindownthehouse 2 months ago 4
The blue and the red curves in the graphic show it: The New Globalized Capitalist World Order has failed miserably.
Dan5482 2 months ago
The terms "wage slavery" and "worker owned business" are communist ideas. Wages rise because of the increase in wealth and productivity. The more capital that exists, the more productive each individual worker can become. Since worker need tool to do their job, the more tools and equipment they have the more they can accomplish and produce. Increased productivity will lead to more sales and revenue. Then wages can rise because the business men will be able to afford higher value employees
mjbarrowful 2 months ago
@mjbarrowful Moron, the graph show & the whole piece is about how wages haven't grown with productivity. In fact, through taxes and deregulation we've incentivized speculation and fraud -that is the story from 2000 right up to MF Global. And you're only seeing the tip of iceberg.
derfilmmacher 2 months ago 2
@derfilmmacher Ad hominems will get us nowhere. The financial sector is not productive. period. The whole banking system is currently based on fractional reserves and centrally manipulated interest rates. The Fed is the core reason we don't have a free market in this particular area of the economy. The central banking simply creates new money and "loans" it banks at basically 0% interest. I agree the the government has created incentives for irresponsible speculation of wall st.
mjbarrowful 2 months ago 2
@derfilmmacher Exactly. While mjbarrowful fairly accurately described what's supposed to happen in theory, he completely misses what the graph clearly illustrates. Workers continue to be productive, but their share of the increase in prodcutivity appears to go straight into the pockets of the capitalist. How could he miss such an obvious point? It's also interesting how the initial divergence of the two values generally co-incides with the start of Reagan's 1st term.
bobbytookalook 2 months ago 4
@bobbytookalook
The graph is grossly misleading as it shows wages, not total compensation. Non-wage benefits as a proportion of tc have been rising, this explains stagnant wages not decoupling of compensation w prod. Ironically, some of the increasing wage inequality is explained by a *greater* link between prod and wages with increasing prevalence of performance pay. When you adjust for likely consumption baskets, wage inequality also seems overstated. Not as simple as suggested here.
briano8713 2 months ago
Slave masters never really went away. The form of slavery changed, however, much money is still made off the sweat (and suffering) of those who have no, or only very limited, choice. It's a fucking disgrace!
ibullpitt 2 months ago 4
Wage labor is servitude.
ToeInspector 2 months ago 2
This has been flagged as spam show
ALERT: GOVERNMENT is COUNTERFEITING MONEY for SLAVERY..!!!
bankers+lawyers+police+judge+politicians+criminals+etc = DIRTY CAPITALIST SCUM PIGS.
BANKERS & DRUGLORDS screwed life & society in human history.
BANKERS & DRUGLORDS screwed life & society in human history.
-- copy & paste WE ARE THE 99% FREEMAN --
BURN DRUG LORDS ALIVE & OCCUPY THE WORLD..!!!
BURN DRUG LORDS ALIVE & OCCUPY THE WORLD..!!!
"GOD HANG the LANDGRABBER PIG CAPITALIST ROYAL LAZY FAMILY"
SAVE the ANIMALS & NATURE. END THE DEBT.
kopellhinex 2 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
╭∩╮（︶︿︶）╭∩╮ ---> CAPITALISM & COMMUNISM not EQUAL.
DRUGLORDS+GOVERNMENT is COUNTERFEITING MONEY for SLAVERY..!!
BANKERS & DRUGLORDS screwed life & society in human history.
BURN DRUG LORDS ALIVE & OCCUPY THE WORLD..!!
CAPITALISM = NO REAL FREEDOM. WORLDS FAKE ECONOMY.
fight for LAST DROP BLOOD for MONEY & POWER = OPPORTUNIST LANDLORD GRABBER PIG ROYAL LAZY FAMILY.
HARD WORKING PEACE LOVING HAPPY HONEST SOCIETY were always the slave victim and poorly starve to death. :(
kopellhinex 2 months ago
I refuse to be a wage slave. I will live off the land before I waste my skills on you rich pigs. My skill are worth NO LESS than $20 an hour. Period. I refuse to work for $10 an hour and pretend like I am happy. That will not happen. I will sabotage your company if you refuse to pay fair wages. Its as simple as that. I would rather destroy you than be your slave.
bamboo4tameshigiri 2 months ago 47
@bamboo4tameshigiri fuck yeah! I agree completely. We're wage slaves and corporate whores.
sethzky77 2 months ago
@bamboo4tameshigiri you're not a slave, you CAN quit. Stop being so melodramatic, everyone has shitting jobs. That should motivate you to improve your skills and seek a company that appreciates your skills. They are out there, quit making excuses.
baihbalm 2 months ago
@baihbalm Yeah, they're out there. WAY out there. They are all in China and India now.
bamboo4tameshigiri 2 months ago
@bamboo4tameshigiri Linda Evangelista: "We don't wake up for less than $10000 a day" LOL
brianestoll 2 months ago
@bamboo4tameshigiri they own the land ant the resources on it lol
madiovich 2 months ago
@bamboo4tameshigiri Nailed it brother, live long!
JanRichardus 2 months ago
@bamboo4tameshigiri In a money and market system... I am sad to say, only some human beings will have value. Most will be valueless. If your skills were that in demand you would be making a mint. You aren't, and thus according to our society, you are human excriment and deserving of slavery. The people that hate what I just said to you, a lot of them, hate it because it is true... and they hate it because they love the system that makes it true. Money and Markets have to go.
elbowbiter1 2 months ago 4
@elbowbiter1 It wouldn't be the first time I sabotaged a slave owner's operation.
bamboo4tameshigiri 2 months ago
@bamboo4tameshigiri Heh, I highly doubt that my friend. Money market systems are fueled by dischord. Sabotage is a must.
elbowbiter1 2 months ago
@bamboo4tameshigiri well said. breadline wage is theft of labour.
fringeailments 2 months ago
so what r u gonna do? have no job and make no money?
KripDrip 2 months ago
@KripDrip I can survive without your system.
bamboo4tameshigiri 2 months ago
Solution: workplace democracy.
Workers can find the perfect balance between wages, and investment. They have an incentive to keep wages up, and to keep the business growing because they own it.
PhysicallyMental 2 months ago 39
@PhysicallyMental We already had that in russia, its called communism, I dont recall how well did that turn out, mind reminding me ?
SonicYouthXXX 2 months ago
@SonicYouthXXX Actually we didn't have that in Soviet Russia. The workers did not control the means of production. The soviets has a central planned economy, not market socialism.
PhysicallyMental 2 months ago
@PhysicallyMental Right on...Soviet was less socialist than US.
daveruda 2 months ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@PhysicallyMental solution...grow weed and tell your boss to fuck off.
XD
homerbear46 2 months ago 2
@PhysicallyMental We all know this will never be allowed as a viable model. That's because a minority wants to always rule over the majority. Sadly the majority will always cave in to the demands of a elite few ruling over the working masses.
ogrish84 2 months ago
@ogrish84 I disagree, the majority always fights for its fair share, sometimes this takes time. If the elite doesn't review their history books, they're going to be slaughtered. People forget history is cyclical.
derfilmmacher 2 months ago 2
@PhysicallyMental I believe Lenin or Karl Marx suggested this some centuries back.
408Magenta 2 months ago
@PhysicallyMental Solution is: Self Employment.!
JanRichardus 2 months ago
@PhysicallyMental Great solution, at least for a while. How will this solution deal with planned obsolecence and technological unemployment? (Hint: in a money and market system you can't). The days of human labour and limitless resource wastage are coming to a rapid close. The old paradigms, one of which you are advocating, are all rapidly becoming obsolete. Pick up a hobbie my friend, you will live to learn what it is to be much freer, no money, no labour, no war, no gov't.
elbowbiter1 2 months ago
@PhysicallyMental :D funny thing is, that is the true definition of "socialism" and is exactly why the term has been skewed into what it is. So the idea is then lost into the battle of the false definition of that word. Agentina is big into this right now, there are also some places in Wisconsin and rural Illinois doing this. Pre WWII there was a company in Louisiana collectively owned, but can't find the source material atm...
Swansen03 2 months ago
@PhysicallyMental You sir have both sanity and ethical values!
niriop 2 months ago