This is a profoundly lamentable trend. The inability for most people to get the old standard of 'just pay' must be founded in a low demand for their work. Clearly what the rich do is still in demand (loan their money to the poor), but a days hard work is so much chaff. So the big question to my mind is: 'what caused the demand for work to evaporate?'
All of the money needed for employment has been sucked out of the regular economy and is being used for two things: 1) financial (making money with money) and 2) replaying debt. That leaves insufficient money for the business of producing goods and services.
It is difficult to do this. The data is kinda there but its a lot of work ... more work than I want to do.
One thing to keep in mind is that the data is "household" so many young workers get their income lumped in with parents. Yes, it takes three or more workers in many cases to establish a living wage for a family.
There is some data on that to at the BLS web site, but it is soooo difficult to dig out the data you want. You end up extrapolating a lot.
...And yet on the whole, we Americans seem to be deluded into believing that we can break out of the lower classes with "Hard Work" and become a top wage earner. I think that this delusion is responsible for a rather large percentage of the "voting against our own economic interests" that goes on. "We can't tax the rich! I'm gonna be rich someday!"
What you said plus the delusion leads to irrational support for neo-liberalism and capitalism (wealth = political and economic power). The worst one are the people in the 75% to 95% club. They think all other benieth them are there because they are lazy, dishonest, uneducated, etc. They totally fail to realize that they have their income because of social connections (in most cases). Many better qualified people live in lower income brackets because they are not connected.
This is a profoundly lamentable trend. The inability for most people to get the old standard of 'just pay' must be founded in a low demand for their work. Clearly what the rich do is still in demand (loan their money to the poor), but a days hard work is so much chaff. So the big question to my mind is: 'what caused the demand for work to evaporate?'
Lionlielone 1 year ago
@Lionlielone
All of the money needed for employment has been sucked out of the regular economy and is being used for two things: 1) financial (making money with money) and 2) replaying debt. That leaves insufficient money for the business of producing goods and services.
JMO
zthustra 1 year ago
I forgot to ask last time to look at it by age group.
TheAtheistPaladin 1 year ago
@TheAtheistPaladin
It is difficult to do this. The data is kinda there but its a lot of work ... more work than I want to do.
One thing to keep in mind is that the data is "household" so many young workers get their income lumped in with parents. Yes, it takes three or more workers in many cases to establish a living wage for a family.
There is some data on that to at the BLS web site, but it is soooo difficult to dig out the data you want. You end up extrapolating a lot.
zthustra 1 year ago
...And yet on the whole, we Americans seem to be deluded into believing that we can break out of the lower classes with "Hard Work" and become a top wage earner. I think that this delusion is responsible for a rather large percentage of the "voting against our own economic interests" that goes on. "We can't tax the rich! I'm gonna be rich someday!"
renegade4dio 1 year ago
@renegade4dio
What you said plus the delusion leads to irrational support for neo-liberalism and capitalism (wealth = political and economic power). The worst one are the people in the 75% to 95% club. They think all other benieth them are there because they are lazy, dishonest, uneducated, etc. They totally fail to realize that they have their income because of social connections (in most cases). Many better qualified people live in lower income brackets because they are not connected.
zthustra 1 year ago