[PolPitasc]

Kid real hourly wages peaked in 1972, so it is altogether dishonest to say that there has been no wage growth since 1970.

[Illirmpipse]

Inflatation data was gotten from inflationdata.com

[chipkluchi]

The problem with simply taking total wages earned and dividing it by the total number of workers is that the average is a very poor figure for determining how people really are doing. Medians are much better for figuring that out and the medians are what the article Bosh posted spoke about.

[Master_B]

You could use a few different numbers, but saying wages increased 6.9% per year since 1970 is just BS. DanS must be talking about total wages and salaries in nominal terms which is misleading for sure. The share or wages and salary of national income has been on a downward trend since 1970 (or so).

You are talking about different things.

If the national income increases while wages as a proportion of it decreases, total wages can still increase.

[BILBONDER]

As Oerdin pointed out, total average wages can be increasing whiole decreasing in real terms for most people. The figure I've most often seen is that for the bottom 90% of the population, wages have fallen 10% since 1973. In other words, the rich have gotten very rich. Corporate officer compensation went from something liike 40 times the average workers wage to 450 times.

During the 2nd half ot the Clinton years, real wages finally rose above 1973 levels, only to lose all the ground they made in those few years in 2001.

Faminly incomes, however, have increased ~50%, according to previous posts in previous threads by DanS and I see no reason to doubt that. The reason, of course, is the rise of the two-income family.

[tobaccoman]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
As Oerdin pointed out, total average wages can be increasing whiole decreasing in real terms for most people.

And the numbers DanS gave showed that's not what's happening. No, he only said that wages have increased 6.9% per annum since 1970. That says nothing about who is getting the wage increase. Remember the adage that if you stand next to Bill Gates, the two of you have an average wealth of $20 billion. Same principle applies.

Nor does it say how the wages have increased, as expendiatures of for the individuals receiveing the wages. Without more data, it doesn't mean very much.

[fameintatenly]

Dan using his usual "repeat until true" -method without showing any proof

[mypharmalife]

Labor unions

[DzjwMKo5]

"US engineers still have lots of edge such as language and experience, but do this edge justify a 40x-50x higher salary?"

absolutely not, but since they depend on those 40-50x higher paid people to actually buy their product...

[adactthrd]

Nation States
Corporations

[squeerisott]

You are an Anarchist? That sounds nice and all.. but it just doesn't work.

JM

[onlineslotetes]

Nation States
Corporations

[inchaaruutaa]

Who owns corporations today? It's not the upper management. They own at best 1-2% of the company. The true owners of corporations today are the pension funds, mutual funds, and life insurances. And who are the biggest contributors to those funds? The American middle class.

It's not the corporations that are screwing our country. It's the greedy corporate management who are STEALING from both shareholders and lower-ranked employees. The most dominant forms of theft are outrageous bonuses, golden parachutes, and abusive stock options.

[courlerwele]

The boards are usually populated by cronies of the management. There are actually very few independent boards out there. Something is obviously wrong when CEO compensation skyrocketed like 20-50 times over last 20 years.

People blame corporations for the ills and want to nationalize them. I think it's more a balance of power issue. Who ever has too much power tends to abuse it. Now we have a situation where corporate management has all the power and ordinary workers do not. Let the government jump in is not the solution because it will concentrate the power further into the hands of a few. Government already has enough power, and if you let political power merge with economic power, amen!

What we need is a change of mindset of labor unions around the world. They need to globalize, they need to create a real INTERNATIONAL labor movement to counter managements' power grab. Only then could the current inbalances be resolved.

[Drysnyaty]

Pension funds and the like don't account for a majority of stock ownership. Most stock is held by other corporations, but ultimately, if you trace it back, it's held by a relatively small number of people either directly or through trusts.

IIRC, the top 10% of the population holds 45% of the assets. The top 1% holds a majority of that.