Surge in corporate profits not reaching average workers

[Peter1x9]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2561827

"U.S. corporate profits surged 87 percent from the third quarter of 2001 to the end of 2003, according to Commerce Department figures. Wages and salaries grew 4.5 percent.

The increase in workers' pay was the smallest for the first nine quarters of any recovery since World War II, said Barry Bosworth, who directed the White House Council on Wage and Price Stability during Jimmy Carter's administration. After inflation, real wage gains were 1.1 percent, Bosworth said.

"What you have here is a dual economy," said Bosworth, now an economist at the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington. "You can talk all you want about the benefits from the rapidly expanding economy, but the only people who have gained have been the stockholders.""

[Warpy]

1. Workers only benefit when employment increases

..and there's upward pressure on wages to attract the best workers. New workers are hired only as sales increase. Sales increase only when people have money to spend, and that means when they have JOBS.

This economy is 70% consumer driven. The Bush economic bungling has been dedicated to propping up the stock market, not to increasing employment and priming the money pump at the beginning, on the consumer level.

A $300 one time loan on the next year's tax refund won't stimulate anything, Mr. Bush. Sucking money away from working people to fatten the rich and prop up a hyperinflated Dow won't stimulate anything but inflation in fine arts and antiques auctions.

Bush is 100% wrong on the economy, and we are all suffering for it.

[historian]

2. We all need to do our bit!!!

Although im merely a speck in the grand scheme of things, i do my bit to bring down this loathsome snake in the wh. I refuse to buy anything i dont need or already have. I've traded in my old car for a very economical one (toyota echo) thereby reducing my need for gas; if i go to the movies, i continue to refuse paying 5dollars for popcorn; the latest computer gizmo comes out which mean nothing to me because my sytem is adequate enough; expensive trendy restaurants be dammed I go to the small neighborhood ones and some good inexpensive ones can be found. I refuse to pay 200 for a pair of jeans because it has a label on it and dont use a credit card.
If an increasingly larger number of people were to do this it would bring down the economy and the repukes with it.
Certainly there would be painful job losses, but the long term effects would far outweigh the short term pain.

[Warpy]

3. I'm with you

I drive a 14 year old Ranger, only fill it up every 3 months or so. Short trips are done on an electric bicycle (chronic illness has ended my ability to push the pedals on a real bike). If something conks out, I look for replacements at the local thrift shops. I'm making my own clothing, or buying it at thrift stores. The only things I buy new are foodstuffs, and I'm avoiding processed foods.

I decided to go on an economic strike when Bush cheated his way into power. I will be on my strike until he is gone, preferably facing charges and prison.

[Centre_Left]

4. Thrift helps the economy

Thrift increases the level of savings and investment; increased savings and investment is the primary driver of economic growth, not consumption, as many here would have you believe.