Economy goes forward but leaves many behind

[Thom Little]

The Census Bureau says inflation-adjusted median earnings for full-time male workers declined 2.3% from 2003 to 2004. Women's earnings dipped for the second year in a row. Though the drop was a smaller 1%, until 2003 women's wages hadn't declined since 1995. A separate government measure found wages and salaries for workers in private industry advancing at the slowest pace since its record keeping began in 1975.

Those trends, along with higher energy prices and a slower housing market, could spell lower consumption and growth. They have already created political problems for the White House, as polls show Americans souring on President Bush's economic policies.

Sluggish wage gains are also fueling a debate in Congress over increasing the minimum wage, which has held at $5.15 an hour since 1997. Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott recently endorsed raising it, saying his customers are having a hard time making ends meet.

The data in part reflect what Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and others call a widening divide between lower-skilled and more-educated workers. Though wages are stagnant, broader measures of income have been expanding at a somewhat healthier pace, pulled up by stock options and bonuses. The 20% of the workforce in supervisory jobs have seen recent wage gains nearing 10%, while production workers have experienced gains of less than 4%.


http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2005-11-22-wages-1a-cover-usat_x.htm

[BlueJazz]

1. This goes to show you how uninformed the American populace is..

I mean, the Statement:
"polls show Americans souring on President Bush's economic policies"

Christ..Democrats KNEW this crap was gonna' happen 6 years ago..
Good grief..

[Deja Q]

2. EIther peak oil is real, or our fellow Americans are stabbing us.

Corporate Americans, regrettably, are as much American as you or I.

Now corporate America can whip out the bandages and morphine and do their bit to make this country strong again. Or they can continue what they are doing. Even they know they can't remain friends with China forever. And will they want their fellow Americans to be mad at them too? (I am not suggesting anything about what Americans may or may not do. But if you have no friends within your borders, nobody will stand up for you when you lose support from the rest of the world.)

[losdiablosgato]

3. Meet the chink in the neocons armour

If we are able to exploit it. I have been saying this until I am blue in the face, that a social moderate (pro gun, against gay marriage) democrat with a popularist economic message will winn big in 2006 and 2008. As proof last weekend I was talking to my very conservative brother, for the first time he is planning to vote for a democrat. Nick Lampson, who is running against Delay. Lampson is a rjust right of center moderate who has a long history of voting for the middle and working class needs. He is not turned off by Delay's scandles, but by free trade and the total lack of give a damn the rethugs have for anyone who makes less the $200000 a year as a household income. Those are his words.