40 Years Of Workers Left Behind (CHART)

[ProSense]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/40-years-of-workers-left-behind-chart.php

Clearly, this is President Obama's fault.

[Lionessa]

1. So what does Obama propose to do about it if he's re-elected?

In 3 years it's only gotten worse for income disparity and worker abuse, yes I'm calling that level of productivity increase without wage increase and instead benny decrease, hours increase, pushed from full to part-time and/or permanent to long-term temp forms of worker abuse.

[NNN0LHI]

3. President Obama can't do it all

People need to get their shit together and become unionized. And support our union workers whenever they can.

Reaganites seem to have a tough time with that though.

Don

[Lionessa]

4. So what is he going to do to strengthen unions? And whistle-blowers, he seems to not like them

either. I haven't seen it, not even a hint of what Obama plans to do for the middle class worker except point out that the Repubs would be worse. True, but not enough.

[NNN0LHI]

9. I just told above you what it is going to take to strengthen unions

Having a tough time wrapping your head around what I said?

Don

[Lionessa]

12. Problem is,. . . people don't have the protection of keeping their jobs

currently in order to do as you suggest. The system no longer seems to allow for what you suggest, not really, and unions have become so impotent due to laws weakening their allowed courses of action, as well as being usurped through judicial bankruptcy determinations.

It isn't that it will take time to consider, it's that I've considered it apparently longer and with more depth than you and realize that without some level of improved federal protection for the types of recourse workers, individually and collectively, can utilize, nothing will improve through union membership, because unions have been neutered.

So, Don, perhaps you need to learn to think a little deeper than your cutesy little one paragraph solutions. At this point the only thing workers can do is a flat out rebellion against both government and corporations, like a general strike, but most people with jobs are too terrified to do it, for fear of losing what little they have, others fear the police state and new and extreme prison powers, . . . I just don't see it, I don't see how the people win without the President and/or Congress re-instating rights and protections, or until things get even worse, which I have no doubt they will.

But Obama could at least be discussing solutions he'd be looking at. Sure he says lots about jobs bills, but nothing about the quality of the jobs that will be coming, not the work, but the assurance of reasonable pay, treatment, and bennies. It's quite noticeable by many, that though the jobs #s may be getting better, the quality of job pay, security, and bennies are all seriously on the decline. So how does that help us? Is Obama promising to help us into slave wages and horrid conditions? He says very little about the rest. Lily Ledbetter act was a great start, but not one damned thing since.

[kentuck]

2. Why were wages tied to productivity up until about 1972 ??

There was no written rule, obviously. It was just something that employees expected from their employers.

According to that graph, wages would more than double what they are right now if wages had stayed tied to productivity. Also, we would have a much healthier middle-class today that would be paying more in taxes and buying more consumer products.

What happened?

[Fumesucker]

6. Stagflation, wage-price controls, oil shock, etc..

A perfect storm that allowed the 1% to grasp ever more rigid control of both the economy and the government.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagflation#Explaining_the_1970s_stagflation

[HiPointDem]

15. not a perfect storm, if by perfect storm you mean unavoidable natural phenomenon. Actually,

the causes of the post-60s "reconstruction" were much the same as the "reconstruction" we're going through today:


Along with the 68 revolt came a financial crisis within the credit institutions that, through debt-financing, had powered the property boom in the preceding decades. The crisis gathered momentum at the end of the 1960s until the whole capitalist system crashed, starting with the bursting of the global property-market bubble in 1973, followed by the fiscal bankruptcy of New York City in 1975. As William Tabb argued, the response to the consequences of the latter effectively pioneered the construction of a neoliberal answer to the problems of perpetuating class power and of reviving the capacity to absorb the surpluses that capitalism must produce to survive. [5]

http://newleftreview.org/?view=2740

[hootinholler]

7. Union busting. n/t

[jeff47]

8. Morning In America

Basically, Republicans were able to use social issues to separate workers from unions. With that done, there was no one who could effectively push for higher wages.

(Even if you're non-union, the competition from union shops increases your wages.)

[ParkieDem]

11. Fiat currency.

In the early 1970s, the last vestiges of the gold standard went away. This was caused largely because of the oil shock, but also due to debts the US had accrued during Vietnam. This allowed governments to inflate away lots of problems.

[HiPointDem]

14. deliberate attack on the working class by any and all means necessary.

[coalition_unwilling]

5. In 1980, Americans elected a union-busting fatcat. That's

when the lines really start to diverge. Who was that union-busting fat cat????

Thanks for posting and a good palliative.

[NNN0LHI]

10. And a lot of those Reganites are still with us too

Usually they are about my age and they try to convince everyone this is all President Obama's fault even though he was still a kid when this happened.

They think everyone is as stupid as they are.

Don

[toddwv]

13. They should add a line to that chart...

[img][/img]