GDP growth not reaching paychecks

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: CNN.COM

The economic expansion that began six years ago has failed to benefit most workers, according to a report from the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, released Monday.

Productivity growth, although slower of late, has been strong since 2000. After a sluggish start in the period, employment has picked up, although at a slower pace than in past recoveries. Yet, that growth hasn't transferred to workers' paychecks, particularly for workers at the lower and middle end of the pay scale, the report found.

After rising quickly in the second half of the 1990s, most workers real wages have been stagnant in the 2000s, especially since 2003.

While productivity jumped almost 20 percent since 2000, the real median hourly wage of all workers rose just 3 percent in the same period. Since 2003, productivity has risen 5 percent, while the median hourly wage fell 1.1 percent.



Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/03/news/economy/epi_report/index.htm?cnn=yes

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And yet, Wall Street whores blame the consumer when their little market gets a tummy ache.

[iaviate1]

1. The money is going to the fat bonuses of our CEOs.

Our CEO made more than our entire company's profit last year... and we're 55,000+ employees strong! We're also working more overtime and not being paid for it, so that's one of the ways our country has been the most productive. That and it's difficult to find a job that will give you more than 2 weeks off per year unlike our European counterparts who have much more holiday.

[Skittles]

3. exactly

YOU KNOW IT, IAVIATE1 - WELCOME TO DU :hi:

[Paulie]

2. Yep, no raise for me since being outsourced

In my third year. My fuel costs doubled, electric rates are no longer frozen, and have a 10 month old. Though my new boss (#4 since 2005) promised me he'll fix this for next year, which is Apr/08. May be true, probably beyond his control.

Any more of this economic expansion and I'll be looking to sell the house in a dead market. Sigh.

[Skittles]

4. it is indeed depressing, Paulie

there simply is no security anymore - working hard and being a good person just doesn't seem to mean much these days. I was talking to a friend about it the other day - I said, you know, I used to think of myself as middle class but I don't any longer - because there simply is no security in anything anymore

[MikeNearMcChord]

5. And yet some idiot editor from Fortune Magazine says Americans are lazy?

Why work you ass off if there is no reward?

[rodeodance]

6. well, the UN says the US beats all in productivity--!!

[Triana]

7. THIS IS EXACTLY What John Edwards Was Saying in a Recent Video

...that any prosperity seen in the past 6 years is only going to the VERY rich - the middle/lower class is seeing none of it.

He was RIGHT.

[TheMadMonk]

8. It'll trickle down (our backs) eventually. n/t

[Vinca]

9. The economic expansion is happening on foreign shores.

The money comes back to the corporation. The little guy is long gone and easily forgotton . . . until you see him flipping burgers at Mickey D's for minimum wage. That $25 an hour manufacturing job with benefits is a memory. So is his house.

[hootinholler]

10. I'm still down 30% since my wages peaked. n/t

[Lasher]

11. Productivity growth statistics are flawed

All this is true but there is another important part of the equation. The government is using flawed statistics to calculate GDP, which produces artificially high numbers. For instance, production at US-owned offshore subsidiaries is being counted as part of the USA's GDP.

This was posted here at DU awhile back.

[skids]

13. Which makes this a kinda fun meme...

...I know in some sectors productivity is through the roof. People who who normally be fuckoffs are working like frightened idiots to keep their jobs. However, you're right in that the aggregate GDP growth is not saying what this article or the U.N. report thinks it says, unless they found a way to account for both the offshoring and the "storm damage raises the GDP" problem.

But if the average American gets ahold of it they'll not know this and get resentful and start voting pro-union. So there may come pressure to get the GDP stats back to reality.

A little hoisting on ones own petard.

[Lasher]

16. What a cheerful prospect!

I like that scenario. Our wealthy elite would then be faced with the dilemma: Fix the flawed GDP calculation or not? I believe they will not because they are more keenly interested in perpetuating the myth that Reaganesque 'supply side' advantages for the richest 1% can be counted on for positive overall economic results.

[Orsino]

12. That's not money trickling down on us. n/t

[sendero]

14. And the bleating financial press..

... doesn't understand why surveys of the American public result in an outlook far less rosy than the GDP and other numbers seem to indicate. They are fond of blaming it on misperception on the part of the rank and file, but it's not.

[Javaman]

15. "the rising tide...

lifts all yachts, I mean boats" to paraphrase ray-gun.

but he never stated what kind of tide.

The rising tide of bullshit?

The rising tide of hypocrisy?

The rising tide of unemployment?

The rising tide of low wages?

moron* tries so hard to be that other ray-gun that the repukes get hard-ons for yet, the best he* can do is a bad imitation of bonzo.

[CrispyQ]

17. In Senator Dorgan's book "Take This Job & Ship It!"

he states that if minimum wage had kept up with CEO pay since 1990, minimum wage would be $23.08 per hour.

:wow:

Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America by Byron Dorgan

http://www.amazon.com/Take-This-Job-Ship-Brain-Dead/dp/0312374356/ref=sr_1_2/102-2338533-6255352?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188914839&sr=8-2