Who Screwed the Middle Class?

[midnight]

"Can we point to specific pieces of legislation or specific agency decisions that have retarded wage growth? In fact, we can—things like tax policy, financial deregulation, the decline of antitrust enforcement, and anti-union rulings by the NLRB all played a role. By themselves, though, these just aren't enough to account for what's happened. So what's the smoking gun when it comes to the impact of politics on wage stagnation and growing income inequality?"

"One is an environment in which firms face only moderate competition in product markets and limited pressure from shareholders, allowing them to pass on a significant share of growth to their employees. This characterized the period from the late 1940s through the mid 1970s, but it’s now long gone. The second is strong unions. I see little hope of that in America’s future. The third is full employment."



"full employment is only possible if the Federal Reserve is committed to it, and this is decidedly no longer the case:"http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/03/screwed-fed



Nafta was a big help in creating outsourcing or in sourcing of our jobs,,, And then they destroyed many private sector unions, and now they are coming for the public unions, and last Spring we were told that the U.S. was going to have a jobless recovery.....

[Jamastiene]

1. The Republicans and "conservative" Democrats did it.

When they do something to screw people, that seems to be the only time bipartisanship works, unfortunately.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

3. YOU ARE ON THE MONEY

[Tippy]

2. K&R