denisdman wrote:
NWsider4-3-3 wrote:
communism is: i'll pretend to work if you pretend to pay me.
i'm sure there's no correlation with the dow at 30K, american workers more productive than ever and the shrinking to apprx. 6% of america's workforce in private sector unions. in 1982, the dow was under 1,000 and we had about 18% of the workforce in private sector unions. i happen to be one of today's 6% and thankful for it. no regrets not aspiring to be a vacuum cleaner salesman on commission. corporations have also wiggled out of paying pensions by making workers fund their own pensions with 401ks/IRAs.
it's quite simple. the money that used to go to labor now goes to shareholders. no secret why the dow is over 30k.
labor is to be paid fairly for the value it returns to capital? ok.
ups with estimated revenues of $102 billion for 2022. ups has 535k workers. each worker averages $191k in producing revenue, average pay & benefits at ups is not $191k per year.
You have a few good points in there. Real wages have generally been stagnant despite longer term productivity gains. The share of income going to companies has been the highest in history. American companies have been incredibly efficient in wringing out costs and optimizing their businesses. Income inequality remains a major issue.
But there is a lot to be thankful in our system despite its flaws. We generally have lower unemployment than our social democratic first world peers. Our per capita GDP is much higher than them. And for all the concern about the shrinking middle class, it is not because of people moving down, but rather we have the largest percentage moving up into the upper middle class. I have posted those detailed stats before.
So I ask you, which country would you rather trade positions with? It must be done in whole. What makes us great also creates liabilities like a larger percentage of people in poverty. You want Germany? Sweden? China? Japan?
i don't believe we are too far off in thought.
yes, i made good points that most could make. it's obvious what has occurred in the usa over the last 55 or so years. the pendulum has swung too far towards capital/away from unions and income inequality is a nasty result.
we've only disagreed on trump's tariffs. i'm not for a closed or mercantilistic economy. the tariffs were/are a temporary tool. a necessary tool. as you mentioned above:
Quote:
American companies have been incredibly efficient in wringing out costs and optimizing their businesses.
yes. very true. china also knows this and refuses to be left to it's own devices in developing tech for it's industries by spending money through trial and error to optimize and increase margins. they prefer to steal, to extort, to pressure americans companies who seek the chinese market for export/commerce and/or chinese cheap labor. besides the dumping of junk and resources,china's behavior towards taiwan, the phillipines and vietnam, it's treatment of non-han chinese and chinese muslims...covid...etc....etc.
tariffs, at the very least, opened their eyes and they signed a 1st phase agreement, only to ignore their signatory obligations by waiting out trump. they waited him out and appear to be on the verge of winning. very disheartening, but biden is under intense pressure from the establishment to remove all those tariffs...as the chinese grease their pockets and our government turns it's head the other way from nefarious chinese behavior.
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