For those who have a slight grasp of economics this is astonishing. Let me explain, labor costs = American wages. By increasing the supply of labor, wages decrease. This is basic economics of supply and demand. So the way the Republicans want to create jobs in America is to saturate the American labor pool with more workers, increasing unemployment, and driving down the American standard of living.
The wages of the American middle class has been almost flat for almost an entire generation. “The typical worker has had stagnating wages for a long time, despite enjoying some wage growth during the economic recovery of the late 1990s.”
The one demographic that has had better performing wages has been college educated employees. Most government workers are college educated thus have a higher standard of living and wage packages than high school educated workers.
The conservative assault on our standard of living has been incremental, first the GOP has driven private unions into the dirt over the last 30 years, now they are attacking the public sector unions with the same intentions.
The Republicans have now turned their sights, not only on the unions, but all working class wages. This is precisely what liberals have been warning would happen if conservatives ever took control of our government.
The basic foundation of a strong economy is wages. Without wages there isn’t demand, without demand, there isn’t economic growth. That is unless all economic demand is controlled by the elite. If economic demand predominately comes from the top 10% of Americans there isn’t a need to increase the wages of the middle class. This has been called a plutonomy, an economy of, for, and by the rich.
The data may be a further sign that the U.S. is becoming a Plutonomy-an economy dependent on the spending and investing of the wealthy. And Plutonomies are far less stable than economies built on more evenly distributed income and mass consumption. “I don’t think it’s healthy for the economy to be so dependent on the top 2% of the income distribution,” Mr. Zandi said. He added that, “In the near term it highlights the fragility of the recovery.”
Essentially the working class is only needed to make the things that the rich buy.
I don’t see anything in GOP plan to reduce CEO compensation that has spiked through the roof. Just recently the CEO of Ford received a 54 million dollar salary. This is 500 times the average workers’ salary at Ford, if the worker made $100,000/yr. In the world of the conservatives, this should be celebrated as the American success story. Really? The only people allowed to live a comfortable lifestyle and have their standard of living continue to increase are the executives in the country?
The GOP obviously sees no need to manipulate the money out of the hands of the CEOs and bring a portion of that economic growth into the hands of the working class, the employees who made the company successful.
The core of American exceptionalism is our democracy and our standard of living, unfortunately both are under assault under the oppressive direction of the current republican regime in the states and the federal government.
LINK TO ACTUAL DOCUMENT- http://www.speaker.gov/Uploade…
Ramen noodles for everyone!
nopolitician says
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p>So the 1st plank is to make people work for less money, and the 4th plank is to make them “work more, save more (since they will need to due to Social Security being eliminated) and retire later”.
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p>I’m glad to see they’re finally coming clean.
kirth says
This has been the unstated agenda of Republican policy since Reagan. Remember single-income blue-collar families? They’re history, and it’s no accident.
eaboclipper says
because your side has regulated them away.
kirth says
They’re gone because workers in Guangdong will put up with microscopic wages and dormitory living, and corporate thinkers would rather reward Wall Street gamblers than working people.
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p>There are still some blue-collar jobs in the US, but you can no longer support a family on what one of them pays. It’s all part of the Plan.
ray-m says
FIRST-It’s Big Business that pushes for regulation to start with to eliminate competition, rather than compete,also the Sherman Anti Trust law is no longer enforced, thanks in major part by Reagan
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p>Second- The free trade agreement initiated by Reagan and completed by Clinton. Remember NAFTA was signed by GHW Bush and then signed into OUR laws by Clinton…but Bush negotiated it.
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bob-neer says
What regulations, precisely, are you talking about?
hesterprynne says
Ex-Pennsylvania GOP Senator Rick Santorum, in New Hampshire yesterday, opined on another route to fixing Social Security. From the Concord Monitor:
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kirth says
More minimum-wage people. More out-of-work people. More serfs.
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p>Sure – that’s the ticket.
hesterprynne says
That’s the ticket!
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christopher says
…between the masses having good jobs at good wages and creating the demand necessary for their corporate friends to remain profitable?
nopolitician says
We are engaged in a massive race to the bottom. It would be insane for any single company to try and run against that race. The only way to turn things around is via government intervention.