Paying Workers Enough to Live Is Communism

Pharoah Bloomberg: Paying Workers Enough to Live Is Communism | | AlterNet.

“How to Create a Depression” by Martin Feldstein

European political leaders may be about to agree to a fiscal plan which, if implemented, could push Europe into a major depression. To understand why, it is useful to compare how European countries responded to downturns in demand before and after they adopted the euro.

“How to Create a Depression” by Martin Feldstein.

The worst-paying cities for women

While it’s been nearly a century since women across the country won the right to vote and the right to work alongside men, equal pay continues to remain a distant goal.

via Bottom Line – The worst-paying cities for women.

Is decoupling real? « Consider the Evidence

Since the 1970s, income growth for middle-class American households has become decoupled from growth of the economy.

via Is decoupling real? « Consider the Evidence.

Paychecks for young adults getting slimmer

Wages for young workers have been declining for more than a decade. They fell off a cliff during the Great Recession to levels not seen since the 1970s for certain groups of entry-level workers, according to new data from center-left think tank the Economic Policy Institute.

via Life Inc. – Paychecks for young adults getting slimmer.

Bye Bye American Pie: The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution

So while the productivity revolution is indubitably good, the task ahead is to figure out how to distribute more of its gains to more of our people.

via Robert Reich Bye Bye American Pie: The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution.

Jobs Returning Slowly as Wages Lag

The pressure on wages has multiple causes. None of the main factors seems poised to change for the better. Advanced information technologies have slashed the ranks of many careers, such as travel agents. Competition from emerging markets has sliced away jobs on the factory floor and customer-service phone banks. Union membership has plunged, from some 35 percent of private sector workers in the early 1950s to 6.9 percent in 2010.

via Jobs Returning Slowly—as Wages Lag – Businessweek.

Eliminating Minimum Wages as a Jobs Plan?

Fox News said Cain’s opportunity zone plan risks angering unions because it would enact policies they consider bad policy, such as the elimination of the U.S. minimum wage.

Eliminating unemployment is a necessary yet not sufficient solution. We need living wages.  At issue here is not whether eliminating minimum wages would diminish joblessness (increase employment); rather it is to question living standards. Implementing a policy as this would create a larger poverty class. Even currently employed workers in affected areas would suffer as they would now be competing in a race to the bottom.

via Cain to scrap minimum wage in poor areas? – politics – Decision 2012 – msnbc.com.

Occupy Wall Street protests and “The Decline of the West”

Corporations are creatures of statute. There is no Common Law of corporations, they are instruments licensed by the state originally in aid of certain public objectives. But few of these objectives are left. With the passage of time, corporate charters have lost any power to keep corporations in check. What is left? Only the pursuit of wealth. As Baron Thurlow reportedly said, “Corporations have no soul to save and no body to incarcerate.” Their charter is in the gift of the public. They have no inherent right to exist.

via Occupy Wall Street protests and ‘The Decline of the West’ – The Washington Post.

Recession officially over, but US incomes kept falling

In a grim sign of the enduring nature of the economic slump, household income declined more in the two years after the recession ended than it did during the recession itself, new research has found.

via NYT: Recession officially over, but US incomes kept falling – Business – US business – The New York Times – msnbc.com.