If I can offer you some advice on the American version of Labor Day, stop reading the internet and go do something. I mean, finish reading this and then go do something.
Rather that recount at great length the pitiful condition of the labor movement in the United States – and, surprise, since it declined we've been working more hours, more productively, for essentially the same income we were earning 35 years ago – I'll simply ask you to review this series of nine figures summarizing the extent of wage stagnation in the past few decades. Like most non-wealthy Americans, when inflation is considered relative to (hypothetical) changes in my income I'm actually working for less money with each passing year. Meanwhile the people in charge seem to be doing alright. They must be smarter and better than the rest of us.
There is a breaking point for this.
I've no idea what it is or if I'll live to see it, but this trend can't continue indefinitely unless we revert to feudalism.
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Shit. We're probably going to revert to feudalism, aren't we.
mago says:
I've been saying basically the same thing since the 80's. And per usual, pissing in the dark against the wind.
Big R says:
Good news about feudalism: professors were affiliated with a fiefdom that owed direct allegiance to the king: the university.
So Ed, you're already a Baron on the new old order.
Glen H says:
Well, feudalism only really went away here in Australia in the 1960s.
If you were an Aboriginal Australian living on a station you lived a life effectively much like a medieval serf. You were not a citizen, your life was controlled to a degree where you had to apply to be able to leave the station, and were paid in food and goods, etc.
So, yes, we probably will revert to feudalism.
carrstone says:
I honestly attempted to read the Nine Charts article but when I reached "The first policy choice should be to quickly restore full employment. The Federal Reserve Board can do this by not raising interest rates", I was laughing so hard I had to stop. And not a mention of mobility between income-bands, either.
Oh well, 'another one bites the dust' as Freddy used to say.
I. J. Kennedy says:
I'd like to how places are charging $9 a glass of wine and $14 for a martini and there's a line.
John Danley says:
"I'd like to how places are charging $9 a glass of wine and $14 for a martini and there's a line."
Disenfranchisement recapitulates alcoholism as much as gambling. Compensatory adaptation for loss aversion and the paradoxical degree primates will go to in order to feel a sense of empowerment when there is none. Behavioral economics and its discontents.
doug says:
Carrstone, please go back and look at the data they present rather than just their (bogus?) remedy. The data shows workers have been, are, and most likely will be screwed by power of capital unless changes are made. Do they make the best suggestion for changes? I don't think so.
Do they show ordinary folks are taking it on the chin? YES.
Feudalism(along with women knowing their places) is the end game. Workers have no voice.
Emerson Dameron says:
Hey, a soi disant socialist from New England who looks like an alcoholic math professor was a major US political figure for awhile because he was the only one taking this seriously. Those who care about it should keep hammering away at it until it's like a song that plays on the radio every two hours.
Dave Dell says:
So many contributing factors. Too many people for the available jobs. Too few activities that actually create wealth as opposed to fringe activities that entertain or comment or lobby or advise or study or proselytize or add marginal (at best) value. No more easily exploitable resources of timber or minerals or free land.
On top of that, the U.S. is still marginally OK in this regard. Sure, we're on the downhill side of the trend in many ways but there's a lot of areas of the world where this has happened centuries ago.
As a side note: Even the capitalists don't want unregulated capitalism. Try starting up an automobile company today that doesn't use the "dealership" model.
doug says:
loss of unions is major contributing factor according to this article.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/one-big-reason-wages-are-stagnant-and-inequality-is-growing/
Dave Dell says:
Emerson – I still wear my Bernie button on my hat that I wear every day. Even here in red state NE (although it is a sort of oasis here in Lincoln) I still get people that start conversations about his efforts when they see it on my hat.
carrstone says:
@doug
No, once is enough, my sides still hurt.
If you want to earn more money, ask for a raise. The answer may astound you. Handing the responsibility for your own career to trade unions or the like indicates that you know that you're adding inadequate value to the undertaking or that you're a wuss.
There's still opportunity aplenty. Do some research of mobility between income quintiles and, if I remember right, you'll find that 56% of workers do reach the top 20% of earners category – trouble is, that's no guarantee that they'll stay there.
Rich S says:
Probably. Within our lifetime as well.
Rich S says:
I'm grateful, to a small extent, for the contibutions of carrstone and those like him, although he's not nearly as bad as some. He does serve to constantly remind us what sociopathic douchebags conservatives have become.
Gabe says:
If you want a fun afternoon speculating about how the world is going to end, take some time to play with the data at https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm and read up on the Gini Coefficient tipping point and the other factors that go into predicting social upheaval and violence in different countries. Some very smart people have been shouting about it in the US for decades, but they explain it in power point slides with excel charts so no one pays attention.
Major Kong says:
"We're probably going to revert to feudalism, aren't we. "
Serf's up!
Major Kong says:
We have unions and seniority-based promotions in the airline business because that's the safest way to do it.
A few airlines over the years have tried "merit" based promotions and it doesn't work. The pilot who gets promoted ends up being the one who is willing to fly the broken jet or push through a line of thunderstorms to save a bit of fuel.
Management wants the planes to move. Given free reign they will promote the ones who are willing to move the planes no matter what.
Even JetBlue has unionized, and they were one of the last holdouts.
But that's OK carrstone. When I see you shoot a Category III ILS down to minimums at the end of a 13-hour shift you can then call me a "wuss" for being in a union.
democommie says:
@Rich S:
They've been sociopathic douchebags for generations; they've just become even more nakedly in thrall to their ids.
democommie says:
I gather, Maj. Kong that a Category III ILS., is somewhat over the, "Bring me the BROWN pants, Ensign!", line.
Major Kong says:
A Category III ILS (Instrument Landing System) is the lowest weather minimums we can land. We can do it in as low as 300 feet visibility at certain airports.
Everything: aircraft, airport and crew needs to be working "full up" to do it.
carrstone says:
@Major Kong
Ah, ye olde anecdotal evidence; just a sec, lemme lie back more comfortably on this chaise longue and you can regale me with yet more anecdotes.
Skwerlhugger says:
I thought you were required to sit on your hands for a CAT III ILS, 'cause the bus can do it better than the bus driver. You're gonna be replaced by a drone driver sitting in a cubicle before I have a self-driving car.
Nunya says:
The only people I know with a pension are union members. Building wealth requires dependable earnings over a long period of time. The current at-will system is designed to prevent that.
Carrstone, I can't wait until you turn 50 and the world decides it's time for your downward mobility to begin.
Jestbill says:
Do I actually have to (semi) agree with Carrstone?! –first post–
Long ago, I took a little exam in an economics course and had to sit through a lecture to the class about how you couldn't do pushbutton economics.
You can't simply increase "this" to get "that" result. It's complicated.
Laughable or not–"full employment" is one of those things that has to be calculated, based on a bunch of rules of thumb. I wouldn't be surprised to hear some "expert" claim that we have been at full employment for months.
@Carrstone –second post–LOL! Doesn't matter that x% of workers reach some quintile if the quintiles are not representative/relevant because the top 1% are in the stratosphere.
Deggjr says:
As I understand Thomas Piketty, it takes capital and labor to create and over time capital takes an increasing share of the rewards. WWI and WWII temporarily elevated the value of labor but that elevation is dropping every year.
Who knows? Maybe Trump will be the modern day Theodore Roosevelt. I think it would take a republican to ride the wave of media owned by the rich.
But if that doesn't happen then it's feudalism/dark ages. Rich people get dumber with each generation.
Major Kong says:
Silly me carrstone. I forget that, like most conservatives, you think you personally invented the very concept of work.
In fact, you had to first invent bootstraps just so that you could pull yourself up by them.
Major Kong says:
@Skwerlhugger
You're half right.
A CAT III is indeed an autoland, but it's actually more work to set up and monitor an autoland than to just do it yourself.
I've seen autopilots "go stupid" plenty of times. They're not as good as you think they are.
Neither are drones. At least not yet. I'll probably be retired before they're that good.
getsmartin says:
@Major Kong – I recall a landing in London where I couldn't see the wingtip from my side window perspective. Impressive system…
Old Scold says:
Good troll, carrstone, nice troll. Go back to your bridge: https://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/speeches/2016/dud160411
waldoh says:
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
John (St John the Pacifist) Lennon 1970.
Talisker says:
@Big R:
All but the very oldest European universities postdate feudalism; but the direct allegiance to the king persisted, and had some interesting advantages. English and Scottish universities had their own Members of Parliament (elected by the university graduates) until 1950, and a couple of Irish ones still do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_constituency
Jenny C says:
"If you want to earn more money, ask for a raise. The answer may astound you." Spoken like someone who has no idea what it's like to work a minimum wage job.
Matt says:
@carrstone: Nothing adds value quite like a lovingly-tongued ringpiece, amirite?
carrstone says:
@Major Kong
Should I ever want to "shoot a Category III ILS down to minimums at the end of a 13-hour shift", I'll pay someone to do it for me.
I can afford it because I've never been in a union.
carrstone says:
@ Jenny C
Correct. I've never had to work at that income level.
The way you say it leads me to believe that you think that being paid at that level is a badge of honor. It's not, though, it's the pinnacle of a series of loser career choices.
carrstone says:
@Nunya
Mandated pension plans have such a bad rep that workers should be free to decide on their own whether to invest in a pension. Whether they do or don't should not be dependent on union membership. In fact, workers would be better off without a mandated retirement plan.
@Jestbill
D'you even know what 'quintiles' are?
@Old Scold
The point I was making is that there is mobility between the quintiles. I would also reiterate that the 56% I mention covers all workers and your 7.5% is applicable only to members of the bottom quintile reaching the top quintile.
This also seems a good place to point out that the oft-heard mournful cry of falling wages is a statistical sleight of progressive hand – since 1960 household size has fallen by a quarter. This means that where there was once ONE family, now, because of the collapse of that family, there are TWO family units. You do see that the original HH-income, when spread over two families, halves the per unit income in the new constellation? Do you?
@Major Kong
I grew up in a family in which we used string if we needed to tie our shoes; when we didn't, we went barefoot.
democommie says:
Cidneystone:
So, your lieberpublican nonsense is all because of "daddy issues"? That explains a lot, thanks for sharing
carrstone says:
@democommie
Your diagnostic skills haven't deserted you, then. Like all progressives, you think you've determined what ails me without any evidence.
You really should consider joining some church or other, you'd fit right in.
You've misspelled my name, unless it was an attempt at humor.
democommie says:
Wrong, asshole. You're a smug , facile, p.o.s. Determining that requires zero diagnostic skills. All it requires is reading any of your Randianfanboi fictions.
I'm not even close to being a progressive, moron.
carrstone says:
@democommie
Just asserting I'm wrong, no matter how flatteringly you clothe it, isn't even close to being a argument, it's just verbal pollution.
democommie says:
I'll leave it up to those who have bothered to refute your nonsense in the past to continue to do so; it frees me up for the important work of mocking your for being the overly entitled and privileged asshole that you continuously demonsrtate yourself to be. I'm putting you in for the 2016 James O'keefe Dickpublicanof the year award–you'll win it in a slither.