Posted on 08/24/2014 6:54:55 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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I wish few of us could find a way to get hired over at Card Member Services...You know, the ones that call you a lot to ask you if you want to reduce your credit card debt, and improve your interest rates on existing cards???
Wonderful people, I just wanna “hug” all of them, from the janitor, customer service people, to the CEO...
Then...
“In fact, wages have been going down in real terms since 1969.”
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I don’t think there is any room for doubt. In 1969 the minimum wage was $1.60 per hour. Full time meant forty hours a week, not thirty. Unadulterated regular gasoline with no ethanol added could be had for about $.31/gallon in SC. so one hour at minimum wage grossed enough to buy a little more than five gallons. Pure gasoline without ethanol now costs me $4.00/gallon so it takes over twenty dollars to buy the gasoline that one hour of minimum wage would buy then. The ratio on food and such is about the same. My estimate is that in terms of basic NECESSITIES it would take AT LEAST twenty dollars an hour now to equal the buying power of the 1969 minimum wage of $1.60. I reached the age of 25 in that year and had a salary of $7000. a year. Very few people I know now earn enough to match the buying power of that $7000. Before I turned twenty six the following year I had been granted a ten percent increase to $7700. Such merit increases were not at all uncommon then, anything less than an eight percent annual raise was considered stingy. At $7700. I lived as well as someone making $100,000. or more now. How many 25 year olds do you know who earn that kind of money now?
For any of the younger set who think I am just blowing smoke ask yourself how young men used to graduate from high school, go to work in a factory and become married homeowners and fathers by the age of 22. Tell me how many can do that now. In fact how long has it been since it even made sense for a young man to attempt to do that? I still read a lot of stuff about how the world is so filled with wealth now compared to the past and it may be true but the average American working person is nowhere near as well off now as in 1969, IT AIN’T EVEN CLOSE.
+1
“So a kid with a 200,000 education is too unskilled to get a 0-100k job but an illegal sneaking over the border has the skills?”
That’s the GOPelite/Democrat party line.
The biggest impediments to hiring good workers are managers that write extensively detailed ‘requirements’ and ‘qualifications’ lists and the HR bimbos that scrape everyone off the list that doesn’t meet each and every one of those nonsense requirements.
How about a few more of them: Union contracts, prevailing-wage laws, and the Jones Act.
What's driving this is productivity in every industry (even government, if you can believe that). Your statement that "good paying jobs in manufacturing have been transferred abroad" doesn't really get to the heart of the matter. Even with many good paying jobs in manufacturing being transferred abroad, the U.S. still leads the world in industrial output. That's true ... the U.S. manufactures more than China, more than Japan, and even more than the entire European Union combined.
The reason for this is that it simply takes less human labor to produce a single unit of anything that can be produced by human hands. The number of "good paying jobs in manufacturing" that have been moved overseas is miniscule to the "good paying jobs in manufacturing" that have been lost to automation.
According to recently published data from the United Nations, the fear that China will displace the United States as the world's largest manufacturing nation has been realized. Manufacturing value-added in China totaled $1.92 trillion in 2010 while U.S. manufacturing value-added was $1.86 trillion.[1] China therefore accounted for 18.7 percent of world manufacturing in 2010 while the U.S. share was 18 percent. When measured in terms of U.S. dollars, China is the largest manufacturing nation in the world.
China Widens Lead as World’s Largest Manufacturer
According to the latest research from the United Nations, China has further outpaced its competitors in world manufacturing, generating $2.9 trillion in output annually versus $2.43 trillion from the U.S., the world’s second-largest manufacturing economy.
Over the last two years, China’s manufacturing sector has made strong gains, while the U.S. has been mired in economic and political doldrums.
“In 2011, China’s manufacturing output surged by 23 percent while manufacturing output in the U.S. only increased by 2.8 percent,” the American Enterprise Institute explains. “That brought China’s manufacturing output last year to more than $2.9 trillion, which was almost half a trillion dollars (and 20 percent) more manufacturing output than the $2.43 trillion of manufacturing output that was produced in the U.S. last year.”
Depending on what statistics you believe, the EU now exceeds the US in manufacturing output. In any event, it is about the same.
The reason for this is that it simply takes less human labor to produce a single unit of anything that can be produced by human hands. The number of "good paying jobs in manufacturing" that have been moved overseas is miniscule to the "good paying jobs in manufacturing" that have been lost to automation.
I have no source to verify your assertion. Regardless of the cause there are less good paying jobs in manufacturing. I might add that I have traveled to China and seen some of the factories that international businesses have set up there, including many US firms. They have the latest in automation technology. Coupled with cheap and educated labor, they can compete in terms of productivity.
The American worker is being threatened at home and abroad. The importation of foreign workers to take American jobs and depress wages does not bode well for our future.
And, the most important external intervention of all...
Massive legal and illegal immigration.
In 2013, we issued 1.1 million new Green Cards, most of them to low skill, low education workers.
In 2013, we created 750,000 new citizens, most of them low skill, low education workers.
In 2013, we issued or extended about 650,000 work visas, most of them to medium skill workers.
In 2013, we had about 7 million illegal workers, most of them low skill and low education.
The “natural” wage scale for low skill workers in America has been crushed.
The “natural” salary scale for certain skilled occupations in America - like software engineers - has been stagnant for 15 years.
What's he expect? He's paying 1989 wages...
Gezzz
‘What’s he expect? He’s paying 1989 wages... “
A friend is a substitute teacher. He’s making 8.75/hour. You must live in California.
Agreed. They place I work has had a revolving door of low end workers who have been supporting themselves through school or supplementing spouses as the couple betters itself.
Now the revolving door has low end workers who are leaving for low end jobs with slightly better pay, or closer to their homes because of gas prices (which is a different sort of raise).
Also government regulations have made the work more dangerous. These are jobs that used to make 15 to 18 per hour in 2003. and are now being booked in at 9 to 12.
The corporation is looking for slaves. Leftists are looking for slaves. We are going back to a slave economy.
The one item in the article that isn’t relevant to this discussion is the shortage of qualified truck drivers. There are many factors tied to that problem that have nothing to do with the labor force or the qualifications of workers.
_________________
The US tightened fed regs and took truckdriving out of voc high schools last year and made it a voc college programjust in time as NAFTA opened the border to Mex drivers. Of course US drivers are welcome to work in Mexico, but do not because it is so unsafe. Again a one way steet.
Get real pal....If you’re making 8.75 per hour in 2014 anywhere in the U.S., you’d better be living in your parents house and have no bills...
Some of you people have not a clue....
Getting back to the original question:
1. Do you think China has grown to this position because the U.S. is importing tens of millions of immigrants?
2. Do you think the loss of "good paying jobs in manufacturing" is a cause of a problem, or an effect of something else?
What exactly does the term "natural wage scale" mean in the context of this?
Well, I’m not sure I want to start a debate about language here.
Namely, what is - or, what is not - external intervention.
My point is that overt government policies on immigration have flooded America with a huge oversupply of labor, most of it low skill, low education labor.
When the supply of labor is larger than the demand for labor, wages go down.
And that is exactly what has happened in America for the last 20 years.
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