George said:
So how do you feel about the bureaucratic pigs who multiply and flourish in
the power-centers of your "ideal" social structure.? By comparison, a
capitalistic pig is easy to target and depose.
They're what you described them as being. Bureaucratic pigs. There's
also corporate pigs. Sometimes one and the same. (Dick Cheney)
The U.S. is losing industry of every kind. Jobs which are being created
to replace these are inferior, pay wise, to those lost. They also offer
few, if any, benefits. For example, General Motors, the largest
automobile manufacturer in the U.S., is slashing benefits for retirees.
Not minor cuts, either. Combine this with the massive, and exploding
trade deficit with China and other nations, and the prognosis is grim.
"Today, it is more difficult than it has ever been for young workers to
surpass their parents' standard of living, thereby achieving the
proverbial American dream.
The decrease in opportunity is illustrated by the average earnings of
young men. Men born between 1938 and 1947, who were ages 25 to 34 in
1972, had average incomes of $30,000 that year (in 1993 dollars). Men
born between 1958 and 1967, by contrast, who were 25 to 34 in 1992,
averaged about $22,000 in that year-a precipitous drop (see Chart
1).[1] Similar trends prevail with regard to family and household
incomes,[2] although an increase in the number of two-earner families
and growth in fringe benefits have partially offset the effects of the
decline in individual wages.[3]
Overall, young men today have lower incomes than their counterparts did
in earlier years.[4] This reduction in relative well-being early in the
earnings cycle is likely to persist or even worsen as this generation
ages.[5] These economic trends could well have political consequences,
as those affected look for someone to blame for their downward
mobility."
(
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?N...ontent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=7705)
"As wages fell for the typical worker, executive pay soared. From 1989
to 2000, the wage of the typical (i.e., median) chief executive officer
grew 79.0%, and average compensation grew 342%. In 1965, CEOs made 26
times more than a typical worker; this ratio had risen to 72-to-1 by
1989 and to 310-to-1 by 2000. U.S. CEOs make about three times as much
as their counterparts abroad."
(
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/books_swa2002_swa2002intro)
