Robert Reich is brilliant buy who sometimes simplifies things too much. But in this he is far too mild. I’ve analyzed these data and related data for hundreds of hours and it’s far more shocking and disturbing than he portrays here. Here are a couple other ways to look at it. When I was 17-19, cleaning toilets in Aspen CO, I made $29/hour in today’s dollars. My rent was 12 hours/month of work (living in the heart of Aspen). My ski pass for the year was 12 hours of work total. Most food was free. New ski gear every season was 20-30 hours of work total. A seasons worth of auxiliary consumables (ski wax, …, it was Aspen) was 20-30 hours of work total. Working hard 3 days a week and skiing hard 4 days a week, and saving money. It was a good life. Today’s workers get close to minimum wage (less than we made in nominal dollars in 1978) which is $2/hr in 1978 wages. Another way to put this is to look at educated middle class workers. Newley minted PhD in science, or a new MD, or similar, today earns in the vicinity of $100K - 200K out of school, or $28K-56K in 1978, about the same. The world hasn’t changed that much for those with good social connections and good educations. Most people who vote are closer to the second group. They see relatively little change. But the change is substantial. In time it will be transformational for the US, and probably not in a good way. front.moveon.org/how-workers-can-get-a-fair-shake-a-labor-day-message-from-robert-reich/#.UiUrixZ-QUU
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 01:44:05 +0000