Parallel Universes
Predictably, while BushCo spins job numbers one direction, reality intrudes from 180 degrees out...
From
jobwatch.org:
One of the most remarkable aspects of the current downturn is that total wage and salary income (inflation adjusted) has not risen at all over the last three years. Moreover, the total wages and salaries generated by the private sector have actually fallen by 1.7%. Meanwhile, domestic profits grew by 57.5%. In other recent downturns total wages and profits grew in tandem, with total wage and salary income up by 3.7% over a comparable three-year period and domestic profits up by 12.6%.
Productivity has grown far faster, increasing 13.6% so far in this cycle versus a 6.2% increase in the same period of the last three business cycles. This greater productivity growth, however, has not translated into faster hourly wage growth, which was only slightly faster in this period compared to other cycles (2.2% compared to a 1.3% decline). BushCo: We make profits the old fashioned way, cracking the whip one worker at a time.
