How Sweet It Is. Or Is That Sweat? Depends On Your Job.

I know that some of my friends will disagree with me on this, but here goes anyway. There's been a lot said about income inequality, whether it exists or not. Or rather, is income inequality increasing? Well the answer is, absolutely. And the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the Bloomberg Report all agree it is. I'm sure a lot of others agree too, but these I've seen. First a few facts. In 2007, companies generated $378,000 per worker, in 2011 they generated $420,000 per worker. But  during that time workers incomes did not go up at all. But profits increased 23%. So if profits went up by 23% and worker production increased by $42,000 per worker, but workers didn't get a dime extra pay, where do you suppose all the 23% profit went to? If it's just floating around in the air, I'd like to buy a big net to catch some myself. The only thing that's stopping me is I don't know where to swing the net. Not only are wages frozen, but in many industries wages are down significantly. Take Caterpillar as an example. They're hiring workers for a new high tech locomotive plant at $12 per hour. At $24,000 per year, you won't be able to send you kids to college or even a trade school. Maybe you can get them a job next to you on the production line. But if things continue, that $12 an hour will still be in effect and they won't be able to move out of the house. Gives a new meaning to the term, multi-family dwellings. Here's another factlet. Midwestern Auto factories' wages have gone from $28 an hour to $15 per hour. For the same work. For the same hours. And they capped lifetime wages at $19 an hour. So if you started there out of high school last year, you can plan on making no more than $19 an hour when you retire about 50 years from now. Let's see, that comes to about eight cents per hour increase per year. So let's do a little more math. If inflation remains at 2% for those fifty years, that comes to thirty cents per hour. At that rate, by the time you retire fifty years from now, you'll be making somewhere around $8 per hour, adjusted for inflation. Which is okay because minimum wage will still be only $7.25 per hour. Well how come this is happening to us, you may ask? You may ask, but they don't want to answer you. Part of the problem is that there are few unions any more. Which means there's nobody to stand up for you. So companies can pay you what they want. What can you do about it? Quit is about all. And during a recession, there's somebody else who needs that job desperately. It's called market economics. It's sorta like having somebody putting their foot on your neck and telling you to smile for the camera. Folks may think unions are a bad word, but that bad word helped put a lot of sons and daughters through college and provided for a comfortable lifestyle and an old age  people could enjoy instead of fret over.