Wages

       Tomorrow is Labor Day. Time to rejoice. Enjoy the fruits of your labor. You averaged a 2.7 % increase this year. Of course goods and services have increased 2.9% so you all have, in effect, taken a cut in pay. Ain't that the way? How's a body supposed to get ahead. I guess the only way to do that is to get hired as a corporate executive of some big company. They're pay has increased about 18% this year. Think about this. Starting from your very first paycheck to the last pay you will ever receive, your total of all those years won't equal just one year's paycheck of one of these CEOs.
       Your whole life isn't worth one year's pay for a big shot corporate executive. Is that the way things are supposed to work out? Does anyone think these corporate executives work harder than you? No! They work smarter than you. And they have the money. Just remember this, when they say our economy is humming along great, what they mean is the top execs and stockholders are making boatloads of extra money but there just isn't any left for you guys.
       How come, you may ask. Well, back when there were labor unions and they were strong in membership, they could force the corporations to share the wealth a little bit. Now the corporate execs don't want to admit it but the unions actually helped the workers. After all, that was their job. But then unions fell out of favor with workers. Partly because some union leaders were less than honest. And then states started "right to work" rules that said they didn't have to pay dues for the benefits the unions brought them.
       Unions aren't the only help workers got, but the long and the short of the story is, you lost .2% of income this year and the boss got an increase of about 17.98%. A good deal for him, not so great for you. Just saying.