Happy Labor Day 3

The BBC carried this story " The End of the American Dream " which supports the previous two Labor Day blogs of how the American worker is increasing productivity but is receiving less and less reward This time it is according to some think-tank called the Economic Policy Institute .

"...For real household incomes, the median point - the level at which half of households earn more and half less - has actually fallen over the past five years..."

During the five years from 2000 to 2005, the US economy grew in size from $9.8 trillion to $11.2 trillion, an increase in real terms of 14%.
Productivity - the measure of the output of the economy per worker employed - grew even more strongly, by 16.6%.

But over the same period, the median family's income slid by 2.9%...The wages of households of African or Hispanic origin fell even faster. Average hourly real wages for both college and high school graduates actually fell between 2000 and 2005, and fewer of the jobs they found carried benefits such as health care or company pensions.

One way to comprehend what is happening is to look at the split between how much of the economy is won by profits and how much by wages. The share allotted to corporate profits increased sharply, from 17.7% in 2000 to 20.9% in 2005, while the share going to wages has reached a record low.

The incomes of the top 20% have grown much faster than earnings of those at the middle or bottom of the income distribution. The income of the top 1% and top 0.1% have grown particularly rapidly.
From 1992 to 2005, the pay of chief executive officers of major companies rose by 186%.
The equivalent figure for median hourly wages was 7.2%, leaving the ratio of CEOs' pay to that of the average worker at 262.
In the 1960s, the comparable figure was 24.

Sorry to have put some into a vegative , comatose state with figure after figure , statistic after statistic in these last few blogs but the message should be rammed home . Capitalism is for The Rich .