Free marketism, same ol same ol

[alvarezadams]

Neolib economic policies (as defended by the GOP and DLC) - as usual - help the wealthy and screw the rest:

Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: August 28, 2006
With the economy beginning to slow, the current expansion has a chance to become the first sustained period of economic growth since World War II that fails to offer a prolonged increase in real wages for most workers.

That situation is adding to fears among Republicans that the economy will hurt vulnerable incumbents in this year’s midterm elections even though overall growth has been healthy for much of the last five years.

The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. The drop has been especially notable, economists say, because productivity — the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic wellspring of a nation’s living standards — has risen steadily over the same period.

As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s. UBS, the investment bank, recently described the current period as “the golden era of profitability.”

Until the last year, stagnating wages were somewhat offset by the rising value of benefits, especially health insurance, which caused overall compensation for most Americans to continue increasing. Since last summer, however, the value of workers’ benefits has also failed to keep pace with inflation, according to government data.

At the very top of the income spectrum, many workers have continued to receive raises that outpace inflation, and the gains have been large enough to keep average income and consumer spending rising....

More at link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/business/28wages.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1156753061-QOVAme/fz4bhjvnHV9YTRQ

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EDIT: COPYRIGHT. PLEASE POST ONLY 4 OR 5
PARAGRAPHS FROM THE COPYRIGHTED NEWS SOURCE
PER DU RULES.

[cornermouse]

1. How can they consider the economy "healthy overall"

when people's wages aren't going up and when their spending power is decreasing unless they're only looking at immediate, very short term prospects? The economy is NOT healthy, its rapidly headed toward life support.

[alvarezadams]

5. It's called spin

What do you expect from the party of Rutherfraud... and from an admin that looks back at Harding with nostalgia?

[annabanana]

2. "free market" my ass..

the suppliers are free to go where ever they want..

the capital is certainly free to slide over anything quaintly labeled a "border"..

but that's it..

The "demander" (pretty good framing there) is bottled up. The consumer is pretty much the only thing bound. If we were free to purchase finished goods at the lowest global price, retail, THEN I might say they're serious about that "free market" business.

[alvarezadams]

4. I used the term "free market"...

... as it is used by conservatives of either party. That is to say, as a euphemism for the "neoliberal" economic policies which itself is a euphemism for "laissez faire" and "corporatism".

If there are any limits to "free marketism" they are in place because big business wants them. The idea of our government being "of, by and for the people" is anachronic - it is "of, by and for business and capital".

The conservative arguments such as "free markets will lower consumer prices" and "trickle down" are pure palaver. Maybe NOW, with things going from bad to worse, the indoctrinated electorate will finally begin to see the light. NAFTA and CAFTA weren't conceived in a vacuum - they are part and parcel of an economic ideology... as is outsourcing and the weakening of trade unionism.

If I hear that we're going to have to tighten our buckles in order to "compete" with Liberia, Haiti, Vietnam or Pakistan one more time I will be sick.

BTW, notice how health care benefits are factored in to the equation?

[ComerPerro]

7. Conservatives believe in a "free market" propped up by taxpayers

that is, take out all the risk for big corporations by giving corporate welfare and bailouts, but then let them keep all the reward as though they had actually risked their own capital.

[annabanana]

13. "Privatize the Profit, Nationalize the Risk"

(in a nutshell)

[ComerPerro]

14. yep, precisely

for example, pharma companies that want to taxpayers to fund their research, because it's "for the greater good", are defended by conservatives when they charge obsence prices for medicine and treatments because "they deserve to, they invested the capital to develop it"

[Greyhound]

3. Even using completely skewed, pro-corporate numbers they can

no longer hide the shameless looting that continues. :evilfrown:

[alvarezadams]

6. Yet the cogdis brigade...

...will continue to echo the mantras, memes and talkingpoints.

It's so much like a cult that it scares the bejesus out of me.

[donkeyotay]

8. That is sooo pre-9-11

The Haves and the Have Mores are all about terra now. Terra, Terra, Terra. September 11th changed everything, including their need to explain their funny notions about free markets.

[alvarezadams]

9. Sheesh!

I forgot! The world changed after 9/11.

What I'm not so sure of is if we're talking about the Chilean 9/11 or the American one.

[donkeyotay]

10. Now that I stop and think about it, I think I'll go with the Chilean one

Slightly OT, but I'm recommending everyone go see "Who Killed the Electric Car". It's a good study in a piece of their work.

Long live the EV1.

[donkeyotay]

11. What ever happened to making the pie higher?

Or are we just putting food on our families now? This can't be right. The article say that

wages and salaries now make up the lowest share ... while corporate profits have climbed to their highest

And they say the preznit isn't getting credit for the great economy. Too bad it would be fomentin' class warfare to point this out...

[alvarezadams]

12. Class warfare?

I'd volunteer for that particular battle.