"Most important contributor to profit margin is decline in labor's share."

[DeepModem Mom]

WP op-ed: Devaluing Labor
By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, August 30, 2006; Page A19

Labor Day is almost upon us, and like some of my fellow graybeards, I can, if I concentrate, actually remember what it was that this holiday once celebrated. Something about America being the land of broadly shared prosperity. Something about America being the first nation in human history that had a middle-class majority, where parents had every reason to think their children would fare even better than they had.

The young may be understandably incredulous, but the Great Compression, as economists call it, was the single most important social fact in our country in the decades after World War II. From 1947 through 1973, American productivity rose by a whopping 104 percent, and median family income rose by the very same 104 percent. More Americans bought homes and new cars and sent their kids to college than ever before. In ways more difficult to quantify, the mass prosperity fostered a generosity of spirit: The civil rights revolution and the Marshall Plan both emanated from an America in which most people were imbued with a sense of economic security.

That America is as dead as the dodo. Ours is the age of the Great Upward Redistribution. The median hourly wage for Americans has declined by 2 percent since 2003, though productivity has been rising handsomely. Last year, according to figures released just yesterday by the Census Bureau, wages for men declined by 1.8 percent and for women by 1.3 percent.

As a remarkable story by Steven Greenhouse and David Leonhardt in Monday's New York Times makes abundantly clear, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of gross domestic product since 1947, when the government began measuring such things. Corporate profits, by contrast, have risen to their highest share of the GDP since the mid-'60s -- a gain that has come chiefly at the expense of American workers.

Don't take my word for it. According to a report by Goldman Sachs economists, "the most important contributor to higher profit margins over the past five years has been a decline in labor's share of national income."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901042.html?nav=hcmodule

[pooja]

1. Yes, Labor Day is another day where most of us work in servitude

for the rich and the extremely fortunate that still have the day off. I know I will be working (cheers).

[The2ndWheel]

2. I'm not saying it's a bad thing

Remember, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. NOT, saying it's a bad thing. That's no as in not a bad thing.

People of color getting their rights, getting higher incomes. Women entering the workforce full time, also getting higher incomes. There's only so much of the pie that can go around.

Now you throw in developing nations around the world, and corporate interests having access to millions, sometimes billions of added people.

What's the range of dates there? 1947 to 1973. Women start working more outside of the house by the 70's, minorities finally being considered human beings by then, more capitalism around the world.

I think I have to repeat myself, because people do read into things. I'm NOT saying that's a bad thing.

Saying all that, is CEO compensation out of whack? Obviously, but we live in a capitalized world. Not only is capital more important than labor, it's also capitalizing on a situation.

There is more access to more people today than ever before. There is more automation, which lessens the need for human hands. We use more energy today than ever, which also takes people out of the equation.

Well we should be more like Europe. Well, they're not perfect either, and they're going to have their own problems in the coming years. Welcome to the 21st century. It ain't gonna be fair.

[bananas]

3. Will Bush name a new holiday, "Owner Day"?

Now that we are an owenership society, it would seem like the thing to do.