How's everyone feelng about this great capitalist country of ours?

Question

in 1980..the average compensation of a CEO was 40 times that of an average worker, today the average is 500 times that of an average worker.

In 1979 the American worker's average hourly wage was equal to $15.91 (adjusted for inflation). By 1989 it had reached only $16.63/hour. That's a gain of only 7 cents a year for the entire Reagan decade.
 
But wait. Things get worse! By 1995 it had risen to only $16.71, or virtually no gain whatsoever over the 6 years between 1989 and 1995. During the great 'boom years' between 1995 and 2000 it rose briefly to $18.33 per hour. In other words, from 1979 to 2000, even before the most recent Bush recession, after more than two decades the American worker's average wages increased on average only 11.5 cents per hour per year! With nearly all of that coming in the five so-called 'boom' years of 1995-2000, and most of that lost once again in the last three years. And that includes for all workers, even those with college degrees.
 
The picture is worse for workers who had no college degree. That's more than 100 million workers, or 72.1% of the workforce. For them there was no 'boom of 1995-2000' whatsoever. Their average real hourly wages were less at the end of 2000 than they were in 1979! And since 2000 their wages have continued to slide further.
 


Maybe we should work harder america! 

With 1992 as base year, productivity was at 82.2 in 1979. It grew to 94.2 by 1989 and 116.6 by the year 2000. In the past year, moreover, it has exploded, putting it over 120. That's a nearly 40% increase since Ronald Reagan took office.

The American worker not only works more hours in a year than his counterpart in other industrialized nations, but is the only worker in the 13 major industrialized countries whose hours worked per year actually increased since 1979. 

*these figures were only up until the year 2000..since then, the CEO pay has doubled and the average worker pay has decreased.

How much farther down will we go folks?  Don't cry anything of socialism,communism etc..they are just as horrible.

We need to address this do we not? or do we just shut up and work harder?

The Whistling Gypsy · Accepted Answer

We need to get away from schooling the next generation to be 19th-Century factory workers.  We need to teach people how to understand our economic and political system instead of accepting unverified claims as fact.  Incidentally, your figures for CEO income seem conservative.

josephson · Answer

it can not be conceivable to have a severe paid interest yet there is not any rationalization why honestly everyone could not be gainfully employed with authentic looking income, as an celebration, there are literally not adequate vacancies in spite of if all of us wanted to become refuse creditors or mind surgeons besides the indisputable fact that the authorities could create artwork to rebuild the country's crumbling infrastructure with the money they waste on conflict. in very truth we stay in a grasping society and in case you dare criticise someone about the money they earn they use the platitude of perfect this second " we are all operating very complicated" meaning they're doing no better than all and sundry else. you're making the valid factor that in spite of if people knowledgeable themselves there does not be adequate severe paid jobs for them to have one. regrettably it truly is a characteristic of capitalist economics to coach too a lot of people for too few jobs to shop the labour fee low, it got here about contained in the Nineteen Fifties with apprenticeships causing the market to became flooded with experienced those who could not locate artwork in later years. the linked fee of the labour fee dropped because of authorities salary restraint and people had to artwork for only their fee. perfect this second there are extra young children than ever with a level searching that they ought to artwork in an unskilled means after being informed they're both over qualified for a particular interest or don't have any artwork journey, a catch 22 project and intensely unfair. yet our flesh pressers do not look to care and no human being needs to entice close, is it any ask your self that British honestly everyone seems stated to be the unhappiest in Europe.

Anonymous · Answer

I didn't realise that you earn so little in the US. I'm a teacher and I earn anywhere between $50 to $100 an hour

wtinc · Answer

What makes America a great country is the fact that you too can go to school and become one of those you like to hate so much. So stop being lazy go to school and score big. How come you don't complain about Actors, movie makers, professional sports players they make more for a one hour game than do CEO?

cornbread_oracle · Answer

Quit dithering around on the Internet and get back to work.

That drive thru line is probably wrapped around the building twice by now.

Anonymous · Answer

Isn't it nice that we are free to post things like this on Yahoo without worrying about the government showing up at our house and killing us?

Minister of Truth · Answer

Hmm, capitalism is bashed here, but socialism is also slandered as "just as horrible"?

that's odd, S-ism sure worked for Scandinavia; for one thing, it's had single payer govt health care for abt 50 yrs...Germany, too.

Seems this question is touting anarchism w/o out using that word.

Please.

Anonymous · Answer

America needs a communist revolution.

dm1683 · Answer

We need to even the playing field, you're absolutely right.

Not Socialism, but Progressivism.

▐▀▀▼▀▀▌ ►Изнор◄ ▐▄▄▲▄▄▌ · Answer

Capitalism is bad, making the rich happy and the poor becomes poorer.

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How's everyone feelng about this great capitalist country of ours?

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