High Profits, Low Wages

There's new article on Business Insider stating how corporate profits are at all time high and wages are at all time lowest point. The article discusses following points with graphs from St Louis Fed.

1) Corporate profit margins just hit another all-time high.
2) Wages as a percent of the economy just hit another all-time low.
3) Fewer Americans are working than at any time in the past three decades.

(I would post the link here but since this is my new profile I am not allowed to. Google "Profits Just Hit Another All-Time High, Wages Just Hit Another All-Time Low ")

What's your take on this? How do you think the wage problem can be solved? or moreover, how can the gap between the middle class and high class be narrowed?

 
Best Response

I'm gonna start with:

3) Not all that big a problem if productivity is higher than it used to be - after all, if we could feed and clothe everyone on Earth by having only two guys control giant robot-operated farms and have automatons do our construction... why not? Leaves more time for the rest of us.

And then go on to:

1+2) Now, this may be a bit of a problem. Having a large income gap means that people are generally unhappier, and many "poor" countries with both low overall income levels (GDP) and low income gaps seem to have some pretty happy people.

Personally, I'm probably a little more left-leaning than most people on this site. There are many things the federal government spends on which I think could easily afford to be cut - military budgets being the chief example - but I also feel that taxes in the US are rather on the low side. Many people here (i.e., Republicans and Libertarians) think that we're paying too much in taxes, but Americans pay a lot less in taxes than people in many other countries do.

I'm in favour of increased taxes, and a massive rejiggering of what we're spending on. Less fat, more meat, y'know?

 

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