[Vision2020] You're Doing One Heckufa Job on the Economy, Bushie!

[Donovan Arnold]

Kai,
  
 Don't confuse the Collective Elitists with how the  economy works. Their wealth is produced only by taking it from those  that do work, not actually producing work themselves. So they don't  understand concepts like why minimum wage cannot be greater than the  wealth than a person produces or where wealth really comes from to pay  workers.  It is like speaking English to a Math or Science TA at  UI, they don't have a clue to what you are saying. 
  
  Best,
  
  _DJA
  
  
  
  
  

"Kai Eiselein, editor" <editor at lataheagle.com> wrote:Ummmmm,  productivity has gone in profits, not wages....... Last time I checked  business was about making profit..... Which is good, because thats what  PAYS WAGES! yeeesh Nick

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]On Behalf Of nickgier at adelphia.net
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 10:38 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] You're Doing One Heckufa Job on the Economy,
Bushie!


Greetings:

I  decided to get my radio commentary out of the way early this week, so  that I can work on my book on religious violence. This is the longer  version.

Thanks, Saundra, for saving me the trouble of trying to  switch to Time-Warner. I don't want a RoadRunner e-mail address, but on  second thought, it might help me outwit the witless coyotes down the  hill.

YOU'RE DOING ONE HECKUFA JOB ON THE ECONOMY, BUSHIE!

Nick Gier, Professor Emeritus, University of Idaho

Note: BLS stands for Bureau of Labor Statistics

President  Bush keeps telling us that the economy is growing, but "The Wall Street  Journal" reported (3/27/06) that most of that productivity has gone  into profits not wages. A "The New York Times" editorial explains:  "Wages and salaries now make up the lowest proportion of the economy  since 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest since  the 1960s" (8/29/06).

Worker productivity has gone up 18.4  percent, but wages are down, so any additional income has obviously  gone to the rich, not the poor and middle class. The poverty rate has  gone up 17 percent since 2000. Those in deep poverty—$7,800 for a  family of three—number the highest since 1975, when such surveys  began.

During the 1950s and 1960s, median household incomes  doubled, but since 1979, the lower classes have experienced no wage  increase at all, while middle class income has increased by a mere $200  per year. In stark contrast, the top 1 percent of Americans has enjoyed  a 111.3 percent raise (Rocky Mt. News, 5/2/06). The Census Bureau  reports that median family income for those 25-34 has dropped 5.9  percent during the Bush administration.

Bush also brags about  the low unemployment rate, but there are many important qualifiers. The  rate is actually 10 percent higher than when he took office, and the  number unemployed longer than 26 weeks has climbed 57 percent (BLS,  7/7/06). Many have simply dropped out of the job market, because there  are 1.7 percent fewer people working now than in April 2000. 

Three  million manufacturing jobs have been lost (BLS, 7/7/06) to new jobs in  the service sector and other low paying positions, half of which are  part-time and offer no benefits (LA Times, 7/24/06). Bush has the worst  job growth record since the Great Depression (BLS, 7/7/06). Excluding  farming, 22.7 million jobs were created during the Clinton years, while  only 2.3 million have come on line under Bush. 

Entry level  wages for college graduates have fallen 4 percent over the last five  years—7.3 percent for men and 3.5 percent for women—the first  decline in 30 years. Health coverage for this same group has fallen by  7 percent. Health insurance premiums have risen 71 percent over the  same period, making it more likely that these young families will be  faced with bankrupting medical bills. In 2005 1.3 million more  Americans were without health coverage for a total of 46.5 million.

Apartment  rents and house prices have climbed steeply. The American dream of  owning your own home is now just that for many young Americans. The  housing affordability index is at its lowest since 1987. With house  values dropping and interest rates rising, recent home owners, who were  seduced by no down payments and adjustable rate mortgages, may soon  find that they owe much more on their mortgages than their homes are  worth.

Americans have always had the lowest savings rate in the  world. Now this rate has gone into the negative, which means that we  are spending more than we earn. People under the age of 35 are spending  a whopping 16 percent more than they take in. In 2005 Americans had the  worst ratio of household and mortgage debt to disposable income in 25  years. We are also buying more goods from other countries than we are  exporting. In 2005 the trade deficit reached $726 billion, twice the  size of 2001, due in large part to imports from China.

Because  of Bush's tax breaks, the total national debt has increased $3 trillion  in 5 years, a 54 percent increase, beating Reagan's record of $1.6  trillion in 8 years. China, Japan, and other countries also hold $1.2  trillion of our national debt, and they could decide to unload those  bounds at any time. Because of the declining value of the dollar, OPEC  countries could also decide to price their oil in stronger euros  instead of weaker dollars.

As economist Jayati Ghosh states:  "The U. S. public merrily continues to spend its way through the rest  of the world's savings," borrowing $600 billion alone in 2005. The  American grasshoppers' long summer of overconsumption will eventually  end, and the world's ants, some of them putting away 30 percent of  their income, will come out on top.

Europeans stood firmly with  us after 9/11, assuming that the U. S. would seek a multilateral  solution to terrorism, but now 71 percent of them believe that Bush is  the greatest threat to world peace. Many Americans now have good reason  to believe that Bush's domestic policies are undermining their  financial security and their children's economic future.

Way to go, Bushie!



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