Tuesday, July 30, 2013

No American Dream

Social mobility in America is practically non-existent. The New York Times reveals that American children have very little chance of climbing out of the social and economic class that they’re born into.

According to the NYT study, a third of Americans studied who grew up in the top 1 percent made $100,000 by the age of 30. Only 1 out of every 25 Americans who grew up in the bottom half of America’s income distribution was making the same amount at the same age.

Income inequality has increased in nearly every state in the country over the past three decades.

The incomes for the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans are eight times greater than those at the bottom 20 percent.

Real wages have been falling for decades. What the corporations want is a surplus of labor supply. With surplus labor, wages generally do not rise and therefore all the gains from productivity increase will go to profit, not wages. With profit as the goal – workers and services will be reduced to increase profit.

No comments: