Growth without gain

Growth without gain? : The faltering living standards of people on low-to-middle incomes
http://tinyurl.com/3cuc9f5

"In the US, the phenomenon of median wage stagnation is being interpreted by some leading economists as a `decoupling' of growth from gain. The productivity of labour – commonly understood as the key driver of rising wages – has continued to grow, but these gains have failed increasingly to feed through into pay packets. The effects of this `decoupling' on households have not been trivial; if US median household earnings had continued to track GDP per capita since the mid 1970s – as they had from 1945 to 1973 – the average household would not have earned $50,000 in 2008 but around $80,000, or 60 percent more."

In the UK:
"There is emerging evidence that wage growth has fallen behind growth in labour productivity. After a sharp fall as the result of the downturn, wages are now set to recover only very slowly. Based on current government forecasts, we expect that average wages will be no higher in 2015 than they were in 2001. In relative terms too, the position of the UK's 11 million people living on low-to-middle incomes has deteriorated. The stark increases in inequality that took place in the 1980s and 1990s have now levelled off – but only within the bottom half of the distribution. The earnings of those at the top have continued to move away from those in the middle, while the wage-characteristics of the bottom half have coalesced"

As the American example shows, this is a brutal amount fo theft from the working class. In money terms alone, the wealth is out there, and we are creating it.
BillM