STEPHEN LONG: There's been a 75 per cent increase cumulatively in profits over the past year in the US whereas wages have gone backwards by nearly two percentage points. And of course that's the averages. It hides tremendous inequality and massive falls in wages for some workers. And if you actually look at it across the income distribution in the United States - you take a family right in the middle of the income distribution and on figures I've seen from the Economic Policy Institute in the US, the median family income, that's the family right in the middle of the income distribution, was lower in 2009 than in any year since 1997. And it's gone backwards since then.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: So why this big boom in company profits? What's driving that?
STEPHEN LONG: Well what we've seen is mass lay-offs in the United States, Brendan, with about 1.75 million workers losing their jobs and only 20 per cent replaced and an enormous boost in productivity in America because they're using less labour and massive jobs shedding, new technology.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: So the companies themselves are doing well. The workers not so well.
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3230996.htm
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