On 12/12/2006 at 11:55:53 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The reasons are multi-fold. One is the loss in this country (over the past 5-6 decades) of unskilled jobs that paid a fair wage. CNN's Lou Dobbs has sure tapped into the middle class's discontent over that issue. I'm not sure yet whether he's for real or just another demagogue, but his ratings have jumped 40% since he started attacking corporate America. Happy Holidays "However close we sometimes seem to that dark and final abyss, let no man of peace and freedom despair, for he does not stand alone." - John F. Kennedy ========Original Message======== Subj: [AsburyPark] Re: Councilman Jim Keady Gets It Right Date: 12/12/2006 11:55:53 A.M. Eastern Standard Time From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com) Sent on: --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com) , "oakdorf" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > You had (and HAVE) a family unit. How many do in AP.. or for that > matter,in the US? Kids (african american, whites, etc) can't be having > kids for the fun of it. With it, comes a responsilbity of the PARENTS, > not a sitter, daycare etc. The reasons are multi-fold. One is the loss in this country (over the past 5-6 decades) of unskilled jobs that paid a fair wage. An interesting read is in the current issue of Rolling Stone about income inequality. Here's an excerpt. "But in the 1970s, inequality began increasing again -- slowly at first, then more and more rapidly. You can see how much things have changed by comparing the state of affairs at America's largest employer, then and now. In 1969, General Motors was the country's largest corporation aside from AT&T, which enjoyed a government- guaranteed monopoly on phone service. GM paid its chief executive, James M. Roche, a salary of $795,000 -- the equivalent of $4.2 million today, adjusting for inflation. At the time, that was considered very high. But nobody denied that ordinary GM workers were paid pretty well. The average paycheck for production workers in the auto industry was almost $8,000 -- more than $45,000 today. GM workers, who also received excellent health and retirement benefits, were considered solidly in the middle class. Today, Wal-Mart is America's largest corporation, with 1.3 million employees. H. Lee Scott, its chairman, is paid almost $23 million -- more than five times Roche's inflation-adjusted salary. Yet Scott's compensation excites relatively little comment, since it's not exceptional for the CEO of a large corporation these days. The wages paid to Wal-Mart's workers, on the other hand, do attract attention, because they are low even by current standards. On average, Wal- Mart's non-supervisory employees are paid $18,000 a year, far less than half what GM workers were paid thirty-five years ago, adjusted for inflation. And Wal-Mart is notorious both for how few of its workers receive health benefits and for the stinginess of those scarce benefits." Many men who did not have skills or higher education could no longer find jobs to support a family and simply left. It then becomes intergenerational. Then we have the failures of the welfare system. Great idea but poor execution.
