The Great Wealth Robbery

[Hermod]

It seems like the best years were 1945 to late 1960s before that was rough and lots of rough patches after that.

Now is kinda like the depression,there is always somebody a little bit hungrier and willing to work for a little bit less which will stay the same until the demand for labor increases.

There are three factors contributing to that:

1. The consumer driven post-war boom which lasted till the late sixties where people caught up to the inability to buy goods during the depression for lack of money and during the war for lack of supply [[diversion of production to the war effort).

2. During the late forties and the fifties, only the "depression babies" were entering the workforce [[and there weren't that many of us). Beginning in the sixties, the "baby boomers" flooded the job market.

3. Beginning in 1920 or so there was a massive and draconian crackdown on immigration. This eased in the sixties [[and became a flood in the eighties) which further flooded the job market.


Workers are "a dime a dozen" and there is no upward pressure on wages.

[oladub]

There are three factors contributing to that:

3. Beginning in 1920 or so there was a massive and draconian crackdown on immigration. This eased in the sixties [[and became a flood in the eighties) which further flooded the job market.

Workers are "a dime a dozen" and there is no upward pressure on wages.

Supply and Demand 101 - the more workers competing for the same job, the less they can demand for their labor. You get it, the 1% gets it, maybe the Democratic leadership gets it if they want to make their voters dependents, but rank and file liberals don't get it.

I would add a corollary to number three: Bad trade agreements from NAFTA, to GATT, to the secretive TPP agreements the president is rolling out put US workers into direct hourly wage competition with Asians. Sending jobs abroad is every bit as bad for US workers as bringing in cheaper foreign labor to compete for jobs here.