[tmg19103]

Originally Posted by Philadelphia

Likewise, those at the top do not destroy the middle class or keep wages down all on their own. Those at the top are the shareholders who both follow the "golden rule" (heh, heh) and provide the build up and investment of capital needed to provide all those middle class jobs. As long as the fat cats in management bring home the bacon, the shareholders are not going to get over-excited about disparity of wages.

Wages are a function of supply and demand and are affected by globalization. In some sense, (we) workers bear some responsibility for lack of competitiveness and relatively recent changes in terms of globalization have added a lot of pressure. As unfortunate as it may seem, expectations may need to be adjusted in the short term to retain jobs that will add to our economic power over the long haul. Nobody, not the shareholders and not the workers, have really been willing to make any sacrifices on that score (with some exceptions, such as certain union give backs to save jobs).

The focus on management salaries may be misplaced in terms of relative total cost. Millions to a CEO is a spit in the ocean in terms of the total labor costs of a large organization. But it does get headlines.

Well said in your overall post. As for the part I quoted above, I'll add my thoughts to what I already agree with.

Corporate America used to have what I will call, for lack of a better term, an unsaid social contract with both blue collar and white collar employees. It was basically along the lines of: You work hard for me and I will give you a fair wage and job security. I think my point on CEO pay is valid to what has gone wrong with the system. Since 1973, real wages adjusted for inflation for the average American worker are up 1%. In the meantime CEO pay has gone up in the hundreds of millions per year in large companies and these CEO's are rewarded by Wall Street for downsizing, rightsizing and cutting costs left and right. Since the social contract between management and the American worker has disappeared in the name of profits, there is resentment and this affects worker productivity.

This all started in the 1980's due to foreign competition. It brought about deregulation of large industries, union busting by management, loss of jobs overseas, stagnating wages and a shift from management responsibility (due to the bottom line) on healthcare and retirement pensions to placing these resposnibilities on the employees with ever increasing costs. This has been the issue for the middle class, any many of those displaced former middle class blue collar workers who used to live the American dream in a moderate manner are now left high and dry.

So, what has happened to these for middle class, laid-off blue (and white) collar workers? They have formed a new welfare class, yet they still have decent educations, smarts and skills due to real world work/business experience. They are working hard at lower paying jobs to try and get back to where they were - always keeping their eyes open for a job that will pay them what they once earned.

What does this do? This pushes those with less means and lesser educations further down the totum pole and that is why we have so many areas wracked with poverty and the ensuing issues that come with poverty - single mother households, drugs, crime, etc. It is not just an inner city thing. It is just as bad in Appalachia.

There are no easy answers and illegal immigration just makes it tougher - especially for those already in poverty. I don't personally blame them for not wanting to work for the half of minimum wage jobs with no benefits that illegals are happy to have.

It's a very complex situation and I certainly don't have the answers. I have sympathy for just about everybody up and down the food chain who is struggling - except for CEO's and there other top execs. In the big scheme you are right - what they are taking home is not much for the bottom line of the company, but it demonstrates that any and all social contracts and personal responsibility for those with so much wealth for those who work so hard for them with minimal if an wage increases are out the window.

There is no doubt in my mind that this all trickles down to those who live in cultures of poverty and it only makes things worse for them. At the same time, violence and illegal acts are no excuse for being delt a bad hand through birth. I can understand seeking to take advanatage of any and all welfare if you have tried to get out and have not other option, but lock up and properly monitor upon release the criminals. That is one area were the government has truly failed. Sometimes I really wonder what my taxes are paying for, but that goes to a whole other topic on government incompetence and largess.

What is needed is Americans helping Americans - not the casting of blame. CEO's making $100 million a year should be giving charitably to urban renewal in those cultures of poverty and not so much to their performing arts centers that only the rich attend. Middle class workers with business sense can help use their skills by volunterring to work with community activists in ghettoes with job training programs. One thing for sure - the government can't seem to fix the problems created by poverty, whether you subscribe to liberal or right wing views. America needs a new social contract between Americans without the bickering, resentment and greed.

Easier said than done.