Robert Reich on Why the Main Street Economy Isn't Getting Any Better
I would love for him to be wrong about this, but all the indications I see are in agreement.
I normally like to be much more optimistic, and this is quite a pessimistic view, but in this instance, I think we need to be realistic:
The common wisdom is that excessive debt-financed spending was one of the causes of the recent recession, so the news that household debt is dropping is being celebrated by business cheerleaders as reason to believe we’re on the mend.
Baloney. The reason so many Americans went into such deep debt was because their wages didn’t keep up. The median wage (adjusted for inflation) dropped between 2001 and 2007… in the longer term, it’s hard to see where the buying power will come from unless America’s vast middle class has more take-home pay. Yet the economy is moving in exactly the opposite direction: Businesses continue to slash payrolls. And the hourly wage of the typical American with a job continues to drop, adjusted for inflation.
I ache for business owners to take more responsibility for this in their business models, i.e. “this” being ho‛oponopono (respectful, dignified) job creation at decent wages.
