Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (19979)	12/30/2004 11:28:01 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

--ggg. Mish, those are from a Chinese article talking about the labor force and salary in the US. The author got his/her materials from several English books/articles. The figures I quoted are from a book called something like "Downsizing in America" or "shrinking of America". Since only the translated name of the book mentioned, not the name of the author, so it is very hard to know the exact book<g>. I did some search in Amazon.com, got this, although not sure it is the right one or not. amazon.com bookbuzz.com The theme of the book is this: in the US, the technology develops very fast, so does the productivity, but the downsizing of big corporations is getting worse. From 1980 to 2002, the US pop. increased 23.9%, but the number of employed (not the "labor force" like I translated in my last post, sorry) increased 37.4%. On the surface, the employment number increased much faster than the population growth, but some important facts are hidden behind this optimistic employment number. They are: 1) several millions of women who stayed at home before now work outside their houses; 2) the percentage of teenager workers are growing fast; 3) a lot of high income jobs have been replaced by low income and temporary positions. Those numbers are supporting the 3rd argument. And the author of the book continued, those Walmart or McDonald jobs only pay about 1/3 of those manufacturing jobs. So where did the profit go? They went into the pocket of the rich. In 1980, the household income of the 5% richest accounted for 14.6% of US GDP. By 2001, the household income of this 5% richest accounts for 21% of the US GDP. At the same time, the household income of the bottom 20% declined by 20.8% in their share of the US GDP. Sorry, since I do not know the name of the book and the author, so cannot credit him/her<g> Here is the link for that Chinese article (I know you won't be able to read it, just want to show I did not make those up<g>) fesco.com.cn