Need A Raise?

According to a JPMorgan Chase report noted in the Washington Post, US salaries are at a 50-year low relative to company sales and GDP. Average profit margins of major companies rose to almost 13%, highest level since the 1960s, and 75% of boom in corporate profit margins comes from steady shrinkage of wages and benefits. Why? High unemployment drives down wages, unions faded in power, and about 2 billion Chinese, Indians, and other Asians are ready to work for far less than US minimum wage.

It cannot be surprising that 46 million people, about 15% of the US population, used food stamps in May 2011, the highest total ever recorded, according to CNN. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the US unemployment rate fell from 9.2% in June 2011 to 9.1% in July. The decline was helped by the 117,000 gain in jobs in July along with 127,000 people who just gave up the job search and were no longer counted.

With apologies to Plato and a nod to Aristotle, great disparities in wealth and the perceived limited access to become wealthy often generate resentment such that democracy transcends to anarchy, later giving rise to tyranny. In Europe, with unemployment in some countries up to 40% for teenagers and 20-somethings, rioting in UK cities and torching cars in Germany seem the pasttimes of the day. It hasn't come to that in the US...yet, but the 40% of the US population that controls 0.3% of wealth needs to see some leadership from the 0.1% of the population that controls 40% of the wealth. Capital chases efficiency, but humans chase emotion.