On 27 Jul 2005 20:48:59 GMT, D Murphy wrote:

Cliff wrote in
:

On 27 Jul 2005 03:29:29 GMT, D Murphy wrote:

There is probably no way to compare wages in service to
manufacturing as service runs the gamut from burger flippers to high
end auto repair shops with good pay whereas manufacturing was fairly
narrow to mean those who actually did the production on the lines.

Everyone likes to focus on the burger flippers. There are far more
high paying jobs available on the service side than in manufacturing.
Throughout the 80's and 90's manufacturing wages rose while employment
dropped. That tells me that the low skill jobs went away. In the last
eight years or so wages have stagnated. Probably too much competition
for too few jobs, or too much competitive pressure. Stagnent wages are
the same as a reduction in pay due to inflation. Fortunately inflation
has been very low. But when you couple frozen wages with higher
contribution to benefits, you end up with a pay cut.

You must have missed all of that "increase in productivity"
that the neocons were bragging about.
Clearly, with al that increased productivity there was much
more money to pay raises to the workers with ...

That's not very smart Cliff.

No rewards for being more productive, right?
Better yet, cut their real after-tax wages.

You don't suppose companies that didn't
improve their productivity went out of business?

And who was managing them? The ones that actually
got the huge raises & bonuses & al lthe bennies?

What makes you think that
there is additional profits?

Seen the change in wealth lately?

Mostly what I see are lower prices.

Tell that one to the guy & working mom on the street.
--
Cliff