borepstein
06-27-2006, 03:47 PM
27 June 2006 (http://pyramid.blog-city.com/american_dream_turning_into_a_nightmare.htm)
(http://pyramid.blog-city.com/read/prev/311745238.htm)[/url]
That American CEOs last year earned 262 times the average pay of their own workers is no big deal. It's always possible that some of them actually earned all that money, or at least some of it.
What is, surely, something of a big deal is that according to Corporate Library in Washington, the chief executives of the 11 largest companies in the United States earned a combined $865 million over the past two years at the same time as their shareholders lost $640 million.
What, potentially, is an even bigger deal, is that one of the main activities of American executives these days is figuring out ways to cut the pay of their workers while at the same time hanging on to all they have.
Recently, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner declared that it was time for the government to become "more proactive on health care."
What Wagoner meant was that Washington should take over much, if not all, of GM's health-care costs, which starts at $1,500 for each car the company makes and is a major reason it's close to bankruptcy.
There's now something called the Employers' Coalition on Medicare. Its essential goal is to transfer health-care costs from companies to the government, perhaps even by creating a Canadian-style, "socialized" national health insurance scheme.
Something along the same lines is going to have to happen to company pension schemes. Company after company is having to "renegotiate," which means cut, their pension commitments to retirees.
The effect of all of this is that at the same time as the U.S. economy has been booming along, most ordinary Americans have been stumbling along.
Once benefits like health care and pensions are taken out, the typical American worker earns no more today than back in 2000 — even though productivity has risen by some 25 per cent since then. [url="http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/9790955.html"]`American Dream' turning into a nightmare (http://pyramid.blog-city.com/american_dream_turning_into_a_nightmare.htm#)
Richard Gwyn, Toronto Star, June 27, 2006
If this is not a case of deliberate stratification of the society, I wouldn't know what is.
(http://pyramid.blog-city.com/read/prev/311745238.htm)[/url]
That American CEOs last year earned 262 times the average pay of their own workers is no big deal. It's always possible that some of them actually earned all that money, or at least some of it.
What is, surely, something of a big deal is that according to Corporate Library in Washington, the chief executives of the 11 largest companies in the United States earned a combined $865 million over the past two years at the same time as their shareholders lost $640 million.
What, potentially, is an even bigger deal, is that one of the main activities of American executives these days is figuring out ways to cut the pay of their workers while at the same time hanging on to all they have.
Recently, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner declared that it was time for the government to become "more proactive on health care."
What Wagoner meant was that Washington should take over much, if not all, of GM's health-care costs, which starts at $1,500 for each car the company makes and is a major reason it's close to bankruptcy.
There's now something called the Employers' Coalition on Medicare. Its essential goal is to transfer health-care costs from companies to the government, perhaps even by creating a Canadian-style, "socialized" national health insurance scheme.
Something along the same lines is going to have to happen to company pension schemes. Company after company is having to "renegotiate," which means cut, their pension commitments to retirees.
The effect of all of this is that at the same time as the U.S. economy has been booming along, most ordinary Americans have been stumbling along.
Once benefits like health care and pensions are taken out, the typical American worker earns no more today than back in 2000 — even though productivity has risen by some 25 per cent since then. [url="http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/9790955.html"]`American Dream' turning into a nightmare (http://pyramid.blog-city.com/american_dream_turning_into_a_nightmare.htm#)
Richard Gwyn, Toronto Star, June 27, 2006
If this is not a case of deliberate stratification of the society, I wouldn't know what is.