Post by midcan5 on Jul 6, 2015 7:34:56 GMT -5
I find our current times fascinating when viewed through a historic window. While I am guilty of it too, most people forget the history and the whys of America's middle class decline and the enormous increase in poverty levels. If you travel city or rural backroad you see people who barely make it, who have lost the battle. No need for statistics or studies. Eyes and mind only. Our poor sections in Philly remind me too often the game is lost for some. Add the temporary shelter of drugs to the scene, truly depressing. Prostitutes walk the roads I bicycle. But then I move in another world in which the haves are lost in their own imaginary make believe. Often holier than thou. No easy answer, maybe we ought to teach real history and not the fluff of slogans and congratulatory emptiness? You think. Hope you had a nice 4th.
The quote below was prompted by a criticism of American union workers. Many Americans buy foreign cars, all made by union workers except here in the US, they continue to criticize unions in America, whose power, especially since Reagan, is minimal. Americans forget or don't even know our own history, their ideas are finger pointing with no real sense of who is controlling their finger. A bit of history below, the historian's other books could fill in some gaps too. I list a few others at bottom.
"A closer look at causes and effects held out little hope for the near future. Real incomes had fallen so steeply that even a large increase in the number of working wives and mothers failed to improve the grim figures. In T975, 47.4 percent of women with children were in the workforce, a figure that by 1988 had risen to 65 percent. By 1990 "Median weekly family earnings from wages and salaries, adjusted for inflation, went from $516 in 1979 down to $471 in 1981, up to $537 in 1988 and then fell precipitously, to $50T today, according to the Labor Department." Even before the recession many families barely scraped by. Between 1969 and 1989 median household income in constant dollars had risen from $28,344 to $28,906, which actually constituted a decline owing to the great increase in working mothers. For white males with high school diplomas but no college education, wages had fallen by about 20 percent. Few corporations handed out cost living increases anymore, mostly because few could afford to, given the absence of serious productivity gains. For reasons economists did not understand, during the seventies and eighties productivity-the output of the economy per hour of work-increased at only half the rate of the 1950S and 1960s, except in the ever-shrinking manufacturing sector.
In most other industrial nations Strong unions protected the income of workers, as they once had in the United States. But the trade union movement as a whole had become a shell of its former self. In some cases this resulted from union-busting campaigns, in others entire unionized industries like steel had shriveled away, victims of cheap imports and lower production costs overseas. As late as 1975 steel had employed half a million workers, but by 1992 only 120,000 steelworkers still had jobs in the industry, and their numbers continued to dwindle. In the private sector as a whole, the percentage of jobs held by unionized workers had fallen from its all-time high of 35.7 percent in 1953 to 12 percent in 1990. If not for modest gains in the public sector, this figure would have been smaller stilt In the service industry conditions, only fair at best, had also worsened. In the 19805, when services added some 20 million jobs and employed almost four of five workers, the debate turned on whether these were desirable jobs, but steady growth could be taken for granted. Except for health services, by January 1992 this assumption had ceased to be valid. In this recession, service industries suffered more than during earlier downturns. More managers and professionals were let go than in the 1981-1982 recession. Retailers had been laying off workers for 22 consecutive months." p36,37 "A Bubble in Time: America During the Interwar Years, 1989-2001' William L. O'Neill
More interesting history:
'The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972' William Manchester
'Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960s' by William L. O'Neill
'American High: The Years of Confidence, 1945-1960' by William L. O'Neill
"The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20Th Century' Peter Watson
One of the things I like about Amazon is the price and ease of buying used books. Check it out sometime.
'The U.S.Constitution for Everyone' by Jerome B. Agel and Mort Gerberg
'Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal' Kim Phillips-Fein
"Books had instant replay long before televised sports." Bernard Williams
The quote below was prompted by a criticism of American union workers. Many Americans buy foreign cars, all made by union workers except here in the US, they continue to criticize unions in America, whose power, especially since Reagan, is minimal. Americans forget or don't even know our own history, their ideas are finger pointing with no real sense of who is controlling their finger. A bit of history below, the historian's other books could fill in some gaps too. I list a few others at bottom.
"A closer look at causes and effects held out little hope for the near future. Real incomes had fallen so steeply that even a large increase in the number of working wives and mothers failed to improve the grim figures. In T975, 47.4 percent of women with children were in the workforce, a figure that by 1988 had risen to 65 percent. By 1990 "Median weekly family earnings from wages and salaries, adjusted for inflation, went from $516 in 1979 down to $471 in 1981, up to $537 in 1988 and then fell precipitously, to $50T today, according to the Labor Department." Even before the recession many families barely scraped by. Between 1969 and 1989 median household income in constant dollars had risen from $28,344 to $28,906, which actually constituted a decline owing to the great increase in working mothers. For white males with high school diplomas but no college education, wages had fallen by about 20 percent. Few corporations handed out cost living increases anymore, mostly because few could afford to, given the absence of serious productivity gains. For reasons economists did not understand, during the seventies and eighties productivity-the output of the economy per hour of work-increased at only half the rate of the 1950S and 1960s, except in the ever-shrinking manufacturing sector.
In most other industrial nations Strong unions protected the income of workers, as they once had in the United States. But the trade union movement as a whole had become a shell of its former self. In some cases this resulted from union-busting campaigns, in others entire unionized industries like steel had shriveled away, victims of cheap imports and lower production costs overseas. As late as 1975 steel had employed half a million workers, but by 1992 only 120,000 steelworkers still had jobs in the industry, and their numbers continued to dwindle. In the private sector as a whole, the percentage of jobs held by unionized workers had fallen from its all-time high of 35.7 percent in 1953 to 12 percent in 1990. If not for modest gains in the public sector, this figure would have been smaller stilt In the service industry conditions, only fair at best, had also worsened. In the 19805, when services added some 20 million jobs and employed almost four of five workers, the debate turned on whether these were desirable jobs, but steady growth could be taken for granted. Except for health services, by January 1992 this assumption had ceased to be valid. In this recession, service industries suffered more than during earlier downturns. More managers and professionals were let go than in the 1981-1982 recession. Retailers had been laying off workers for 22 consecutive months." p36,37 "A Bubble in Time: America During the Interwar Years, 1989-2001' William L. O'Neill
More interesting history:
'The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972' William Manchester
'Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960s' by William L. O'Neill
'American High: The Years of Confidence, 1945-1960' by William L. O'Neill
"The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20Th Century' Peter Watson
One of the things I like about Amazon is the price and ease of buying used books. Check it out sometime.
'The U.S.Constitution for Everyone' by Jerome B. Agel and Mort Gerberg
'Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal' Kim Phillips-Fein
"Books had instant replay long before televised sports." Bernard Williams