Re: US immiseration
On Mar 6, 2007, at 1:48 PM, James Heartfield wrote:
Doug, you amaze me. I had no idea that consumption rates in the US
were declining.
Who said anything about consumption? I wrote about incomes. It’s a
fact that the real hourly wage is down since 1973, and average
household incomes are barely up. To accomplish that, more people have
to work longer hours. In 1973, 57% of the adult population worked for
pay; now, it’s 63%. Total hours worked in the U.S. private sector
have risen 70% since 1973; the pop is up only 43%. So the rise in
aggregate consumption has come with a huge increase in the work
effort - despite an 82% increase in productivity since 1973.
Also, the upper brackets, who’ve been doing very well, do most of the
consuming. The poorest quintile is responsible for just 9% of total
consumption, and the next, 13%; the top quintile, though, has a 38%
share, and the next, 24%. So you can have a rise in aggregate
consumption driven largely by the better-off.
Doug