Re: Will gas go up to $5.00 a gallon?


"Everybody's Gonna Be Happy" <Davko58@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Zj7Fe.232$qq6.1255@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

snip

> But if other expenses are rising faster than transportation, which
> everyone acknowledges has gone up significantly, wouldn't that mean a huge
> increase in inflation despite higher value goods being shipped for less
> money? Here's where Greenspan's face crinkled sourly: the tremendous
> increase in productivity due to technological and management advances is
> one reason (he talked a lot about how productivity increases help keep
> inflation in check),

Another issue that burns my butt. From what I observe around me--in my
workplace, as well as what I hear from friends and acquaintances in other
places, a significant element of the "tremendous increase in productivity"
is simply that people are doing more and more work beyond the paid work day
and beyond the paid work year.

> another is the "very modest" growth in wages for non-supervisory workers
> when compared to the "very significant" rise in salaries for the 20% of
> the workforce that is supervisory, management, and professional. While
> businesses are making up much of the increase in expenses by holding down
> the wages of 80% of the workforce, this is a dangerous trend that he says
> cannot be sustained over the long term without creating "social
> disruption".

It is more than just holding down the wages. If I am working 45 hours a
week--the extra five hours being for no pay--then I am actually earning less
per hour than if I work my contracted 40 hours.

Funny how this all works. In my dad's generation, you eagerly put in
overtime (for pay) so that you could make more money, look good to the boss,
work your way up. In my generation, often we were resistant to overtime
(for pay), because we weren't interested in more money and advancement--we
valued leisure. In this generation, it looks as though the way to catch the
bosses eye and work your way up is to put in overtime without compensation.

However, I am not clear that social distruption might be the outcome if the
trend of stagnant wages continues. Rather, I think it likely that workers
will rediscover for themselves the value of collective bargaining and labor
unions. I am not sure how that translates to social disruption unless you
consider union activity to be disrupting. It is puzzling to me how many
low-wage workers take the conservative line of being anti-union.

What is perhaps more disquieting is that the economy is two-thirds on the
consumer side. Folks have to have disposable income in order to consume.
And if wages don't keep pace with the cost of goods and services, then we
enter another business-created recession.

R.


> In other words, Greenspan is concerned that business is making up
> increases in expenses by taking it out on the lesser skilled workers by
> paying them less. In the past, wages for that 80% of the workforce would
> have risen much more during this type of economic situation and would have
> impacted inflation. Currently wages are being held down, so the impact
> on inflation is nil. He is concerned these workers are not participating
> fully in the "recovery" and fears some kind of social backlash if that
> trend continues.
>
>> So I'm still puzzled by it all. I hate to be a conspiracy advocate,
>> but could it possibly be that, as has been suggested, this business
>> friendly administration is cooking the books to make inflation appear
>> lower than it really is? After all, if inflation appears to be low, it
>> allows businesses to keep wages in check.
>
> I don't believe hardly anything coming out of the White House, but IMO
> Greenspan tells it like it is. He just lays out the stats and trends and
> lets the chips fall where they may.
>
> EGBH
>


.

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