US Wage growth: Perception and Reality

[Jon Miller]

You are an Anarchist? That sounds nice and all.. but it just doesn't work.

JM

[Jon Miller]

You are an Anarchist? That sounds nice and all.. but it just doesn't work.

JM

[Kuciwalker]

Nation states
Corporations

[Whoha]

Nation States
Corporations

[Jon Miller]

Corporations have no reason to be on the look out for the people's well being. Right now the corporations are stealing from the people via the nation state... basically the people have given some of their resources and rights to the state, and the corporations are using their greater power to maneuver the states for their own advantage.

The people of the nation are who lose.

JM

[One_more_turn]

Who owns corporations today? It's not the upper management. They own at best 1-2% of the company. The true owners of corporations today are the pension funds, mutual funds, and life insurances. And who are the biggest contributors to those funds? The American middle class.

It's not the corporations that are screwing our country. It's the greedy corporate management who are STEALING from both shareholders and lower-ranked employees. The most dominant forms of theft are outrageous bonuses, golden parachutes, and abusive stock options.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by One_more_turn
Who owns corporations today? It's not the upper management. They own at best 1-2% of the company. The true owners of corporations today are the pension funds, mutual funds, and life insurances. And who are the biggest contributors to those funds? The American middle class.

You're underestimating the power of big private shareholders, especially in groups. The're very powerfull. Fund managers never try to influence policy, and the middle class has no influence at all.

It's not the corporations that are screwing our country. It's the greedy corporate management who are STEALING from both shareholders and lower-ranked employees. The most dominant forms of theft are outrageous bonuses, golden parachutes, and abusive stock options.

Stealing from shareholders? The board usually approves of everything the managers do and if they don't they always get there way or the managers lose their jobs. The managers get paid so much so that they will do what is in the best interest of the shareholders. The employees are the only ones who get screwed.

[One_more_turn]

The boards are usually populated by cronies of the management. There are actually very few independent boards out there. Something is obviously wrong when CEO compensation skyrocketed like 20-50 times over last 20 years.

People blame corporations for the ills and want to nationalize them. I think it's more a balance of power issue. Who ever has too much power tends to abuse it. Now we have a situation where corporate management has all the power and ordinary workers do not. Let the government jump in is not the solution because it will concentrate the power further into the hands of a few. Government already has enough power, and if you let political power merge with economic power, amen!

What we need is a change of mindset of labor unions around the world. They need to globalize, they need to create a real INTERNATIONAL labor movement to counter managements' power grab. Only then could the current inbalances be resolved.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by One_more_turn
The boards are usually populated by cronies of the management. There are actually very few independent boards out there.

Board members are usually elected by shareholders. Shareholders get one vote for every share they hold. Large shareholders can put much more pressure on boardmembers and even managers than you think. A CEO can lose control of his own managers, because the managers will fear that the CEO will lose his job and be replaced by the large shareholders choice.

[chequita guevara]

Pension funds and the like don't account for a majority of stock ownership. Most stock is held by other corporations, but ultimately, if you trace it back, it's held by a relatively small number of people either directly or through trusts.

IIRC, the top 10% of the population holds 45% of the assets. The top 1% holds a majority of that.

[Kidlicious]

Here's the decrease in the average hourly wage for production and non-supervisory workers.

The good times are rolling right the **** over us.