Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone?

John Schmitt and Janelle Jones of the Center for Economic and Policy Research reached a conclusion from their research. Their conclusions are incorrect, but the information is still impressive. A synopsis is below.

“The U.S. workforce is substantially older and better-educated than it was at the end of the 1970s. The typical worker in 2010 was seven years older than in 1979. In 2010, over one-third of US workers had a four-year college degree or more, up from just one-fifth in 1979. Given that older and better-educated workers generally receive higher pay and better benefits, we would have expected the share of “good jobs” in the economy to have increased in line with improvements in the quality of workforce. Instead, the share of “good jobs” in the U.S. economy has actually fallen. The estimates in this paper, which control for increases in age and education of the population, suggest that relative to 1979 the economy has lost about one-third (28 to 38 percent) of its capacity to generate good jobs. The data show only minor differences between 2007, before the Great Recession began, and 2010, the low point for the labor market. The deterioration in the economy’s ability to generate good jobs reflects long-run changes in the U.S. economy, not short-run factors related to the recession or recent economic policy.”

The reason why so many good jobs are gone is simple; they’ve been redistributed to the rich. Enact a free trade treaty, ship jobs overseas. The difference between the old higher wages in the US and the new lower wages is pocketed by the affluent via higher corporate profits, rising dividends and surging share prices. This income redistribution scam is achieved by manipulating the political markets, i.e. purchasing the rules of the game. That’s precisely how the 1 percent have stolen nearly 30 of the total national income compared to about 8 percent back in 1980.

When the jobs are shipped away and the income from them is redistributed to the 1 percent, opportunities are lost for the rest of us, and more so than just the loss of the jobs. When those jobs are exported via bribed-enforced legislation, we lose our tax base and government jobs go away, like police, firefighters and teachers. There are less opportunities for accountants, mechanics and attorneys in government.

And illegal free trade treaties are just one way the one percent manipulate the legislative process to achieve income redistribution from the 99 percent. There’s a ton of other ways. Deregulation, for example, allows corporations to jack up the prices they charge at will. The difference between what prices would be under real competitive conditions and the manipulated prices go into the pockets of the rich via the same route as free income redistribution treaties.

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Where Have All The Good Jobs Gone? Center for Economic and Policy Research

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Obama and Jobs: Hostage to Fortune

Based on his background as CEO, sole director and sole shareholder of Bain Capital, Mitt Romney says he can manage the US economy better than President Barack Obama. But as president, it appears that Wall Street Mitt intends to run the terribly weak economy into the ground even more by wiping out jobs and pensions and shifting production of goods and services overseas if his business experience is any indication of his intentions.

As CEO of Bain, Mitt redistributed income from working Americans to his 1 percent self by shifting jobs overseas. Wall Street Mitt pocketed the difference between the former old wages here and the new lesser wages there. As president one can assume Mitt intends to redistribute income from working Americans to his fellow 1 percenters by pushing legislation that redistributes more income from the 99 to the 1 percent.

An editorial in the Guardian newspaper said it best.

“For a candidate who has made his own business background exhibit A in the argument that he could run the US economy better than his opponent, Mitt Romney has a case to answer over his involvement with Bain Capital. He plainly did not “leave” the private equity firm in 1999, if a series of filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission show him listed as the sole shareholder, sole director, CEO and president two years later. Instead of denying he had anything to do with the firm that helped other companies outsource jobs overseas, lay off steel workers and wipe out their pensions, Mr Romney could lay the matter to rest by publishing his tax returns and the minutes of Bain Capital meetings for that period.”

The Guardian goes on to ask a simple question; “But none of that means it is particularly clever for Barack Obama to keep on attacking Mr Romney over his asset-stripping days. It’s fine for his electoral base, but what about the independents he also needs to swing behind him? What these American voters will want to know in November is what Mr Obama has done to turn the jobs figures around.”

A point well taken since Obama has avoided taking the advice on these matters from people who always seem to be correct in their economic remedies, people like Nobel Prize economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman. Neither of these two, however, have identified the culprit for the weak US economy. That, of course, is the redistribution of income and wealth that has been legislatively enacted over the last thirty years.

Right now 99 percent of the US population earn about 73 percent of the total US income compared to roughly 92 percent 30 years ago. That means the 99 percent have less money to burn, which depresses wages and job creation. Free trade treaties are a primary culprit in the redistribution process.

Meanwhile, the 1 percent have increase their share from 8 to 27 percent over the same time through their political control of congress, and, of course, their presidents, including Obama. They use their money to purchase legislation to ship jobs overseas and deregulation, thereby redistributing more income from working Americans to themselves. In this way, the 1 percent have stolen 93 percent of total US income growth since 2009.

Click the link below for the rest of the story.

From the Guardian–Obama and jobs: Hostage to Fortune

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