Wall Street Mess - interesting how wage (non) growth, outsourcing

and the general lack of good paying jobs is never talked about as one of the root causes of this mess, and, as we all know, it plays a part. As well as the increase in gas from the Clinton era of $1.40 a gallon to the current $4.00.

Investor economies certainly can suck when the foundation is made up of a lot of non-union service sector low paying jobs.

No one in the media is talking about how lack of jobs play into any of this.

who put out press releases saying things like "Company X ought to grow 3.3% this year" ought to go down the drain too. Because too often, Company X "only did 2.5 growth, which was still pretty good, but they didn't beat "analysts expectations" so they get their stock dumped.

Down with overrated importance of analysts. :thumbsdown:

How many of them actually knew or cared what was required within the company to achieve those numbers. Wall street would cheer every mass firing, every dumping of R&D, every bit of outsourcing, so they could continue to play their little games without getting their hands dirty. God forbid they'd actually try making something.

The "fundamentals" of any (capitalist) economy rests in a very simple principle: do masses of people have enough money to afford (over)production. That's the wage system, period. When they ask "Why so many mortgage defaults?" you hear a lot about bad loans. Well, yes, that's a huge (even dominant) part of it. But you don't hear about wage stagnation, outsourcing, and the increasing price of demand inelastic and low elasticity commodities (i.e., stuff that people can't give up simply due to rising costs). You are exactly correct.

This is not a new problem. It is the fundamental problem of this system of production. Total profit must, by definition, exceed total cost. Yet total cost is the only way to produce that excess. This will always lead to a crisis of overproduction. It can be finessed with credit, but that only puts off the day of reckoning.

gets everyday, on every radio/tv station, as if everyone had a vested interest in it. I know allot of people have stock and 401K's, but even more people don't, labor and labor issue's are never covered and if they are covered it is always in this snide condescending way as if jobs and good pay jobs especially do not affect all of us, positively.

If the media is so "liberal" why do I know what the DOW is doing but not the UAW?

I plan on using it.

...every time a company needs to "tighten its belt" to "protect its investors", the first thing it does is layoffs. And then the stock price goes up and the analysts cheer that they "did the right thing".

So it's built in to ignore the other side of that equation -- that without jobs, the American consumer (yes, I hate that term too, just trying to stick with the phrases in common use) loses buying power -- and what is it, 60% of our economy or so is based on the population's buying habits.

It's pathetic. All those fools who get their fancy degrees in economics, but they can't figure out that job losses have a down side for the markets long term.

Idiots. And the worst part is, they foster this sort of thinking, so you never even hear the other side of it. Or if you do, it's labeled "leftist", or "socialistic" or "radical left" or even "communist".

God forbid you should suggest that the phrase "promote the general welfare" in the Constitution actually meant something. They've been trying to erase that phrase since the New Deal, and have really been quite successful.

When credit cards used to be given to ONLY the truly "credit-worthy", the "other classes" had pay-raises, so they could keep buying stuff..

Credit was pushed as a "convenience"..a way to avoid the crassness of carrying cash or wasting the time to write checks.. It was ASSUMED that people with credit cards were "good for it"..

When unions were busted, and wages started to fall, there HAD to be a scheme to keep the masses buying at breakneck speed.. (the rich can only buy just so much)

The new way to keep people spending? Give 'em credit cards..even if they cannot really afford to use them or have the financial acumen to manage the debt. E-Z minimum payments ought to do it...

How to keep them "in the game"? Offer equity lines of credit/loans, so they can periodically pay-down those plastic cards.
There was a time when Diners Club & American Express were the ONLY credits cards around, and more people got refused, than were accepted....and there was NO revolving credit..you had to pay it ALL every month.

Stores may have given revolving credit to the ordinary people, but you had a lengthy application to fill out, and it was not a given that you would be approved..

fighting for benefits and vacations, days off, health care, etc - the right is against unions yet it is one of the only ways people make decent money - red states equal poor states - right to work states are low wage states and yet the right just is unwilling or unable to see this

exam cost us nothing
frames ..nothing (unless we chose from outside the approved selection)
lenses ..nothing (unless we wanted blended, or tinted.. then we paid $15)

we went this week for glasses and WOW.what a difference a year made..

My husband's frames cost $159. (union benefit $40)
his exam cost $80..(benefit $40)
lenses cost $50..(benefit $40)

In one year his glasses went from costing us $15 out-of-pocket...to $169.00 ..
nice "negotiating" there union rep :grr:

I re-used my frames, had NO exam and it cost me $69..
(my opthalmologist tested my eyes post-surgery)

need to get more of them back and actually globally in order to reign in corporations who have no soul - no it is unfortunate you had to pay more but your wages are probably still better than the average person on the street

I am old enough to remember when the idea of a "middle class" type job that didn't pay enough for you to not only survive but prosper was just unacceptable. Now, at the end of the month, if you can't afford your rent, food and auto insurance, you just put the auto insurance on the charge card.

The Pigs have been running from the reality of wages for decades. Everything EVERYTHING revolves around wages and all of these economists damn well know it. But they cynically pretend that this isn't so.

Union busting, outsourcing, globalization, mass layoffs, etc, all were created and carried out to avoid having to pay for wage increases. Our economy was slowly and determinedly warped into a pyramid scheme.

Personally - I just got a call from our local bankruptcy lawyer. He's recieved our paperwork and everything "looks good, there shouldn't be any problems". ;)

I for one am done with their fucking game. If I can't buy it with cash I can't buy it. Keep your cheap plastic crap :fuckyou: