Income inequality on the march:

There's a longish post/excerpt at Economist's Views that, in a nutshell, says the United States continues to move towards greater inequality and that market forces will not halt that trend. And the usual related issues: decline of the middle class, unstable politics, it's extremely hard to reverse.

What's "new" is that the recent economic downturn has made things worse (so far).

RELATED: Small businessman celebrates high unemployment:

The upside to the high unemployment rate is that it has helped us control our payroll costs. No one's asking for raises. No one's demanding more benefits. ...It's now easier and more politically correct to hire part-timers, subcontractors, and other outsourced help to fill the gaps.

Here's a prediction. In a year or two, if wages stay low, we will be reading about the lack of incentive by employees to work hard. With hotel cleaning staff being paid minimum wage (without benefits) and similar treatment up to, but below, the executive level, who is going to want to bust their ass at their place of work?


posted by Quiddity at 9/30/2009 01:51:00 AM