Anti-Job, Pro-Freedom Quote Of The Week 44

The hourly wages of average workers are 11 percent lower than they were back in 1973, adjusted for inflation, despite rising worker productivity. CEO pay, by contrast, has skyrocketed -- up a median 30 percent in 2004 alone in The Corporate Library survey of 2,000 large companies.

Median household income has fallen an unprecedented five years in a row. It would be even lower, if not for increased household work hours. Americans work over 200 hours more a year on average than workers in other rich industrialized nations.

We are breaking records we don't want to break. Record numbers of Americans have no health insurance. The share of national income going to wages and salaries is the lowest since 1929.

Middle-class households are a medical crisis, outsourced job or busted pension away from bankruptcy.

The congressional majority voted the biggest cut in history to the student loan program at a time when college is more important, and more expensive, than ever. Public college tuition has risen even faster than private tuition, jumping 54 percent over the last decade, adjusted for inflation.

Our shortsighted government, beholden to powerful campaign contributors and lobbyists, is cutting rungs from the ladders of upward mobility while cutting taxes for the superwealthy.
from
Happy New Year, American Dream
ZNet Commentary
January 12, 2006
by Holly Sklar