I think it revolves around how they define productivity. Its an input versus output ratio. If the ratio this year is 2:5 and next year 2:6, then productivity has increased and the bosses have essentially reaped greater profits with little to no increase in workforce compensation. A common TQM philosophy you hear among business gurus is the motto "doing more with less."
Automation through technology has been the wicked stepchild of productivity. If you outsource jobs or replace human labor with machines you increase productivity and lower your labor cost. Conversely, if your productivity drops, then your labor costs, relatively, have increased.
Senior management and stockholders are like Duke & Duke from the movie "Trading Places", no matter what the clients (workers) make, Duke and Duke always get their cut. Compensations are cut among the laborers long before any cuts to the owners of the means of production.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Anonymous said...
I would be more than willing to live on $8.00 an hour if I could buy a loaf of bread for a nickle and heat my home for $20 dollars a month.
But in this country where one has to work 2 jobs just to survive, and pay close to $2.00 for a loaf of bread and $300 a month for heat, where is the justification.
It's not a matter of when is this country going down the tubes, it already has, our main export is dollars, and well it's getting to the point where no one wants them. I sence a revolt, or revolution is coming in the future, bush is trying to break up these united state like he's doing to the midddle east. I am from the original colonies section of the united states and let history repeat it self, DONT SHOOT TILL YOU SEE THE WHITES OF THEIR EYES. Amen to that.
Jeff, so really what's happening is that PROFITS are decreasing. It has nothing to do with worker productivity, but productivity overall.
If output per unit of labor is decreasing like they claim, then it MUST be the fault of outdated equipment or other variables outside the workforce, otherwise they would FIRE the workers!
So, naturally, if you don't alleviate the other shortcomings in your operation, then you either have to pay more people, or pay people to work longer hours than what you might have paid if you didn't run such a shoddy operation!
So, because corporate fascist slave owners don't want to pay for new machines, they try to get workers to make up for the loss in productivity, until they realize that workers won't work for FREE! Hence labor costs increase.
And then based on this sham pretext, the FED comes in and compounds things by increasing interest rates in order to "fight inflation."
Workers have to pay more for their mortgages and students have to pay more for their loans.
This is a colossal SCAM and FRAUD on the American people. And you're absolutely right, Anon. It will not end without revolution, though I pray to God that we can do it peacefully.
They also hold to the myth of infinite growth and expansion. They're like cockroaches in that way. They have no sense of restraint or sustainability.
This is part of the problem with companies like GM and United Airlines renegotiating and downgrading pension benefits. They bit off (promised) more than they could chew (deliver), following the fallacy of unlimited future expansion. And, of course, its the workers who suffer for bad management decisions--and greed.
An economy built on a sustainable growth model would mitigate some of this fallout. But its a social norm to want the whole pie and to grab it as fast as you can. Instant gratification runs deep in American culture.
It is well assumed within the pension community that defined benefit plans will be dead in ten years. We also cannot rely on social security.
To quote a senior partner at a large law firm in NYC I interviewed with...
"Your generation will be eating cat food upon retirement."
This is essentially the consensus of everyone in the know. And nothing is being done about it. We simply are absolutely screwed.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Anonymous said...
I disagree that higher interest rates are inherently unfair to the working class. High interest rates would allow for and encourage savings at a decent rate of interest to help people like me maintain our own slice of the pie and not eat that cat food.
Sorry to break this to you. But, collecting interest is like eating human flesh.
Personally, I would prefer eating cat food.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Surprised? Don't be. They told you that they hate us for our freedoms. What they didn't tell you is that they hate us for our wages, too. And that 'they' don't wear jalabayas and pray to Allah; 'they' wear custom suits and worship Mammon.Unit labor costs -- a key gauge of profit and price pressure -- rose at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the report showed. That was down from an initially reported 3.5 percent rise, but analysts on Wall Street had expected an even bigger downward revision, to 3.1 percent.
While the increase in unit labor costs, which measures the cost of labor associated with any given unit of production, was the sharpest in a year, economists said cost increases remained relatively contained below the inflation rate.In other words, American workers are getting the SHAFT. On the whole, any wage increases we get are not enough to keep up with the rise in "core" inflation, which of course is always much lower than the REAL inflation that us mere mortals suffer from. "We'll see continued downward pressure on unit labor costs in the first quarter. I think it's favorable on the inflation front," said Keith Hembre, chief economist at U.S. Bancorp Asset Management in Minneapolis.Are you still not convinced that they hate us for our wages? and that corporate America is deliberately and systematically bleeding working America dry? Maybe this will persuade you...For 2005 as a whole, productivity grew 2.9 percent, down from 3.4 percent growth in 2004 and the smallest increase since 2001. Productivity tends to slow as an economic expansion lengthens and employers have squeezed as much efficiency as possible from their existing workforce and technology.
A slowdown in productivity also tends to drive up labor costs. [???] Unit labor costs were up 2.6 percent in 2005 -- the largest annual increase since 2000. Labor costs had grown just 1.1 percent in 2004 and had no growth in 2003.Can someone explain HOW a slow down in productivity tends to drive up labor costs??? If your company isn't as productive as it was the day before, where's the logic in increasing workers' pay? If anything it would be the other way around.
Bottomline: America is going down the tubes and voracious multinational corporations empowered by their fascist government patsies are to blame. If we don't act NOW, just as they took away our freedoms, they WILL take away what's left of our livelihoods.
Wakeup America. Spread the word and come together because these Mammon worshippers will not rest until they've usurped ALL our freedom and ALL of our wages.
8 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formI think it revolves around how they define productivity. Its an input versus output ratio. If the ratio this year is 2:5 and next year 2:6, then productivity has increased and the bosses have essentially reaped greater profits with little to no increase in workforce compensation. A common TQM philosophy you hear among business gurus is the motto "doing more with less."
Automation through technology has been the wicked stepchild of productivity. If you outsource jobs or replace human labor with machines you increase productivity and lower your labor cost. Conversely, if your productivity drops, then your labor costs, relatively, have increased.
Senior management and stockholders are like Duke & Duke from the movie "Trading Places", no matter what the clients (workers) make, Duke and Duke always get their cut. Compensations are cut among the laborers long before any cuts to the owners of the means of production.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
I would be more than willing to live on $8.00 an hour if I could buy a loaf of bread for a nickle and heat my home for $20 dollars a month.
But in this country where one has to work 2 jobs just to survive, and pay close to $2.00 for a loaf of bread and $300 a month for heat, where is the justification.
It's not a matter of when is this country going down the tubes, it already has, our main export is dollars, and well it's getting to the point where no one wants them. I sence a revolt, or revolution is coming in the future, bush is trying to break up these united state like he's doing to the midddle east. I am from the original colonies section of the united states and let history repeat it self, DONT SHOOT TILL YOU SEE THE WHITES OF THEIR EYES. Amen to that.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Jeff, so really what's happening is that PROFITS are decreasing. It has nothing to do with worker productivity, but productivity overall.
If output per unit of labor is decreasing like they claim, then it MUST be the fault of outdated equipment or other variables outside the workforce, otherwise they would FIRE the workers!
So, naturally, if you don't alleviate the other shortcomings in your operation, then you either have to pay more people, or pay people to work longer hours than what you might have paid if you didn't run such a shoddy operation!
So, because corporate fascist slave owners don't want to pay for new machines, they try to get workers to make up for the loss in productivity, until they realize that workers won't work for FREE! Hence labor costs increase.
And then based on this sham pretext, the FED comes in and compounds things by increasing interest rates in order to "fight inflation."
Workers have to pay more for their mortgages and students have to pay more for their loans.
This is a colossal SCAM and FRAUD on the American people. And you're absolutely right, Anon. It will not end without revolution, though I pray to God that we can do it peacefully.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/3821/picture15ve.png
this is from bankrate.com web site in the rate section, if this is not a clue as to where the rate are headed i dont know what to think.
Albit hopefully a type-o I am sure?????????????????
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Q,
You got it!
They also hold to the myth of infinite growth and expansion. They're like cockroaches in that way. They have no sense of restraint or sustainability.
This is part of the problem with companies like GM and United Airlines renegotiating and downgrading pension benefits. They bit off (promised) more than they could chew (deliver), following the fallacy of unlimited future expansion. And, of course, its the workers who suffer for bad management decisions--and greed.
An economy built on a sustainable growth model would mitigate some of this fallout. But its a social norm to want the whole pie and to grab it as fast as you can. Instant gratification runs deep in American culture.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
QRS and Jeff,
It is well assumed within the pension community that defined benefit plans will be dead in ten years. We also cannot rely on social security.
To quote a senior partner at a large law firm in NYC I interviewed with...
"Your generation will be eating cat food upon retirement."
This is essentially the consensus of everyone in the know. And nothing is being done about it. We simply are absolutely screwed.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
I disagree that higher interest rates are inherently unfair to the working class. High interest rates would allow for and encourage savings at a decent rate of interest to help people like me maintain our own slice of the pie and not eat that cat food.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
anon 5;44:49PM,
Sorry to break this to you. But, collecting interest is like eating human flesh.
Personally, I would prefer eating cat food.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006