Do U.S. workers make too much money?

Todeskopf, that's good then. Looks like I got wrong information from a pseudo-relative then. Not surprising considering who that person is.

What really bugs me is the fact that the people who build, support and teach in this country do not get as much as the people who entertain us. Athletes, Musicians, and Actors/Actresses make outrageous amounts of money. Why? Because we want them to help us forget the fact that we are poor. We live through them. What I make in a year is what P. Diddy pays for a watch for his accountants nephew.
So to answer the original question....No. U.S. workers do not make nearly the amount they should be making. It's a sad day when the manufacturers in this country think they are saving money by giving jobs that American citizens sorely need, to third world countries.

Amen to that, darklanser....I have a friend whos wife is a teacher at a private christian school, she has a bachelors in education and she makes $17,000 a year...I was watching "Newlyweds" on MTV the other night and Jessica Simpson bought her husband a WATCH for $55,000

Nativeokie~i sympathize with your plight. I certainly hope things get better for you and your family.

Originally posted by meddled
Jobs are being out-sourced so that corporations can make more profitis. If they hire labor at much cheaper prices in countries where people will work for anything then they stand to gain a ton of extra profit for themselves. The reports will reflect that, and the stock will rise, in turn giving those few elite more and more money. The out-sourcing of jobs will only create more problems in the long run as it makes living in the US even harder as jobs keep leaving.

This is what I mean when I say we are making too much. Yeah, we need those wages. The cost of living is rising. But, there is cheap foreign labor and corporations what huge profits. They can't get it for wht the have to pay US workers.

Skilled trades, skilled labor deserves a good wage. Clerical (which I was) and pizza delivery poeple should not be making over $30,000 a year. Esp. when I see what some of you make doing highly technical work.
I also think the mind-set that allows us to have those contractors in the South to make $$$$ for being middlemen stinks. That is part of what is bad with the labor force, IMHO.

Your stories are scary. We are not hearing much of this on the news--what a surprise. You keep hearing labor stats, and you never know what criteria they are using.
I had no idea it was so easy to be unemployable because of over-qualification.

Sorry, but I think anybody in delivery deserves every penny they make and in some cases, more. What they have to do is quite dangerous and you do not know what sick # is behind the door you are delivering to. Also, there is wear and tear on your vehicle and gas. You end up sinking a whole lot of money into your ride when delivering pizzas.

I don't make 30,000 a year, btw. My base pay is $5.75 an hour. I can just pull off the little bit extra in tips, normally. I can't quite pull off 40 hrs a week though. Got school and that will help me out much more in life than running pizzas.

I work for one of those outsourcing money-grubbing corporations, and we were told its all about the bottom line. We can increase profits and pay bigger dividends to our investors!! GREED!!! Thats the real culprit here.
I'm still employed only because our group is needed to process the moving of our American jobs to the Asian-Pacific islands of Malaysia & Singapore and good old red China!!! I'm currently training my Malaysian replacement so my days are also numbered.

I've watched as 9000+ of my fellow American employees have been laid-off over the last 2 years while our Asian plants have swelled, hiring twice or three times as many workers to replace we US workers, and take our jobs and business from highly trained & educated Americans.

Who was not affected in my company by these massive lay-offs? Our European brethren who have strong private and national unions that protect thier jobs & workers from greedy money grubbing corporate scum!!! Our American unions were nuetered in the 1980's by Reagan and his corporate cronies and now dubya shrub and his merry band of corporate scrotebags are finishing the job started by uncle ronnie and daddy!!!

So now we see some legislation in the Senate and the House to take away tax incentives from corporations that gut our American economy to save their investors a few pennies on their shares!!! It may be to little too late but it is a start!!

Thats the truly saddest point to all of this crapola, the feedback after the first 2years of non-US operations for our company? We saved a few dollars on labor costs but shipping, tariffs, import/export costs and "country of origin" issues are costing us thousands of $$$$$$'s more per unit shipped!!!!

Thats right, because we're allowing what are considered Muslim countries to build our products we must send this work from the "Questionable country of origin" built units to a sub-contactor in another country that is considered to have "favored nation status" to allow shipments to countries like Israel or to even sell to our own govt!!!! Can you imagine being a US military personnel and your using a piece of equipment that may have been made by the hands of the same
people who are shooting at you in the war zones of Iraq or Afghanastan? It boggles the mind!!!

As Americans we can alter this very dark time by working to start unionizing your place of employment right away, its the only way to save our jobs and our way of life!!! I've started doing so in my company and strangely enough most of our local management team is all for it, wanting to save our American jobs as well. Our corporate managers on the other hand are hopping mad and want the organizers fired but they can't!!!

At least our laws afford the American workers some protection, at least until we know the outcome of the November elections!!!

Take back America from corporate greed!!!
ABBA
Anybody But Bush Again!!!!!

[Edited on 11-3-2004 by Ra]

You think there is something wrong with white color worker's wages when the average company executive makes 400 times more than the average worker?

The lower and middle classes get screwed. Trust me, I am considered in the working poor bracket making a mere 16k a year. And many other college students in this town that graduate hardly do any better usually.

The higher you go up in the workforce foodchain, the less you have to do and the more money you make.

Try asking a temp job worker or a ditch digger how they feel about America's economy...

Do U.S. workers make too much money?

I know that I do.

I barely have room for my driver to park my Rolls Royce in my 5 car garage for the piles of money laying around that we just havent been able to find time to take to the bank.

Seriously I make about 30000 and most people I know make around 22000. Try living on less than 200 a week.

Even in Arkansas.

I say only the leaders and the hollywood stars make to much money just watch cribs on mtv.
tax them on the money they have. much money high taxes. low income low taxes.

And I realize that I'm known on these boards as somewhat of a political zealot, but hear me out.
The Republican economic philosphy has always been "Trickle Down Economics". On it's own merit, there's nothing wrong with that. But like aything else, it's success is contingent upon the environmental variables that impact it's worth. Pushing anything through void of consideration for those variables leads to a distorted-hobbled-ineffective model.

That's what we have now.

We are most certainly in an economic recovery...... at the corporate level. My brokerage industry clients have posted record gains, with no company head receiving less than a $12M bonus...some as high as $20M. Every company of note has posted a profit for consecutive quarters.

But where are the jobs? One of the main instruments in the Ledger sheet to accomplish that profit is the maximization of resources. THat's really just a nice way of saying: you'll work more hours-pay increases are frozen-people will be cut, without being replaced-and yes, you are lucky to have a job.
I run an IT services practice......If we did not have a good first 8 months of 2001, I would have had practicaly nothing to live off of in 2002.

The jobs issue is soley at the feet of the Bush Administration. Why? In them, corporate America has a fully complicit government that is focused soley on ROI to shareholders. Maximizing shareholder profits is rarely the same as growing the company.

There in lies the problem - offshore outsourcing ( and offshore is the only problem, as I do a great deal of domestic outsourcing. Domestic designate in-scope employees = those people whose paycheck changes from their company to the outsource vendor, but their job stays the same) increases shareholder ROI. It can be done because of our trade deficit insuring that end, as I've previously outlined.
So yes, your vote does count as illustrated by the last four years in America - Trickle Down could not have had a better team in play if it were bio-engineered.

Some food for thought:

Promises, Promises



By Paul Krugman

Despite a string of dismal employment reports, the administration insists that its economic program, which has relied entirely on tax cuts focused on the affluent, will produce big job gains any day now. Should we believe these promises?

Each February, the Economic Report of the President forecasts nonfarm payroll employment � generally considered the best measure of job growth � for the next several years. The black line in the chart above (inspired by a joint report from the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) shows the actual performance of employment, both before and after its peak in March 2001. The gray lines show the forecasts in the 2002, 2003 and 2004 reports. Notice that the February 2004 forecast, which, as in previous years, is based on data only through the preceding October, is already 900,000 jobs too high.

Economic forecasting isn't an exact science, but wishful thinking on this scale is unprecedented. Nor can the administration use its all-purpose excuse: all of these forecasts date from after 9/11. What you see in this chart is the signature of a corrupted policy process, in which political propaganda takes the place of professional analysis.

Speakers Clash in Spirited Debate Over IT Relevance

Does IT matter anymore? In a recent debate, author Nicholas G. Carr asserted that IT has largely lost its ability to provide companies with a competitive advantage, while Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet, rebutted Carr's views. Carr began by recounting his article, "IT Doesn't Matter," in which he argued that IT applications and infrastructure, though essential to business and integral to business processes, have become so easily replicable that they no longer provide sustainable competitive advantage.

www.computerworld.com...

OUCH!!