By Dick Miller
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: And now, some truth about employment prospects in America.
At least one of our so-called political leaders, or an economist (even if he or she sounded like a voice in the wilderness) would come forward and tell us what is really going on.
Instead you must read it from a non-leader/non-expert and the only source of this knowledge is common sense.
Truth is there are not enough jobs to go around. The jobs that are here and are likely to be created do not pay enough to support a family. More jobs will disappear tomorrow.
This picture can only change through the evolution of one or more of the following factors:
• Eventually enough people will cease looking for work to tally a more satisfactory rate of unemployment.
• A majority of American voters will conclude they must voluntarily surrender some of their wealth to those who can achieve it by no other means.
• Continued technological advances will reduce the cost of comfortable living to within the means of more of the population.
Each year American workers set a new record for productivity – more is achieved with less man-hours.
More jobs will disappear before new ones take their place. Every time the new CEO of PNC Bank is interviewed, he brags how fast his bank is going to replace branches as we know them with automated parlors. The customer will go in, sit down and tell a screen what service is needed.
Bank tellers are not the best paying jobs in the land. Most of the 600,000 bank tellers are eligible for food stamps, Medicaid and preferred lending themselves. Already one national bank where you can double your interest on savings (Ally Bank) has only two offices where humans work. Last year Ally Bank processed over 100 million vehicle loans with no offices.
Even our President is oblivious to the obvious.
A couple weeks back Mr. Obama uses his state of the union soapbox to condemn widening inequality of household income. He says he will smooth the path to higher minimum wages through executive orders. Next day the President pops up at a US Steel plant in a Pittsburgh suburb to tell Steelworkers he understands their plight. Most of his audience are high-tech factory workers taking home $80,000 or more per year. The plant employs 1,000 and turns out the same amount of steel that 30 years ago required 5,000 less technical but stronger backs.
United Auto Workers failure to win a recognition election at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant last week indicates more union workplace activities will not be the path to higher wages for American workers. Post-election surveys in Tennessee revealed workers’ assumptions the UAW had already made a secret pact with Volkswagen to curtail better wages. In addition, the UAW dominated every shuttered auto plant or car supplier pushed into bankruptcy.
Too many politicians win elections braying that we pay too many taxes.
Lost in the shuffle was the memory of one driver of the economy past. During Eisenhower, income tax rates could exceed 70 per cent. Few people paid that amount, however, because an earner could re-invest his income and thereby lower the taxable bracket. Today maximum tax rates are half that of the Eisenhower era rendering re-investment useless as an economic stimulant.
Success with Obamacare results in more loss of jobs. Control of health care costs means performing more health care services in less (or cheaper) man-hours.
Bottom Line: Win-at-all cost politicians (mostly Republicans) claim government regulations impede job growth. Correct if the goal is to create cheaper and less-safe jobs. Democrats, nevertheless, are more likely to acquiesce than disagree.
Germany and Australia hold better solutions. Wages are higher in both, unions are more common and workers have dignity. The political representatives of the workers in both are known as the Labor Party.
