Posted by Dinah on December 11, 2011, at 21:17:28
In reply to Re: The top 1% » Aquarius, posted by Dinah on December 11, 2011, at 16:32:53
I'm trying to decide if I mind the fact that salaries are stagnant when adjusted for inflation. Inflation is the rate at which the cost of goods and services increase. Why should wages for the same work increase above what the cost of goods and services increase? Certainly as individuals become more productive at their jobs, they deserve compensation to be commensurate with that increased productivity. But absent an increase in productivity, if a floor plasterer was worth a cow and three chickens (or an amount of money to equal a given amount of goods and services) twenty years ago, why would the same floor plasterer be worth a cow and four chickens today? Doesn't inflation roughly equate to the growth of the available money? In order to earn an extra chicken, doesn't the plasterer have to increase his productivity or differentiate his floor plastering product to make his services more valuable in absolute terms?
A large part of the increase in the quality of life comes from technological advances. When I was growing up, a family had one TV and color TV was a big investment. Today, that monetary equivalent might by a big screen TV, a computer, a game system, and a DVD player. When it used to take an entire day to wash the family laundry on the old washboard and tub my grandmother used to have, there was less time available for work or leisure. Now takes a fraction of that time. So the quality of life improves.
poster:Dinah
thread:1002133
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20110926/msgs/1004760.html