Middle East Focus: A Tale of Two Economies (Part I): Doing the Math, Outsourcing Jobs, Risky Wyoming Foreplay……..

Arabia Deserta

A Tale of Two Economies (Part I): Doing the Math, Outsourcing Jobs, Risky Wyoming Foreplay……..

“Now, the US has increased its productivity very substantially since 1970, but working Americans have captured very little of the resulting extra wealth. It has been hogged by the rich. William Domhoff notes, "Although [by 2004] overall income had grown by 27% since 1979, 33% of the gains went to the top 1%." Silver's graph is eloquent.Domhoff adds, "As of 2007, income inequality in the United States was at an all-time high for recent history, with the top 0.01% -- that's one-hundredth of one percent -- receiving 6% of all U.S. wages, which is double what it was for that tiny slice in 2000; the top 10% received 49.7%, the highest since 1917 (Saez, 2009)."

"In the United States, three decades ago, the average income of a corporate CEO was 40 times the average income of a corporate employee. Today the average income of a corporate CEO is 400 times the average income of the corporate employee……”

So, the corporations outsource the jobs, but the Plebeians get stuck with all the goods produced in China by said outsourced jobs. Which said Plebeians then feel obligated to buy on exorbitant credit, which in turn puts them in hock to the institutionalized and supervised loan sharks. Of course, if the particular Plebeian gets poisoned from eating Chinese canned food or chewing on tainted Chinese toys, then he or she won’t have to worry about the institutionalized loan sharks, or haggling with his or her health insurance company, for long.

Makes going hunting with Dick Cheney sound like a mission of mercy, doesn’t it? Well, almost mercy: unfortunately there is always the foreplay, before he actually pulls the trigger and blows your face away.
Cheers and Ramadan Kareem
mhg
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