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AlterNet reports
When Republicans in Congress passed a big, fat tax break bill in December, they insisted it meant American workers would be singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" all the way to the bank. The payoff from the tax cut would be raises totaling $4,000 to $9,000, the President's Council of Economic Advisers assured workers. But something bad happened to workers on their way to the repository. They never got that money.
In fact, their real wages declined because of higher inflation. At the same time, the amount workers had to pay in interest on loans for cars and credit cards increased. And, to top it off, Republicans threatened to make workers pay for the tax break with cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. So now, workers across America are wondering, "Where's that raise?". It's nowhere to be found.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week that wages for production and nonsupervisory workers decreased by 0.1 percent from May 2017 to May 2018 when inflation is factored in. The compensation for all workers together, including supervisors, rose an underwhelming 0.1 percent from April 2018 to May 2018.
That's not what congressional Republicans promised workers. They said corporations, which got the biggest, fattest tax cuts of all, would use that extra money to increase wages. Some workers got one-time bonuses and an even smaller number received raises. But not many. The group Americans for Tax Fairness estimates it's 4.3 percent of all U.S. workers.
The New York Times story about this record breaker describes the phenomena this way: "Companies buy back their shares when they believe they have nothing better to do with their money than to return capital to shareholders." So despite promises from the GOP and the President's Council of Economic Advisers, corporations believed further enriching their own executives and shareholders was a much better way to use the money than increasing workers' wages--wages that have been stagnant for decades.
(Score: 2) by black6host on Thursday June 21 2018, @10:15PM (1 child)
When corporations incur extra costs they pass it on to the consumers via price increases, or more irritatingly, by reducing the size of the item being sold so you're paying the same for less.
When corporations see cost decreases they immediately pass that on to the consumer by way of lower prices or increasing the amount you get for your money. Wait... That doesn't seem to be the way it works in my world. Competition can drive prices down. However, the corporation is still acting in it's own best interests.
I'm not judging. I'm just saying I'm not surprised and never thought those tax cuts were going to do the common person much good. Y'all can argue with me about economics but I'm not sure it's worth your while. I think I'll wait to see those increases in wages and standards of living before I believe it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Thursday June 21 2018, @10:38PM
One of the problems is that they are eliminating competition by allowing huge mergers.
No competition, no problem.
A little competition, collusion on price fixing.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---