A rising tide lifts only the millionaires' yachts

Real wages have failed to keep up rise during a period of sustained economic growth for the first time since WWII. From the NY Times today:

With the economy beginning to slow, the current expansion has a chance to become the first sustained period of economic growth since World War II that fails to offer a prolonged increase in real wages for most workers…

The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. The drop has been especially notable, economists say, because productivity — the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic wellspring of a nation’s living standards — has risen steadily over the same period.

As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s. UBS, the investment bank, recently described the current period as “the golden era of profitability.”

We've known this has been a singularly poor period for wage growth. There continues to be disagreement over the cause, even among liberal economists, but I'm convinced the Bush policies and the overall ideological background noise supporting it is largely responsible.

Hopefully, people's discontent alone will be sufficient to sweep out the Thugs running our government in the upcoming elections.