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Is anyone surprised that record low wages arrive at the very same time profits reach record highs?
FORBES: 3rd Quarter Corporate Profits Reach Record High-Worker Pay Hits Record Low:So How Exactly Is Obama The 'Anti-Business' President?
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When wages fall to record lows as a percentage of GDP, it means that middle-class Americans have fewer disposable dollars in their pocket to support the small businesses dependent upon those dollars for their own survival.
FORBES: 3rd Quarter Corporate Profits Reach Record High-Worker Pay Hits Record Low:So How Exactly Is Obama The 'Anti-Business' President?
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And they see banks and some large corporations raking in record profits while wages stagnate or decline.
FORBES: Are Your Employees Getting Happy Feet?
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Yes, if wages and salaries grew at the record 8% rate for 10 years straight, then and only then would the U.S. economy be generating enough taxes to afford current spending amounts.
FORBES: Current Government Spending Is Not Creating Enough Growth
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According to The Economist's house-price indices, property prices in America have risen by more than half since 1997, leaving them at record levels compared with rents and wages.
ECONOMIST: Buttonwood
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So does Honda, another carmaker expecting to make record profits this year: it says it will start lowering wages for underperformers in four years' time.
ECONOMIST: Deflation is transforming Japan's annual pay rituals
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As well as the decline in household spending, the figures show that compensation for employees (wages and salaries) fell by 1.1% in the quarter, the largest decline on record.
BBC: Biggest spending drop since 1980
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Even where they have been making record profits, companies have hoarded their cash rather than pay more out in the form of higher wages, which have stagnated even as employment has increased.
ECONOMIST: Japan's pain