We Speak For Earth

theatlantic:

50% of All Workers Made Less than $26,000 in 2010

Today we get our first look at American wages in 2010 based on payroll taxes reported to the Social Security Administration. David Cay Johnston picks out the most important takeaways, including:

1) Half of all workers made less than $26,364, the median wage in 2010. That’s the lowest level since 1999, after adjusting for inflation.

2) The number of millionaires increased by about 20 percent.

3) The size of the missing workforce is 10 million. The number of working people fell by 5.2 million since 2007. But that’s not the entire job deficit, because, based on population growth estimates, 4.5 million more would have joined the workforce between 2007 and 2011. Add it up, and you get a 10-million-worker gap. Read more.

Damn.

Quick, half-baked thoughts:

1) I’ve really liked the sign, “Put politicians on minimum wage, and see how quick things change”. I would equally argue, “limit politicians’ salaries to the median wage…”. It seems slightly more realistic.. hmm…

2) WTF?! This is why simply saying, “oh well, it’s a recession” is misleading. It’s a recession for most people, but some are making bank.

3) Population growth is a concern of mine, primarily because we’ll eventually hit the point when Earth just can’t support any more people. But there are also effects to the economy and job market etc (though I’m not an economist, so, caveat lector). I can’t believe all that cr@p about cutting funding to agencies like Family Planning. Just a vicious cycle which gets worse and worse.