Would The Real Middle Class Please Stand Up?

The big talk all over the internet today is about Obama reforming the financial industries methods in which it pays its executives and employees. The complaint is that the compensation is based too much on short term gains leaving a lot of room for some short term corruption. The reaction is pretty much as predicted all over the internet. “Where does it end?” “This is government control of the free market.” I think you get the gist. The reactions are well founded for this is a form state control and the constitution doesn’t give the government the right ANYWHERE to tell people what they can and cannot make or pay their people.

That being said I’m going to be the devils advocate here because it does bring up an issue that is real here in the U.S. and that is wages. Up until 1980 your average Fortune 500 Company executive made approximately 40 times their average employee. Right now it is approximately 400 times their average employee. So I say to myself why? Are the CEOs of today 10 times better than they used to be? Do they work 10 times harder than they used to? Are the executives just that much more important than their employees? What am I missing here?

The fact is since the 1980s we have seen millions of jobs shipped overseas especially in the manufacturing sector. We have seen wages actually drop for your average worker when you factor in inflation. On top of all of this the real average tax rate for a Fortune 500 company is around 18% which many companies including the likes of Goldman Sachs only pay around 1% in taxes. We have seen all of this while going from a $1 trillion dollar debt in 1980 to a $12 trillion dollar debt as of now.

So what gives here? Whatever happened to Fordism where you would pay your employees well because it would be those same employees who would come and buy your products? Whatever happened to “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country?” Now on the national debt side I understand the need for smaller government. Trust me this I know but why are individuals paying higher taxes than an illusion? Why am I especially paying a higher tax than this illusion that is shipping millions of jobs overseas and using those savings to focus more and more of its pay towards the top of the ladder and pass more to the shareholders?

I need some help finding a free market solution here because so far the free market is not working here and I’m sorry but I don’t want my country to be two classes your either filthy rich or dirt poor. For any strong prosperous country there has to be a strong middle class and through inflation and the funneling of funds the middle class IS being wiped out whether you want to admit it or not. If your free market solution is go get an education then I say this to you. Tell that to the millions of accountants, customer service reps, and other white collar jobs that have been shipped to India. This is a problem that needs to be addressed and the free market must address it.

[edit on 13-5-2009 by tjeffersonsghost]