one of the interesting things about the sudden dramatic shift in wage disparity that no one seems to talk about are the causative factors. certainly, declining quality of education plays a major role - anyone who thinks that the u.s. can continue to call itself a superpower when half the world has a better educated population is delusional - but the real reason flies in the face of the american traditional idea of where wealth comes from: hard work and a better idea.
beginning in the mid-70's and continuing to this day, the majority of created wealth has flowed from changes in how money works. that is, a ceo didn't used to have a salary that was literally hundreds of times higher than a company's average worker, or have his compensation package written and approved by other ceo's (i.e., the company's board members).
another major change was how companies made money and kept more of what they made. it used to be about creating products and services that were better than your competitors', making revenue simply by selling more. now, it's much more about cutting the workforce and making sure that the wages of the workers who remain don't rise, so that - as the company makes more money - it keeps a larger and larger percentage of that money.
the world of finance bets on the house even more. financial institutions involved in payday loans claim an average 400% interest rate - high enough to put a mobster in jail for life - and create bets against their own clients, create fictional value and lie about it, lose our savings and then borrow money from us at zero percent interest to pay it back. then pay any fines that result with that same interest-free cash.
and no one goes to jail.
this is what happens when an economic system allows companies and special interests to contribute anonymously and without oversight to the political process, and allows a revolving door between those companies and members of congress. until we close and lock that door and restore transparency and true regulation to campaign donations and other forms of payoff, things will only get worse.
