Re: Re: Castro on US elections (UN stats)

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:48 PM 11/15/00 -0500, you wrote:
> I suspect that as the American economy continues to stagnate over
> the next decade or so, people will entertain all sorts of contrary notions
> on freedom and democracy.

though I think the economy is likely to stagnate during the next decade or
so, most would say that it is not currently stagnant. Rather, it's on the
cusp of the business cycle peak (as indicated, perhaps, by the recent
surprise fall in industrial production).

Of course, we could measure the economy's ups and downs in another way
besides the usual (real GDP). But during the last few years, even wages
have risen pretty steeply. For the US, the share of wages and other labor
compensation rose from 70.5% in national income to 71.3% between 1997 and
1999 (first three quarters). I don't have the 2000 data available here.
Some of this is due to the rising cost of medical insurance. But if you
just look at the share going to wages and salaries, it goes from 58.5% to
59.8%. From workers' point of view, there's been a boom of sorts, though of
course it's in the context of a long period of wage stagnation. And IMHO
it's cyclical, not a true reversal of the trend of the last 25 years.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine