Washington Post (July 12)
The Great Recession has been the most “egalitarian” of the 11 most recent recessions to strike the U.S., according to Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson. Recessions often strike the poor the hardest, but no social class—rich or poor, educated or uneducated, professional or working class—has been insulated from the current recession. Jobs have been lost across the spectrum. House and portfolio values have fallen. High earners have had wages cropped. A recent survey shows 71% of Americans are now buying less expensive brands, 57% have reduced their vacation budgets, and 11% have delayed getting married or having kids. Only 45% of Americans now think their children will enjoy higher living standards in the future.
Tags: Future, Great Recession, U.S., Wages
The New York Times (July 6)
Chinese workers need better pay, better working conditions and independent labor unions. In short, “they need China to stop being sweatshop to the world.” The New York Times says “China needs to move on” from its export strategy, which depends on cheap labor and a weak currency. This strategy helped the country develop quickly over the past decade, but it’s now time to pay more attention to the workers.
Financial Times (June 11)
The rumbling in the world’s “assembly plant” is healthy. Striking Chinese workers are merely doing what has been done in “every successful east Asian country.” Rising wages are “a natural consequence of the country’s development and of the operation of labour markets.“ Both worker skill and productivity have increased throughout China, making it “entirely natural for pay… to rise to reflect those returns.”
Tags: China, Productivity, Strikes, Wages
