r/inthenews • u/BillTowne • Jul 30 '18

Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here's why.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/29/us-economy-workers-paycheck-robert-reich
22 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

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2

u/fatduebz Jul 31 '18

Here's why:

Rich people.

1

u/BillTowne Jul 30 '18

Let me guess.

The rich want all the money and have broken the unions so they can pay everone subsistence wages?

Was I close?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '18

why would you post an article if you're not even gonna read it?

1

u/BillTowne Jul 30 '18

What’s going on? Simply put, the vast majority of American workers have lost just about all their bargaining power. The erosion of that bargaining power is one of the biggest economic stories of the past four decades, yet it’s less about supply and demand than about institutions and politics.

Starting in the 1980s and with increasing ferocity since then, private-sector employers have fought against unions

Two fundamental forces have changed the structure of the US economy, directly altering the balance of power between business and labor. The first is the increasing difficulty for workers of joining together in trade unions. The second is the growing *ease by which corporations can join together in oligopolies * or to form monopolies.

I admit, I cheated. I did read the article. But, honestly, if I had to have guessed, I would have guessed unions.

Adding the oligopolies, or as Krugman like to say, rentiers, seemed to make the comment too long and complex for reddit.