In the days before the primary election on Feb. 5, Progressive Nashville takes a look at where America stands on some important issues and, on Friday, where we should be going.
Today we look at the economy.
The Economy
At the core of virtually any Progressive agenda is the goal of a quality life for everyone. It's impossible to attain that goal without a vibrant, growing economy.
Few things separate Progressives from Conservatives more than how they measure the economy. For Conservatives, the essential elements have to do with business and profits. For Progressives, the health of the economy is measured by whether consumers are employed, paid well and can enjoy reasonable quality of life.
Enjoying those things requires that household incomes continue to grow at least enough to match inflation. Unfortunately, that's not happening. U.S. Census Bureau figures show that four out of five quintiles are getting a smaller share of aggregate income. Only those at the top are getting more.
Those numbers show the top five percent have seen their share of the income grow from 44.1 percent of the total income earned in the country in 1980 to 50.4 percent, a nearly 15 percent increase. Those in the bottom quintile have seen their share of income go from 4.2 percent to 3.4 percent, a nearly 25 percent drop.
If the top 20 percent of the population controls more than 50 percent of the income, that leaves 80 percent of us to divvy up less than half. Those at the bottom have clearly been the greatest losers in that reallocation of dollars.
While the vast majority of us have less money to spend, there is also less money available to spend on non-necessities -- exactly the things that the government wants us to buy with an upcoming tax rebate.
We're now giving up more of our income for food. The USDA says "In real terms (after adjustment for inflation), per capita income increased 48 percent between 1970 and 1997. During the same period, real food expenditures per capita increased 23 percent, much of it due to the switch to more awayfrom-home eating." Eating out may seem to be a luxury, but that's a difficult sell for the two-income family where both parents race to keep up with their jobs and their children. Cooking at home is becoming a luxury.
Energy costs are also eating up our salaries. In 2002, we spent about 2.5 percent of our income on gasoline, but now that number has increased to five percent, largely because of our move toward ethanol.
So while we're earning less it's just as well that we're spending more of our money on necessities because we're also working more hours and have less time for luxuries.
U.S. workers put in an average of 1,815 hours in 2002. In major European economies, hours worked ranged from about 1,300 to 1,800, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). Hours were about the same in the U.S. as in Japan.
Combined weekly work hours for dual-earning couples with children rose 10 hours per week, from 81 hours in 1977 to 91 hours in 2002, according to a new study by the New York-based Families and Work Institute.
So we're working longer hours, getting less real pay and spending more of it on necessities. It might be tolerable if we knew that in retirement we'd get the opportunity to enjoy our final years. It won't happen. Americans aren't prepared for retirement. We'll either spend our elder years living on less or working longer.
Unless we live in the top quintile of the country -- the group that's getting richer at the expense of the other 80 percent.
And in the final test, quality of life, the United States is not living up to its potential. In the Economist's 2005 survey of the quality of life, U.S. residents place 13th behind Switzerland, Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark, Australia, Iceland and Finland and other Progressive countries.
Regardless of corporate profits, Dow Jones averages or other often-used measures of the economy, most Americans are not living as well they were. We're even more pessimistic when it comes to our children. The Pew Research Center reports, "About half of adults (50%) say that today's children will grow up to be worse off than people are now. A third (34%) say they'll be better off and most of the rest say they aren't sure."
The economy provides the greatest contrast between Conservatives and Progressives and clearly the Conservative view prevails. Business and the rich are doing better and, because this is a zero-sum game, their success comes at the expense of everyone else.
Tomorrow we'll look at what that means when we consider where we need to go.
- Jim Grinstead
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