About: http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/09/04/opinion/04reich-graphic.html
I asked: me> Nice graphic. Okay, what happened in 1977 or '78, represented by me> the kink in '79 - '80 and the subsequent downward trend in me> compensation/wages and the corresponding migration of money me> upwards in the social strata? Mike G wrote: > I would hazard a guess that what happened in 1977/78 was that the > productivity impacts of computing began to kick in... Mainframes > were being implemented in the '60's in mega-corps but by the '70's > the smaller but still large companies which probably would benefit > most from the automation of record keeping (for example) were > getting automated with mini-computers. I mention this Peggy and she suggested that '77 or'78 was when off-shoring production really got on a roll. Yes, we've had Japanese and Taiwanese products since the 50s, VW went big on the 60s and so on. But wasn't it about then than the US began to slack off on production? Clothing and shoes, electronics, cars and parts for domestic products, housewares.... Did something significant happen in finance or financeial regulation about then? OTOH, I don't know what "productivity" really means beyond the vague notion of some measure of gross profit or "product" vs. wages and salaries paid. - Mike _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
