Good point Mike... I suspect that we both are (partially) right. M
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mike Spencer Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2012 10:14 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Futurework] Re: FW: [CITASA] Seeking a recommendation of a reading on socialstratification 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 upwards me> 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 _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
