Comments on: Where the Wages Are

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:10:00 +0000

The analysis is broken down by many SIC classifications and I have not been able to find employment levels for the 14 high wage manufacturig industiries cited. Your example of comparing cigar workers and telecommunications is not genuine until you can cite the size of the 14 industries in the 1997 analysis. The analysis is not meaningless because it shows that manufacturing could offer the highest paying wages and thus are ferociously pursued by other economies for their wage earners.

By: John Dewey

John Dewey — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:19:00 +0000

martinbrock: “Government red ink doesn’t cause cutbacks at Lockheed Martin and the rest.”

I think government red ink did cause such cutbacks in the 1990′s. Defense spending was reduced after the Cold War ended as part of the overall plan to reduce government deficits.

I believe government red ink – and the interest on government borrowing – will force Congress to make spending cuts in the very near future. Absent some rallying event such as 9/11, I expect defense to absorb a significant portion of those spending cuts.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:27:00 +0000

I find it hard to believe that no linkage exists one year and a trillion bucks flows the next. I’ve read here for months that the state was all over the mortgage business long before 2008. The Secretary of the Treasury and Bailer in Chief was formerly the chief executive of Goldman Sachs.If the entire sector is propped up heavily by red money, the median wage figure is much like the median wage in state services. It doesn’t reflect a market demand for the services. It reflects the will of central authorities.I don’t care about “manufacturing” jobs. Your figures show that only 13 million jobs fit this description. I’m not Meyerson’s cheerleader here, but his larger point involves the wages of jobs created on the margin. I have three children only a few years from entering the labor force. I’d like to know what careful measurements show on that score.You can ask me any question you like, but I’m not Mr. Manufacturing here. Government red ink doesn’t cause cutbacks at Lockheed Martin and the rest. Government red ink causes growth there. Less red ink causes the cutbacks. It causes cutbacks in the “service sector” as well. That’s the point.

How much of this employment do free consumers demand, and how much is bleeding edge, borrow and spend, tax and spend or print and spend?

By: stilettoheels

stilettoheels — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:37:00 +0000

please be a little more polite

I am not polite to condescending pricks jerking off in their virtual closets. You were incapable of linking to Table 3 (your thesis and the subject matter of this blogpost), other than a cut and paste (minimum wage) job. I linked to Table B-3 and Table 3 in the BLS arsenal of data and you are, thus far, incapable of analyzing same.

Dewey, you are so dense that you inadvertently verified Meyerson’s case with a set of data that he didn’t know even existed. In other words, when the BLS groups by industry, manufacturing is so-so, but it is not the case when the BLS groups by occupation. Sheesh, be quiet, don’t let it out in the mainstream media!

As you were incapable of responsiveness to the question (Why don’t you look up where manufacturing wages rank by the lowest occupational grouping?), I will answer it for you: FOOD PREPARATION.

So be it; don’t worry, if this blogpost is an indicia, I don’t plan to be back here very much, if at all. There ain’t much commentariat knowledge to ingest on this blog.

By: John Dewey

John Dewey — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:21:00 +0000

Here’s three service sectors I forgot to include in my original post:Professional, Scientific, and Technical ServicesEmployment – 7,747,850Median wage – $25.41Real Estate and Rental and LeasingEmployment – 2,137,390Median wage – $14.42Management of Companies and EnterprisesEmployment – 1,916,450Median wage – $25.01For those who are counting, that’s 2 more sectors – sectors as defined by BLS – which pay significantly more than manufacturing and 1 sector which pays slightly less.