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A comment on Why are US corporate profits so high? Because wages are so low. Parent comment

Re:Why are US corporate profits so high? Because wages are s... by jbooth on Monday January 27, 2014 @05:10PM (#7133672)
You can slice it any way you want, the preponderance of evidence points to median and average wages both trailing productivity in the long run.

Arguments about short-run volatility that don't address this fact are hand-wavy.

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Re:Why are US corporate profits so high? Because wages are s... by yummyfajitas on Monday January 27, 2014 @05:26PM (#7133776)
Why would productivity be related to wages? To put it concretely, if I replace 4/5 workers with a small shell script, does that mean the 5'th worker deserves a pay raise?

(For the sake of argument, say his work and output has not changed at all.)

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Re:Why are US corporate profits so high? Because wages are s... by jbooth on Tuesday January 28, 2014 @08:19AM (#7136846)
If you're working there, it would be a case of the 6th worker, you, replacing 4/5 of his peers with a shell script. Would you deserve a raise?

If you're being anecdotal, you can justify whatever you want. In the aggregate, wages have lagged productivity, corporate profits have skyrocketed while US wages have stagnated relative to inflation.

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