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Letter: Midwage jobs are shrinking

The Columbian
Published: April 20, 2014, 5:00pm

Between the 1950s and 1980s the American free-market economy was functioning well and all participants benefited, namely owners, managers, customers, employees, and society at large. Then in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan sought to put economist Milton Friedman’s philosophy into practice with his Reaganomics trickle-down economics. Friedman famously said, “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profit.” This started an obsession with profits and stock values at the expense of employees and has steadily moved America’s assets and incomes from average Americans to the richest Americans.

Don’t peg me as an anti-business socialist or communist. I believe in a free-market economy that benefits all stakeholders, but currently corporations are sitting on $5 trillion in cash and their profit margins are at all-time high levels while wages as a percentage of the economy are at an all-time low. Middle-class wages have been stuck in neutral for 30 years. Jobs that will grow the most in the next decade are low wage while the majority of the occupations expected to lose jobs nationally are in the midwage category.

President Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ “

But I’m terrified the most when Republicans say vote for me and I’ll make it trickle down.

Ken Simpson

Vancouver

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