Dear Public Officials; Take off the rose colored glasses…

Aug 30

jonpeltoEconomic Development, Economy, Poverty , 17 Comments

One of yesterday’s Wait, What? Blog posts dealt with the reality that, here in Connecticut, we taxpayers are giving the world’s largest hedge fund, $115 million dollars to stay and expand in Connecticut.  The public subsidy will cost us about $150,000 for each of the 800 jobs they are scheduled to create over the next ten years.

Meanwhile, as a member of the dwindling middle class, it will cost me, after the available public subsidies, about $160,000 to pay for my child to get an undergraduate degree in her chosen field.

We are witnessing  modern capitalism in which taxpayers are giving money to a company that paid its CEO $3.9 billion last year while a person making an income at about the state average builds up a debt that drag me down for the rest of my life.

And we are told that things are getting better.

Things might very well be getting better, but that misses the point.

Today, Connecticut Voices has released a report that drives the point home in way that everyone, across the political spectrum will be able to understand.

Entitled, The State of Working Connecticut 2012: Employment, Jobs and Wages in the Wake of the Great Recession,” the report reveals that “the wage gap between the wealthy and others has grown over the recent economic recession and recovery, with the highest wage workers enjoying wage growth four times that of median wage workers, while wages stagnated for low wage workers…”

The report examines the period from 2006 – 2011 and key findings include:

  • “The gap between Connecticut’s wealthy residents and everyone else has continued to widen.  Connecticut’s median wage grew by only 2.4 percent (after adjusting for inflation) over the lowest paid workers actually saw their wages fall by 0.2 percent.
  • “Connecticut’s higher paying manufacturing jobs are disappearing and being replaced by lower paying jobs in healthcare, hotels, and restaurants.”  14 percent of Connecticut manufacturing were lost between 2006 and 2011, while healthcare and social service sector jobs grew by 11 percent.“  The Problem:  Healthcare and Social service jobs pay “78 percent of the statewide average weekly wage,” meaning those that are getting jobs are getting them in fields that won’t allow those workers to even reach Connecticut’s existing middle ground.
  • “Connecticut’s Black and Hispanic workers have not experienced an economic recovery.”
  • “Connecticut’s youngest workers are most likely to be unemployed, but Connecticut’s oldest workers are most likely to face long-term unemployment.”  As of 2011, almost in one in five younger workers were officially unemployed.  Meanwhile, of the unemployed workers 55 or over, a shocking six in every ten have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks.   Losing a job when you are 55 or over is becoming a death sentence when it comes to ever finding work again.

This study should be mandatory reading for every legislative candidate seeking office.  In fact, perhaps some Wait, What? readers could print off the executive summary or full report, send it to your local legislative candidates and ask, no demand that they provide the voters with some substantive response.

The Executive Summary is here:  http://www.ctvoices.org/sites/default/files/econ12sowctes.pdf

The Full Report is here: http://www.ctvoices.org/sites/default/files/econ12sowctfull.pdf

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  • buygoldandprosper

    THE BIGGEST SCAM GOING and it is all about Dan Malloy,buying votes for his next campaign. NEXT FIVE JIVE!!
    Check out this news article from some time ago when Dan was busy screwing up Stamford as mayor. $100 MILLION went to RBS and RBS went as close to going out of business as a company can get. The British Government owns them and my question is…are the incentives now going to the Brits? Did RBS ever follow through with their “pledges”? Very doubtful,as they were on the brink already, and a drive-by shows another ghost-town of blood sucking “bankers” across the street from UBS which now boasts the worlds LARGEST EMPTY TRADING FLOOR.
    Dan Malloy is engaged in a scheme to defraud the citizens of Connecticut and he has the legislatures blessing.
    Count on a tax hike in another year or so after Dan has had his way with us and moves on.
    https://www.quantnet.com/threads/rbs-to-build-a-trading-floor-across-from-ubs-in-stamford-ct.686/

  • Wilton Businessman

    On a side note, I am glad to see we are off BP Schools (for now).

    From the ExecSummary:
    “Invest in initiatives that broaden career opportunities, raise wages, fight poverty, and support families. The effectiveness of investments in education will be muted if children live in broken homes, unsafe communities, and face bleak career prospects upon graduation. Programs that fight poverty, strengthen families and communities, and improve pay and working conditions position all of Connecticut’s children to thrive and to contribute to our state; these include:
    • Further strengthening the state’s earned income tax credit
    • Raising the minimum wage substantially
    • Boosting investments in job training in growth industries
    • Defending vital social services from punishing budget cuts”

    Sigh. Let’s look at this logically for a second. The costs to employ a worker in Connecticut are already so high that the employers have to reduce the wages to pay for all the overhead. Less wages for the employee means a lower standard of living. So the solution is to put more government programs in place to raise the overhead burden on the company so the downward pressure on wages continues? Does that seem logical?

    Raise the minimum wage? Sure. Make it $12/hour, I don’t care. See how your HS grads find entry level jobs then. I’m not going to spend $12/hr to get my floors swept, I’ll do it myself. One could argue that if you want to lower unemployment for the HS Grads, the correct course of action is to LOWER (gasp) the minimum wage. Make it $5/hr and I’ll hire two kids to sweep my floors.

    Boosting investments in job training, absolutely. Make it a partnership between businesses that need skilled labor (what ones there are left in Connecticut) and subsidize the on-the-job-training with government funds.

    I 100% agree that vital services need to be supported. However, our definitions of “vital” are probably different.

    • http://www.facebook.com/melanie.savage.1610 Melanie Savage

      Yep, costs of doing business in CT are so high that poor Ray Dalio only made $3.9 billion last year. Poor Ray. Poor Wilton businessman. How about, you pay the high school graduate a higher wage because it’s the right thing to do. Because we’re all in this together. Because you don’t really need to drive a BMW when someone else can’t afford to make rent on a one-bedroom apartment. Nope, we should LOWER the minimum wage so Wilton businessman can hire TWO desperate high school grads to sweep his floors and STILL drive his BMW! LISTEN to yourself! Whatever happened to giving a crap about the welfare of other people?

      • Guest

        Thank you!

      • Wilton Businessman

        I drive a 12 year old Honda with 186K miles on it. I haven’t paid myself in 7 weeks. Get off your high horse and think logically for once.

      • msavage

        Logically?! Like you think, I suppose? On a post where Jon is talking about the highest-paid executive in the COUNTRY, your response is to say that people can’t AFFORD to do business in CT. Clearly, Ray Dalio has found a way to profit handsomely while doing business in CT. Perhaps you’re just not good enough at manipulating the system?
        Your response to complaints of the “working class” is that they should just find a job elsewhere? Hello?! Look around you! WHERE are they going to find a job? Unemployment is currently as high, according to some estimates, as it was during the depression. The “working class” doesn’t have the luxury of finding “a better job somewhere else.”
        Why are you driving a Honda with 186K miles on it? Why haven’t you paid yourself in 7 weeks? I suppose you’re going to blame it on your employees? If only you didn’t have to pay them a fair wage, you’d be able to make a profit. Or maybe your business has gone down–not enough people buying your widgets or coming to your restaurant or whatever. And why would that be? Because people like Ray Dalio, with the assistance of people like Dan Malloy, are strangling the life out of all of us. We can’t afford to buy your widget or come to your restaurant because we’re barely surviving. People like Ray Dalio have manipulated the system to reap obscene profits, and then hoarded those profits in offshore accounts. They aren’t trickling anything down. They’re hoarding it and rubbing their greedy, greasy palms together with sociopathic glee.

      • Wilton Businessman

        The point was you’re making assumptions about my lifestyle with no clue of what you are talking about. I’m not Ray Dalio and I don’t give a flying F about him and how much he makes. I care about my people and my business.

      • Linda174

        Tell us what your business is please if you are so proud.

      • http://www.facebook.com/melanie.savage.1610 Melanie Savage

        Until and unless you begin to “give a flying F” about people like Ray Dalio, you will not be able to see a large part of the equation re what has gone wrong in this state and this country.

      • http://www.facebook.com/melanie.savage.1610 Melanie Savage

        Wilton Businessman–after sleeping on it, I wanted to come back and reply to your comment again. You’re absolutely right–based upon your post, I assumed that you are likely a Republican voter and someone at the top end of the middle class. Apparently an incorrect assumption–I apologize.
        Re the statement “I care about my people and my business…” We are staring in the face of multiple potential calamaties in this world at the moment: economic, environmental, political, military, social. It’s my feeling that the best (perhaps the only) way to come through this and out the other side into a stronger, more equitable situation is to work together. I feel that all of us need to stop thinking only of our own little sphere of immediate influence and start thinking about the local, state, national, even global community-at-large. Of course we’re going to be concerned with ourselves and our families first–that’s only natural animal instinct. But as humans, aren’t we supposed to rise above animal instinct and utilize our capacity for compassion, critical thinking and cooperation to work together in society? If we don’t start thinking about others as well, and how our actions might influence others and affect the larger community, I don’t see any of us faring very well through whatever is coming down the pike.

  • buygoldandprosper

    Wilton Businessman…too poor to live in Ridgefield,Darien or New Cannan? But you have the right attitude. Screw the working class! You sound like Fergus Cullen. Just a bunch of right wing jibberish,trying to sound like you are part of what is good for America.
    Well. Wilton has OK schools and no real social issues other than drugs,alcohol spousal abuse and the like. Sleep well and have a good life.

    • Guest

      Great summary, buygoldandprosper. Could Wilton Businessman be a caricature? I find it hard to believe that he is writing seriously. He sounds like Mr. Moneybags, the exploitative capitalist figure from late 19th and 20th century economics (he’s often shown in a top hat and tails, monocle’d and sporting large carpet bags of dough). Back then few people could really defend such a figure, but now he’s a national hero. Or our next president. Minimum wage! No wages would be even better.
      And yes, thank you for not mentioning Bridgeport–signed the ruling class of Fairfield County.

    • Wilton Businessman

      This is a free country, for now. “The Working Class” as you put it have a choice. If they don’t like working for me, they can find a better job somewhere else. If you think you are being treated unfairly, why on earth would you want to stay and make MORE of a commitment?

      • Linda174

        When or if the economy gets better you may not have any slaves working for you…do it yourself of hire your kids….tata for now..oh Wilton oh holy one.

      • buygoldandprosper

        Workers do have a choice,and so does management. I would suggest that you move to a business friendly state with low wages and low taxes and low cost of living,or,take advantage of the FIRST FIVE JIVE and get a state handout. The trouble is that “business friendly” is a concept that changes over time. Very
        much like buying a home in a rural area,when the market heads south your home can become less desirable and you have fewer suckers to buy into your area because there are fewer opportunities to make a living. One of the many reasons I would not live in a place like Wilton is that is is the ass-end of some very “desirable” towns. You get a few headquarters due to zoning and a lot of traffic. You also get a whole town full of people who generally wish they lived in Ridgefield or New Cannan…or when they fail,end up in Bethel or Shelton. Where do Doug and Melissa live? Next door to the HQ?
        Dan Malloy is turning the concept of free enterprise on its head to buy enough votes for later elections.
        Your views of America and the economy are short sighted and mean spirited and,sadly,typical. You have lots of company…as did the folks on the deck of the Titanic. Just be prepared to sink or swim.

      • buygoldandprosper

        And speaking of Dan Malloy buying votes check this article out. People are getting wise to the Dan that I warned about in various forums. All one had to do was pay attention to his modeus operandi in Stamford to know what would be happening once he moved on to bigger and better opportunities.
        Dan is a very dangerous politician,but they all seem to have a rather skewed view of “public service” these days,especially in tiny little Connecticut:
        http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-lender-column-guv-media-0902-20120901,0,525340.column

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