So, we are working substantially harder than Europeans to add about $8,000 more in value to our economy than Europeans do, but we American workers are receiving a smaller piece of that big ole pie we are working so hard to make.
Put another way, American workers are slaving away an extra four, five, six weeks a year to make the wealthiest Americans even wealthier, while the wages of the average worker remain about the same. (See those depressing statistics summarized here: “A Sobering Census Report: Americans' Meager Income Gains”, New York Times, August 28, 2007.) Europeans, on the other hand, work less, contribute almost as value much per hour, but maintain a much more reasonable relationship between the upper reaches of their economy and the ordinary workers. As a result, there is more money generally available in European societies to provide for the overall public good than there is here in hard-working America.
How does it feel to be working so much harder than the rest of the developed world to make the Man in America several times richer than the Man elsewhere?
Happy Labor(ing) Day.
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