Happy Labour Day weekend?
August 31st, 2007 | by aobaoill |I’m TAing for Bob McChesney’s political economy class this semester, and the first book we’re reading is Dean Baker’s recent text “The United States since 1980” – it’s part of a series focusing on different countries over that period. It’s a fascinating opportunity to refresh the finer points (in a granularity sense, not a moral one) of 1980s economic history, much of which passed me by at the time. One of the focuses of Baker’s text is the increasing inequality – driven by active policy decisions – over the last 25 years. Now I see an interesting piece on the BBC site, drawing on an Economic Policy Institute report, that examines the lack of gains by workers since 2000, despite increases in productivity and GDP.