Right on, George

Reading the New York Times is an everyday reminder of what a great conceptual thinker the late George Orwell was. Why Labor’s Share of Income Is Falling By Jared Bernstein September 9, 2013 appears to be a classic case of Crimestop at work.

Bernstein, “former chief economist to Vice President Joseph R. Biden” takes 950 words and 2 charts at his privileged perch as a New York Times blogger in an apparently sincere effort to consider this issue:

…profits as a share of income are at or near record highs while the compensation share is around a 50-year low.

And also another issue buried beneath that:

…much of the increase in inequality has occurred within labor’s share, as the paychecks of high earners diverge from those of low earners.

citing a study which asserts

...decomposing the gap between wages and productivity growth…inequality within the labor share — wage inequality — explains half of the growth of the gap over the last few decades.

Bernstein comes up with a conclusion

…in the largely deunionized American job market, full employment is the way workers get bargaining clout…I submit that increasing labor’s share of national income is neither mysterious nor beyond our scope …It takes getting rid of the persistent slack in the labor market, which in turn means policy makers must plot a course toward full employment.

(VDARE.com emphasis) Totally missing in this analysis is any acknowledgement of the impact of the huge influx of legal and illegal immigration since 1965. Nor is there any reference to the effect of the current Amnesty/Immigration Surge legislation,

Bernstein defers discussing his policy agenda for future columns. Will it include an immigration moratorium?

Ask Jared Bernstein.

Don’t hold your breath.