Bosses' squeezing more out of workers as wages decline

If you work in manufacturing and are still lucky enough to have a job but find that being at work is more and more of a drain, you are not imagining things and it's not simply old age.  US factory output the Wall Street Journal reports today is up 4% over the last decade as payrolls have declined 25%. The heads of the industrial Unions, steel, auto, etc. have been very helpful getting the bosses to this point.  Wages for some auto workers have been cut in half.

On top of that, productivity or output per hour worked is up 40%.   This is what capitalists call an improvement and the bedrock of a civilized society. We need that productivity so that the coupon clippers can realize their dreams of another mansion alongside Central Park or in the Hamptons.  Carlyle's three founders shared $400 million between them last year for their efforts.  Carlyle is a private equity company that people like George HW Bush are connected to and the feuding that raged prior to the crash between the private equity capitalists and those poor folks who operate within the confines of the exchanges and are less dependent on finance capital is beginning to reemerge particularly with regard to Romney, who has some history in that industry with Bain capital.

They all do pretty good though in these "difficult times" that require  "shared sacrifice" on the part of all of us if we are to help the system get back on a more solid footing.