Wage Stagnation Despite Four Year Degree

I've been posting over on Captain Bama regarding the scandals at Alabama's JuCo system yet this is even more disturbing. Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the LA Times reports "That Raise Might Take 4 Years to Earn as Well : Those with bachelor's degrees are finding their incomes stagnate despite a growing economy."

With the economy growing, unemployment low, and corporate profits surging, one has to wonder how our nation, much less our local community, can accept what appears to be undeniable facts? The report reveals:

Wage stagnation, long the bane of blue-collar workers, is now hitting people with bachelor's degrees for the first time in 30 years. Earnings for workers with four-year degrees fell 5.2% from 2000 to 2004 when adjusted for inflation, according to White House economists.

It is a remarkable setback for workers who thought they were well-positioned to win some of the benefits of the nation's economic growth, and it may help explain why surveys show that many Americans think President Bush has not managed the economy well.

Not since the 1970s have workers with bachelor's degrees seen a prolonged slump in earnings during a time of economic growth. These workers did well during the last period of economic growth, 1995 to 2000, with inflation-adjusted average wages rising 12%, according to an analysis by the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

The reporting is using figures supplied by Bu$hCo's 2006 Economic Report of the President.

In our locale many college graduates are employed as educators in the public schools yet opportunities are very limited. Much of our young talent must leave, not that they are missing much I'd offer, to earn their fortune. If nationally the trend is not looking good for regular Americans then admittedly in our area they might appear dreadful.

From so called "free trade" to outsourcing to unregulated hyper-capitalism to Bu$h tax policies favoring the Big Mules to ... our government is hardly serving the needs of regular Americans, even those advancing their education. I'm still wading through David Sirota's "Hostile Takeover" but I think he's certainly correct in his belief that the Big Mules have bought our government. Peace ... or War!