The Booming/Tanking Economy

I didn't write this, but it's sure worth putting it on MY BLOG..and share with others that would just take time to read it!

All the business measurements show a booming economy. Republicans are spreading the good news. So why are people in the Middle Class not cheering? Because they see that the economy is booming only for business but it is tanking for members of the Middle Class who work for a living.

Today the Dow Jones industrial average was up 120.14 points, or 1.02 percent, at 11,847.48. This is an all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite Index, the technology index, was up 43.47 points, or 1.94 percent, at 2,287.12. These are extraordinary results, signifying that business is booming like never before.

Most middle class workers don't see the economy booming. None of the increased income corporations are earning is reaching them. The income of people in the Middle Class is stagnating or decreasing while their expenses are rising. Christian E. Weller, Senior Economist at the Center for American Progress, and Eli Staub, Research Analyst at the Service Employees International Union have written a report, "Middle Class in Turmoil: Economic Risks Up Sharply for Most Families Since 2001," that says:

Middle class families are struggling to pay for a home, health insurance, transportation and their children’s college education due to a weak labor market and sharply higher prices, despite an economic recovery well into its fifth year. To pay for these necessary expenditures, middle class families are borrowing record amounts of money, leaving them unable to put away hardly any cash for a rainy day.
Middle Class families are vulnerable. From their point of view, the economy is tanking. And Republicans bear most of the responsibility. For years and years, Republicans (with some help from renigade Democrats) have been working to reduce the small power workers had accumulated with the aid of unions. One big way they did this is to transform the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from a neutral agency into an agency favoring business.

So now it's tough to form a union. Many have tried and have been fired. Wal-Mart goes so far as to fold up the entire store in the unlikely circumstance that a union is formed. Each employee is on his or her own when bargaining with an employer. Wages and salaries are headed downward. Health benefits are disappearing. Pension plans are evaporating.

Today I learn that the NLRB has become another arm of the Republican Party:

The Republican-dominated National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) voted along party lines to slash long-time federal labor laws protecting workers’ freedom to form unions and opened the door for employers to classify millions of workers as supervisors. Under federal labor law, supervisors are prohibited from forming unions.
The ruling refers to nurses. However, it is estimated that the NLRB's expanded definition of "supervisor" means that up to 8 million workers will not be allowed to join unions.

Can you visualize what happens in a hospital under these new regulations? The boss calls a nurse to his office and says:

Carol, I am very impressed with how effective you are with patients. Several of them have told me that they appreciate the extra care you provide. You are, indeed, a caring nurse. And you are efficient and professional. You are so good, you deserve a promotion. So I am promoting you to charge nurse. This position does not pay more and most of your duties will be as before. However, you will be the one making nurse assignments and you will supervise the other nurses in your area. I must warn you, though, that as a supervisor you must give up your membership in the union and you will be ineligible for overtime.
The radically renovated NLRB is one reason why the economy of the Middle Class is tanking while the economy of the Business Class is booming. Another reason for throwing Republicans out of office this fall.