Business Week on business

I'm posting this sanguine article from Business Week, not because of the accuracy of its prediction of a wholesale business upturn (including jobs), but so that later on I can say, I Told You So. The fact is, that nothing in the data recited in the article is supportive of a surge in meaningful jobs in the US. Check it out. The article touts higher stock prices based on higher corporate earnings (all so far obtained by belt-tightening measures and longer working hours by existing employees) and a spate of mergers and acquisitions, which usually lead to job-cutting and downsizing of unprofitable segments of the merged businesses. Not a whisper in the article about a basis for meaningful job growth except the usual exhortation that where there's money, there must be more work.

Not these days, not in America. We have no labor unions, no worker leverage, but rather a glut of unemployed and underemployed workers who have no might to demand decent pay and fair benefits. This recovery, unlike others, will benefit Bush's corporate donors, but will leave behind the people of America, the voters.

Let's hope they remember to register to vote when they pick up their welfare and unemployment checks.

(If you want another take on the future of well-paid jobs in America, check this article in the NYT.)