Downs said that since 1990, corporate profits have increased by 50 percent, reaching the highest after-tax levels in 25 years. While the average CEO's salary rose 23 percent in 1995, the wages and benefits for the average worker increased only 2.7 percent between 1994 and 1995. For all but the highly educated and highly paid, wages have declined. Seventy percent of the workforce earned less in 1994 than in 1979 or 1989. From 1979 to 1989, the total compensation paid to the median worker fell by five percent .
Investors think downsizing is great.
When a company lays off workers, Wall Street sees lower wages and bigger profits and drives up the price of the company's stock. So, despite the seemingly good economic news, what we still have is an economy that is managed for the benefit of Wall Street at the expense of Main Street. Not that this is anything new. Between 1870 and 1973, the U.S. economy grew at an average of 3.4 percent a year. Between 1973 and 1993, it grew an average of 2.3 percent yearly.