No subject

story. Maybe a litte editing would be a good thing in the next to last
paragraph.

Mike Lehman wrote:
> 
> Hi Folks,
> Some of you may have been heartened to hear that wage inequity finally
> got a little attention in the almost continous stream of reports that
> appear on ATC on National Public Radio about how "good" the economy is.
> My problem with the report is detailed below.
> Mike Lehman
> 
> Dear All Things Considered,
> 
> I was heartened to hear you finally give a little attention to the
> growing problem of full-time workers having jobs that keep them in
> poverty. In an apparent attempt to balance the grim news of more workers
> making less, you ran a comment by James Glassman (of Chase Securities.)
> He offered the usual apologetics for paying working people
> below-poverty-level wages that we so often hear from those who have
> reaped the benefits of such a mean-spirited economic policy. That was to
> be expected, along with the usual attempt to "balance" the significant
> import of the Conference Board Report.
> 
> What I didn't expect was your allowing him to make a patently false
> assertion, without being challenged by your reporter or some one else.
> He complained that the statistics used in the Conference Board Report
> were based on 1998 Census data and stated that the situation has
> probably improved. I quote Mr. Glassman, "Well, for example, the minimum
> wage has been hiked..."
> 
> For your, and Mr. Glassman's benefit, should he actually be so ignorant,
> instead of misleading, the minimum wage was last increased on Sept. 1,
> 1997. See:
> <http://www.dol.gov/dol/esa/public/minwage/main.htm>
> Census figures from 1998 would include this increase.
> 
> Just because Mr. Glassman is a "chief economist" doesn't mean he knows
> what he's talking about. I would appreciate if this could be corrected
> on-air. Perhaps he has been confused by the election year rhetoric,
> where it looked at one point like there would be a minimum wage
> increase, in this election year, at one point this spring in Congress,
> but it was killed by political manuevering. I think the voters deserve
> the truth when they go to the polls this November.
> 
> Both the Democrats and the Republicans have so far failed to address the
> problem of increasing wage inequity in the United States. Some estimates
> are that, since the 1970's, 80% of American workers have seen their
> wages either stagnate or fall in real terms. All the talk about the
> great economy serves to do nothing more than to disguise the rising tide
> of income disparity which threatens the social fabric of our nation and
> keeps millions of hard-working American families from enjoying the
> fruits of their labor.
> 
> I await your setting the record straight,
> Mike Lehman