Roy Said What?

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After reading the headline that Greenspan thinks we should open our borders to lower incomes, I composed a short note for the ex-chairman (I thought you retired) Greenspan.

Dear Alan,

I see you’re still making news. Given the free fall of the dollar, I’d think you’d be making yourself scarce.

Your latest suggestion for me taking a wage cut to save the economy is a little hard for me to swallow, because for the last 25 years, I’ve been living a wage cut.

When I got married 25 years ago, I was self employed making about $30k/year. A modest home in thise days could be purchased for about $65k and things were looking good.

Five years into my marriage, now with two children, I noticed that my income wasn’t keeping up. I had to work more hours to earn the same amount. Not that you had anything to do with that, but I noticed you started working at the Fed that year.

In todays dollars, I would need to be earning $74k to have the same purchasing power as I had in 1982. (Click Here for a Great Purchasing Power Calculator)

I need to tell you, because you obviously don’t know, but there are not alot of opportunities to make $74k/yr thanks to your Congressional recommendations and Fed policies of the previous 15 years.

Oh sure, your buddies on Wall Street are getting by and the CEO’s of these multinational corporations are pulling in millions. But I’m talking about the people that make all that possible.

So, what about the workers that allowed that corporation to earn a profit? Tell me, why is the median CEO compensation 160 times the average earned by American production workers?

And you don’t think we should raise the minimum wage? How do we keep up with the ravages of declining buying power? Do you realize there are families that need the boost?

I’m wondering why you didn’t refuse the pay increases you received all those years, if it’s so good for our economy? Are you part of a priviledged class? Silly me, I didn’t realize we had an aristocracy in America.

Say, I’ve got an idea, why don’t you get in touch with all your Wall St pals, and in lieu of those gargantuan bonuses for the CEO’s, have them divvy up the bonuses and give that money to their employees. It’d be a nice gesture and one that’d get my wholehearted support.

So, now that we’ve lowered your wages and that of your friends on Wall Street, let’s lower the wages of all the Republicrats in Washington who vote themselves pay raises, while denying a minimum wage increase for American workers.

Anything short of that won’t do.

In closing, I wanted to thank you for all the sage advice and recommendations that led to driving the dollar to it’s lowest point in over 15 years.

One last thing, please shut up and retire already.

You friend,
Roy

PS. The revolution is coming and it won’t be pretty.

alan greenspan ceo compensation economy falling dollar federal reserve greenspan minimum wage purchasing power revolution