[Dingfod]

With the Great Recession still ongoing for most of us, the "job creators" have the workers right where they want them, willing to do jobs that actually pay less money than they did 30 years ago. Jobs like those at Nissan used to pay well over $20 an hour, plus decent benefits. I noticed the trend with meat packers, whose wages have declined from over $16 per hour in 1982 to an average of less than $12 per hour now. Those are not adjusted for inflation, they're actual dollars.

I'm luckier than most people with my background and [lack of] education, I'm making the same money I was 30 years ago, after adjusting for inflation. In actual dollars, I make a little over twice what I did then. That also means my standard of living has not changed one iota in 30 years. I even slid backwards for a while in the latter half of the 80s, having to take a 33% cut in pay just to keep a job.