: Krugman

数日前のコラムで、クルーグマンは一般に混同されがちな２つの経済指標を明確に区別する必要を説く。「雇用者数」と「雇用状態」、この二つは、順相関する関係にあると、従来は思われがちであった。然り。数十年前と現代、それぞれの代表的大企業の賃金(格差）を例に出し、この2つの指標がともに低水準に向けてたしかに順相関してしまっていることを、クルーグマンは指摘する。

In 1968, when General Motors was a widely emulated icon of American business, many of its workers were lifetime employees. On average, they earned about $29,000 a year in today's dollars, a solidly middle-class income at the time. They also had generous health and retirement benefits. 　　Since then, America has grown much richer, but American workers have become far less secure. 　Today, Wal-Mart is America's largest corporation. Like G.M. in its prime, it has become a widely emulated business icon. But there the resemblance ends. 　　The average full-time Wal-Mart employee is paid only about $17,000 a year. The company's health care plan covers fewer than half of its workers.

True, not everyone is badly paid. In 1968, the head of General Motors received about $4 million in today's dollars - and that was considered extravagant. But last year Scott Lee Jr., Wal-Mart's chief executive, was paid $17.5 million. That is, every two weeks Mr. Lee was paid about as much as his average employee will earn in a lifetime.
Not that many of them will actually spend a lifetime at Wal-Mart: more than 40 percent of the company's workers leave every year. (May 13, 2005 Always Low Wages. Always. PAUL KRUGMAN)