In America, it isn’t hard to answer the question in the headline
“yes.” The oft recited, “Our employees are our greatest asset” is pure
Orwellian prattle; most companies treat employees as liabilities, doing
everything they can to minimize labor costs, getting rid of workers
whenever possible. And this now extends well up into the management
ranks, with most people who are still on the corporate meal ticket
assigned responsibilities that would have constituted 1.5 to two jobs a
decade ago.
And before readers argue that this is a necessary response to
globalization, the evidence does not support that view. If companies
were simply responding to tougher competition (in this case, lower cost
suppliers from overseas), you’d expect to pressure on wages AND
profits. Instead, we’ve seen wage stagnation (save at the very top)
with (pre bust) record profits.
If you look at past post-war expansion periods, the …