I noticed that Good Morning America is running a story tomorrow morning about how to ask the boss for a raise. Since the economy is cooking along, I guess it was just a matter of time before this happened. Those of you following the wage-inflation thread in the Economics board might find this interetsing to watch. I expect to see GMA followed by a lot of other stories along similar lines, since newsies tend to feed off each other for stories.
Either way is cool with me. I was thinking this was more of an political discussion because of the fact that it's one of the central issues of the presidential election.
The idea that a president is the reason for good or bad economies seems rather dubious to me. I think the state of a economy is do to many things, many of which out side of the range of a president, blaming or giving credit to a president for the state of the economy is almost as bad as blaming the state of crops on the harvest gods, time for another sacrifice!
Interesting points, which have been debated for many years, but which have never stopped the issue of "the economy" from being a major factor in presidential elections. (grin) An excellent book on the subject, by the way, is "The Power of the Presidency", edited by Robert A. Wilson, including stories by David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Edmund Morris, Ben Bradlee and Michael Beschloss. Very short, but very interesting, albeit mainly from an historical (not so much political) perspective.
Ya I know it always a presidential issue and the people are stupid and that why farmers needs so many churches (god needs to be pleased for a good harvest). Lets look at it this way: what if Al Gore or John McCain were president would the economy be any worse? Perhaps it would been better if we had one of those guys as president, what if that were so?
The oft-ignored variable there would be "the power of persuasion", which is one of the most important powers of the presidency. It's manifested in the current campaign in the form of criticism against Bush for not being the "uniter" that he said he was going to be (IMO it's the single most important criticism against him, especially when combined with the similar point that he's left moderates standing at the altar, wondering what the heck happened). Anyway, in that sense, the president has a lot of power. He sets the tone, the direction, and a fair portion of the agenda, which is really saying a lot. But you're right, of course, in the sense that this isn't what people are thinking of when they blame (or credit) the economy on the president.
Ask for a raise? In this job market? You will be lucky if your boss laughs instead of firing you! With our unemployment rates there could be ten guys in your job so fast... Hell, even if you don't ask for a raise there will probably be more industrious Indians or Asians doing your job eventually, and only half the cost because of their respective nations more "competitive" stance on human rights! Don’t ask for a raise, management will resent you forever. Valuable workers are the bane of any company that wants to stay flexible and competitive.
WCH:"I have a good way, get together with your fellow workers, join a union and then persuade him." or: Like Woody always tried to tell us, elites will keep stepping on the rest until we have the individual courage to together say "enough".
