Feel like you're working harder, yet struggling more than ever?

Here's why: Labor's share of the U.S.’s economic output (e.g. wages) decreased to 53.8% in the third quarter of 2025, its lowest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started recording this data in 1947.

Meanwhile, share captured by corporate profits rose to its highest level since 1950.

Hourly wages have increased 3% since the end of 2019, while corporate profits have risen 50%.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, worker productivity has increased 90% since 1979, while wages have only grown 33%. If wages rose at the same rate as productivity, we'd all be making an additional $16/hour.

https://fortune.com/2026/01/13/us-workers-smallest-labor-share-gdp-on-record/

#classWar #poverty #wages #oligarchs

Taffy Brodesser-Akner manages not to notice that what makes management so excited about this is the same reason workers are repulsed. it’s a pretty virtuosic aversion to extremely simple class analysis:

Immediately upon Eline’s introduction of Tilly to the world in July 2025 via a short A.I.-generated comedy sketch that Eline created to showcase Particle 6’s A.I. capabilities, the two of them were besieged and maligned by panicked actors, hostile and incensed union statements and approximately 1,000 think pieces. … SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, issued a statement saying: “‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation.”

…

To be fair, there was also positive outreach. Directors and studios, excited by the possibilities, got in touch with Eline, eager to experiment with Tilly and see what A.I. could do in movie and TV production.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/31/magazine/ai-actress-tilly-norwood.html

#classwar #tillyNorwood #particle6 #USPOL #labor #sagaftra

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZEOCS3mEFE

#MorePerfectUnion

#Economy #Elections #ClassWar

#CEOsSUCK

Today in Labor History May 31, 1838: Kentish peasants clashed with British troops in the Battle of Bosendon Wood. Sir William Courtenay led the uprising. Courtenay had previously run for public office and spent time in a lunatic asylum. He built up a large local following in the previous four years with his millenarian preaching and demonstrations against the New Poor Law of 1834. On May 29, 1838, he led a march through town, with a loaf of bread on a pole (a local symbol of protest). They continued protesting for the next two days, alarming the town’s wealthy elites. When the authorities tried to arrest Courtenay, he shot and killed a constable. The authorities quickly mustered a small army. Courtenay had a gun and a sword, but his followers had only sticks. Courtenay managed to kill a Lieutenant in the ensuing battle, but was promptly killed by other soldiers, who also killed eight of his followers.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #peasant #uprising #revolt #massacre #ClassWar #poverty #uk #britain
#hunger

Today in Labor History May 31, 1889: The infamous Johnstown Flood. 2,209 people died when a dam holding back a private resort lake burst upstream from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Bruce Springsteen references the flood in “Highway Patrolman.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EVCO7ZKVDs

#workingclass #LaborHistory #Johnstown #flood #disaster #classwar #liability #novel #books #fiction #poem #poetry #writer #author #homestead #strike #union #massacre

Today in Labor History May 31, 1889: The infamous Johnstown Flood. 2,209 people died when a dam holding back a private resort lake burst upstream from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It was the deadliest U.S. disaster to date. Bodies were found as far away as Cincinnati. It caused $17 million of damage (about $490 million in 2020 dollars).

Wealthy industrialists, like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick owned and patronized the resort. (Carnegie also owned Homestead Steel, and Frick was the manager in charge of the butchering of striking workers that occurred there in 1892). They had built cottages and a clubhouse and created the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, an exclusive and private mountain retreat. They had also lowered the dam to build a road across it and installed a fish screen in the spillway that tended to trap debris. Investigators believe these alterations contributed to the disaster. Yet none of the members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club were found guilty of any crimes. Furthermore, survivors repeatedly lost court cases in their attempts to recover damages due to the club members’ wealth and expensive legal team. However, public outrage did prompt changes in American law leading to one of strict liability in future cases.

The flood has been depicted repeatedly in American culture. Bruce Springsteen references it in “Highway Patrolman.” Rudyard Kipling talked about it in his novel “Captains Courageous.” The Paul Newman film, “Slapshot” takes place in Johnstown. It is also referenced in episodes of Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and dozens of other poems, songs, plays, novels, and works of nonfiction.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #Johnstown #flood #disaster #classwar #liability #novel #books #fiction #poem #poetry #writer #author #homestead #strike #union #massacre