compensation vs profits

Since the end of the 20th century and after the early economic recessions of the 21st century our ability to indemnify workers for their toiling has not only stagnated from a wage standpoint, but it has also dropped from a jobs creation standpoint. Fewer people are working and for less money, because of the growth of money in the system and its production.

wage vs productivity

As mentioned in previously and in a recent article, capital is not to blame here, as it is a technology. Capable of distributing values of sorts under a denomination that we call money, capitalism is a system of distributing values and that is all. What we lack as a society or group of societies across the planet are sufficient ways to distribute value.

dow profits vs wages

Value is constant and pervasive, like that of energy. Neither can be created nor destroyed, but can change form, for instance

• Energy: chemical energy can be converted to kinetic energy in the explosion of a stick of dynamite.
• Value: institutional profits can be converted to individual wages, in the remittance from employer to employee.

Specific to values and because we currently have less jobs garnering less wages, it doesn’t mean that the the value is lost. Value still exists in the trillions of dollars in the equity (stocks, futures, forex) and debt (bonds) markets.

stock bond futures growth

Going forward our financial innovations need to be geared around tools and methodologies to attract more people to the markets in order to consume their share of the tangible value in the world. The only realistic method to ensuring that the wealth gap between the haves and the have-nots shrinks is to give everyone the opportunity to accrue: gather and store their value. Further, individuals need to be able to own their value and convert it to wealth in the denomination of a trusted currency over time. Economic engineers and strategists need to focus, not only on the economic benefits of having more participants in the markets, but also the social benefits: added security, buoyancy in market movements, adequate consumption of goods and services.