Wall Street Journal Opinion Page July 20, 2010 “Real Wages Don’t Tell the Whole Compensation Story”

by: Geoff Ficke
Greg Tarpanian’s response to the article by Lee E. Ohanian (The Right Way to Raise Wages) is incorrect on a number of counts.

GDP growth in the 1960′s as compared to the last 2 decades was indeed higher than in the last two decades but in percentage terms only, owing to the much smaller size of the economy five decades ago.

Mr. Tarpanian’s lament that if real wages had risen at the rate of growth of GDP over the last 40 years the current annual real wage for non-supervisory workers would be around $60,000 per year, instead of the $30,000 it is today. His key descriptive, non-supervisory” is telling. The U.S. economy has evolved to a knowledge based economy that values and produces technology and is fueled by education and skills. We don’t, and won’t, make low or no-value added products here when they can be produced so much more inexpensively in second and third world countries. The non-supervisory, blue collar rote factory jobs so prevalent in the 1960′s have been devalued and replaced by the realities of our constantly evolving scientific, knowledge based economy.

Finally, Mr. Tarpanian, like so many union acolytes, ignores reality. Unions kill industries. Autos, glaziers, steelworkers, stevedores, airlines, ship building, shoes, garment and so many more once thriving trades and industries (look what the SEIU and AFSCME have done to hamstring government) have either left for greener pastures, been bankrupted or been replaced by mechanization that indeed increases productivity.

Unskilled, undereducated workers in highly industrialized countries will never be able to appreciably increase their wages as long as the world continues to desire and reward producers for providing technology advances that improve lives at reasonable costs. Unless, and until unions recognize this reality they remain obviated and there will remain a permanent divide in real wages.

by: Geoff Ficke

Several years ago I wrote an article entitled “How Do You Choose the Best Marketing Consultant”. The article was posted on my website – www.DuquesaMarketing.com – and on numerous print and internet links. The content was written to advise layman of the many options and obstacles that should be addressed in their search for experienced and competent consulting help. Common sense, some inside-baseball tips and guidance on avoiding shyster’s constituted the bulk of the articles copy points.

Since being printed, the article has elicited much positive response. I appreciate the nice comments and reviews. I also, fully recognize the wild, wild, west nature of the internet and the reality that anyone’s work may be misrepresented and even plagiarized by some unsavory elements that play in the “mucky” side of the medium. So I write the following as a real life cautionary advisory.

Recently while policing my web-site and personal web links I discovered a link to my article “How Do You Choose the Best Marketing Consultant” that had been posted by the marketing consulting firm True North Services. I know nothing of this firm, its associates, experience or abilities. I was, however, shocked that my article was re-printed in the link and on their web-site in its exact entirety, and only in the finest small print at the bottom of the article re-print am I credited. The professional, honorable way to credit authorship is with a bi-line and source mentioned at the top of an article, beneath the title.

When you visit the True North Services web-site there is a tab on the Home Page noting their “Articles”. My article is included as if authored by this firm.

This may seem a small point, a slight indiscretion in a world full of violence, duplicity and corruption. Maybe! Nevertheless, if a service provider in any field feels compelled to use a competitor’s work product to enhance their curriculum vitae what does this say about their ability, originality of thought, creativity (or lack thereof) and honor as a potential working partner.

In a laissez-faire medium such as the internet, and in a world where unscrupulous firms will sell shoddy products and services through gross misrepresentation, it is crucial that buyers and clients exercise due diligence before making decisions. The purpose of my article “How Do You Choose the Best Marketing Consultant” is to assist in that process. The fact that good perspective, guidance and intentions have been abused by misrepresenting this writing should make seekers of professional services even more careful and wary.