Eva M. Clayton: “I want to add, too, it has been usually the principle that we have been working on that would reward work, that…”

“I want to add, too, it has been usually the principle that we have been working on that would reward work, that productivity is a factor of the profit, and that we reward that when the productivity goes up and the profit goes up, you share that with the workers. But somehow the wages have been stagnant even for those who are not at the minimum wage; I mean those who are middle income. The wages have been stagnant at the same time the profit has been going up. So the productivity, which is a factor of that high profit, is not necessarily a benefit of the workers, and we need to change that principle, as well, also. The other principle we need to change, it seems to me, is that America is a country of great opportunity. It is the entrepreneurship and the opportunity to work that should give hope to all of us that we always will work harder, train and be better skilled to get the next job. However, when we give messages that create such a disparity between the top 5 percent and the lower 5 percent, and it is growing, it is growing and we seem not to even concern ourselves about that, I mean the distance between the richest of the individuals in America and the poorest of the individuals is larger now than ever before, and yet at the same time we are having great profit, great productivity. You would think that that would inure to the workers as well. Just as you share the profit with your stockholders, you reward people for doing a good job; they get an increase.…”