Why has American Wages and Benefits Collapsed?

[Thomas R]

According to the mercer survey(international headhunting co) the USA is not in the top 20 countries when it comes to hourly wages(they included after tax and cost of living). Why do countries like Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Northern Italy, Northern Spain, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Ireland,Japan, Canada, Australia, Netherlands,France, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates,Singapore,Qatar and others now have higher wages/benefits then the USA? I lived in Germany and can tell you for a fact German Wages/Benefits are much higher. Their Social Benefits would cost an American $60,000 a year to but and some of the benefits are not available at any price in the states(free college tuition, free technical educations, 100% medical coverage/dental, 50 paid days off a year(holidays and vacations), sick days are paid, sick leave paid(up to 1 year), free or cheap daycare for children, legal insurance,high pensions, generous unemployment, welfare,Nursing insurance for the elderly,etc,etc. German Wages are also very high....Teachers max out at $70,000 Euros or $95,000 US dollars yearly(and they work less hours then American Teachers), In Manufacturing the wages are very high for example car factories pay around $70 an hour while here in the states they are now paying around $14 an hour, etc. Two of my Friend one in Marketing (Sergia) and the other in Logistics(Melanie) make around $100 an hour in wages and benefits while after tax it is around $70 an hour wage/benefit package.Each one takes come around $5500 Euros monthly(after tax) or $7300 US Dollars Monthly plus the extension social and company benefits while Sergia and Melanie work around 1600 hours yearly. They pay $500 Euro for their flat, $450 Euro for their car insurance, around $1800 euro yearly for food, their electricity runs around $70 Euro a month, they use diesel cars which get 55 mph(Peugot and VW) so even the higher fuel prices are negated by the high mileage cars in Europe. They could buy a house easily but they do not know if they will stay Southern Germany or move to another part of Europe. America what happened? What went wrong? This is like 1960's America but even better!!

[Aleconomixt]

Profits = Revenue - cost of production
Revenue = Price X Quantity sold
Quantity sold = K x Quality
Taxes = R x Profits
wages = Cost of production - Cost of capital - Rent( Depreciation) on land(machinery)
Benefits = S x taxes

K is kwality factor, R is taxrate factor, S is socialism factor.

USA ( as compared to Germany ) falls behind gravely on Quality, so all equations for USA get disarrayed.

[Neil]

1 word = Reaganomics.

The deregulation of big-business, allowed the companies to exploit the workers, because there is NO 'trickle-down' effect, no 'unlimited profits' for everyone, Reaganomics are ALL about making the rich richer, and the poor poorer, Reaganomics are literally a license to exploit.