In the long term, wealth and economic health are determined by things like industrial and agricultural productivity, the trade deficit, and the government's budget deficit... and none of those look good right now.
...and I ask again. What good is industrial and agricultural productivity if there isn't a consumer? If you don't have a consumer to buy and use the product, then the industrial and agricultural productivity is useless...
Consumer confidence is another key role in evaluating the economy. That's where the trade deficit and gov'ts budget deficit gets tied, LOOSELY I'd admit, to consumer confidence...
As far as the corporate fat cat CEOs and such statement: The only thing that I can say is that I work for an aviation maintenance facility as a crew chief on anything from single engine pistons to mid size corporate jets. We have some pretty rich people bring their planes through our doors. Recently, (as an example) a NASCAR driver dropped off his plane for a paint job and a heavy inspection. On the maintenance side of his bird, I led up the project. These jets aren't cheap to keep up. Durable goods are used to manufacture and upkeep the aircraft. Parts break down.
Properly trained technicians are required to repair it. Reputable companies are necessary to have in place to bring in the business of this magnatude. No offense to mom-and-pop shops, but when have you last seen a $40,000,000 aircraft stuffed in a T-hangar? You won't see it. Why? Because it takes companies with MONEY flowing out the wazoo to be certified to work in these aircraft. They have to dump the money into proper tooling. FAA requirements are that a repair station must have ALL the proper tooling (jacks, borescopes, etc), a covered facility and
certified factory trained technicians to perform the work. Companies dump MONEY into our training. My company invests a LOT of money in itself and into ME. Does the owner deserve to make millions? You're damn right he does. He earned it. It's his name on the building, not mine. Capitalism at its finest. I make him money. I give his customers a safe aircraft to fly. I get paid for my skills and qualifications. Owner in turn invests more money into his own company and the cycle keeps going...
If it weren't for our business making money, I wouldn't have recently gotten 401(k) with company match, year end profit sharing, more paid holidays, etc.
So, the long of the short of it is that a "service" economy and "durable goods" economy go hand in hand. So what if CEOs get mucho money. Am I upset that they take the money and run on a regular basis? Yes. Is this my biggest concern? No. The money they make compared to what the overall money the company makes and jobs they provide is small potatoes.
On the flip side, if the economy was actually going to take a major downturn, we usually see it coming. A lot of our customers are smaller businesses and will slow down flight schedules and use their aircraft less. This is a pretty good indicator on how the private sector is doing in the national economy. Right now, we've been very busy overall the past several years right after 9/11. We had some slow times, but none that has worried us. If our owner thought the economy was a major concern, I don't think he would have built a $6,000,000 paint facility in 2003 (yes 1.5 years after 9/11) and spent hundreds of thousands in training and tooling for targeting jets that we didn't have a niche for to begin with.
And, I'm not even going to begin to explain what John Deere has done for our area. They've kept our area together through the tough times since my step-dad worked for them many moons ago....