Last week's front-page headlines were almost shouting with glee. "Nasdaq records best week ever" was right next to "116,000 jobs lost, biggest drop in 8 years." The news that "unemployment rose in May and wages were nearly flat" has Wall Street positively giddy.

Don't you love the way this wonderful economy works for all Americans?

Some economists were a little more restrained in their joy. They said news from May could "overstate labor force weakness and may be encouraging too much euphoria."

OK, hold off on that second bottle of champagne until we can lay off some more peons.

The business section trumpeted the news with even less restraint. In big, bold letters across the top of the page it read, "Unemployment begins to climb." This was right above even bolder print that screamed, "Investors like what they hear." If only they could figure out a way to just lay off everybody and hire all temporary workers with no benefits, the investing class would be so euphoric their heads would probably explode.

Gee, I wonder if all this could possibly create serious class conflict at some point in the future? Oh, well.

What bothers me most is not that our system creates wealth for x number of people every time 1,000x lose their jobs, their ability to feed and clothe their families, and their chance to build a little dignity in their lives by feeling a part of America's success.

What bothers me is the role our government has played in setting this up. We have laws demanding that publicly-traded companies do everything in their power to make a profit. That seems like a no-brainer. Do we really need laws to tell corporate America to go all-out for the money?

Some cynics might suggest that big business interests bought the legislation to give themselves cover when they announce the serious disruption, if not devastation, of thousands of lives. "Gosh, I'm sorry. The law made me do it," says the CEO as he fattens his portfolio. Then again, the law may be necessary to prevent some do-gooder from actually being concerned about the quality of life of his or her employees.

Obviously, any business needs to make a profit. That is, after all, why people go into business. More power to them. But why should stock dividends for outside investors take precedence over the lives of loyal employees with families who toil day in and day out for years at a time to make those profits?

The June issue of The Atlantic Monthly has an article titled "America's Forgotten Majority." In a section called "Great Divide" the authors, Joel Rogers and Ruy Teixeira, write, "How widely the benefits of growth and productivity are shared is a basic measure of economic performance in a democracy - and further, widely shared benefits help to generate positive feelings about a society and its government."

"Golly, what a concept," says Joe Blow on the street. "Imagine that - widely shared benefits and a happy society."

"Sounds like a commie plot to take away our guns," comes the presumed reply from our Republican congressional leaders.

The magazine article states, "The late 1940s and forward to the mid 1960s was the era that created the first mass middle class in the world." A chart shows that from 1947-1979 the top 20 percent in our society had their income grow at a rate of 2.1 percent annually. The bottom 20 percent's income grew at 2.5 percent with the other 60 percent somewhere in between.

But from 1979 to 1998 the top fifth's income has grown 1.7 percent annually while the bottom's has decreased by 0.3 percent every year. The middle has inched up at the rate of 0.4 percent.

I've never understood why there has always been an adversarial relationship between the people who do the work and their bosses. The common goal of working together to create a bigger pie for everyone seems to have been lost in the selfish quest for a bigger individual slice.

Unless we can return to those values that made all Americans an integral part of our society, our government will soon lose its legitimacy when saying our democracy is any different, or better, than any other system or country that is full of nothing but rich and poor.

Now that sounds like a commie plot.

Richard Klovdahl's e-mail address is rickdahl@worldnet.att.net

Copyright © 2000 The Seattle Times Company

###