Word: ratchet
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...same way, wages are growing more and more rigid. They are on a ratchet, clicking steadily higher, but locked against any slippage downward. Despite the recession, there are so many escalator clauses, unemployment benefits, and automatic increases that wages this year are still going up (see State of Business). The belief that rising productivity will make up for wage increases, thus holding prices stable, has also proved false-at least in the short run. In 1957 wages jumped 4.5%, yet output per man-hour rose only 1.8%-and prices jumped 3%. The Government, with its farm subsidy and other...
...Approved, in the House, construction of a new $36 million Smithsonian Institution building on Washington's Mall, to be called the Museum of History and Technology, after listening to Michigan's ratchet-tongued Clare Hoffman admit to the "overpowering" thought, upon visiting the Smithsonian, that "after all, I do not as an individual amount to very much in this world, never did and never will...
Stair Climber. A two-wheeled, power-driven hand truck has been developed by the Valley Craft Products Inc., Lake City, Minn. to take heavy loads up or down stairs or ramps. A special ratchet mechanism allows the "Stair Cart" to climb stairs, is powerful enough to lift a 200-lb. load straight up a 4-ft. wall. Price: about...