In Economics textbooks, wherein students must learn a theory of free enterprise capitalism that bears absolutely no relationship to reality, we are taught that workers work harder because productivity gains result in higher wages. Except they don’t. Productivity by means of automation or outsourcing are but two obvious problems.
The deeper problem no one dares name is the structure of corporate capitalism itself. When profits are made, decisions about where to invest those profits are made by management (acquisitions? dividends to shareholders? moving work overseas? investments? wage increases?). Workers are not in the room. The company’s board of directors in theory has oversight over governance on behalf of the entire corporation, but boards are management-friendly in more ways than one. Workers are a cost of production, not people who contribute to the company’s success.
Workers or their union representatives are absent from the process of making fundamental strategic decisions about the company’s future. They can only live with the decisions made by others about what to do with the profits their labor has generated. From the above chart, you can see how the class of management decision-makers (the subjects) has treated the class of workers (the objects) below them.
Germany, which by numerous metrics is doing better than we are socially and economically, has a capitalist system wherein workers sit on boards and share decision-making with management. We can’t do that here in “the land of the free and the home of the brave” because that would be socialism.
Media voices (FOX, NBC and CNN alike) accuse Democrats of waging “class warfare” every time they bring up the modest idea that the rich might pay higher taxes, i.e., the same tax rates they paid under Clinton. It’s all smoke and mirrors. The class war started years ago and as the chart above shows, it was won long ago as well.
It turns out Republicans are not against raising taxes after all. Countering the “We are the 99%” movement, which exposes the GOP’s single-minded devotion to the interests of the rich, conservatives have come out with their own percentage cause: “47% of Americans pay no taxes at all.”…
The war Ronald Reagan started against the working class is a resounding success today
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Opportunities for Women – published the report and it finds that a single Michigan resident needs to make more than 12 bucks an hour just to house – clothe – and feed him or herself. The minimum wage in Michigan is well short of that marker – just $7.40. But when you throw children into the equation – the picture is even grimmer.
A mother with two children needs to make about $24 dollars an hour to meet their basic needs – that’s more than three times higher than minimum wage, and that’s working a 40-hour week. That means each and every month – someone who’s trying to raise their kids on minimum wage has to forego dinner – or rent – or electricity – or a new pair of shoes just to get by in America – the richest nation on the planet. I guess Republicans will argue they just need to get a credit card.
Looks like the war Ronald Reagan started against the working class 30 years ago is a resounding success today.
Submitted by Louise Hartmann from The Thom Hartmann Program Blog
![truth-has-a-liberal-bias:
Ronald Reagan’s Legacy: Homelessness in America
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reagan came to office in 1981 with a mandate to reduce federal spending. In reality, he increased it through the escalating military budget, all the while slashing funds for domestic programs that assisted working class Americans, particularly the poor.
Reagan’s fans give him credit for restoring the nation’s prosperity. But whatever economic growth occurred during the Reagan years only benefited those already well off. The income gap between the rich and everyone else in America widened. Wages for the average worker declined and the nation’s homeownership rate fell. During Reagan’s two terms in the White House, which were boon times for the rich, the poverty rate in cities grew…
By the end of Reagan’s term in office federal assistance to local governments was cut 60 percent. Reagan eliminated general revenue sharing to cities, slashed funding for public service jobs and job training, almost dismantled federally funded legal services for the poor, cut the anti-poverty Community Development Block Grant program and reduced funds for public transit. The only “urban” program that survived the cuts was federal aid for highways – which primarily benefited suburbs, not cities…
Reagan is lauded as “the great communicator,” but he sometimes used his rhetorical skills to stigmatize the poor. During his stump speeches while dutifully promising to roll back welfare, Reagan often told the story of a so-called “welfare queen” in Chicago who drove a Cadillac and had ripped off $150,000 from the government using 80 aliases, 30 addresses, a dozen social security cards and four fictional dead husbands. Journalists searched for this “welfare cheat” in the hopes of interviewing her and discovered that she didn’t exist…
Another of Reagan’s enduring legacies is the steep increase in the number of homeless people, which by the late 1980s had swollen to 600,000 on any given night – and 1.2 million over the course of a year. Many were Vietnam veterans, children and laid-off workers.
In early 1984 on Good Morning America, Reagan defended himself against charges of callousness toward the poor in a classic blaming-the-victim statement saying that “people who are sleeping on the grates…the homeless…are homeless, you might say, by choice.” […]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lua6csYabR1qd0sg1o1_500.jpg)
Ronald Reagan’s Legacy: Homelessness in America
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reagan came to office in 1981 with a mandate to reduce federal spending. In reality, he increased it through the escalating military budget, all the while slashing funds for domestic programs that assisted working class Americans, particularly the poor.
Reagan’s fans give him credit for restoring the nation’s prosperity. But whatever economic growth occurred during the Reagan years only benefited those already well off. The income gap between the rich and everyone else in America widened. Wages for the average worker declined and the nation’s homeownership rate fell. During Reagan’s two terms in the White House, which were boon times for the rich, the poverty rate in cities grew…
By the end of Reagan’s term in office federal assistance to local governments was cut 60 percent. Reagan eliminated general revenue sharing to cities, slashed funding for public service jobs and job training, almost dismantled federally funded legal services for the poor, cut the anti-poverty Community Development Block Grant program and reduced funds for public transit. The only “urban” program that survived the cuts was federal aid for highways – which primarily benefited suburbs, not cities…
Reagan is lauded as “the great communicator,” but he sometimes used his rhetorical skills to stigmatize the poor. During his stump speeches while dutifully promising to roll back welfare, Reagan often told the story of a so-called “welfare queen” in Chicago who drove a Cadillac and had ripped off $150,000 from the government using 80 aliases, 30 addresses, a dozen social security cards and four fictional dead husbands. Journalists searched for this “welfare cheat” in the hopes of interviewing her and discovered that she didn’t exist…
Another of Reagan’s enduring legacies is the steep increase in the number of homeless people, which by the late 1980s had swollen to 600,000 on any given night – and 1.2 million over the course of a year. Many were Vietnam veterans, children and laid-off workers.
In early 1984 on Good Morning America, Reagan defended himself against charges of callousness toward the poor in a classic blaming-the-victim statement saying that “people who are sleeping on the grates…the homeless…are homeless, you might say, by choice.” […]
![truth-has-a-liberal-bias:
Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan is simple: Most will simply pay more
When it comes to Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s proposed 9-9-9 tax plan, there’s one thing all sides agree on: it’s very simple.
If you’re a corporation, own a small business or count yourself among the richest Americans, you’ll simply love it. If not, you’d simply pay a lot more in taxes. […]
*Doesn’t get more simple than that, does it? With Republican Herman Cain’s plan, the rich get richer and the poor (and the middle class) get poorer.*](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lt1l7fqj101qd0sg1o1_500.jpg)
Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan is simple: Most will simply pay more
When it comes to Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s proposed 9-9-9 tax plan, there’s one thing all sides agree on: it’s very simple.
If you’re a corporation, own a small business or count yourself among the richest Americans, you’ll simply love it. If not, you’d simply pay a lot more in taxes. […]
*Doesn’t get more simple than that, does it? With Republican Herman Cain’s plan, the rich get richer and the poor (and the middle class) get poorer.*
Occupy Wall Street is getting a shot in the arm, as some of America’s largest unions have announced that they’re now supporting the movement. The gain in momentum comes as off-shoots of the original Manhattan group plan marches and protests around the nation.
…
The group has attracted some mockery, largely for its members’ proclivity for dressing up like zombies. But a new Rasmussen poll finds that the group enjoys a higher approval rating (33 percent) than does Congress (14 percent).Perhaps sensing a groundswell of opinion, several key Democrats have endorsed the group, including former Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. John Larson, who called it a sign of a coming “American autumn” — a reference to the Arab Spring protests that have reshaped parts of the Middle East.
I’ve seen this quote from Gandhi used in reference to Occupy Wall Street:
“First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.”
However, I think this summary of social change from César Chávez, founder of the United Farm Workers of America, is also apropos to the movement:
“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours.”
The Chicago Board of Trade Responds to Occupy Chicago
Welcome to a full-blown class war folks.
-Joe
They’re not even pretending anymore. They know that they have the advantage and what’s been given to them for decades.
Related: Pay at the Top, which lists CEO pay from 200 companies and compares executive compensation between 2009 and 2010 (because the turn of the decade was kind to CEOs).
(via pantslessprogressive)
When Republicans recently charged the President with promoting ‘class warfare,’ he answered it was ‘just math.’ But it’s more than math. It’s a matter of morality.
Republicans have posed the deepest moral question of any society: whether we’re all in it together. Their answer is we’re not.
One thing I really, genuinely enjoy about the Occupy Wall Street campaign (and this is also why I think that it will be successful in bringing about change) is the whole premise of the 99%. This is an extremely powerful message. By calling out the 99%, we’re bringing into light the reality of classical/trickle-down economics/capitalism.
See, I believe that most of the people who believe that deregulated business leads to a better economy are people who are either benefiting from it greatly (corporate execs.), and also anyone who believes in the “rags to riches” type of story. That in America, you either spend your whole life trying to make it, or you don’t. However, I believe that people put too much faith in that type of mindset to the point that they believe it’s common for poor people to become rich or at least financially comfortable.
But because of this great campaign, we’re bringing into the light the real reality of our economic system. People that have massive amounts of debt and are struggling to pay for the necessities are what’s common. This idea that anyone can become rich if they try hard, or have the proper credentials, or try and pursue a career will be successful is just not true. And this Occupy Wall Street campaign shows that. With more people like this coming forward, people will begin to learn and realize that this economic system does not work, and it needs to be fixed.
The GOP’s definition of “Class Warfare” is like their definition of “Clear Skies” or “No Child Left Behind”…Black is White, Up is Down, Right is Wrong…it’s just more of that famous Republican Doublespeak.
(via seriouslyamerica)
seasquared:robot-heart-politics:
Sounds like someone works for Alan Greenspan.
“In the United States, we are in the process of seeing the baby boomers — the most productive, highly skilled, educated part of our labor force — retire. They are being replaced by groups of young workers who have regrettably scored rather poorly in international educational match-ups over the last two decades. … Most disturbing is that the average income of U.S. households headed by 25-year-olds and younger has been declining relative to the average income of the baby boomer population. This is a reasonably good indication that the productivity of the younger part of our workforce is declining relative to the level of productivity achieved by the retiring baby boomers. This raises some major concerns about the productive skills of our future U.S. labor force.”
Mm. Or maybe it’s a reasonably good indication that old white lawyers are still partners at firms making big buck and giving specious advice to younger law students about what they do should with their law education and how to translate their experience into a job, when they’ve never been faced with the realities of today’s market.
I mean, I’m just sayin’. As a young law student. In this economy.
Or maybe it’s because the Boomers are a pack of fucking greedy assholes who are more than happy to pocket the profit gains that have resulted from steadily increasing productivity, instead of rewarding their employees for their hard work. Just a thought.
