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Today should be a happy day for all workers from labor and management.Unfortunately, this is a sad time for both sections of the workforce.The unemployment rate is close to 10% which includes both sections.Our production rate is one of the highest in the world.Americans work harder and longer than the vast majority of workers in developed countries.We are taking on more work each year while our incomes have barely keep up with inflation.This has been going on since the late seventies. Our energy costs have increased since our oil production reached it's peak in 1970. We are forty years away from that peak and each year import more oil than the previous year. In the early seventies oil prices rose dramatically. With this increase came inflation and a weak economy.Nixon and Carter tried to combat both of these maladies through regulation and energy efficiency.Eventually,we got lucky, the price of oil fell during the Reagan years.The beginning of globalization also started during this administration with the opening of imports from all countries to our shores.The"free market "finally got it's opening and took the bait with full force.Before this time,our trade mainly consisted of products from our allies.We did trade with other countries but at a low rate. After 1980, world trade became affordable due to reasonable transportation costs and tracking technologies. Once this process began to take off and America's doors were open to trade from around the world, our workers in the U.S. began a slow decline in wages and the amount of good jobs that were available. To cut labor costs here, companies realized they could sub-contract components of their products where workers were paid less and ship the finished product to American consumers.This trend has been going on since the eighties and has steamrolled every year since. So many jobs left our shores that our major sector today is financial services that went from 6% to 40% of all jobs during this time period.
Union membership is at it's all time low point in America since WWII. After the war, 35% of the jobs were unionized with income disparity at it's lowest.Today's percentage is under 12%.Only 7% of private jobs are union while 34% of public jobs have union affiliation.Today,income disparity is at our highest since 1928.The Republican platform always blames unions for many of the economic problems of our country.Many low to low middle income level citizens buy into the platform because they don't make enough income from their jobs.They want lower taxes to maintain the simple lifestyle they have.I can understand this position. So many workers have lost collective bargaining power and the majority of jobs are unstable(company can move to reduce costs). Many want what a third of the public employees have.They want higher salaries and benefits.They want stability and some protection from upper management decisions. These Republicans want to bring union workers down to their situation instead of supporting the public unions that will fight for their rights through lobbying and legislation.This platform is dividing workers and have been successful since the Reagan administration.
Today should be the most important day in our country.We must work together to change the working conditions in our country.Progressives in the Democratic party try to support all workers and bring some stability to the workforce through policies that promote fair pay and benefits. The 20% who own 85% of the America's assets should remember their roots on this day and begin to share America's wealth in a democratic manner. We are a capital monarchy today with decisions being made for the welfare of the few.Both management and labor don't share in the decision making concerning their working lives.A very small percentage in our businesses and public services make all the important decisions. Management and labor just meekly follow instructions to survive.As we know,many workers have been exiled for resisting these instructions and some fall into economic misery by being blacklisted.Shared decision making,collective bargaining and worker cooperation should be the foundation of a democratic nation.I hope next year we have improved our employment opportunities and help move workers towards emancipation here and abroad.
I'm having a happy labor day. But yes, unemployment is too high, and therefore people are working harder for the same money. Wages however, are at your control. you earn move by changing jobs and taking on new responsibilities. you cannot stay at one company and hope to get the same upward movement.
ReplyDeleteOn another topic, I really think only Americans should have a say in American elections. I am really sick of some rich hungarian pulling the strings of the American liberal movement. this guys thinks it's ok for Moveon.org to exist, but wants to kill off the teaparty movement? What a hypocrite!!!! http://www.infowars.com/globalist-soros-launches-frontal-assault-against-tea-party/.
Thanks for writing,I appreciate it.George Soros has been a U.S citizen since 1961.Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker wrote in 2003 in the foreword of Soros' book The Alchemy of Finance:George Soros has made his mark as an enormously successful speculator, wise enough to largely withdraw when still way ahead of the game. The bulk of his enormous winnings is now devoted to encouraging transitional and emerging nations to become 'open societies,' open not only in the sense of freedom of commerce but—more important—tolerant of new ideas and different modes of thinking and behavior.
ReplyDeleteSoros has been active as a philanthropist since the 1970s, when he began providing funds to help black students attend the University of Cape Town in apartheid South Africa, and began funding dissident movements behind the iron curtain.
Soros' philanthropic funding includes efforts to promote non-violent democratization in the post-Soviet states. These efforts, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, occur primarily through the Open Society Institute (OSI) and national Soros Foundations, which sometimes go under other names (such as the Stefan Batory Foundation in Poland). As of 2003, PBS estimated that he had given away a total of $4 billion.[25] The OSI says it has spent about $400 million annually in recent years.
In September 2006 Soros pledged $50 million to the Millennium Promise, led by economist Jeffrey Sachs to provide educational, agricultural, and medical aid to help villages in Africa enduring poverty. The New York Times termed this endeavor a "departure" for Soros whose philanthropic focus had been on fostering democracy and good government, but Soros noted that most poverty resulted from bad governance.[32]
The economic situation of America is a result of Capitalism gone amuck. It is reverse socialism in which the people now pay to help big business survive. Karl Marx wasn't too off.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree with Willie1470.Stockholders are blind to the decisions made for the quarterly reports.Each CEO is tangled up in showing profits regardless of the conseqences to communities.Every citizen that has stocks should evaluate those decisions and reflect on their effects.It shouldn't always be about what do I get out of it but a more broarder approach to investing that takes in the consequencies.
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