As many of you are no doubt well aware, this tends to be a forum for relentless negativity in terms of politics.
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The reasons are many, none more important than the fact that small, incremental victories mean little to me in the context of the long, steady, thirty-plus year downward slide toward a lower standard of living that has defined post-1980 America. There are things to celebrate here and there, but there is no momentum behind the positives.
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All of the momentum is in the opposite direction; every year we get a little poorer, the schools get a little more defunded, the textbooks get a little more revisionist history and industry-sponsored "science", the corporations get a little more human in court, the jobs with benefits become a little rarer, the playing field gets a bit less level, and the feeling that things have changed for the worse in a very fundamental way nags a bit more insistently.
There has been a surprising (which is to say, nonzero) amount of coverage of Michigan's passage of a "Right to Work" law earlier this week. Given that Michigan is a traditionally union-heavy northern state and RTW laws tend to proliferate in cesspits like Mississippi and Oklahoma, the media have responded predictably with feigned shock and plenty of What This Means commentary letting us know that Reasonable People now recognize that unionization is a thing of the past. It's all part of our great evolution into a completely postindustrial economy, and now we can look back on pensions, decent wages, and benefits with the same nostalgia we currently reserve for railroads and the Victrola.
This happens the same way "austerity" has happened and will continue to happen: in a slow, steady process of downwardly revised expectations, stern lectures about your moral failings (Live within your means!
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Work harder! Shop more!), and Tough Choices that screw you continuously but incrementally. Michigan voters elect the kind of people who will pass RTW legislation for the same reason that we've been shooting ourselves in the foot for decades now – the combined illusion and lie that if we make just one more sacrifice that lowers our standard of living while allowing the already wealthy to amass even more money, things will turn around for the rest of us. Just give up defined benefit pensions for the stock market roulette of 401(k) plans. Give up health insurance for Health Savings Accounts (or, you know, nothing). Accept some wage cuts to be more competitive with workers in Possum Junction, Alabama. Accept a few more to be competitive with workers in Mexico. Give up a few more of your rights to save the company money.
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Deregulate a few more industries – sure, some people will probably get sick or die, but we have to think about ways to cut overhead and be More Competitive.
Like any good con, it's always the next sacrifice that will be the one that does it, the magic bullet that finally solves the problem. And then when it doesn't, there will be just one more next year, and then maybe another one a few years from now, and then…ten or twenty years pass and we don't even remember what it was we were promised when we starting cutting flesh, and we're reduced to hoping that the next sacrifice will be enough to keep us from losing the house.
The first bite from the apple took place under Reagan, when we collectively agreed that the problem with the American economy is that rich people aren't rich enough; it has been all downhill from there. Now Congress is poised to take the first bite from another apple – the "entitlement reform" that will begin the process of eroding our ability to retire from our jobs that barely paid the bills for 40 years. Sure, just take a chunk out of Social Security and Medicare and then we'll be safe from the Fiscal Cliff and all other similar boogeymen. Then in 2016 there will be another Big Crisis demanding further cuts, as it turns out that those cuts that promised to Save Medicare did not work out as the Oracle had promised. Since we'll already have normalized the idea of sacrificing parts of SS and Medicare, the downward trajectory will already be mapped out and heavily greased. You don't need a time machine to recognize where this is headed once the cuts begin.
It's always "just one more." One more round of cuts. One more bout of austerity. One more tax cut for the rich. One more voluntary surrender of your rights. Like a gambler in over his head who believes that the next hand will bring salvation, we are all too eager to accept the argument that economic turnaround is so close that we can reach it with just one more big collective sacrifice by (98% of) all Americans. And then, lo and behold, it turns out that we did not sacrifice a large enough animal to appease God Market. Again.
It's difficult to get excited about taking a step forward when doing so is inevitably followed by three in reverse.
Nick says:
Well.
That was pretty fucking depressing.
All the more so because of its accuracy.
Major Kong says:
Nicely done sir.
Now I'm depressed.
Kanamit says:
Dead on and very depressing. I fully expect that by 2050 the usual suspects will be arguing for some kind of non-chattel slavery.
Arslan says:
Delayed payment scam is the metaphor. There's always one more thing you have to do before you get to receive the money/win the prize/marry the girl/guy.
Pat says:
This is a really, really awesome post, and it does me real, real pain to tell you you're totally wrong here.
Three things:
First, Pierce already took up calling it "Michissippi," which is way too perfect not to lead off.
Second: "lower standard of living that has defined post-1980 America." Make that "post-1970." Look at any graph of the supposed rise-of-the-1%. Try salaries of the top compared to those at the median; try the decoupling of median wages from productivity; try anything. Then look at the peak (and subsequent decline) of private sector union membership.
No, seriously. Look at the decoupling of wealth for the top 1% and then look at the decline of private sector unions.
Third: Ed, I love you. But this is exquisite bullshit. Not a single voter went through this supposed bit of reasoning ("…just one more sacrifice that lowers our standard of living while allowing the already wealthy to amass even more money, things will turn around for the rest of us…."). They either had a union member-of-household (or self-identified as a Democrat) or they didn't. No such imagined logic goes through the mind of The American Voter (see what I did there?).
Xynzee says:
So do the Rs want a "trophy" Ms Pelosi? No. What they want is a sign. A symbol. A narrative that what's sacred is not sacred any longer. That there's blood in the water. Like piranha they shall swarm in.
Why must this deal be cut now? Let the tax cuts expire, then when the new session begins, well then the Rs get to look like heros because they get to give the middle and lower classes a tax cut. This standing by their tax cut mantra.
Though in some ways. Let the US crater. Let your entire economy and country implode. The sooner the better. That way for years to come, whoever says "austerity" or "tax cut" will be hot tarred and feathered.
Middle Seaman says:
It's not as if we were asleep since Reagan was president. It's not as if there are no unions to fight back. But clearly, we don't have a serious opposition to the robbery called Bush/Obama. Unions are small and they supported Obama knowing that he will reduce the safety net. The liberal fraction of the Democrats is disorganized, confused and distracted with wars and human rights overseas.
There simply is an open season on us. The media, work for the rich, elected with the supreme court gang the evil Bush who caused more damage than Osama dreamed off. Then the liberal faction, and the unions, justified electing Obama who is a double agent.
Alex SL says:
Very well written indeed.
"There are things to celebrate here and there, but there is no momentum behind the positives. All of the momentum is in the opposite direction."
The thing is, that seems to be the same in most Western countries. Where did life actually get better since 1980? A few countries of South America and east Asia, that's it basically. And in the first of these it was because of leftist policies, in the latter because of protectionism and mercantilism, all things that we are constantly told are impossible and don't work.
Tim H. says:
The depressing bit for me is that given the tendancy of people to stick with what works, we're doomed to drink this to the dregs, stuck with the ride until the demented mammon worshipers who've seized the wheel total the nation. Keep track of the stupid, if we survive, we'll want to mock them.
xynzee says:
As a side note on 401(k)'s, the only benefit that they offer is that they are portable unlike pensions.
This enables a worker to change jobs and companies.
Other than that it's a rort.
Bernard says:
lol, and the truth shall set you free. so much for being free.
yes, Jimmy Carter started cutting the Rich's taxes, that sweater loving commie. lol.
well. the destruction of the American way has been going on for years. and it shall get worse, thanks to the ignorance/FEAR/Hatred/envy of the American voter, here's looking at you, BB. being so sanctimonious about getting over on the "Other" has done more to sell the BS from the Republican.
the question is now how long and if we can counter the lies and Hatred of the RepublicanDemocrat BS.
Obama is the perfect Republican of yesterday, anti-poor/working man.
no, we as Americans will have to reach the level of the poor in Egypt before we even begin to "get it."
the forces of Business, not mom and pop business, have America where they want it. ALEC, Chamber of Commerce, "Christians," and the assorted allied HATE group that is the Republican coalition has to fall apart before any help or hope comes to the average working person.
Thanks to the willingness to buy the St. Ronnie Reagan BS/Republican lies, we have sown the wind and are now reaping the whirlwind.
so much joy and hope to start the day with.
at least we don't run from the truth, like Republicans and todays' Democrats do. Here's looking at Obama and those who vote Republican and aim to get over.
Hell is what these people have created in the once hopefilled American society, now crashing with a heavy thud. as Toyota commercials said, "you asked for it, you got it."
comrade x says:
Middle Seaman: It's not just Obama on the D- side of the aisle, its the majority of congressional democrats who subscribe to the Third Way, i.e. instead of the Robber Baron vulture capitalism of the Republicans, they at least take the pains to try to create an understanding between corporations and the public good.
Problem is the results are pretty much the same.
Rodrigo S says:
"The thing is, that seems to be the same in most Western countries. Where did life actually get better since 1980? A few countries of South America and east Asia, that's it basically. And in the first of these it was because of leftist policies, in the latter because of protectionism and mercantilism, all things that we are constantly told are impossible and don't work."
Uh…those countries in SA where life got better mostly nurtured market economies, free trade, and limited corruption (Chile, Brasil). Those countries are full on socialist utopias using American political metrics, but the policies that allowed them to grow were pretty much neoliberal ones.
I think Ed's right, though. Getting rid of what few labor protections remain in the U.S. is not going to make workers in Michigan competitive with workers in China. It's just going to allow owners and management to capture a bigger share of the gains from productivity. Americans are suckers.
c u n d gulag says:
The military industrial complex spread out its factories into almost every Congressional district in the country.
They accepted unions, and workers became reliant on the US war machine for jobs, benefits, and pensions.
Liberals loved unions until the mid-late 60's, when some union members, many of them former WWII and Korean veterans, first decided that they weren't too keen on working along side black people, and then decided to start cracking the skulls of the DFH's at Anti-war and Pro Womens Rights rallies. They had sided with their corporations, companies, and bosses. And as a result, the unions lost a part of their Liberal base.
Seeing all of this, and realizing that "Divide and Conquor" still worked quite well, "The Powers-that-be" decided to grab back some of that powers-that-hadn't-been theirs since The Great Depression, when FDR saved capitalism for the capitalists, and had the right ratfecker… er, uhm, man in the WH, Richard Nixon. He, after all, was the father of "The Southern Strategy."
Race, gender, and anything else that might divide people as wedge issues, (recently, homosexuality) were successfully tried.
And the race to the bottom began.
Reagan took what Nixon had started, crushed the air traffic controllers union, and saw that other unions, already losing members, saw this and went, "Whew! At least that wasn't us."
And that was when, what had once been verboten for any union member, crossing a picket line, went out the window, and every union was on its own, and there went 'Strength Through Solidarity.'
I imagine many of the younger readers and commenters here have never even seen a picket line, let alone turned around and walked away rather than cross one.
Or, went and joined the workers in solidarity.
And just now, Tom Friedman, "The Great Mustache of Insipidness and Village Idiot Speak" was on Cup O' Schmoe's show to explain the newest scam:
In the current world economy, it's incumbent on American workers to always acquire new skills.
NOT for the companies to TRAIN their workers!
FECK NO!!!
Why should the company pay to train workers? That money should to to the Executives and shareholders!
No, we, the workers, have to search around, investigate and choose the right skills to acquire, and pay to get them.
And then, if we make the wrong choice and acquire the wrong skills, oh well, too bad…
We have only ourselves to blame.
And that's this idiot's opinion on how we got to be in the mess we're in now.
An ever worsening mess…
anotherbozo says:
Well said, as usual, Ed. (forgive the rhyme) Implied being the Death of a Thousand Cuts, all the stronger a metaphor for not being mentioned explicitly.
As to the current round of cuts facing us, I like Robert Reich's bushy-tailed, ever-sanguine optimism in advising the Democratic leadership that they should hang tough on this one, LET US GO OVER THE FISCAL CLIFF if need be, because it's preferable to cutting our earned benefits ("entitlements"). The ever-considerate Reich has reduced his spiel to 2 min. 30 sec. Not that anyone in power will listen.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/gMuA8I2M5l0
Misterben says:
This is an excellent post and a great example of why I come here every day. Put a "donate" button at the end of your posts and it'll get clicked after posts like these. Elaborate this argument out into a book and people will buy it.
bb in GA says:
Nary a word from you on the Humvee in the room…Globalization since 1980. Where does that fit into the slide to perdition?
//bb
Dave Dell says:
Where's today's Huey Long? I don't know but I think the 1% has a fear above all other fears of just such a person.
Major Kong says:
@bb
re globalization:
It's a race to the bottom.
The problem with a race to the bottom is that at some point you hit…………you know…………bottom.
Elle says:
Cranking the thermostat, mostly.
cromartie says:
Some of us who live and/or work in Michigan have long histories and understand things.
You'll note a Fox News clown took a punch to the jaw at a rally. That's the tip of the iceberg.
Labor rights were not won peacefully in Michigan. I suspect they won't be lost peacefully either. Whomever posted awhile back that we would see if the natives could rebel with a pitchfork in one hand and a game controller in the other are not that far away from getting their answer.
sluggo says:
@bb
Globalization:
I am sure that oligarchs across China are using the news from Michigan as a threat to get more concessions from their own employees in China.
bb in GA says:
@elle
Where has US manufacturing departed to? Alabama? Mostly Asia, no?
I guess ranting about us RTW Crackers (not you, Elle) gives some folks a little short term relief, but I don't think it touches the problem of what the elites have done to us.
//bb
Elle says:
I think that RTW is one manifestation of The Problem.
I agree entirely, bb, that globalisation has had a profound affect on working people within the US and western Europe. Even behind the protectionists walls of the EU it's possible to see the impact of the ebb and flow of global capital on regions capitalising on inward investment because of the cheapness of their labour, and then dealing with the consequences once they've priced themselves above global competitors. For those countries forced by supranational institutions and state investors to liberalise their markets, the movement of capital becomes a riptide.
The political narrative in western Europe (and I think in the US) has become about tightening our belt on universal services and welfare, and creating a 'flexible' labour market such that we can remain competitive. Simultaneously, the narrative explains, we are investing in skills so we can transform into a high-tech, low-carbon knowledge economy. The problem, of course, is that those two things are mutually exclusive, unless your goal is to create a tiny knowledge class that sits between an oligarch class and a drudge class.
'Flexibility', which comes out of the same school of doublespeak as 'Right to Work', means stripping rights and dignity from working people for the benefit of those extracting profits. It does not mean providing the type of genuine flexibility that might afford people the opportunity to enrich their relationships with family and friends, contribute to their communities, or otherwise participate in public life.
Pennelope Pennebaker says:
Happy holidays to you too, Ed.
mel in oregon says:
unless you have strong unions again, there will never be an end to the inequality & downward spiral for working americans, the poor & the lower middle class. & unions will never get strong again, because they are too damn corrupt. also, it's more than just reagan that started the downfall of most americans or carter. every president since fdr has been full of shit & corrupt. truman started the cold war when we could have had a ww2 alliance with russia who suffered far more than we did, & did most of the heavy fighting in the war. eisenhower built the american war machine, overthrew democratically elected governments, replacing them with dictators that ensured america had access to their resources, & then at the end said beware of the military-industrial complex he created. all the presidents since have been in the same mold, invade countries, kill their citizens, power to the very wealthy americans & fuck everyone else. & the congress & supreme court as well as all state governments fall right into line as aristocracy ass kissers. we have been a very belligerent nasty country, killing millions of innocent people all over the world for 6 decades. now that americans are finally suffering, it's become a problem. oh well, only in america……
cromartie says:
@bb
Just because Moonlight and Magnolias has been a smaller part of the problem, doesn't mean it isn't a problem.
You would think the string of empty textile mills along I-85 might have taught you people where this train is headed. Apparently not.
Mark H says:
Jesus.
I think I'll go kill myself now.
You know, I run a struggling, smallish family business with union employees (and have always had negative feelings towards the union), and it's gotten to the point where EVEN I see the need for the union pendulum to swing back in their favor.
This race to the bottom needs to be reversed, and I no longer feel that these idiots should be negotiated with..
Arm the homeless.
Mark H.
Crystal Lake, IL
darwinsbeard says:
HIllary 2016!!
mothra says:
HIllary 2016!
Yeah. Like she won't see our asses out faster than any of them.
Here's what I want to know: why is it that NO ONE EVER points out to our politicians and corporations that if lower taxes, no unions, lower regulations and no benefits to employees is really what they need to create jobs then WHY AREN'T WE AWASH IN JOBS????
Because pretty much they've gotten not just the tip but the fist in, too.
proverbialleadballoon says:
Nicely done; good work. We're fucked; let's just see if the forces of 'good' can make it happen slower. Interesting times.
bb in GA says:
@cro
Immelt didn't move the Wisconsin jobs to Birmingham or Brownsville. He moved them to Bejing (or close enough…)
If we organize Magnolia Inc for the IBEW or the Teamsters the Management won't let the screen door hit them in the ass on their way out either.
It's too late. I don't know how we revolt against the multi-nationals…
//bb
OperationEnduringEmployment says:
So then the question becomes, "What do we do about it?" Because though the greatest joy I can conceive of right now is having a well-paying job that I find moderately interesting, I have been compelled to get involved in local politics and community organizing. What are you doing Ed, to make things better? I was working in Cairo over the summer and after learning what people in REAL poverty have been able to achieve, against far greater odds than what we face in this country, I have come to the conclusion that a well articulated sense of helplessness betrays personal weakness, and is not prophetic of any kind of political endgame.
Anonymouse says:
See how much good "just one more sacrifice!" did for the Hostess employees. The executives lured them into taking ever-lower salaries, then stole their pensions, then declared the company bankrupt, and are now selling it off for a profit (profit to the execs, that is). Meanwhile, the paint-chip eaters are yelling at the workers for wanting to make a living wage for doing a living-wage job.
Mo says:
We've all been staring at the ceiling every night, pondering the implications in Paul Krugman's latest series on robot labor and monopoly power, right?
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/08/rise-of-the-robots/
I can't keep liquor in the house anymore.
Alex SL says:
Rodrigo,
Strangely, I was more thinking of places like Argentina, Bolivia and, yes, Brazil, which seemed to improve much when they elected a worker's party president.
It seems part of your misunderstanding is that you think it isn't leftist policies if there is still a free market, and that you define anti-corruption measures as neoliberal. Reducing the left to those who favour a planned economy is perhaps a matter of definition, but certainly a minority position. Pretending that fighting nepotism and bribery is even part of the neoliberal agenda, however, is just hilariously naive.
Elle says:
Relative poverty is real. The absolute poverty of people living in wealthy countries limits agency, health outcomes and life expectancy, capacity to engage with public life, access to justice, educational achievement, and experience of crime. The US's Gini coefficient is even higher than Egypt's.
Major Kong says:
The other elephant in the room that nobody talks about is automation.
I haven't seen a navigator since some time around 1998 and flight engineers are a dying breed. I hope to make it to retirement before getting replaced by a drone but you never know.
There's an apocryphal story from back in the 1960s. Henry Ford II was showing the head of the UAW his then-new assembly line robots. He chided the union boss, saying "Good luck getting these robots to join your union".
The UAW head answered "Good luck getting them to buy your cars Henry".
Ty says:
Typical socialistic babble, your liberal socialistic president has by design created this so called fiscal cliff for one reason and one reason only! That is for the exact reason he and his communistic cabinet crafted it. Watch wait and see.. Your president and his cronies will never compromise or attempt to reach across the isle, no matter how much the GOP is willing to concede to the socialists. By design your presidents total premise is to run us off the fiscal cliff so massive tax increases will be imposed on the working middle class (me) and cut our military to 3rd world status.
mothra says:
Damn. I meant to say that Hillary would SELL our asses out.
bb in GA says:
@major
From Walter hisself…
In November 1956 Walter Reuther delivered a speech to a Council group of the National Education Association. The transcript of his talk was published as part of his “Selected Papers”, and it contained an extended description of this intriguing episode:
" I went through this Ford engine plant about three years ago, when they first opened it. There are acres and acres of machines, and here and there you will find a worker standing at a master switchboard, just watching, green and yellow lights blinking off and on, which tell the worker what is happening in the machine. One of the management people, with a slightly gleeful tone in his voice said to me, “How are you going to collect union dues from all these machines?” And I replied, “You know, that is not what’s bothering me. I’m troubled by the problem of how to sell automobiles to these machines."
//bb
Major Kong says:
I'm pretty sure Ty is a Poe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
john d mershon says:
Ty, you are a horribly confused individual. There simply cannot be an intelligent discourse with such a lack of basic understanding about the world we live in. I advise you to spend less time online reading current topic related blogs and instead read "real" historical texts and THEN you might have a more informed view if current events.
Major Kong says:
Oh no! He fed the troll! Now we'll never get rid of it.
Elle says:
Amen, Major Kong. I've spent at least five minutes going back and forth in my head about Ty's authorial intent.
OperationEnduringEmployment says:
The gini coefficient is a useless measurement when comparing two entirely different economies. I spent some time in Al Rehab, a gated community for Cairo's "1%." A rich Egyptian may not make more than 40,000 dollars a year. Again, income inequality is irrelevant when comparing the wealthiest country in the world to a third world nation.
People in Egypt face all those challenges that you and everyone else here moan about, plus even greater obstacles, and yet they are out in the streets risking life and limb to create a better society for themselves and their children, NO EXCUSES.
Life is a constant struggle, and it seems that everyone on this blog is just educated enough to be willfully ignorant. You all complain because a thirty year span of prosperity, unprecedented in the history of the species, has come to an end, well boohoo. Just because things are not optimal, people whine and complain like it's the end of the world.
Get organized, educate yourself in the meantime, write letters to your representative, get petitions going. You can memorize a bunch of depressing statistics or you can act, it's up to all of us. It is only through action that a person can sustain the illusions necessary for a happy life.
Elle says:
Nonsense. There has been an enormous amount of work done over the past few years looking specifically at the relationship between income inequality and quality of life indicators across countries. There is, in fact, a great deal of evidence to suggest that income inequality has negative effects on outcomes regardless of whether the country in question is wealthy or not.
I admire your confidence in telling a bunch of people you don't know that they're not doing enough, but I sense from the little bits of information people post about their lives that many G&T commentators are extremely engaged in their communities.
Strangepork says:
OperationEnduringEmployment Says:
A bunch of glib and self-fellating bullshit.
Sure you can afford to take the time from your busy schedule of world-saving to come and act as more-activist-than-thou scold to a bunch of people you don't know?
OperationEnduringEmployment says:
At Elle
Yeah, too much income inequality is a bad thing. Who disagrees with that? My point is that income inequality is not the final measuring stick for determining which country has a successful economy and which one does not. Who gives a shit if Egypt has less income inequality, where would the average person live? Where do they have a better chance of surviving?
To Strangepork,
Rather produce a mound of positive self-fellating bullshit than waste my intellectual energies joining a circle jerk of grown babies. Waaahhh, life is not fair, I live in the United States, the worst country in the world waaahhh. My friend recommended this site to me, and though I agree with a lot of what is said here I must say that the reiteration of cliched leftist doomsaying tends to leave everyone outside the circle jerk a little wearied. I though the primary value of being an atheist resides in the recognition that there is no Apocalypse, that the course of history is not some unalterable march toward destruction. But yeah, go ahead and continue to bitch until the world is done smoking your ass and finally deposits you into history's ashtray.
I grew up in Londonderry when the sound of angry drums and funeral marches were a daily occurrence, so yeah, please tell me again about how hard it is in the United States of America.
Elle says:
No one said it was, although the measurement of a 'successful' economy is not objective, however much we may load onto the concept of GDP and growth thereof.
No one is disputing that Egypt is developing, although that is rather beside the original point of yours that I disagreed with, which is that Egypt's poverty renders the poverty in the US somehow less awful for the people experiencing its impact on their lives.
I would have thought that there were more than enough linguistic clues to suggest that you weren't talking to a troop of Americans in the comments. Perhaps you are overstretched in your mission to tell everyone else in the world how very stupid and tiresome they are because you summered in Cairo?
OperationEnduringEmployment says:
"Developing" is code for impoverished. And yeah, some Americans think that they are poor because they are ignorant and do not know any better.
And where are you from? And it is true that this whining is tiresome. Look at what has just happened in my home country, the flag for which my grandfather fought, and for which my great-grandfather died, was lowered in the next phase of the slow-moving surrender of what remains of Ulster by a traitorous, backstabbing government in Stormont. My home country is in the process of being taken over by murderers and cowardly blackguards, and a thousand years of traditions will be tossed into the sea. And do I whine? Do I participate in pointless flag rallies organized by hooligans? No, I had already moved on, I left my country because I knew that that which I had loved was now lost.
Elle says:
@OEE
I'm not from America, and don't live there.
'No American is poor' is not a credible analysis, and there's not much point the two of us engaging on poverty without any kind of agreement on what it is we're actually talking about.
The question of the consitutional future of Northern Ireland is an interesting one, and one on which there are many perspectives. I'm sure you'll understand why discussing it would be a colossal derailment of a thread on US labour market liberalisation.
OperationEnduringEmployment says:
Agreed on all accounts.
eau says:
I'd just like to say that I was recently in Cambodia and Laos. People there have it tough. Therefore, I am right and everyone is else teh stupids!
Major Kong says:
The corollary to "Hey! You guys are better off than starving Somali peasants so quit complaining!"
is:
"Hey! Your taxes are lower than (insert name of pretty much any industrialized country here) so quit complaining!"
caseykim12 says:
What are unions so afraid of when it comes to Right to Work laws? I thought liberals were all about "choice," doesn't that mean people should have the choice to be in a union or not? If I want to be a teacher, don't I have the right to teach without having my paycheck cut to pay for union dues that go to support a candidate I may not necessarily agree with?
Unions are afraid of RTW laws because they know that if people had the ability to choose whether or not to be in a union, the majority would choose not to. That means massive profit loss. That means these union heads can no longer make half a million dollar a year salaries. That means they have less money to donate to liberal candidates.
When you look at Census Bureau data, you'll find that Right to Work states actually have higher wages, lower unemployment rates, and lower costs of living. Additionally, wage rates actually increase at a FASTER rate in Right To Work states compared to non RTW states. Things are really much clearer when you look at actual data from the BLS and US Census Bureau, and stop reading whatever the "progressive" tells you to think on websites like Media Matters and Gawker. Try it sometime.
By the way, those protesters in Lansing look pretty hungry. Perhaps we should give them some Twinkies. Oh wait, unions shut that company down. Nevermind.
Ed says:
What a shock, a right-wing gasbag has the facts completely wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law#Comparisons
They do have lower unemployment. You are correct about that. But not wages.
Also, the cost of living is lower because they are shitholes and no one wants to live there. Cost of living is a function of demand. Yeah, it's pretty cheap in Lubbock. If you can't figure out why, go visit Lubbock and report back.
Yes, it was "the unions" that shut Hostess down. Check out the way the board of directors looted the company and then complained when there was nothing of value left to take.
bb in GA says:
@Ed
Your mileage may vary about what 'quality of life' items are essential in any location you might choose to live, but the data disconnect for me is the cost of living in the RTW states show about 20% lower while the salaries in the non-RTW states are about 10% more.
Obviously COLI and salary don't match up perfectly but that source you referenced also said
" Adjusting pay for these regional cost differences results in higher real buying power in most of the right-to-work states."
One person's 'shithole' is another person's 'happy place.'
//bb
Ruthie says:
@ caseykim12:
RTW doesn't give you any more protections than you have in a non-RTW state. In CA, a non-RTW state, you cannot be forced to join a union. Nor can you be forced to contribute to your employer's political funds, or the lobbying arm of a professional licensing organization.
The problem with RTW is that it eventually erodes certain protections provided by union membership: Such as the requirement that your termination be "for cause." Or that "discipline" by a superior must conform to certain specifications to be a valid precursor to termination.
Under RTW, employers who break unions no longer have to take into account union bargaining power, and benefits are subject only to various legislative schemes such as ERISA or their govt./non-profit parallels. So, if your employer guts your profession's union, and then decides to change your health insurance to a high deductible plan, or the terms of your pensions, too bad–so sad.
The same goes for workplace safety. Want to complain about your working conditions or other employer violations? Good luck with that OSHA or other whistle blower suit on your salary–or should I say what's left of your savings. Because the beauty of RTW is that it generally is a precursor to pure "at-will" employment legislation–where your employer can fire you or reduce your hours for any reason–or no reason at all.
Xynzee says:
@OEE: what Ed offers should be obvious. It's called a rallying point.
One person camped out in Zuccotti Park is an easily disregarded vagrant. 1000s in every city is a movement.
One person standing in front of a tank is a dramatic photo. 1000s rising up in main squares bring down governments.
Do you think the Egyptians all just happened to show up on the same day?
Though I think you're making a common mistake in comparing being poor with poverty. By some accounts I could be classed as poor because I do not own a car. However, the operational costs of owning a car would impoverish me. I make a lifestyle decision that leaves me less well of financially by living in a suburb that is well serviced by PT and requires less time and costs less to access the major employment centre. If I lived in a cheaper suburb my real costs would sky rocket as I would have to purchase and run a private vehicle just to move about the suburb, and my PT costs would rise both in accordance to money and time to get to work.
Fortunately, I live where this is an option to live this way. For many in the States there is no option but to get a car. So not having a significant asset like a car means a person cannot live where they can afford **and** get to the employment centres because there's not the PT alternative.
Xynzee says:
Last line got cut off:
So under these circumstances not owning a car isn't being materially poor, but is now an impoverished state.
Major Kong says:
@bb
No, sorry, Lubbock is a shithole no matter how you slice it. I've been there. It's all that's bad about Texas concentrated in one place with none of the good.
So's Memphis for that matter. Memphis is Detroit with the addition of high humidity.
Elle says:
@caseykim
I do believe that people should have a choice about whether or not they join a union. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the closed shop is a breach of an individual's European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) Art. 11 right to freedom of association. Signatories to the ECHR had to amend their law so that employment contract clauses requiring employees to join specific unions were not enforced, and were removed.
Union membership across Europe varies widely, with Scandinavian countries (and Norway, part of the EEA) having ~70pc density (Norway's is ~53pc), and France having ~7pc density. The figures are clearly misleading on the relative power of unions: France's work councils are stacked with union representatives and officials, and they can mobilise enormous numbers of workers.
Unions have different roles in public life across Europe, from 'social partnership' in Scandinavia, to delivery partner of specific programmes, to adversarial influencer on employment policy. Individual unions negotiate terms and conditions for workers, whether in national pay bargaining arrangements, or at local level. However, the legal protections for workers (against unfair dismissal, requiring health and safety provisions, against discrimination in employment and so on) are not a function of union membership but pertain to all workers (with a range of qualifying periods and caveats).
Tim H. says:
The oligarchs would do well to lift their gaze from the next couple of quarters to where the country is headed. With the bulk of the economy concentrated in a small handful of people, especially gifted in tax-avoidance, our superpower status will end, at best, we may remain a regional power, with no means of protecting the international interests of the oligarchy. The nation, like the labor movement now, will need to be rebuilt from the ground up.
ladiesbane says:
Is there a workable best case scenario? Flashbacks to "The Way It Used To Be" and a set of circumstances that no longer apply won't cut it. What I mean is, let's not talk about it, let's be about it. The ideal is not an option, or I'd be George Jetson. But what would be the best real option?
People might be ready to mobilize on this. Even Eric Cantor's vision of a nation of serfs (excuse me, workers free to make a nickel a day without the regulatory burdens of OSHA, Work Comp, affordable health care, labor unions, ombudsmen, Part B litigation, EEO protection, etc.,) has been hushed up lately.
We are repeating the Gilded Era steps toward the Grapes of Wrath, folks. We now have retailers trying to serve the "underbanked" population by becoming lenders, even mortgage lenders. If you work for WalMart, shop at WalMart, and pay WalMart on your home note…can you say "company store"?
To end on a cheery note, has anyone mentioned the new insourcing trend? International shipping still runs on fossil fuel, so it can be cheaper to manufacture goods at home again. Ready to cheer for high gas prices?
Eric Titus says:
It seems to me that even within your logic, one step forward and three steps backwards is still preferable to just three steps backward…
It is pretty crazy how powerless people feel. Even this blog focuses mostly on national politics, but Obama is basically a centrist. I'd suggest all readers of this blog to become at least incrementally more politically active in their localities, companies, universities
I think one can fairly say that the American people has the government it deserves. And despite the hopes of progressives and socialists, it will probably keep having the government it deserves.
Tim H. says:
And we've been very bad, and this is how we're to be punished…
JohnR says:
"sure, some people will probably get sick or die"
Hey, man, that strengthens the population. You know; natural selection, driving evolution! Who says the guys on the right don't believe in evolution? Or is it that they just like the Others dying off?
Anyway, I'm sure we're all glad to have you here in the handbasket with us, Ed. I can't even afford beer any more, but at least I'll probably be dead before I reach retirement age, so no worries about pensions for me! *whistles* Always look on the bright si-ide of life…"
mel in oregon says:
ty, wow, you're very uneducated. you sound like the typical dunce responding to one of jason whitlock's blogs on hix fox sport's blog. obama a socialist? his whole cabinet is from wallstreet you fucking idiot.
Ursula says:
Christ, it's as if no one heard what Obama said about the RTW legislation, or realizes that he is capable of learning from mistakes. A small example of my latter point came in the debates. He heard criticism of his performance in the first debate, and rather than explain why the criticsm was wrong, he took it seriously, and improved his performance.
You all aren't paying attention if you think Obama's second term will be like his first, and you all are naïve if you think Obama couldn't have been as compromising with his first term and hope to get a second one. He knows who wrote checks to him, and who bet against him.
This post and comment thread are a perfect example of the liberal circular firing squad. Yes, things have been going downhill for the last 30-40 years, but the only reason that we were at the top of a hill in the first place is because we, the people did something about it, held our representative's feet to the fire, and didn't just sit around, crying to ourselves about how powerless we feel.
Rodrigo S says:
@Alex:
"Strangely, I was more thinking of places like Argentina, Bolivia and, yes, Brazil, which seemed to improve much when they elected a worker's party president."
Have you BEEN to Argentina lately? Like, in the last 10, maybe even 20 years? Things are not good. Nothing much special to see with Bolivia. Brazil is a different story, but not because they embraced anything like a "leftist" agenda.
I guess I don't understand what you mean by leftist policies. The successful countries in Latin America are in some ways much more progressive than the U.S. (I live in Chile, and in some ways Chileans are waaaaay more progressive than Americans, sometimes to their detriment), but not so much when it comes to growth policy.
Frankly Curious says:
Robert Reich presented two striking graphs today from the the St. Louis Fed. One on corporate profits and the other on worker wages. They make a stark comparison. I've put them together on my site:
We Need More Than the Fed to Save Us
The graphs show that we've been giving and giving and giving and this has only resulting in the rich taking and taking and taking. Prosperity is NOT just around the corner–not the way things are going.
Elle says:
I am perplexed by the focus on the Office of the President in some comments. It's as if economic policy (or whatever else it is that we're talking about) of the USA is 90% a product of the Oval Office, and 10% the product of Congressional scrapping.
Of course President Obama is the most powerful man in any room, but the room must be full of other stakeholders, agencies, and interest groups. Presidential or parliamentary shenanigans may be the most glittering political soap opera, but a lot of (most of the?) important stuff happens elsewhere.
Southern Beale says:
Oddly, a Michigan state Republiweasel tried to exempt her husband's job from right-to-work. Isn't that curious!
Southern Beale says:
Also, this is OT but I know there are folks here involved in higher education, and I just read this item about a movement in some states to charge differing amounts for different majors, for example sciencey-y majors would be less expensive because they're deemed "useful" and poetry and history degrees would cost more because they're useless.
Anyone else hear of this?
Bernard says:
it is all too obvious how we workers have rights that the Right wants to eliminate with RTW. it's called Conservatism, aka I"ve got mine, Fuck off loser! that's another aspect i hear little about. yes Unions are now part of the corruption problem. it is amazing to see how little the past is being learned from. weekends adn holidays, child labor laws. and much mure.
amazing to think living in a stink hole is someone's idea of paradise. enjoy your stinkhole, stay out of my paradise and i'll stay out of your stinkhole.
the more you pay the more it's worth is my kind of thinking. jealousy has led to this attack on others doing okay.
the whole concept that we, drones, can affect the Rich Right wingers and Leftist traitor Democrats is not living in the same Banana Republic i call America. Dead leaders like JFK, MLK and RFK come to mind when i hear such nonsense.
a lot of worker bees will have to fight and die to get back the Rights we lost to the Scum Republicans/Democrats who sold us out to the Corporate State. Here's looking at you Reagan and Republicans.
amazing at the amount of willful ignorance, i am always astounded by the desire to get over by pretending adn expecting others to "buy" their BS.
sorry, Homey don't play those games.
What i really dislike is the willful desire by some to FUCK up America because it's too difficult to accept facts for what they are. i.e. the Race to the Bottom is so much easier. the eagerness at which The BS is bought and regurgitated by the RightWingers is sickening, but very effective for the uneducated.
it's not like we don't have a responsiblity to our children, but then again, the Lord of the Flies Behavior is the Right wingers aim and destination, which we apparently have accepted, most at least, as the way to go.
so Solidarnosc is only for the Polish people!
just because i live next to the poor deosen't mean i want to be poor. nor is your acceptance of stupidity is not shared by me. you want to get screwed over wihtout a fight, by all means enjoy yourself. i want no part of your "paradise." Thank you very much.
Xynzee says:
@caseykim: "Why should you pay?"
Would you expect to claim against health fund you're not a member of? Why/Why not?
Because you *are* deriving a benefit from the Unions. Higher pay , health care, protection from unfair dismissal, work place protections — eg dangerous machinery has appropriate equipment lik guards over chains…
So why should you expect to get those same conditions if you're not paying for them?
Now answer the age old libertarian fantasy question on work places:
If you don't like the way the work place is, why don't you get a different job else where? You don't have to stay with this company. You can go get a different job else where can't you? Ever consider changing industries? I hear Walmart is non-unionised why don't you work there? Or a company that competes with them?
Well?? We're waiting for your reply…
Xynzee says:
@Elle: many of the things you're talking about are great for Europe where the union movement was stronger. The "Labor" parties being the political wing of the unions were able to ensconce labour policies into European laws. So what you consider a "basic" right in Europe are sporadic and not fully enforced/implemented in the US. People are unclear what their rights as an employee are. Employers don't display appropriate signage nor do a proper induction it's not in the interest of the employer to have a well informed staff. See some the articles written about the Walmart protests.
Here in Oz, I once had a manager ask me to do something that was clearly unsafe and no safety equipment. I told him that by my following his instruction I would be performing an illegal act as it violated OHS legislation. Which would be grounds for my summary dismissal from the company. I was able to show him the relevant legislation as displayed in the staff room. Good luck pulling that off in the US w/o a Union.
Xynzee says:
@Elle: the POTUS unlike say the Irish office of president has actual power not a moral figure head status. Somewhere between the European monarchs of old and a prime minister. It's a directly elected power position, thus the need to hamstring the Office.
Though you are correct in pointing out the need to put the feet of the House and Senate to the fire as well.
Kevin NYC says:
clearly you have not yet given up enough benefits.
what say you give 5% more to fund your pension, 6% more to fund health care… and lose 1/2 your vacation days.. and… work a 50 hour week standard…
and .. bring food for the managers and clean the bathroom.
Dej says:
Excellent post. Depressing? Yes. But accurate.
Elle says:
@Xynzee
I'm sorry I have somehow led you to believe that I didn't understand the history of labour market regulation in the US versus Europe, or what the Office of the US President entails. I think I'm pretty clear on both, but thanks for typing out those bits of background.
Joost van Steenis says:
It is not depressing at all, it gives way to new ways of thinking. Not be concerned with the puppets who play a political gamer (and live luxuriously from it) but with the real power-bearers in the world, the 1%. Therefore I remove all posts on my Facebook group Occupy the 1% that talk about politics, democrats or Republicans. Intrude in their life just as they are intruding in our life. See my blog article, The War of the Flea, Ev eryone against the 1%. http://downwithelite.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/the-war-of-the-flea-everyone-agaisnt-the-1/
bearsense says:
Sort of like the pig that saved the farmer's life and was then butchered one joint at a time. When asked why, the farmer said " a wonderful pig like that; you don't eat him all at once."
vegymper says:
Dear friends at G&T:
At least what I can say from here (Argentina) is that "it is complicated". Unions here are particularly obscure with the use of their funding; however, it is better to live with them that without them.
I would invite you to look at the issue not so much from the domestic, US-only point of view, but as a trend that is more global: The Capital (and as such, it is increasingly nationless, so there are not, strictly speaking, "american capitalists" or "european capitalists" anymore) has decided that buying social peace by giving back some of the profit to workers in salary or through state-administered "entitlements" is demod
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