Working Life

 Let’s go really big! I outline a $6.5 trillion stimulus—more than double what the Democrats in the House passed—because that’s what the people need over the next year: $1.3 trillion in wage guarantees; $715 billion for state and local governments; $600 billion for a “Pandemic Medicare For All”; $1.5 trillion to cancel all student […]

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I like the ring of The Stop Wall Street Looting Act, don’t you? True, it’s part of the business model of the joint, especially the private equity pirates. The Act is, in fact, aimed squarely at the private equity industry, who have stripped and destroyed hundreds of companies. I’ll talk about the Act with the […]

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Start by being inspired by Billy Bragg’s “There Is Power In The Union”. Then, listen as I talk to a Nissan worker who is at the center of a critical campaign to win a union at Nissan’s plant in Canton, Mississippi—a two-day vote that will start tomorrow (and we will update the result for our […]

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The steady robbery of peoples’ hard work has taken place over the past five decades, with the pace accelerating over the past twenty years. What this robbery does is basically squeeze people so hard that their lives become a shaky, volatile daily existence. Proof of the class warfare isn’t hard to find.

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The other day I wrote about a campaign by the International Trade Union Confederation to push the G20 to make hiking wages the cornerstone of any policy to create a sustained and healthy global economy. The Economist agrees.

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It never ceases to amaze me how, either because they are intentionally trying to mislead people or because they are just dumb/incompetent, “analysts” or public commentators and/or politicians profess to be flummoxed by the weak economy, the stop-and-go nature of growth and economic activity. Well, this isn’t rocket science: when you have an economy powered mostly by consumer spending and people don’t have money to spend, shit won’t get bought…is this not obvious? And that’s the message–the correct one–being delivered this week to the G20.

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I wonder what the genius in the White House, who organized the president’s celebration of Wal-Mart this past week, will say now. Or was it the president who thought, “gee, Wal-Mart, now there’s a model to hold up”. Just to aid anyone who had any doubts about the kind of company the Beast of Bentonville really is, Wal-Mart is happy to effectively lie to make sure its executives get their huge bonuses.

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You take for granted that the malevolent Koch Brother billionaires and FOX will go all out to keep robbing workers. That’s just what they do. But, a much more pernicious danger undercutting workers is the inaccurate way in which the traditional “liberal” media and a whole raft of politicians describe what has happened to wages. It’s typically referred to as “wage stagnation”. That is false: it’s wage robbery.

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I have written over the years about the way in which a lot of government statistics tell us very little about how real people are doing in the economy. To wit: some talking heads and political leaders keep talking talking about a “recovery”. But, that means very little to most people — except, surprise, if you are rich.

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Job growth is allegedly “steady” but unemployment increases — so said the statistics. But, here’s the thing — these stats still miss an important point.

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