Almost half (43.9%) of U.S. households are living on the edge of
financial collapse with almost no savings to fall back on in the event
of a job loss, health crisis or other income-depleting emergency, according to a report released today by the Corporation for Enterprise Development. These families as “liquid asset poor,” which means they lack
adequate savings to cover basic expenses at the federal poverty level
for just three months if they suffer a loss of stable income. The Consumer Federation of America and the Consumer Planner Board of
Standards found last year that nearly 40 percent of American households live paycheck to paycheck.
Wall Street is thriving. The stock market S&P index rose 13% in 2012, and JPMorgan Chase had its best year ever that same year, with Goldman Sachs close behind. The rate of corporate profit is at its highest level in more than a century, according to Bloomberg. Corporate profits have increased 171 percent under Obama, the fastest profit growth since 1900. Corporations sit on vast amounts of cash liquidity – some $3.4 trillion, by last count. According to CNBC, corporate "cash balances have swelled 14 percent and are on track toward $1.5 trillion for the Standard & Poor's 500, according to JPMorgan. The 1% continues to accumulate vast wealth. These record amounts are not "trickling down" to the working class.
Employers remain intent to hold down wages. In 2011 the average non-supervisory worker in the United States earned $19.47 an hour (in 2011 dollars). This figure is 7 percent below the 1972 peak of $20.99 per hour (also in 2011 dollars). The long-term pattern for health and other benefits has broadly followed that for wages, so that total compensation for U.S. workers—including both wages and benefits—has stagnated for 40 years. But this is only half the story. While wages fell, average labor productivity in the United States rose by 111 percent. That is, the total basket of goods and services that average U.S. workers produced in 2011 is more than double what they could manage in 1972. Their reward has been 7 percent pay cut. According to the Census Bureau, one-third of adults who live in poverty are working but do not earn enough to support themselves and their families. A quarter of jobs in America pay below the federal poverty line for a family of four – $23,050. Close to half of food stamp allocation goes to households where an adult is working full-time whose bosses won’t pay a living wage.
Millions need jobs. There are a staggering 22 million adult Americans who are without full-time jobs today and for whom the hardship of enduring unemployment is taking a terrible toll. Some are recent college graduates, loaded down with debt from escalating school costs. A Rutgers University survey found that half the college grads in this country over the last six years do not have full-time employment.
The U.S. Labor Department reported that the percentage of U.S. workers who were union members in 2012 had fallen to a 97-year low of 11.3 percent of the workforce. The total number of union members fell by 400,000 workers relative to 2011. In 2011, the unionization rate was 11.8 percent of the workforce. It also reported that that, among full time workers, the average annual earnings of union members was $49,000, while that for comparable non-union workers was $38,600. That is, if you are a union member, you will be earning about 27 percent more than a non-union member doing a comparable job. The three states with union membership rates of 4 percent or less? North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. Median hourly wages: $15.16, $14.45, $15.25. The three states with union membership rates of 20 percent or more? New York, Alaska, Hawaii. Median wages: $19.02, $20.65, $17.44.
That is the power of the union and why that business interests have advanced a campaign to weaken or destroy unions. Unions are attacked when they get in the way of profits. Union membership fell by 13 percent in Wisconsin and by 18 percent in Indiana last year. These declines are tied to the fact that Wisconsin passed a law in 2011 curbing the collective bargaining rights of many public employees, while Indiana enacted a right-to-work law, which enables workers to receive the benefits of union contracts without having to join the union. Michigan also became a right-to-work state. It means that you don't have to help pay for union representation in collective bargaining even when the majority of the workers in their company have democratically voted to be represented by the union. The union still bargains for you. It helps you get a good salary, paid holidays and a health plan. Members of the union sometimes even go out on strike to make sure you get these benefits. But when it's time to pay the piper, the piper pays you. If you have a grievance under a union-negotiated contract, the union has to pursue your grievance. You get all the benefits of union coverage without any of the costs of union membership. Over time, "right to work" laws destroy unions. That's their real purpose. It's no coincidence that 19 of the 20 states with union membership rates under 8 percent are all "right to work" states. "Right to work" legislation isn't driven by a groundswell of disgruntled union members chafing under union oppression. Workers who don't want a union can disband their union at any time. "Right to work" legislation is invariably driven by employers, industry associations and lobbyists. Employers love "right to work," because it really means "right to work for less." "Right to work" laws drive down wages for everyone. It's a race to the bottom as any business that can move across state lines moves to the states with the lowest wages and easiest regulations. Such beggar-thy-neighbor development strategies are bad for everyone: bad for people in the job-receiving states (low wages), bad for people in the job-losing states (unemployment)
Of course, it's good for employers who skim a fortune off the couple of dollars lost every single hour by every single employee who has the "right to work." The U.S. labor market has exposed working people to increased competition from workers in poor countries—it has meant, effectively, an expansion of the reserve army of labor for the jobs done by U.S. workers, despite the fact that not all products on U.S. markets are imported from poor countries, nor are U.S. firms moving their operations offshore. The domestic U.S. economy remains a $15 trillion operation, employing 140 million people. But U.S. workers nevertheless face an increasingly credible threat that they can be supplanted by workers in poor countries willing to accept much lower wages. Employers can tell workers: “If you won’t accept a pay cut, we’ll move.” Or “If you want a union, fine. We’ll start buying what you make from China.”
The unions themselves are not above blame in the longer-term decline in unionization but socialists need to fight to defend the rights of workers to join unions and for unions to be able to function effectively as the chosen representatives of workers. Austerity is the policy of lowering spending via a reduction in the amount of benefits and services provided by the government. We must organize and mobilize against austerity cuts. We have the power, we must exercise it.
Adapted from here, here, and here
Wall Street is thriving. The stock market S&P index rose 13% in 2012, and JPMorgan Chase had its best year ever that same year, with Goldman Sachs close behind. The rate of corporate profit is at its highest level in more than a century, according to Bloomberg. Corporate profits have increased 171 percent under Obama, the fastest profit growth since 1900. Corporations sit on vast amounts of cash liquidity – some $3.4 trillion, by last count. According to CNBC, corporate "cash balances have swelled 14 percent and are on track toward $1.5 trillion for the Standard & Poor's 500, according to JPMorgan. The 1% continues to accumulate vast wealth. These record amounts are not "trickling down" to the working class.
Employers remain intent to hold down wages. In 2011 the average non-supervisory worker in the United States earned $19.47 an hour (in 2011 dollars). This figure is 7 percent below the 1972 peak of $20.99 per hour (also in 2011 dollars). The long-term pattern for health and other benefits has broadly followed that for wages, so that total compensation for U.S. workers—including both wages and benefits—has stagnated for 40 years. But this is only half the story. While wages fell, average labor productivity in the United States rose by 111 percent. That is, the total basket of goods and services that average U.S. workers produced in 2011 is more than double what they could manage in 1972. Their reward has been 7 percent pay cut. According to the Census Bureau, one-third of adults who live in poverty are working but do not earn enough to support themselves and their families. A quarter of jobs in America pay below the federal poverty line for a family of four – $23,050. Close to half of food stamp allocation goes to households where an adult is working full-time whose bosses won’t pay a living wage.
Millions need jobs. There are a staggering 22 million adult Americans who are without full-time jobs today and for whom the hardship of enduring unemployment is taking a terrible toll. Some are recent college graduates, loaded down with debt from escalating school costs. A Rutgers University survey found that half the college grads in this country over the last six years do not have full-time employment.
The U.S. Labor Department reported that the percentage of U.S. workers who were union members in 2012 had fallen to a 97-year low of 11.3 percent of the workforce. The total number of union members fell by 400,000 workers relative to 2011. In 2011, the unionization rate was 11.8 percent of the workforce. It also reported that that, among full time workers, the average annual earnings of union members was $49,000, while that for comparable non-union workers was $38,600. That is, if you are a union member, you will be earning about 27 percent more than a non-union member doing a comparable job. The three states with union membership rates of 4 percent or less? North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. Median hourly wages: $15.16, $14.45, $15.25. The three states with union membership rates of 20 percent or more? New York, Alaska, Hawaii. Median wages: $19.02, $20.65, $17.44.
That is the power of the union and why that business interests have advanced a campaign to weaken or destroy unions. Unions are attacked when they get in the way of profits. Union membership fell by 13 percent in Wisconsin and by 18 percent in Indiana last year. These declines are tied to the fact that Wisconsin passed a law in 2011 curbing the collective bargaining rights of many public employees, while Indiana enacted a right-to-work law, which enables workers to receive the benefits of union contracts without having to join the union. Michigan also became a right-to-work state. It means that you don't have to help pay for union representation in collective bargaining even when the majority of the workers in their company have democratically voted to be represented by the union. The union still bargains for you. It helps you get a good salary, paid holidays and a health plan. Members of the union sometimes even go out on strike to make sure you get these benefits. But when it's time to pay the piper, the piper pays you. If you have a grievance under a union-negotiated contract, the union has to pursue your grievance. You get all the benefits of union coverage without any of the costs of union membership. Over time, "right to work" laws destroy unions. That's their real purpose. It's no coincidence that 19 of the 20 states with union membership rates under 8 percent are all "right to work" states. "Right to work" legislation isn't driven by a groundswell of disgruntled union members chafing under union oppression. Workers who don't want a union can disband their union at any time. "Right to work" legislation is invariably driven by employers, industry associations and lobbyists. Employers love "right to work," because it really means "right to work for less." "Right to work" laws drive down wages for everyone. It's a race to the bottom as any business that can move across state lines moves to the states with the lowest wages and easiest regulations. Such beggar-thy-neighbor development strategies are bad for everyone: bad for people in the job-receiving states (low wages), bad for people in the job-losing states (unemployment)
Of course, it's good for employers who skim a fortune off the couple of dollars lost every single hour by every single employee who has the "right to work." The U.S. labor market has exposed working people to increased competition from workers in poor countries—it has meant, effectively, an expansion of the reserve army of labor for the jobs done by U.S. workers, despite the fact that not all products on U.S. markets are imported from poor countries, nor are U.S. firms moving their operations offshore. The domestic U.S. economy remains a $15 trillion operation, employing 140 million people. But U.S. workers nevertheless face an increasingly credible threat that they can be supplanted by workers in poor countries willing to accept much lower wages. Employers can tell workers: “If you won’t accept a pay cut, we’ll move.” Or “If you want a union, fine. We’ll start buying what you make from China.”
The unions themselves are not above blame in the longer-term decline in unionization but socialists need to fight to defend the rights of workers to join unions and for unions to be able to function effectively as the chosen representatives of workers. Austerity is the policy of lowering spending via a reduction in the amount of benefits and services provided by the government. We must organize and mobilize against austerity cuts. We have the power, we must exercise it.
Adapted from here, here, and here
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