I have been reading an interesting book – The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America – by US journalist – George Packer – which traces the evolution of America over the period from 1978 to 2012. It is about how Americans have been dudded by the system they economic and political system that they hold dear to their hearts and how the core institutions that condition those beliefs have declined (changed) in the face of the rising dominance of the investment banksters. I am not so much interested in American history as I am the metamorphosis of Capitalism and the impact it has had on the working class. The book created a number of thought strands, which ultimately, led me to an interesting article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (published December 8, 2015) – Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century – by Princeton University academics Anne Case and Angus Deaton. What we learn is that the neo-liberal race to the bottom in advanced nations is destroying communities and killing workers.…Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The neo-liberal race to the bottom is destroying communities and killing workers
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
5 comments:
This is something that libertarians don't get all all.
'Hanauer, as a business person himself rejects that construction of the wages system.
He writes:
Take it from someone who has created dozens of businesses — people don’t get paid what they are “worth.” They get paid what they negotiate. We can all point to examples of CEOs who negotiated far more than they are worth, but there are many, many more people in our country who are worth far more than they negotiated.
That’s because more than any other market, the labor market is distorted by a profound imbalance of power between buyers and sellers; in fact, other than the small share of workers who have a collective-bargaining agreement, the vast majority of workers enjoy little bargaining power at all. Most workers have limited resources and immediate needs — to eat, to pay rent, to provide for their children — while most employers could leave any particular position unfilled indefinitely without suffering any personal hardship at all.'
Free trade = slave labor. That is the model we are following and that is direction we are going.
"Free trade = slave labor"? On the contrary. A system under which everyone is free to sell their labor to whoever they want is by definition a system that is free of slavery.
Have you read the excerpt I put out above? If had walked out of my job I would have lost my home. I was free to leave, of course, and lose my home, and go hungry. That doesn't feel like that much freedom to me. So my boss can now work me too hard because he has power over me.
I'm free to walk out and start my own business and then I can exploit other people and maybe a lot of money. But that's tough, and I might perish under the stress if I'm not ready for it.
The system is all wrong, I should be able to vote for a socialist alternative which will put a huge tax on the rich. But the ruling class own the media and tell people what to vote, and that it is TINA.
One way of taking power away from the wealthy is to create public banks, and nationalise the essential services. Billionaires should have a 98% tax out on them so they lose their political influence.
An armed revolution is not the answer , things have to be done democratically. Would this bring this capitalism system to an end, lets hope so?
I have to say that I agree with Kaivey a hundred percent. Free trade is a class system that will enslave all of us except the one percent. Ralph may be old enough to escape the bondage but his grand kids won't.
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