Interesting stuff in Al Jazeera from Professor Mark LeVine of the University of California, Irvine. Excerpts:
Rapid development in computer, communications and transportation technologies fueled an economic productivity which led to unprecedented growth in corporate profits.Meanwhile, this process weakened the ability of workers to maintain wage growth at a rate comparable to productivity and profits.
In fact, around 1970 real wages for most non-management workers stopped increasing, and have stayed flat, and even declined, since then.
Wolff explains that rather than fight against the erosion of their incomes, working and middle class Americans began to work even longer hours, and then take on second and even third jobs, in order to continue to consume apace with the upper classes.
In comparison, less consumption-obsessed workers in Western Europe now work 20 per cent less than they did in the 1970s…
So far, the Obama administration has sought to inject enough money into the US economy to ease up the restrictions on credit and stimulate the economy through tax breaks and infrastructure programs.
What few Americans, politicians and ordinary citizens alike, have thought to consider is whether the financial system that the new administration is trying to rescue — essentially, the “American Way of Life” — should even be saved.
After all, a long-term drop in global consumption is one of the few conceivable ways to stop the slide toward the tipping point of global warming and environmental degradation, not to mention the increasingly violent resource wars and global poverty, that are the inevitable outcome of a world economic system premised on limitless growth and consumption.
It is necessary that people refuse to consent to poor wage and working conditions in order for them to improve. If people agree to work two and three jobs, then that will be the expected standard of living for workers. Some government action may be required to limit the abuses, but labor must organize itself, as has always been necessary.
Posted by: Mahakal on February 23, 2009 11:43 AMAnother "benefit" of the stagnation of wages has been the geometric growth in personal debt. The financial sector has spent billions to encourage citizens to live beyond their means using plastic and ephemeral home equity to replace the wages they should have been earning.
Coupled with the bankruptcy "reform" pushed through by Democrats, the Wall Street billionaires have pushed the workers down into penury. Now the government wants to bail them out? Citibank, BofA and Goldman Sachs are not too big to fail, they are too big to exist.
We also have to recognize that not only can we not bring about a return to the bubble economy and the rapidly escalating home prices of the last decade, it is a bad idea to even try. Nationalizing banks, restoring the financial regulations put in place after the last Depression, and making usury illegal again would do a great deal to put this nation back on its feet in a sustainable way.
Posted by: Charles on February 23, 2009 11:50 AMMahakal:
I've worked 3 jobs out of necessity in the past and will do it again if I have to. There is always someone willing to work. I highly doubt organizing work forces in any manner will ever become the norm.
Desperation supercedes indignation.
B.
A friend sent me this story here which I though seemed to be supporting the fight for a consumerist society. I suggested that the energy efficiencies were admirable the rampant consumerism required to support such a venture might be questionable. I thought it was rather apropos to find your post only minutes after his email and my reponse. I thought it woulod be worth sharing to illustrate and support what I think is your point.
Posted by: knowdoubt on February 24, 2009 10:06 AM
Bridget, organized labor is not a thing of the past, it is necessary for future progress.
Posted by: Mahakal on February 24, 2009 6:43 PMIs it rampant consumerism, or is it the increasing bills for necessities like medical care and electricity (slated to go up 40% next year)?
And if you want to see desperation (nearby but without a face), check out your local CraigsList.
Posted by: Joyful Alternative on February 25, 2009 10:24 AM