It was not my intention to wish everyone a happy holiday because there is little to celebrate. Traditionally, Labor Day marks the end of summer and is supposed to honor … well ... labor. These days, the facts speak otherwise.
Unemployment has reached 9.7%, a 26 year high. Worker pay has fallen 11 percent since 1973, although worker productivity has risen 78 percent in the same period.
In 1973, corporate CEOs made 45 times more than the average worker. By 1991, CEOs made 140 times more, and by last year, CEO income rose to 400 times more.
CEOs take home a larger slice of the American pie. Executive pay rose from 4.8 percent of company income (1993-1995) to 10.3 percent (2001-2003) … more than double in less than a decade.
Corporate interests and their shills clamor for lower taxes and more perks - chauffeured cars, jets, company apartments, club memberships, fancy trips, sports tickets, and financial planning experts. Meanwhile, labor gets downsized and outsourced. Workers watch their home values and retirement accounts vanish, and their wages and benefits cut.
So what is there to celebrate? Maybe we should just rename Labor Day and call it by its real name: National Banana Republic Day.
Traditionally? Traditionally I'm the Maharajah of Jaipour, but in fact I'm not and neither is this the end of Summer.
ReplyDeleteHell, I've got 4 huge bunches of bananas outside and they're not even ripe yet. When the Banana Republic arrives, I'll be in good shape.
The Banana Republic HAS arrived. Glad you're stocked with provisions. With 8 tentacles, I have a good supply of arms.
ReplyDeleteFrom a newsletter (The Progress Report) I receive via e-mail:
ReplyDelete"As Center for American Progress Action Fund analysts David Madland and Karla Walter have written, more workers with union jobs are good for the economy. In 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "union members accounted for 12.4 percent of employed wage and salary workers, up from 12.1 percent a year earlier." Though union membership rose from 2006 to 2008, the percentage of American workers who belong to a union is still significantly lower than it was in 1983, the first year for which comparable union date are available. In speech this week explaining why no Republicans will vote for the Employee Free Choice Act -- which would make it easier for workers to join a union -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed that workers don't actually want to join unions due to the "very enlightened management in this country now." But this isn't true. According to an AFL-CIO survey found, there are 60 million American workers who say that they would join a union if they could. The reason they haven't isn't because of a lack of desire. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that employers fought back against unionization efforts by threatening "to close plants in 57 percent of the campaigns and...cut wages and benefits in 47 percent," while firing pro-union workers 34 percent of the time. Employers use tactics such as forced one-on-one meetings with supervisors to "to intimidate workers and determine their support for unionization."
I have so much to say about this subject, Octo, that I'm speechless. Utterly. What's the point?
ReplyDeleteExcept for Rocky's lovely post of a few days back, the posts on this blog are depressing the hell out of me - to be blunt. It's not any Zoner's fault. I don't mean that. But I honestly am beginning to feel like I live in a world conjured up by The Twilight zone. And the politics of my own non-on-line world aren't any more rational or humane. I feel surrounded by unkind idiocy.
I'm losing - no - make that - I have lost - my sense of humor.
Sorry, folks - forgive the personally petulant moment.
Octo - sadly, a very apt post for Monday. Thanks.
Squid, the wingers are trying to demoralize us. We shouldn't let them. Hang in there.
ReplyDeleteTake heart, Squid. I once read something about successful people; when they hit that brick wall that causes most to give up, truly successful people find a way to go over or around it - they keep going and let nothing deter them from their goal.
ReplyDeleteThose kids I posted about made me realize that there is still something worth fighting for.
And here's something else, Sen Baucus from MT is a leading Dem negotiator on healthcare and he is ready to move on with or without the GOP.
And there are many Dem senators who will not accept a bill without some sort of public option.
Personally, I'm with the Mad As Hell Docs that we need single payer; period. I have written to Sen. Baucus to encourage him and tell him what I think.
The lunatic fringe are loud and whiny and seem to garner a lot of attention, but I keep thinking of that John Wayne movie (Rooster Cogburn, I think) where he and Kate Hepburn sneak up on a bunch of bad hombres and shoot from all over to give the appearance of having more people with them - I think that's what these right wing loonies have been doing.
Never forget - the majority of Americans voted in the Dems and Obama. Reading and watching different media sources makes me think the majority of Americans support some sort of public option.
Write your representatives, fight inaccuracies in your posts or tweets and never, never, never give up! (Winston Churchill said that) :)
If life hands us a Banana Republic, I say we make banana bread with it.
ReplyDelete(I always add some lime juice and grate a bit of lime zest in mine.)
I have about 100 pounds of Java Blue bananas soon to ripen - that's a lot of banana bread. wanna make a deal?
ReplyDelete