We are adding thousands to the rolls of “pauperdom,” by the greedy, which should inspire labor unrest and all manners of social upheaval. Of the two—broken cities and low-wage jobs due to manufacturing being sent overseas—the only thing happening so far is the social upheaval being perpetuated by law enforcement killing black men, and labor is reacting very timid at this point.
We must get people working again at living wages because unrest always follows loss of jobs, which increases inequality and lifestyle changes. When this happens, wage slaves or used to be wage slaves will do desperate things, and rather than look to the root of the problem the blame is laid at the feet of the people at the bottom of the economic ladder.
In order to fix the wrongs we must follow the dots backward all the way to the money people: the oligarchies, bankers, Wall Street, and hedge funders. These greedy law breakers started the economic downfall with total disregard for the workers and their families. This is not new nor is it just a U.S. problem at this time, it is happening worldwide.
If the money people want to keep the capitalist system then they must understand how and why it works. They then need to make the changes, like a living wage of $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage, full-time jobs with benefits and pensions. The oligarchies should understand this and if they don’t then it will be up to the proletarians to show them the way—which could look a lot like what we saw in the revolts in Watts, CA, Ferguson, MO, and now in Baltimore, MD.
The greedy corporations need to recognize that in order for their continued success they must view business as a cycle that has to happen. For example, good full-time jobs equals more products or services needed, which equals the need for more workers, which results in more taxes paid to cities, counties, states and the federal government, and that results in more infrastructure building and around and around the economy goes, and the better it gets for all and everyone gets a piece of the pie.
Then we will see more families buying houses and durable goods, and just maybe even a new middle class with strong unions once again.
To change the abundance of labor in the world is to put more money in the pockets of the laborer to buy the products their fellow workers are making. Otherwise, when there are more products than money, there is slump in the economy. Austerity policies, low wages and automation (robots) were also of concern in the 1950s when Henry Ford II, CEO of Ford, took Walter Reuther, head of the United Auto Workers Union, on a tour of a new engine plant.
Ford gestured to a fleet of new machines and said, “Walter, how are you going to get these robots to pay union dues?” The union leader turned to Ford and said, “Henry, how are you going to get robots to buy your cars?”
This type of change in the labor has created a new type of working class that swings from task to task in order to make ends meet while enduring the loss of labor rights and bargaining rights. They are called “precariat” workers, a group of workers who live on the verge of collapse due to the instability of the nature of their job…