With a new government in town, now is the time for big changes, which will get people thinking about good things instead of trying to destroy our democracy. Healthcare or Medicare should be for all, climate change has to be addressed and minimum wage of at least $24 to keep up with inflation or implementation of a universal basic income of $2,000 to supplement people’s incomes and stimulate the economy.
This needs to be done now for by 2040 or sooner the 2.7 million truck drivers will be replaced by driverless trucks, and it will be up to the civilians to stay out of the way of these driverless vehicles, according to a recent NPR story. Vending machines are already taking the place of some stops and self-check-out lanes are taking the place of cashiers. Two million jobs were lost in human resources, finance and information technology and new research software means a single lawyer can now do the work of five hundred lawyers. There are fewer secretaries, file clerks, telephone operators, travel agents and bank tellers.
With all these jobs lost, we may find our people unemployed or underemployed, working part time on zero-hour contracts, working in a gig economy with very little spending power, no matter what happens to the job market.
This is not new. The Romans used to give free bread to its poor people. It was a way to keep people’s minds busy and their bellies full to prevent any sort of uprising.
Today, we could use the same thing to start rebuilding our country. We need to close the gap between the rich and poor, and we have to show the people something good or they will destroy our country. Changing things for the majority of people will go a long way saving this country, affordable housing, enough money to more than live on, healthcare coverage, jobs and reining in the lax environmental laws that Trump implemented for his corporate cronies.
There are three phases of a general strike and unions must plan for one. Those three phases are: 1. general strike in an industry 2. general strike in a community 3. general national strike We need to move away from being on the defensive and move toward a good offensive. The American Federal of Labor (AFL) could not have held a general strike if it wanted to because they had thousands of different contracts that expired at different times of the year. This was done deliberately so that there is no consolidation of power for a general strike. Also, nowadays, there is no law agency that will support labor, except the National Labor Relations Board (NLBR), which has been under attack and in decline for years. This leaves the burden of change up to unions, and unless unions work together, little will change. We essentially have a combination of job trusts, which are not as strong as contracts, and the courts can break easily because the NLBR will be further weakened and essentially elim...
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