This was so frustrating, talking to the Tea Partiers at their rally the other day: When I brought up this report, they defended the employers. They said employers were too afraid to spend money because of Obama's unpredictable anti-business policies. Oy. Here's Bob Herbert:
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Andrew Sum, an economics professor and director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. “Not only did they throw all these people off the payrolls, they also cut back on the hours of the people who stayed on the job.”
As Professor Sum studied the data coming in from the recession, he realized that the carnage that occurred in the workplace was out of proportion to the economic hit that corporations were taking. While no one questions the severity of the downturn — the worst of the entire post-World War II period — the economic data show that workers to a great extent were shamefully exploited.
The recession officially started in December 2007. From the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2009, real aggregate output in the U.S., as measured by the gross domestic product, fell by about 2.5 percent. But employers cut their payrolls by 6 percent.
In many cases, bosses told panicked workers who were still on the job that they had to take pay cuts or cuts in hours, or both. And raises were out of the question. The staggering job losses and stagnant wages are central reasons why any real recovery has been so difficult.
“They threw out far more workers and hours than they lost output,” said Professor Sum. “Here’s what happened: At the end of the fourth quarter in 2008, you see corporate profits begin to really take off, and they grow by the time you get to the first quarter of 2010 by $572 billion. And over that same time period, wage and salary payments go down by $122 billion.”
That kind of disconnect, said Mr. Sum, had never been seen before in all the decades since World War II.
In short, the corporations are making out like bandits. Now they’re sitting on mountains of cash and they still are not interested in hiring to any significant degree, or strengthening workers’ paychecks.
Productivity tells the story. Increases in the productivity of American workers are supposed to go hand in hand with improvements in their standard of living. That’s how capitalism is supposed to work. That’s how the economic pie expands, and we’re all supposed to have a fair share of that expansion.
Corporations have now said the hell with that. Economists believe the nation may have emerged, technically, from the recession early in the summer of 2009. As Professor Sum writes in a new study for the labor market center, this period of economic recovery “has seen the most lopsided gains in corporate profits relative to real wages and salaries in our history.”
Worker productivity has increased dramatically, but the workers themselves have seen no gains from their increased production. It has all gone to corporate profits. This is unprecedented in the postwar years, and it is wrong.
Having taken everything for themselves, the corporations are so awash in cash they don’t know what to do with it all. Citing a recent article from Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Professor Sum noted that in July cash at the nation’s nonfinancial corporations stood at $1.84 trillion, a 27 percent increase over early 2007. Moody’s has pointed out that as a percent of total company assets, cash has reached a level not seen in the past half-century.
Executives are delighted with this ill-gotten bonanza. Charles D. McLane Jr. is the chief financial officer of Alcoa, which recently experienced a turnaround in profits and a 22 percent increase in revenue. As The Times reported this week, Mr. McLane assured investors that his company was in no hurry to bring back 37,000 workers who were let go since 2008. The plan is to minimize rehires wherever possible, he said, adding, “We’re not only holding head-count levels, but are also driving restructuring this quarter that will result in further reductions.”
There can be no robust recovery as long as corporations are intent on keeping idle workers sidelined and squeezing the pay of those on the job.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Germany and Japan, because of a combination of government and corporate policies, suffered far less worker dislocation in the recession than the U.S. Until we begin to value our workers, and understand the critical importance of employment to a thriving economy, we will continue to see our standards of living decline.
Personally, I think there should be a national campaign to shame these people into hiring. I remember a time not so long ago when companies took pride in employing people. Why not some White House leadership on this issue?
The wealthy are always demanding tax cuts is "because we create jobs." Uh, sorry, pal. When you're the only people left with cash, there's no one else left to tax.
to put the nation back to work the rest of the country will laugh at Obama as heartily as I do at intelligent posts such as this.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Not just shame. We need an economy and the Thugs broke it.
It's rarely a good thing when things trickle.
Republicans have proved it once again.
No more trickling please.
I want my economics hammered out, not tricking up or down.
Only the Democrats are ready and capable of doing the economy right.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
the media is bought and sold - or - 4th estatate <=> 5th column
your pick (same answer either way, the chicken / egg thing)
Well Bless my Marx Shaped Birthmark, I Nevah!
Impeachment on the table yet..
NO we now have an Old Boy type of club..
Where One if for all and all are for one.
You did not see Pelosi , Reid or Obama seriously consider investigating the Crimes of the previous administration did you.
NO they censored all investigation and prosecution into all criminal crimes.
Obama is starting to look like a Trojan Horse. Just think of the problems will have if Or when the democrats lose their control (as if they really gave a d... and used it)in the coming elections.
Emanuel lead the charge , Obama , blue dogs and centrists pick it up and destroy the democratic power.
Emanuel only concern was to have a Pro War candidate elected on the democratic ticket..
In 2006 , Emanuel pushed 22 of 24 Pro war candidates into office over progressives.
None
To bad there's not some kind of collective out there who can stand up for employees - like ... Unions.
The nightmare of a workforce too scared of being laid off in an economy with no jobs, bankers threatening to take the entire economy down with them if asked to lose any money, trickle down fantasies and all that other garbage has come to fruition. The Kleptocracy is winning big time.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - and fear is winning.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
Nothing will shame these people. Their attitude is "I got mine and most of yours so fuck off." The fear is now a monster Kudzu with large inputs of manure from Fox and friends. Anyone who wants to change the direction of what seems like an inevitable slide into total chaos is branded as hating America. Such is the pathos that is now becoming malignant. At this point the 50's look downright enlightened. I think it's going to get downright ugly. And the hell of it is there are all these militia types who are ginned up and ready to kick some butt who can't figure out that the corporate masters that they think are on their side will throw them under the bus in a heartbeat.
Somebody please tell the Republicans that the Bush tax cuts are not working. Not helping. Bus is going over the cliff.
Later this year:
Thank God the Bush tax cuts finally run out! whheeeew! that was close.
Republicans almost gutted the middle class.
Maybe now things will balance out again.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
of Rich Folk's tax restoration to start 2011 off on the right track.
Beats eating the cat food Obama is giving us instead of shaming the rich folks up in the big House.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
is nothing - and the tax cuts expire. I think they are capable of that, don't you? Oh shit there's got to be a fly in the ointment here somewhere.
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 15:13 — Ape-Man
Maybe now things will balance out again.
_____________________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs_DuZigRzY
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Free Speech TV has a lecture by economist Richard Wolf called,
When Capitalism Hits the Fan.
http://www.capitalismhitsthefan.com/
The corporations have kept wages flat for decades. Worker productivity and time on the job skyrocketed in an attempt to keep a lifestyle.
Profits rose thru' the roof and the workers, well what to do?
The companies with so much money and untold wealth gave you your wages back...........in the form of loans! With interest.
Disgusting. But, not entirely surprising. Everybody ready for the upcoming class war?
Republicans just need to know that the tax rates need to be too high, before lowering them produces the stimulus they expect.
They are not too high.
Bush decided these new the taxes needed to expire this year,
and that should be enough for the sceptics.
I think this issue goes deep. An honest Republican would do what Bush Sr. did when he was in charge and adjust taxes where taxes need adjusting. that's it. next problem.
But these Republicans are not honest.
Unlike Bush Sr., they do not operate in our best interests, ever.
Something has driven them off the cliff.
They are unreliable.
Broken.
Not to be taken seriously.
Not to be used.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
They felt the need for speed from their love of greed!
cushioned by all the cash strewn at the bottom
Those people, usually called Marxists, a term meant by the Capitalists, but not by me, to be the vilest profanity possible in the land of über Capitalism, who understood what Marx was talking about, knew the Capitalists used depression to further their accumulation and extract ever greater surplus value from workers.
Paul Mattick (1955), “Marx and Keynes” here
***
Writings of Paul Mattick here
***
David Harvey, Marxist Sociologist, the Crisis in Capitalism here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
And if a further capitalist expansion is not possible due to resource exhaustion and opposition to intellectual renewal - then what?
Collapse…
And good riddance…
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
But it only needs to collapse if it runs headlong into the future, without braking to a stand still.
The Republicans would take us right over that cliff before they'll ever apply brakes, because they are in the safe seats, while you and i are in the regular seats.
Most Republicans think they will survive a collapse.
It's the job of Republicans to convince you that you will be
one of those people too, if only you vote for them, one. more. time.
Hahahahahahhhahahaaahaha. ;)
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
The future is in God's hands, not people's, and people will be playing God if they try to manage the big picture. Horrors. Just trust our omniscient leaders, that'll work. You betcha.
Krugman (the Keynesian): Defining Prosperity Down
here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I ususally agree with the outrage here on C&L, but I can't really agree with this one. This is a normal company reaction, and yes maybe they can be shamed, but that's like saying 'hey, buy a house, even if you can't afford it because it'll help the economy' - and we know how that one turned out.
Now if there were, perhaps, higher corporate tax rates, this kind of activity would be more helpful, because while companies were laying off to get themselves to the right size to do business, and becoming more profitable, at least some of that would fall to government coffers to help infrastructure costs.
unions have mostly been castrated as a counterbalance. Not to mention the climate of constantly growing fear which hampers any efforts to get the companies to do the right thing. This has all the elements of a death spiral, where the government will be castigated for trying to boost employment, sustain a middle class and ultimately benefit business.
OK. Are we talking about Main Street now?
How's that bailout going?
Dear Main Street,
The peasants will consume your products just as soon as we can afford them again.
Until then, Please lobby to let the tax cuts return to normal.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Actually professor Andrew Sum's report...
is about companies that are big enough to be publicly traded. (wall st.)
Main street corporations are probly much less guilty.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Executive salaries and bonuses must be protected at all cost because everyone knows that only rich people create jobs, or something.
Stephen Colbert's recent explanation of trickle-down economics for how that works.
Americans have less than the rest of the western world in all the things that make life better. America is at the bottom of the list because citizens are fed Corporate BS from the cradle to the grave Your bent system of government (control is more like it) does not allow for anything but the corporate voice to be heard. The Corporations are now pushing the envelope over a cliff in their greed. Things are so wrong that even the zombies are starting to notice . Its wonderful to see Americans starting, slowly slowly, to wake up.
I agree with everything you wrote except for the "Americans are waking up" part , at least half of the country has their heads buried so far up their asses that they can't tell north from south when it comes to politics and they have no clue what's going on , absolutely none .
Look, if businesses could get along without any employees, they'd be in 7th heaven.
Their "priority" is maximizing profits and the biggest drain on profits is employees.
To think that businesses would consider a patriotic duty to be to actually increase hiring, even when they can afford it, is to live in a
parallel universe.
So salespeople drain profits? The people who make the products drain profits? The people who account for the profits drain the profits???
Yep
That's why they outsource as much as possible
Or follow walmart's lead and get their crap from China.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Cynicism mixed with populism; nicely done.
Frustrating "ain't" the word , I've heard these moron's defending Corporations , the super wealthy and the Bush tax cuts , Wall Street and BP and repeating everything the Repugs tell them , no matter how absurd ! They are just plain too GD stupid to know what's going on and as far as ever getting through to them it is literally impossible because " no one is home " . It's no wonder Fox has so many viewers , there is an over abundance "of stupid" in this country ... and we are all paying dearly because of these impossible know it all geniuses .
"We cultivate stupid"
"I'll be as dumb as I wanna be, and you can too"
"Ignorant and proud of it. Join the club"
"We're really on your side. Really" (They get a good laugh out of that one, because the loyal corporate believers really think that corporate America will stand behind them)
-- Bertrand Russell
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
Businesses are not charities. If you don't like the way it's run, don't work there. You're under no obligation to work there and they're under no obligation to keep you on the payroll.
Ha! The ghost of Ayn Rand follows Bertrand Russell.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Did you have something of substance to say or were you just name-calling or guilt-by-associating?
Indeed, what I said was of substance.
The point of this post is that corporations are sitting on record amounts of cash, their profits are way up. Their profits derive from the difference between the cost of production (productivity) and the return on production. Productivity is the catchall euphemism that means workers produce more while being paid less.
Ayn Rand would have profits before people any day, the tenor of your comment indicates a similar sensibility.
To suggest some thing in the relationship between employer and employee as being akin to a charity is utterly preposterous.
The Capitalists accumulate wealth by extracting greater surplus value from their workers, THAT is EXPLOITATION and the fundamental nature of the age old class struggle.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Substance? In response to that "conservative compassion" you posted? OK.
Businesses are not charities.
Well, duh-but businesses DO have a social responsibility because we allow them to form and use our resources to profit. Ford may have been a total wanker, but he knew that in order for his business to thrive, he needed his workers to be customers.
If you don't like the way it's run, don't work there.
In the currrent climate, that cannot be serious. With 5-6 applicants for every job opening, how many people do you think actually have a viable choice as to where they work. Food and rent come before 'workplace satisfaction'.
You're under no obligation to work there and they're under no obligation to keep you on the payroll.
To me, that sounds like another way to say survival is not crucial. The second part..no obligation to keep you...sounds an awful lot like the crap I hear about Florida being a "right to work state". Business before people, every time.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
Texas is right to work state
When they should say right to fire...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The rhetoric of the fortunate is also meant to conceal the true meaning. Usually by flipping it on its head.
The phrase Right to work is derived from § 164 (off the top of my head) of the Labor Relations act of 1947, known generally as TAFT HARTLEY, that ghastly Republican revision of the Wagner Act of 1935.
The phrase really means, Right to Work without viable union guarantee or safeguards.
The fortunate are in a never ending campaign against the unfortunate, to dominate through deception or outright intimidation.
That is the Right they claim.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
"What are your masses but mud to be ground underfoot,fuel to be burned for those who deserve it?" nice,don't you think?
....the fools do not realize,a population that can ,..... not paticipate .............in the 'economy'...,can not keep it viable!..........."we are listening,.......and we're not blind.,......this is your life....this is your time."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FMhnl0__Vo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRwtJNnN85U&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
1 in 8 American workers have been bullied on the job. That's 37% of the workforce. (Source: WBI Zogby 2007 Workplace Survey) The recession has empowered bullies. Employers are definitely taking advantage of the situation to terrorize workers.
You can find out more information at the Workplace Bullying Institute. This includes a blog with news and resources for targets of bullying. Go to the WBI Forum and read for yourself the stories of targets.
http://workplacebullying.org/
The WBI's legislative campaign made significant progress this year. New York state passed the Healthy Workplace Bill. But so powerful is the business lobby, the bill was placed on hold in the NY Labor Assembly Committee at the request of the state's governor. Next year it can go further than that with grass roots support.
There will also be a new WBI Zogby survey for this year.
Workplace bullying is a serious problem. It's not the stereotype, school yard bullying we're talking about here. Rather, this is the adult world's counterpart - with the equal sophistication you would expect from an adult. Targets are most often the top performers who are bullied for this reason only. It may be a totally new experiece that catches them off-guard. They are a threat to bosses who use power to bully instead of physical dominance (although that happens a lot as well in the military or other paramilitary organizations, hence the problem of hazing). Coworkers bully too, and can gang up on one person targeted for firing through manipulative uses of company protocols. Some of the examples the WBI sees border on stalking as the target is bullied by coworkers or bosses outside the workplace. Results from going through an unnecessary, unjust and often traumatic experience are as can be expected. It is very common for someone to end up on disability with heart problems, PTSD, depression, you name it. The abuses they go through are so extreme.
Watch for a movie called Murder By Proxy, about the first incident of someone "Going Postal" in America. The bully bosses targeted a kick-boxer, tough guy. He was chosen to make an example to the other letter carriers that management was in charge, the employees were nothing and that it could happen to all of them. Indiscriminately and without cause. Power of management was absolute.
What happened at the US postal service after it was privatized is endemic of the corporate mentality that says cutting costs to the point of abusing employees is okay, so long as you make a profit.
Now, employer mistreatment is a major problem for the working class. The most extreme example recently being the employees at BP's Deepwater rig who feared retaliation for bringing safety concerns to management. Such fear that they would go so far as to sabotage parts of the rig or endanger themselves to comply with company wishes. They died because a bully put their lives second to profit. They died over the fear of having their sole livlihood deprived during a recession for not doing as directed. NO MATTER THE COSTS.
Passing the Healthy Workplace Bill is just the first step in giving employees legal recourse when their employer abuses them. If you want to shame these horrible inhuman bastards, Susie, this is how to start. Remember these guys only care about threats to their pocketbook.
They are sociopaths. Rachel Maddow is right; they're not embarrassed or ashamed.
If you examine the provisions of this bill the "benefits to employers" are just that but the "benefits to employees" are wothless. Either they already exist in law or shifts the burden to the offending employee (the bully) and relieves the company of at least part of the responsibility to make redress. Making workers pay for their own attorneys relieves them of any protection at all. Most will not be able to afford it. See for yourself: http://www.healthyworkplacebill.org/bill.php
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Workplace bullying is not illegal in the United States. Only protected classes such as race discrimination or sexual harassment are covered currently. I'm familiar with the bill. From my experience here you would have chimed in like this no matter what the bill's contents were. But if you feel so strongly against it please contact the authors of the HWB with feedback.
how making an employee secure their own legal counsel is at all helpful. I note the list of things the bill does for employers is longer than the putative list of things it does for employees. Supposedly it does this: "Provides an avenue for legal redress for health harming cruelty at work." It would be a very narrow avenue indeed since it seems the onus would be on the employee to establish the link between their health problems and bullying and that won't be an easy bar to jump. I further note that it keeps state agencies out of enforcement. I think that it is interesting that they would pitch that as an advantage.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
and you can get concrete proof that will stand up in a tribunal or court, declare yourself LGBT of some sort and sue them til the pips squeak.
Special case protection laws can be worked by anybody if you are clever.
I don't think it is all wait and see. I think there is something to that John Galt syndrome stuff. Revolt until the elections go your way. It also affects small business. From my own hometown newspaper today-
http://www.whig.com/story/news/tax-extension
"every cloud is silver liney"
I work in a job that depends on federal funding. Hopefully, I'll know by Friday if I still have a job or not.
They've already delayed announcing 3 times. We were supposed to know in early June.
We're gonna be humpin' to create a new budget...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_anbEJsr6s
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
but how does anyone plan to force companies to hire before they want to do so?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyxYdj9dGcI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhe3vSe-mmw&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
If nobody has a job or decent wages, who's gonna buy the crap they peddle?
And then they go for bailouts at our expense...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Who owns the majority of the MSM ? There is your answer . Does anyone here believe that the Corporations , Wall Street and the banks want Obama and the Dems to succeed , remain in power / in control ?
The old companies pulling this crap are going to go out of existence. New companies who value employees will get the employees who value them. I see new banks forming. New style communication companies, health care...everything. They will be formed and are forming already because the consumer as well as the employee are getting sick of being had at every turn.
Jeanne
will buy their products and services if their customers are either out of a job or can't afford them?
And this isn't just the U.S., it's practically global. Credit is like trying to get blood out of a stone, no one can tap into their home equity anymore, and wages have gone down. Who do they think is gonna buy this stuff?
Geez, even Henry Ford, that outright fascist, knew he had to pay his employees enough to buy the cars they were making!
The banks ran out of fraudulent fractional money to lend out. Industry stagnated or collapsed.
They deserve the blame. They've become too gullible and lacking in backbone to stand up for themselves and they swallow every line of bullshit without questioning anything.
My employer cut everyone's hours to 32 a week, overtime is a two strikes you're out offense. All part-timers were shown the door. Even with fewer people, they still expect us to achieve historic new numbers.
The expectations have increased as well as new procedures to cut costs. Customers be damned, workers be damned, move that product!
Bonuses were just announced for the high end managers and vice-presidents. The goon who came up with the payroll cuts got an extra slice of pie.
Our benefits go away if we drop below 32 hrs/week. No pay raises in the last two years and none expected for the next two.
Remember that 24 hr copy place that was so cool? Well, it ain't no more.
The aim of a society is to benefit its people, not to maximize profits.
So here is the reality of the situation: A group of people – some of whom may be entirely innocent – suffer for the actions of a few. The problem is that poor residents of America that have little economic wherewithal will make heroes (Robin Hood Syndrome) out of those who can uplift their situation; make their life better. Whether that is done from ill-gotten gains or not is often a secondary consideration, if it is one at all. Ideally, not from ill-gotten gains but from taxing the rich and uplifting the poor. Is society the hero we would like to uplift our people from the tyranny of corporate greed? Or is our government to abate the shameless economically cloistered employers?
The Progressive Politics of Happiness
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/06/10-11
Excerpt: In time, they began to measure nine domains that affect happiness:
Psychological well-being or mental health
Physical health
Time or Work-life balance
Education
Cultural vitality and expression
Social connection and relationships
Environmental quality and access to nature
Quality of governance…
And finally…finally…
Material well-being.
Nearly a hundred years ago, when thousands of women left the dismal textile mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts, to demand a better life, they carried banners which read:
WE WANT BREAD AND ROSES TOO. Bread and roses were the twin goals of the old labor movement; higher wages to buy the bread; shorter working hours to smell the roses.
Somehow we’ve come to focus solely on the bread and we’ve left the roses to wither. It’s time to water them again.
Every democrat needs to campaign on this:
"The wealthy are always demanding tax cuts is "because we create jobs." Uh, sorry, pal. When you're the only people left with cash, there's no one else left to tax."
T.S. Eliot's line "We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men"
"We are a nation that shouts at a microwave oven to hurry up."
...time is more valuable than toys, and that our relentless quest for the latest stuff is breeding sick individuals and sick societies.
Affluenza
http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/
EBAY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAeb3Fl85yI
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