WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON
I’m a product of the public education system in this country before it got dumbed down from 1980 forward. I mention this because prior to the 80s we learned that “united we stand, divided we fall” and since 1980 when that myth about the rugged American individual resurfaced in our lexicon our education system has retooled itself to breed conformity with standardized tests rather than educate the public about our history.
In this country’s recorded history there were bloody riots between workers and the state militias and state police who provided the coercive force for big business against labor in the struggle for the American workers to have the 8 hour day, child labor laws, a living wage, job security and a strong middle class.
In referring to the recent labor unrest the right wing media at Fox and Republican Radio the storyline is that public unions are responsible for the demonstrations which occasionally have gotten ugly and threaten social stability in France. The facts ignored are that in France the demonstrations are being carried out by public sector unions and private sector unions. In addition 70 percent of the French public supports the union position.
Furthermore, the riots in France are occurring for the same reasons that exist here – governments are broke but support tax cuts for big business and the wealthy which are to be financed by slashing spending on social programs. The government in France can’t afford to pay benefits at age 60 so they’ll raise the age to 62 in order to afford those tax cuts for the wealthy. In the U.S. raising the retirement age to 69 is one of several proposals to reduce our deficit and more importantly insure tax cuts for the rich.
One difference though is that in France labor unites for a common purpose and takes to the streets with overwhelming public support while in America workers roll over because fewer workers belong to unions and among those who belong to a union there is no union solidarity.
In addition the American public has been conditioned to be anti-union reinforced by the corporate message of big business which has been repeated on a daily basis ad nauseam since 1980 – unions i.e. workers organized for a better standard of living are bad for the business profit margins when workers demand more pay and more benefits.
It isn’t that difficult to understand that having 20 people applying for every job gives business the opportunity to decrease wages. “united we stand, divided we fall” the American worker buys the bullshit that competition is good too dumbed down to realize who it’s good for let alone entertaining the notion that cooperation might be a better way
to attain the American dream. Competition in a free market capitalist system such as ours breeds the contempt of “I got mine, fuck everybody else.”
Furthermore it shouldn’t go unnoticed that it was Ronald Reagan who made it popular to be anti-union in this country. After 30 years Ronald Reagan’s trickle down economics has proven that the wealthy kept most of the money, the jobs they created went overseas at the expense of the American worker, and the lack of government regulation and/or oversight during the Bush Administration led the American economy and by extension the global economy to the verge of collapse.
Today in corporate America the politicians of both major political parties talk about raising the retirement age, decreasing benefits and even proposing to privatize Social Security and the American worker is silent. In this country workers are too divided and too dumbed down to know that by voting for either of the two major political parties they are giving their consent to be governed by a political system which is up for sale to the highest bidder that represents the interests of the few at the expense of the many. So much for that “home of the brave” bravado.
The biggest difference however is that in France as in most other European countries workers can unite in a common interest while in America workers participate in of their own demise by voting for politicians who do the bidding for their corporate masters to legislate approval of corporations to ship American jobs overseas without fear of any financial accountability, open up more tax loopholes for those who currently pay less taxes proportionally, insure the continuation of today’s corporations that don’t even pay a dime in taxes or better yet even get tax breaks in some cases and removing any and all regulations of the free market so that financial risks can be taken, obscene profits can be made and when it all falls down the safety net of a bailout will be enacted by their representatives in the people’s Congress.
The irony is that while workers should be angry at a government that’s bought and paid for by big business many of those same workers are willing to “vote them out” only to replace them with the same political party that waged a war in Iraq claiming it would “pay for itself” and passed tax cuts for the wealthy while claiming that they would create jobs for the American worker so dumbed down they just gave to consent for more of the same.
Thanks to the Supreme Court that gave us Citizens United corporations did and will be buying politicians outright who will legislate on behalf of those multi national corporations in order to insure their taxes aren’t cut, their business is conducted unfettered by regulation and their profits can be increased by shipping jobs overseas for cheaper labor while convincing the American voter that this same failed ideology that was responsible for our financial collapse in 2008 is now going to act in the best interest of the middle-class. All made possible by a people too dumbed down to understand that they only get to choose from the top two fund raising political parties to maintain the status quo where the rich are getting richer and the rest of us are getting poorer.
The labor unrest remains in France even though the government passed legislation to raise the retirement age it certainly wasn’t due to the lack of effort on the part of organized labor. The struggle continues between those who have an insatiable desire to accumulate wealth and those who just want a better standard of living one in which they can afford the mortgage or the rent, never want for food nor fear of losing it all due to ill health and be provided an equal opportunity to succeed in the pursuit of happiness.
The labor unrest has spread to Great Britain where 500,000 public employees are expected to lose their jobs, their income and their ability to provide. Meanwhile student tuition is being raised on most who will no longer afford to be educated. The reasons mirror those of France and the U.S. A consumer based society driven by the free market of capitalism is widening the gap between the rich and the rest of us worldwide on a path we’ve been down before unless we stop the madness of a system that profit’s the few at the expense of the many.
President Obama’s Deficit Reduction Commission recently released some proposals such as raising the retirement age, decreasing retirement benefits, and doing away with the mortgage tax credit. In addition those Bush tax cuts which only increased the wealth of the already rich and created jobs abroad but not at home are set to expire as are unemployment benefits for millions of Americans begging the question: is the labor unrest in Europe headed for our shores?
These are some of the realities that exist in America today:
At a poverty rate of 14.3 percent we now have the highest number of people living in poverty in over 50 years.
One in five children and one in ten senior citizens is poor.
One in every six workers is unemployed or underemployed placing the real unemployment rate over 17 percent.
Over three and a half million people are homeless and one third of those are children.
Nearly 3 million people received a foreclosure notice and one in four home owners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
Income disparity in the U.S. today is now as bad as it was at the end of the 1920s and right before the great .depression.
Since Ronald Reagan took office his trickle down economics resulted in over 90 percent of total income growth going to the top 10 percent leaving 9 percent to be shared by the bottom 90 percent resulting in he greatest redistribution of income in our history that didn’t receive any mention in the press.
When Reagan took office the average CEO earned $27.00 for every dollar paid to a typical worker and by the end of the Bush Administration that ratio had grown to $275 for every $1.
In addition, the U.S. today has the greatest inequality between the rich and the rest of us among all Western industrialized nations.
Finally one last fact – given all those facts without a strong labor movement there will be no organized unrest in this country where a dumbed down public cannot grasp the concept of “united we stand, divided we fall.” and unwittingly gives its consent to a political system that will only perpetuates the great divide between the rich and the rest of us by slashing social programs so that the rich can become richer and the rest of us become poorer.
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON!!!
