Restoring the Promise of the American Dream
The promise of America is that if you work hard, you will be rewarded. You will be able to provide for your family, own a decent home, afford quality health care, and enjoy a secure retirement. It is that promise that built a thriving middle class. It is the American Dream, and it has inspired generations of women and men who helped make this country great.
Today we are living through a period of profound economic change. We have new ways of communicating, new methods of production, new means of generating wealth, new global competition. And while many of the ways we used to do business have changed, the American Dream has not.
Today, in 2007, that dream is at risk. We stand at a moment of unprecedented economic opportunity, but that opportunity is not being extended to all. Tens of millions of Americans are working harder than ever just to stay afloat. The latest Census Bureau report shows that wages are dropping and more people lack health insurance.
On the other hand, a handful of incredibly wealthy people are prospering beyond all comprehension. Private equity CEOs are making on average more than $650 million -- or more than 22,000 times what the average American worker brings in. Put another way, it takes the average American worker one full year to make what a wealthy buyout CEO makes in only ten minutes.
The buyout industry and the big banks are cutting the heart out of the American economy. Global buyout corporation the Carlyle Group is taking over one of the nation's largest nursing home chains, ManorCare. As part of the deal, ManorCare's CEO Paul Ormond will personally profit up to $186 million dollars, money that could have gone to hire more nursing home aides to care for our loved ones. Even worse, ManorCare will pay no corporate taxes while it is owned by Carlyle. The lost federal, state and local tax revenues over the next five years? More than $600 million. There's a credit crunch on, and massive lenders like Bank of America are using their size and market dominance to run up fees and credit card rates, deny loans to working families and minority communities, and lay off workers.
This Labor Day, a greater percentage of the economy is going to profits than to wages, and a majority of parents believe their children will be worse off economically. Tens of millions of people in the U.S. are working harder than ever before, but they're still falling behind.
We are at a crucial moment, a moment that makes us ask what kind of country we want to be.
The answer to that question must include more workers uniting in unions -- the labor movement. Unions have always been the best anti-poverty, best pro-health care, best pro-family program around. Unions have done more to help working people experience economic success than any other program.
This week, a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Inclusion showed that workers in the lowest-paying jobs make about 16 percent more when they are members of a union, and they are 25 percent more likely to have health insurance or a pension plan.
Now, more than ever, as new technologies and new ways of thinking about efficiency have reduced workers to a line item on a balance sheet, unions are not only relevant -- we are indispensable.
As the economic landscape has shifted, the labor movement has needed to adapt to these new realities. I am proud to report that the 1.9 million workers united in SEIU stand at the forefront of the evolving labor movement. In recent years we have pioneered new models of organizing, like uniting workers in nontraditional employment situations. Since 1999, 400,000 home care workers have changed state laws throughout the country to give them the freedom to unite in a union.
We have established new relationships with employers who are willing to reward work, while continuing to hold accountable those who are not. We are acting on new ways to secure health care and retirement security that reflect rather than deny the new economic reality.
The bottom line is this: the American economy is not a zero-sum game. There is no good moral or economic reason why all workers cannot or should not share in the success and prosperity they helped create. We need to restore the promise of the American Dream. And that means choosing what kind of country we want to be.
-Andy Stern, President, Service Employees International Union
Also from SEIU this Labor Day, check out Cincinnati janitor Craig Jones' "Just Work" blog about turning minimum wages into livable wages.
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About SEIU: The 1.9 million-member SEIU is the fastest-growing union in North America. SEIU members are winning better wages, health care, and more secure jobs for our communities, while uniting their strength with their counterparts around the world to help ensure that workers, not just corporations and CEOs, benefit from today's global economy.
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What you are aptly discribing is an active calculated War upon the General population of this country. It is a battle of dominance. It is Capitalism that has been prostituted to its final degree, which has resulted in Fascism. It has been crafted and repackaged and sold to the World as American, but in reality is Fascism. Americans need to organize in their subvisions, neighborhoods and small towns. We need to push back on all fronts of domination and start rejecting the fear tactics that permeate our psychi that is the primary source used perpetuate our submission. It is time to realize that 297,000,000+ Americans do not need Wall Street or any government entities that attack our own civil liberties or threaten our existence with credit solutions that only enslave us. They have demonstrably aligned against the common citizen.
You are so right, spook. We're a facist nation - this is so very sad. I have actually cried- really cried- over what has happened to our once beautiful democracy. I cried because I. unlike them, have a true love of my country. I have
been trying to think of ways to get involved and effect changes. Your suggestions are really
good. One problem - long hard work hrs - being really tired. Still I will try.
PS you're right about the fear - I'm afraid to write a letter to the editor of my local paper - a paper on L.I. which gets more facist every day. We must have our name & town printed I'm afraid my employer will see it. I feel safer in the blogs.
So please tell me how the CEO will benefit anyone by supporting production at higher costs here in the US while a competing product is produced in a lower cost nation (assume by a foreign corporation) and in a global 6 billion person market the product built here can not compete (nor can it compete here as most will go to Wal Mart and by the foreign built product) so the company just goes bankrupt. I'm not saying anything I enjoy saying I am just expresing a harsh but logical reality and am open to hearing dissenting logical opinions. As for the great US utopia of the past it was very short lived post World War 2. Prior to thatit was basically Upton Sinclairs the Jungle and 100 years ago you would have been going into your golden years at 40. not much of a Utopia. As for democracy itself. Hopefully that gets restored after this idiot leaves office.
In Tampa public libraries the county is censoring the internet..
Fascists always sell their wares using the rationale of ... "protecting" us.
WAKE UP AMERICA NOW!!! Before it is too late. We're one Sept. 11th away from having Boots in our homes... Know what I mean?
"Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."
- Hermann Goering
Spook-
Don't know if you remember the Labor Movement of the 30's. My Dad was an organizer, beaten many time by the police and the military, which were used as a private Army by the owners. Unconstitutional, of course, and today we have Blackwater. What an advancement for society.
My answer--
Organize, educate, resist.
Our future depends on it.
Law
Send this letter to the Republican Party today!
Copy and paste the letter below and email it directly to gop.comp.com the Republican Party and get many others to send this letter. Thank you. Drop me a message to dmocrats.o
Hello
Get your Republican party to end the war in Iraq, with Bush and Cheney resigning, and until you do we stop buying televisions, refrigerators, stoves, ovens, dishwashers, dvd players, stereo equipment, light bulbs from one of your party's major contributors and War contractors General Electric Corporation ( 203 373 2211 ) who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to enact HR 676 Single payer universal health care into law and repeal Medicare Part D and place the prescription drug benefit in Medicare Part B covering 80 percent of all medication with no extra premiums, no extra deductibles, no means tests, no coverage gaps, and remove the means test for Medicare Part B and until you do, we will not buy consumer products and prescription drugs from Rite Aid which gives money to the GOP, who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to enact a $10 an hour minimum wage, and until you do, we will not go to the following restaurants and GOP contributors Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Dominos Pizza who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to enact into law Universal vote by mail with paper ballots counted by civil servants with civil servants registering voters and keeping track of registrations, and until you do, we will not buy any GOP contributor Dell computers or monitors or go to the following restaurants and GOP contributors Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Dominos Pizza who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
WWWoD, THANK YOU for publishing those corporate names - I go to several of these restaurants but will not from now on go there. I still do not buy Hormel, Coors or Coca Cola due to their destruction of unions. Coca Cola still has a very, very small faction who are organized but they are a disempowered group.
I don't know about anyone else but I'm tired of being labeled a "consumerist" and then I'm a "laborer" with no rights. The only way to get the attention of the selfish is to hit their profits. Since I'm tired of thing-acquiring any way, this should not be terribly hard. Some things are needed of course, but it will help to be careful where they're purchased. Also, I'll email and re-email your letter.
And who gets hurt first, The Olive Garden or the waiter, cook, hostess, busboy, linen cleaning services, food suppliers at the Olive Garden?
I guess an equal argument could be made to go there and just tip better thus changing the distribution of the overall revenue the facility receives from you towards the employees.
You might want to add Walmart to your list. They are also major contributors to the Republican Party.
Andy,
I don't entirely agree with you. I believe that unions actually cause inflation and price increases. You are fairly unrealistic in even thinking that CEO's will give up one dollar of personal profits. That's not going to happen.
Also, unions fighting for and getting health care benefits causes not only more profits for the HMO's, but also drives up costs for everyone who doesn't have those benefits. Unions had their time 'in the sun' and did a wonderful job helping to 'grow' America. But the American economy is now stagnating. Read: no more pie slices to go around.
What has to happen now is a massive shift in tax laws, national health care, and stop spending on wars.
Passing the buck has to stop at some point. The middle class and poor have no more money.
Woof,
You say, "You are fairly unrealistic in even thinking that CEO's will give up one dollar of personal profits. That's not going to happen."
In a purely logical world, you MAY be wrong.
Bear with me....
Anthropologists say that the first invention took around a million years to “invent”. (Opinions vary.) It was a rock used as a tool.
The second invention only took about half as long. A rock attached to a stick.
From that point on the geometric progression of developing ideas has been staggering. NOTHING could exist, or be invented, without EVERY idea proceeding it. Yes, there are original inventions. But no inventions created completely outside of the society and social structure that facilitated and nurtured its growth.
In that context, I’m always amused by those who wish only to TAKE from society, claiming that they accomplished everything ON THEIR OWN.
Yeah. Sure. And every single humanoid to ever live had no part in the social structure that made us who we are (for better or worse) to this day? Don't know about you, but I'm sceptical of virgin birth.
No. We ALL owe a debt (in some form) to everyone on the planet, or has ever BEEN on the planet. In turn, they will owe a debt to us.
We ALL, even CEOs, stand on the shoulders of giants. And we owe a mighty price for that lofty real estate.
Thank you.
Nailed it! No one makes millions alone on a desert island!
Is this an argument for unions or against patents or what?
It's getting harder and harder to construct a rational argument for capitalism every day. I admit that without capitalism, we probably couldn't have grown to become the world superpower. But here we are, with our outrageous per-capita GDP and staggering economic inequality, and we still have an economic system tuned for explosive growth and consolidation of wealth.
The American dream has become the American treadmill. This is the only nation in the world where you can pull in $100K/year and worry about financial security. There are millionaires in Silicon Valley that can't afford to live near their workplace.
Success in America means you get to run on a fancier treadmill. The Silicon Valley treadmill might offer substantially more bells and whistles than the Wal-Mart treadmill, but the feeling of insecurity is remarkably similar. The challenges are the same, only the numbers are much bigger, which can actually intensify the stress.
We do this in the name of efficiency. Whatever labor we can't get from automation we squeeze out of fewer and cheaper workers. But what do we stand to gain from this efficiency? If there's anything that Americans don't need, it's more stuff. We have tons of stuff but no money to pay for it all.
I submit that global capitalism results in an economy where only a small fraction of the global workforce is required to fulfill worldwide demand for goods and services, which is in turn reduced by unemployment. The rest of us can just starve or something.
The strange part is that the depopulation will start in developed nations with the lowest birth rates. Like America. Low standards are good for business, and developing nations will compete to provide the cheapest workforce.
In a generation or two, when it becomes nearly impossible to find a job in America outside of food, health, and security services, at least we'll have tons of stuff on the market. If only we could afford it.
Gotta love ya, Yellow. You hit the nail on the head.
Thanks..
Woof...you
'WEAKENING OF THE UNIONS" SAYS IT ALL....AS FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS OF AMERICA...
Unions won't work anymore. If we can manage a unionist movement in America, businesses will just look overseas for their labor supply. Unions only work when businesses have no choice but to rely on local labor. Globalization makes it possible to source labor from wherever it happens to be cheapest.
Investors demand a certain rate of growth, around 7-10%, and this is the rate at which labor will move from America to places where it is cheaper. Only a law against this sort of practice can protect American workers. Unions would likely accelerate the inevitable.
the rise & fall of the middle class correlates directly with the rise & fall of the trade unions.
Quantify how unions have contributed to "inflation and price increases.
IMO I think what must be recognized is that whether you like it or not we are now forced to play on a global scale and labor (skilled and unskilled) has become a commodity that we can not dictate as we once could. As for pointing at a handful of fund managers whose compensation is rediculous I think that serves no purpose, they have few/no employees and are paid a percentage on an enormous amount of assets under management, unless you focus on the fact that they are very absurdly allowed to take 60% of their returns for tax purposes) as long term capital gains. The game has changed completely. Our standard of living that we have become accustomed to believing we are entitled to will constantly be eroded by those countries trying to improve theirs, unless we learn to be more competitive and invest as a nation properly. Period!
Inflation is caused by the Federal Reserve Bank (FED) lending Billions of printed bogus green paper to the President to spend on the Iraq Wars per month. These billions per month are spent in foreign countries primarily to foreign workers and dilutes the value of the American dollar which euphemistically is called Inflation instead of 'Dilution'. Increased Wages for Americans who spend their wages in America do not cause inflation, that's a fallacy spread by corporations. Again, it is the ten billions per month borrowed from the Fed, the financier of all wars, that dilute the American dollar. Since 2000 the Bush Administrating has borrowed $3 TRILLION bogus US green backs from the Fed that has diluted the American dollar by 33% in less than seven years. It's the Wars that cause inflation, raising wages is creating real wealth from real human labor. And stimulates American businesses. Will some 101 economist please write a book on this?
I couldn't agree with you more! Don't forget, what's in it for Andy? He has $$$ on his mind in running the SEIU! Get with it Andy....we see through you.
Thankfully, organized labor is beginning to see the error of their ways in trying to play both sides of the fence.
Just in... John Edwards receives endorsement from the United Steel Workers and the United Mine Workers.
John Edwards will not negotiate.
Go John Edwards... We've got plenty of time to do this. John Edwards the candidate for Middle America!
John Edwards got his money attacking doctors and getting gigantic settlements by play-acting sad stories before juries who awarded same gigantic settlements, bankrupting said doctors and hospitals forcing huge losses upon other doctors and hospitals; helping other such lawyers do the same: making healthcare greatly more expensive for all the rest of us. He got all that money to keep fooling the rest of us with if we all just will keep believing his sad stories.
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