Greenspan Says Solution to Inequality is to Lower U.S. Wages
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has been in the news lately trying to pretend he's had nothing to do with the slow-motion economic meltdown America is currently experiencing in the housing, job and labor market. But he is still the same old Alan Greenspan -- the one who opposes the minimum wage, and wants to drive wages in general into the ground. In fact, he admitted as much in a recent interview on Democracy Now!.
At about 39 minutes into this clip, you can hear him say this:
"We ought to be opening up our borders to skilled labor from all parts of the world because if we were to do that we would increase the supply of skilled workers that our schools have been unable to create and as a consequence of that we would lower the average wage of skills and reduce the degree of income inequality in this country."
Beyond his dishonest trumpeting of the Great Education Myth, notice that Greenspan's solution to economic inequality in America is to drive down the wages of the dwindling number of good-paying jobs that remain, by importing more foreign workers who have no basic rights to bargain for good wages, and who are thus paid much less than American workers in the same jobs.
Alan Greenspan: One of the truly great class warriors of his time.
(h/t Progressive Geek)
Cross-posted from Working Assets
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
We have added tens of thousands of low paying, no benefit jobs to the economy.
Also the government NEVER lies or exaggerates any figures or statistics for its benefits.
The Founding Fathers were all about trust and faith in your fearless leaders.
That's sort of a confusing concept. If the working classes are driven into the ground, who's going to purchase the goods and services that make the rich rich? If they starve us out of existence who will wait on them at their fancy restaurants, clean their palaces, educate their children, drive the trucks that deliver their goodies, sell their obnoxious brats Happy Meals, give their dogs yearly vaccines, answer the phone when they want a vacation or have a question about a bill?
Does Mr. Greenspan think the rich will actually do for themselves?
I personally am one of those who is going to lose my house soon, and what will the fat cat mortgate company do with it? They've already got a boatload of repossessed houses they can't move because working people can't afford them.
Well, like I like to say "The flowers hardly notice the dirt that nourishes them." Workers are the dirt and Mr. Greenspan and his cronies are the flowers. Without us they'd wither and die, but they're too stupid and greedy to figure it out.
Yeah the economy is great.
A guy drove through our neighborhood today trying to sell burritos out of his wreck of a car to residents doing their yard upkeep.
What is sickening is we, the taxpayer, are paying Alan Greenspan a 6 figure pension.
Thats right Greenspan cap personal income at 5 million dollars and the money problems go away for the whole nation not just the few grossly overpaid corporate executives and there would be thousands more millionaires in the nation. Of course I know that the "S man" just wants to take from those who have little and give to those who have too much and live irresponsibly on the backs of others in order to perpetuate the phony view that somehow because your daddy had no money you and your children will ALWAYS be poor slaves and serfs and the few that inherit wealth will always be able to exploit your children's children.
Corporate managers no longer manage their companies for the benefit of the investors but their own bloated salaries. Why this looting of corporations by managers is not a crime is beyond me. Corporations no longer add value to the economy - they subtract value to the detriment of society. They can continue to starve the host/company just so long before they succeed in killing it.
Of course the right course is to tax the very top:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2316.shtml
"Slap a securities transfer tax on Wall Street
With the New York Stock Exchange churning over 2.5 billion shares per day, and with the VIX volatility index at an all-time high, how might markets be cooled down? One socially useful way to do this would be the Securities Transfer Tax or Tobin tax, a levy of about 1 percent on the total turnover of securities markets -- stocks, bonds, futures, options, derivatives, Treasuries, foreign exchange, and other paper property titles -- paid by the seller on each transaction. It is named after Professor James Tobin of Yale University, who originated this idea as a way to discourage rampant speculation in currency markets. It would be eminently fair.
Right now the financiers who send trillions of dollars rushing through the markets every day all get an absolutely free ride. By contrast, working people who need to buy clothing, shoes, and school supplies in many states have to pay the odious and regressive sales tax, second only to the ultra-regressive poll tax as the worst tax ever devised. In Maryland the sales tax is 5 percent, but groceries are exempt. In Virginia, there is a 7 percent sales tax, and supermarket checkouts are included. In California the sales tax is often 7.75 percent. If working people have to pay these taxes, why cannot finance oligarchs pay a mere 1 percent on their speculative activity?
Get rid of all income taxes. Social security taxes have to go as well. Perhaps all taxes except the transfer tax could be history.
Face it the top heavy portion of the market should return its fair share of social responsibility. CAFRs should also be brought into the picture as revenue. The problem is that there is too much economic activity with all our money in too few hands.
Clearly the fight is freedom versus tyranny, not the reverse. It is not left gatekeepers versus right gatekeepers, both well censored.
My first indication that Alan Greenspan was an empty suit was when Senator after Senator and Congressman after Congressman was extolling him as our economic messiah during the hearings on his reappointment when Clinton was president. The groveling at his feet by Senators Schumer and McCain almost made me ill. The reason for this canonization of Greenspan was the robust economy that the Clinton administration was experiencing before the dot.com bust sent us into recession.
Now forgive me for not knowing her name, but Greenspan had an assistant at the Fed who was the real brains behind Greenspan's success. When she left in the year 2000, everything Greenspan did was a disaster. Without her expertise he was shown up to be the phony we all now know he was.
No one has a crystal ball. As soon as you start treating someone like their you know what doesn't stink, and they start believing it themselves, it is time to get a new empty suit.
Janet Yellen?
And lets not forget the orgy of capitalism that Iraq is, the screwing of the American treasury, or should I say "gang-rape". I honestly believe that is the reason for the Iraq war, to get greedy hands on all the money they could carry away in the backs of trucks, and then hide in a nearby international bank, far from the prying eyes of any regulatory agency. Talk about pigs at the trough. Yet again disgusting behavior from our so-called leaders.
They are so scared of any type or form of socialism in our society that they would rather bankrupt the nation to ensure that it does not happen. Meanwhile as a result of these policies interest rates will go through the roof and more Americans will go into poverty, but, the all-mighty corporation will do well, that is all that really matters. Pathetic! Shortsighted! Just plain 'ole evil!
Cynicalintell: You've described exactly what the Republicans/Neocons have done. They've long hated any kind of social programs and so their plan was/is/has been/will be to deny the federal government government any money with which to attend to the needs of the people. To achieve that end they had to first empty the Treasury (remember the tax cuts and the phrase, "it's your money!") But they weren't content with that they then had to put the nation in a debt so deep that it couldn't financially put any social programs into being. So what did they do? They lied us into the current war. And what is it--$12 billion a week is being spent in Iraq? It's all borrowed money.
Of course gaining control of Iraqi oil also figured into their evil calculations.
Another part of their calculations was what Naomi Klein calls disaster capitalism. Katrina is a perfect example of that. Only Haley Barbour, Republican Governor of Mississippi, and his buddies are getting rich off the money appropriated to help Katrina refugees. Presently Bushco are putting pressure on the Iraqi government and Parliament to pass the infamous Hydrocarbon Law (written by oil company lawyers) which will give oil companies control of about 80 percent of the country's oil. The Iraqis are told that, "you either pass the Law or you don't get any reconstruction funds." How about that? Every disaster is just another way for the Republicans to enrich themselves, at the country's expense.
Something else said by 'ole Greenspan that I thought was very informative regarding right-wing tax/domestic policy, the reason greenspan supported the bushco taxcuts were because of a fear that we would develop too large a surplus and pay off all our debts. A FEAR! They wish to keep us in debt! The reason? They were afraid that at some point-in-time we would pay off the debts and then start to buy necessary infrastructure such as corporations to work for the American people. CRAZY! Scared of surpluses because of what we (Americans) might do with it. Amazing, those who spew fiscal responsibility do not wish to pay the debt. But, at least we have a little bit of truth as to their logic, or lack of.
Having attended a very special conference in 1980 where Bucky Fully spoke, I remembered that he knew my family in the early 1940s.
I had a chance to talk with him for a moment, telling him I had read Synergetics 1&2. "You liked reading it?" he asked, and I replied "yes very much." I suppose the division of labor might not allow much comparison of human beings, since they are in different fields.
It is my hope however to agree with Bucky on his economic views far in preference to those of Alan Greenspan.
I knew Buckminster Fuller, Buckminster Fuller was a friend of mine, Greenspan is no Buckminster Fuller.
Greenspan: Right wing pig. Race to the bottom nihilist. Irrational exhibitionist.
Watch, he will next say that slavery was a good thing, and desirable for a capitalist system.
Damn! Michael Medved beat him to it!
Greenspan can always advocate for child labor/sex shops.
Damn! Tom Delay has precedence on that!
Oh well, the old liar is still bedding Andrea Mitchell.
Damn! Must be blindfolded or done in the dark.
Instead of trying to lower wages, we should be trying to pass an International Minimum Wage so it is more aligned with American wages. Poor people everywhere should not be forced to be slaves for the rich, no matter where everyone lives. American companies who have workplaces abroad, should be mandated to pay the American Standard to their foreign workers. Oh, the glories of Globalization!
BRAVO!!
Amen!
I say the solution is to kill the rich. It has the same validity.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
