The talk among pundits and CEOs for
the last few months has been the mystery of unemployment numbers and
the “shortage” of workers, even though right-wing
politicians in various states have cut off the enhanced jobless
benefits that were added to regular unemployment checks during the
pandemic.
“Help
wanted” signs are in shop windows all over the country. Some
restaurants have even cut their schedules to four or five days,
because of a shortage of staff, both in the kitchen and the dining
rooms. Factories and warehouses are offering sign-on bonuses and
starting pay that a few years ago would have been surprisingly high,
say $20-$25 an hour. Still not a flurry of applicants.
Industrial
and labor experts tried to explain this strange situation by pointing
out that “it could be that the benefits that were being paid
during the Covid-19 pandemic were too high.” Some workers, they
said, were making more money by staying home and collecting regular
jobless benefits with the pandemic benefit on top of that. The
experts speculated that Americans were saying, “Why work when
we can make more money by staying home? Could be, but that only
explains part of it.
Robert
Reich, U.S. labor secretary in the Clinton Administration, thinks he
has an answer. He said recently: “What’s really happening
is more accurately described as a living-wage shortage, a hazard pay
shortage, a childcare shortage, a paid sick leave shortage, and a
health care shortage.” And, that’s also a part of it, but
far from the whole thing.
Most
of the world’s big shots, that is those who rule the business
world, along with politicians from many countries, are meeting to
discuss what they determine are “global challenges.” An
annual meeting of that magnitude and importance should only meet in
one of the ritziest places on earth. Right? That would be Davos,
Switzerland, a world-class vacation, health, and recreation spot,
high in the Alps, and they call it the World Economic Forum. They are
not there just to relax and drink fine wine and eat from a gourmet
menu; rather, they are there to divvy up the world into its various
parts, especially the economic parts. One can imagine the discussions
in their private meetings and over casual after-dinner drinks about
the problems that governments and corporations face, deciding who
gets what and how much. Rulers of the biggest and richest countries
are in attendance each year and it’s possible that not all
countries’ leaders are invited. The world’s workers don’t
get to see the invitation list.
They
may be rich and powerful, however, in the past several years of their
forum, they have expressed some concern over the disparity in wealth
between themselves and the rest of the world. They should be
concerned, because that disparity is causing a major disruption in
the steady flow of riches into their coffers. It hasn’t stopped
yet, but they can see the flow slowing down, possibly even stopping,
and they’re worried. At least a little worried and they should
be. The U.S. oligarchs at Davos are somewhat concerned about what’s
happening in their own country because the U.S. economy is based on
consumption, on consumer spending. The country doesn’t produce
what it once did in industrial production and that’s clear from
the now routine sending of auto production to other nations. Steel?
Imported. Rubber? Imported. Appliances? Imported. Clothing? Imported.
Computer chips? Mostly imported. Devices that use the chips?
Imported. Much, if not most, of what is needed by average citizens to
function in a consumer society is imported. Thus, there is panic,
when cargo ships containing billions of dollars worth of consumer
goods are sitting off the coasts because the “supply chain”
has been interrupted.

The
so-called supply chain is the thing that keeps money flowing from the
people, to the few at the top of the economic ladder, the rich and
Corporate America. But these are the folks who have set this chain in
motion, moving production of virtually everything to lower-wage
countries, just to increase profits. It worked for a while, but to do
that, they had to convince a considerable proportion of Americans
that it was necessary for their well-being. In other words, necessary
for them to be able to keep on buying. They convinced wage-working
men and women that it was in their best interests to support capital
flight and to tolerate low wages and few benefits.
The
rich and their corporations managed to convince enough of them to
vote for a failed businessman for president, who proved that he was
incapable of governing, just as he was incapable of running a simple
business at a profit. That was Trump and it was he who said during
his presidential campaign that American workers made too much money,
that they weren’t “competitive” with workers from
other countries. These were workers who were making pennies a day and
he felt U.S. workers were losers because they could not compete with
those wages. Trump could not have illustrated more clearly that he
was, and is, out of touch with reality. Workers are held in contempt
by him.
U.S.
oligarchs set up the nation for an incompetent like Trump, who is
even more dangerous because of his narcissism and sociopathy. The
name is the Republican Party, but it is more of a Trump cult than a
political party now and Pandora’s box has been opened. Those
who study such things have described what has happened since January
6, the riot at the U.S. Capitol was just a part of a coup d’etat
that is underway. They said that a failed coup is only the precursor
to the real thing, which is likely to be coming in the 2024 election.
Trump’s big lie, that he was defeated by fraud in the 2020
election has resonated with his cult followers and the Republican
Party. All part of the coup.
Not
much can be done to change the course of events now, no matter how
much the rich and their minions want. Trump and his cult followers
were their useful idiots to soften up the people by propaganda,
advertising, misinformation, and disinformation. Now, though, the
former president has taken off on his own, reversing roles. He’s
calling their shots and they must have considerable fear.
It’s
clear that neither the rich and their corporations, nor Trump has any
respect for working people, but working men and women have something
that they don’t have: The ability to live on very little, to
survive on very little. If there is any money coming into the home,
they will find ways to live on it. That people are not flocking to
fill low-wage jobs in massive numbers all around the country has been
likened to a general strike. It is not a general strike, but it
resembles one. It would be better for all workers if they were
coordinated, such as in the union, but what they are doing is enough
to scare the powers that be. Now, starting wages are higher, there
are benefits offered, and there are even sign-on bonuses. Republicans
and others thought that taking away “enhanced”
unemployment benefits would get workers out of their homes and into
the workplace. It didn’t happen.
Reich
is likely right when he lists what there is a shortage of in the
workplace, but what employers and pundits and CEOs don’t
understand is that workers are tougher than they are. They have
survived abuse and oppression for generations and have come out a bit
tougher each time. This is crunch time. Workers are helping each
other to survive and they won’t give up the quest for decent
pay and benefits for themselves and their communities. It’s
almost as if they’re already in the union. They know what
solidarity means and they have been practicing it for several years,
just not in a union. It’s time they joined the union, to begin
to fight together. There is a vast array of powers against them, even
some of their own fellow workers (those who have swallowed Trump’s
lies), but even they have families to feed and house and clothe. When
the vast disparity in wealth and income is reduced, they might see
the wisdom of rejoining the workforce, perhaps this time, on a more
sustainable level.
BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John
Funiciello, is a former newspaper reporter and labor organizer, who
lives in the Mohawk Valley of New York State. In addition to labor
work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the
land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land
developers. Contact
Mr. Funiciello and BC.
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