I started a post yesterday, but realized that it's length would be ridiculous if I made all the critiques I intended, and thus this "series" of diaries has been born. Moreover, it seems fitting that I begin the series with "Labor" on Labor Day. Despite using it in the title yesterday and today, I never defined Corporate Stockholm Syndrome. I suppose it's many things.
For one, it refers to our complete obliviousness towards our comparatively poor working conditions. Most people have no idea that we are the only industrialized country that does not guarantee a minimum number of vacation weeks. When I tell people that all countries in the EU mandate 4 weeks of vacation time as a minimum, and that most countries offer 5 or 6, along with 8 to 13 mandatory federal holidays, and generous sick leave, they are shocked. Sweden, Germany, France, The Netherlands, and Norway all average 400-460 less annual working hours than we do. That's 10-plus weeks of full-time work!
Yet, when people are offered a job that promises an increase to 3 weeks of vacation time after, say, 5 years, they are THRILLED! We have been held captive in our job-mindset by corporations for so long that we no longer can conceive the world without their unfair and unreasonable standards.
As the health-care debate continues to swirl towards its (likely) spineless conclusion, I have to reiterate the hoarse cry, "Employment-based health-care should NOT BE THE GOAL!" I was greatly saddened when Obama concurred with the Baucus-weasels on the false idea that 'it would be too hard to remove the employee-sponsored health care' We punish small businesses and entrepreneurs by making it impossible to purchase DECENT health care (even if they CAN get SOMETHING), punish workers by usually allowing them only one "option" for health care based on their employer's choice, and continue our Social Darwinist snubbing of the unemployed. Even during the Great Recession, we look the other way at this problem! And no, a temporary subsidy on COBRA is not a solution. It's hardly even a band-aid.
The current system also encourages large corporations like Wal-Mart to under-employ people simply to avoid having to compensate them with health care. So those who work less (good) receive poor income AND poor benefits (very very bad).
This is why I like single-payer so much, but there will be much more on that seemingly Quixotic topic soon. Typing that sentence hurt. IT SHOULD NOT BE A HOPELESS QUEST! Arrgh.
Back to Labor. We need to RAISE TAXES ON THE WEALTHY. I'd like to add that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire is not raising taxes. Those temporary cuts were passed under the auspices of a large projected surplus, which was obliterated and made into a massive deficit by wasteful spending and and the Wars. Allowing those cuts to expire is NOT something to be applauded, it should be the bare minimum expectation. The GINI coefficient in this country hovers around 0.46, while the EU as a whole (despite having Hungary, Estonia, etc...) sits at 0.31, with Sweden at 0.23.
One solution? Create a new tax bracket above $1 or $2 million of 50%. It is so easy to forget that Reagan ran on a platform of LOWERING the top tax bracket to 50%. Moreover, in 1982, when those cuts went into effect, the 50% threshold was a mere $85,600! Even in 1986, the 50% tax bracket, adjusted for inflation, would start at a lower level than today's 35% (39.6% after expiration) bracket. The idea that much of the health care debate is centering on not raising taxes significantly is quite depressing.
We also need to raise capital gains taxes on the wealthy, and cut the ridiculous loopholes like "carried interest" that allow many to pay 15% on their gains instead of 28%.
As most of you on this site know, a higher tax bracket on the wealthiest heavily aids lower and middle-class workers by enticing business owners to reinvest their income into their business rather than extracting it at the source. It's not rocket science when the wages of the lowest 99% stagnate over a 30-year period, and the incomes of the top 1% grow by 140%. I'd like to add that the wages of the lowest 15% actually fell over that time! Oh well, speaking to the choir with stats many of you know by heart.
I just find the Dems and Obama to be spineless in not executing serious changes in tax law, much less discussing them seriously.
Oh, yeah, and of course it would be an easy solution to staving off Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security fiduciary constraints.
Lastly, and this is a genuinely pie-in-the-sky hope, but we need to place serious restrictions on moving jobs to China. I'm not a protectionist per se (but I'm not a global capitalist at all), but the hypocrisy of allowing our nation's companies to exploit and expand already-massive human rights abuses for the profit of the tiny slice of major corporation stockholders....is insane. It's bad for our workers, it simply makes oxen out of the still-poor in China, and it's generally unconscionable from all angles.
I'll add another segment soon.