Jack Saturday

Friday, August 06, 2010

Anti-Wage-Slavery, Pro-Freedom Quotations Of The Week 553-555

I’m starting to have a sick feeling about prospects for American workers —
… growing evidence that our governing elite just doesn’t care — that a once-unthinkable level of economic distress is in the process of becoming the new normal.
Defining Prosperity Down
By PAUL KRUGMAN
New York Times
Published: August 1, 2010

AAA
The structural problem began in the late 1970s when a wave of new technologies (air cargo, container ships and terminals, satellite communications and, later, the Internet) radically reduced the costs of outsourcing jobs abroad. Other new technologies (automated machinery, computers and ever more sophisticated software applications) took over many other jobs (remember bank tellers? telephone operators? service station attendants?). By the '80s, any job requiring that the same steps be performed repeatedly was disappearing -- going over there or into software.
It's All About the Wages -- Our Economy Would Be Fine If Everyone Made Their Fair Share
Robert Reich's Blog

AAA

Conversely, insisting upon a fair share could win us the world we want. While it breaks an old habit to leave jobs behind in favour of fair distribution, just recognizing surplus empowers people. It reaffirms the very existence of our commonwealth and challenges the narrow view of property as exclusively private. While the Left gets excoriated for wanting to be big spenders, demanding a dividend in lieu of waste and a shift of taxes from individual effort to social surplus helps refurbish the Left’s image.
What the Left Must Do: Share the Surplus
Jeff Smith

1 Comments:

  • Recognizing surplus is not my strong suit. Perhaps too little is being done to document the surplus. A couple of years ago, there was a figure being thrown around about the amount of money in CDO's being $500 trillion (half a quadrillion). For 6.7 billion people, that's almost $75,000 per capita. That's imaginary assets, of course.

    According to Tax Justice Network, "the world's richest individuals have placed $11.5 trillion of assets in offshore havens, mainly as a tax avoidance measure." That is almost certainly real money. "Governments appear unable, or unwilling, to prevent the rich employing aggressive strategies to minimise their tax liabilities." Likewise mice appear unable or unwilling to 'bell the cat.'

    By Blogger Lorraine, at 12:18 AM  

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