Jeff Faux: "The Servant Economy"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-07-17/jeff-faux-servant-economy
Jeff Faux of the Economic Policy Institute argues Americans are in denial. Everyone knows, he says, but no one faces up to the fact that the United States can no longer afford to have subsidized unregulated markets, be the world’s global power and provide a steadily rising standard of living. One of these is possible, maybe two, but not all three, according to Faux. No group -- and certainly no politician of either party -- is addressing this new reality, he contends. Despite public posturing to the contrary, it’s America's middle class that will be sacrificed on this current path. Please join us for a conversation with Jeff Faux on why he believes we’re moving from a service to a servant economy.
Guests
Jeff Faux
founding president and distinguished fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.
Comments
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And now, after we learn in the first hour, how regulation will never be enacted, never put in place, so that Wall Street and large corporations can continue to own us.... we can now have a discussion on just how much they will be allowed to do to us.
Clean up on aisle three.....clean up on aisle three!
At work we had a regular mail carrier and a relief person. Both were in their 50`s,white males,Conservatives,Union members,and strong Christians. They are carbon copies of one another.Yet,they have bought into the right wing radio talking points that the other guy is the "Taker",and impedes the toil and efforts of the superior "Maker". They are at one another`s political throats. Fox News and their right wing radio media partners have almost ALL Americans at one another.
As long as we`re opposing one another,we cannot see through the fog of what is happening,and who is doing it to us .Lift the FOG! Packages read 'Made in China',not made in Ohio or Arizona by illegals. 50,000 U.S Manufacturing plants have closed and moved offshore. Do you get that ? Do you understand the remaining Americans with jobs must now grovel out of fear? Taking pay cuts. Taking benefit reductions. Losing their pension funds. LIVING IN FEAR IS NO FUN.
Barack Obama and Progressive Democrats are unafraid to challenge Corporate America. Romney openly declares de-regulation to make it easier to offshore jobs is his mission on day 1. And NO tariffs on cheap foreign goods.
Ah, the good old days. In 2008 and before, presidential campaigns used to be about who would best serve the goal of a strong and growing private sector economy. Now we got a guy who runs on giving away "free" stuff to anyone stupid enough to vote for him, what's shocking is the number of people taking the bait.
United States government politicians and officials don`t work for free. And if U. S. Corporations want boot licking,along with their Communist Chinese partners,let them pay the bills. I don`t need a stinkin army to protect empty abandoned plants.We don`t need 187 fighters that cost over $400 million each,that are death traps,are worthless scrap metal.
And some are correct,things have changed .I too can remember the definition of "PEOPLE",once upon a time. That definition was changed by right wing extremists who believe Corporations are People, and human beings are worthless excrement.
"Mommy mommy, Jimmy and Johnny got more toys than I did"
"Now stop whining, Billy. Jimmys parents own the big store in town and Johnny's mom is a big movie star. Yes, they did get a lot but you got about the same as all your other friends."
"...but mommy, I want what Jimmy and Johnny got."
"Billy, didn't you get plenty of toys?"
"Well.. yes, mommy"
"Come on now, Billy. You and everyone that you know got a lot more toys than your daddy and I ever got when we were your age 30 years ago. Don't worry about Jimmy and Johnny's toys as long as you got plenty".
Here is the first paragraph from the widely quoted Oct 2011 Congressional Budget Office report. Note that the figures are in addition to inflation
http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/10-25-HouseholdI...
CBO finds that, between 1979 and 2007, income grew by:
275 percent for the top 1 percent of households,
65 percent for the next 19 percent,
Just under 40 percent for the next 60 percent, and
18 percent for the bottom 20 percent.
I am always concerned about the poor but a 40 per cent rise in income for the middle 60 per cent is not too shabby! The Republicans promise tax cuts and the Democrats promise tax cuts and more benefits. When is someone going to act like an adult and tell us that the middle class are earning more than ever and living better than ever, and to stop whining about a few CEOs, entertainers, and sports figures at the very top?
The High Road Not Taken: Romney’s Undue Apology for Attack Ads. My thoughts here:
http://yourthoughtshere.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/35/
partisan politics on July 16, 2012 @ 9:42 pm wrote: “Ah, the good old days. In 2008 and before, presidential campaigns used to be about who would best serve the goal of a strong and growing private sector economy.”
What country are you talking about sir?
I recall campaigns about “Little Daisy” being “nuked” as she played in a garden, about how “extremism” was no vice, about “secret plans” to produce “peace with honor”, about Willy Horton, about “swiftboat swifties” (and their lies), etc., etc., ad nauseum.
Oh, and I also remember campaigns run on the promise of “voodoo economics” - that we could lower taxes, maintain government spending, and not worry about deficits, either because revenue would increase, or because “deficits don’t matter”.
And please note: these were references to both Democratic and Republican campaigns!
Etaoin Shrdlu wrote: "What country are you talking about sir?"
This one, there are always side issues and the relevance of the economy is always dictated by it's state of failure or success at the time of the campaign. But it is always job #1 with the possible exception of times of war. Your examples do not make your point.
Your a liberal and like the "free" stuff! I got your M.O.
"...But a truism of politics is that pocketbook issues are crucial to voters. ..."
partisan politics wrote:
Your a liberal and like the "free" stuff! I got your M.O.
My beliefs are in the middle, although they tend toward the liberal side of the equations. I have been here for 30 years and I don't remember any "free" stuff. I have busted my rear end to get where I am, studied hard in college, learned everything I could about my field and from what I have seen, if I want free stuff, I should be a conservative. Free bonuses for driving the world economy into near ruin, free "get out of jail' cards, free from taxes buy shipping money and jobs offshore. Shall I continue?
Mike Sergeant wrote: . "Shall I continue?"
Why bother, you would still be wrong and misguided.
Partisan politics wrote:
"Mike Sergeant wrote: . "Shall I continue?"
Why bother, you would still be wrong and misguided."
So be it. Those with closed eyes cannot be enlightened.
Please tell this to Richard Florida. He still seems to think things will be just rosy for all of us.
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/07/12/the-creative-class
So is creative-class = servant-class?
You'd be digging in the dirt looking for grubs if it wasn't for government and all the "free stuff" YOU have gotten over the years. A society looks out for everyone in the society. If you you don't like that simple LOGIC, then go live on an island and invite others who think like you, with you. Romney has gotten rich PRECISELY BECAUSE our government made it easy for him to do so (by letting him offshore jobs, allowing him to make millions by actually going into bankruptcy and by letting him pay less than half the taxes of everyone else - without creating a single new job!).
Comment was in response to "partisan politics"
Workers are taught in school to be good workers and not owners. If we change the curriculum to teach kids the basics of running a business in a capitalist system so when they enter the workforce they could be credible worker/owners their ambitions will change. We have to figure out how to make small changes to this system that can benefit the workers because they are the ones that are the majority and they are being exploited. Being a worker/owner IMO is just having the ability to partake in the major decision that affects the business and to allocate the wealth within that company. Right now the fact that workers can't participate in the appropriation and allocating of the wealth that they produce cooperatively is the root to a lot of the socioeconomic problems we face.
Start throwing all the bums at the top in jail for a few decades and things will start to change for the better real quick!! At least 1000 of them need to be made to do "perp walks" and then have all their ill gotten gains confiscated and given to charity, as they are lead away to oblivion. Their families should be left penniless and totally dependent on government handouts, so the following generations will learn something about greed and corruption and what it SHOULD get you.
On occasion, a Diane Rehm show caller will make a profound statement. One for me was a caller from my home town of Cleveland. She said clearly,as a staunch Conservative her goal,and the goal of ALL Conservatives,was to destroy the middle class. Her feeling was that the liberties of today`s middle class were out of control. Including Woman rights and the ERA.Including Gay rights and Gay marriage.Abortion rights and female rights to contraceptives.They often see individual liberty as a threat to their religious doctrine.They choose to throw the baby out with the bath water,and select a lifestyle dating back to before the Enlightenment. BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU WISH FOR.............
I'm not taken to believing in conspiracy theories. I think the behavior of wealthy people is just behavior. They are on top of their respective heaps and they want to stay on top. That's not conspiracy; just behavior. All of us work to hang on to our respective wealth levels, regardless of what that level is.
My concern is that their behavior is placing them outside of the bounds of what's healthy for the country. They need to show restraint and a country first attitude in what they do.
I'm not a Bill Clinton fan but his quote about corporations and businesses used to behave as responsible citizens seems to apply to this discussion.
I have worked in several multi-million to billion dollar households and without exception, an employee is tretaed like a 19th century servant. As a skilled worker, I was told that I should be quite pleased with an offer of $20,000 per year for extremely difficult work (over 40 hrs per week). I worked for a very well known Dallas billionairess who ran her household like a labor camp - routinely paying far less than minimum wage to her servants. She used foreigners who were deeply indebted to her for helping them come to the US and expected no less from american workers. Due to repeated wage and payment abuses by the "upper class" we in the industries that hands-on serve the ultra rich refer to them (all republicans) as the "Cheap Labor Party".
1.This morning on Cspans Washington Journal they did a full three hours on this topic. The last guest was especially informative. Wish I could link to the program. Well worth the watch.
2. Am in Dayton Ohio helping take care of aging parents. Grew up here during the 50's and 60's. A major manufacturing city then. Can you talk about how both Dem's and Republicans sold the American worker "down the pike" First allowing corporations to allow union jobs to move south for cheap labor then over seas. Both parties allowed this to happen. When President Obama was a Senator I am not aware of any "free trade agreeements" that he did not vote for. Please address both parties involvement in the degradation of fair paying jobs for decades
3. As labor unions grew in the late 1800's the U.S. Supreme Court decided in many cases in favor of big oil, railroad, sugar monopolies. Undermining the Sherman Anti Trust Act. Please address the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in many of these cases very similar to Citizens United And in the history of the U.S. would you point out the period of time where the distribution of income was far fairer than any other time in our history
These people used to be called "union members", who had a say in the company and received regular raises and bonuses (right along with the CEO's). You are saying that EVERYONE in society should become their own 1-person union, or all be entrepreneurs. This will never work unless they are rich and already powerful.
"Reply" doesn't seem to work. Please fix this.
I've been a labor activist since the early 90's. What has happened to the American people has been totally orchestrated.
I interviewed Martin Levitt "confessions of a Union Buster", who eyewitnessed the campaigns against Labor and the middle class in the big business board rooms.
I witnessed federal indictments against Union leaders that were nothing more then witchhunts to destroy careers.
Anybody who wants to help the middleclass becomes an enemy of the state.
A good friend of mine and fellow activist says, "stick a fork in us we're done"
We have been told what is happening would happen from the 70s or earlier. Finally some one who has been watching is commenting. The rest of it is that since the USA elite was checked in the use of the military (viz Viet Nam) in taking over the planet it developed financial policies to achieve that goal. Money has been sucked from the middle to buy control of keys to control of relevant structures overseas. It's all global empire, Pax Ameicana, union of global elites through a USA executive, like Rome. More...
Well, once people stop being afraid all the time---of starvation, of humiliation, of exposure to the elements---they start to act as if they had rights.
The much-hated (mostly by eedjits) 1960s revolts and movements were direct products of the enormous lack of fear of poverty on the part of white people back then...even non-unionised men (well, o.k., mostly just men) with only an high-school education had reason to believe that if their boss mistreated them, they could quit and find a better job.
Bosses hate it when you're not afraid of them. Most churches hate it when people are more secure in the actual Universe that actually exist. See also: the "Abominable Fancy".
"I think the behavior of wealthy people is just behavior."
Yeah, it's also sometimes more accurately called "criminal behavior"!!! Don't cover up for them - OK.
FYI: One of president Carter's White House solar panels ripped off by the president Reagan is being used today in Vermont. Talk about sustainable energy.
Carter also warned America about the Soviet Failure & Weakness ahead of president Reagan's Soviet Fear Collapse. Reagan was a corporate shill, plain & simple and America loved him as if he were their own Granpa to this day if you're Republican.
The R-Brand is strong -- they market their product as if you're selling Broccoli or cigerettes or Gen Electric... .
As Mr. Faux has clearly explained, the writing was on the wall in the 70's, when those born around 1946-1964 were in a position to see what was going wrong, but 20 years later, still nothing was done.
He's right, those born after 1964 have it worse than those born before, BUT WE KNOW WHAT"S WRONG. WE RECOGNIZE WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO OUR CHILDREN. WE WILL CORRECT THIS NATION'S FAULTS SO OUR POSTERITY WILL INHERIT A GREAT NATION.
That's not hope, that's my promise to my children and grandchildren.
Middle class wages did NOT rise since the mid-70s when adjusted for inflation. If you go to the grocery store, you understand that inflation is very real...a half gallon of milk is $3.25.
The cost of living indices do NOT include housing...high rents and mortgage payments for houses 'under water'.
Mr. Faux makes sense...I'm not so sure about the solutions to this mess.
Capping executive salaries is the only way for 'trickle down' to work. It certainly does not work today.
Mr. Faux comments that there will be many jobs in the future that do not require a college education. This misses the point of college. It is NOT to "get a good job", but to become a learned person. All our citizens will benefit by being educated and being able to think critically and wisely about our nation, our politics, our culture, our interpersonal relationships, and so on. A person's life is always made better by education, regardless of the job they do to earn a living.