Re-imagine domestic policy prioritizing people above profit

workers
the many

 Requisite rebuilding requires first removing parties of status quo

Edited by Carolyn Bennett

From Patrick Martin’s article “U.S. jobless toll—a failure of capitalism.”

the few

Nearly five years have passed since the official start of the recession and in this time there has been no significant recovery for working people.

However, “the ruling elites have never had it so good.”

the few

Soaring wealth

“Corporate profits are at pre-slump highs, CEO pay is soaring, wealth of multimillionaires reaches new levels of obscenity.”

Corporate America sits on a $2 trillion cash stockpile and refuses to invest in developing the productive capacity of the economy or in providing jobs. A bailed out automobile industry slashes the wages of new hires by 50 percent and cuts pensions and health benefits of retired workers.

Suffering workers

workersthe many

“Nearly 23 million United States workers are either unemployed or working only part time” when they want full-time work.

Of the 23 million, an estimated “2.4 million Americans have stopped looking altogether for work; 5.3 million have been jobless for at least six months. The average duration of unemployment is nine months (39 weeks).”

Together with joblessness is earnings stagnation. Last month, average hourly pre-tax wages for non-supervisory workers rose by only a penny. Over the past year, average weekly wages have risen by 2.1 percent. Prices have risen more than 3 percent.

workersthe many

This means, Martin comments, “The entire working class is taking a pay cut, while corporate profits reach new records. The ‘free market’ actually means the domination of economic life by giant monopolies that treat their own employees and the working class, as a whole, with complete ruthlessness.

workers
and potentialthe many

“There is no ‘freedom’ inside Corporate America except the freedom of bosses to hike their own salaries while cutting the jobs and pay and benefits of the workers who actually produce the wealth.”

Yet the two major U.S. entrenched political parties pledge undying allegiance to the status quo.

Longtime venture capitalist, Mitt Romney, basks in “a personal fortune that exceeds $250 million” and pushes an “economic policy … to award more tax breaks to the wealthy.”

President Barack Obama declares, “‘We believe the free market is one of the greatest forces for progress in human history; businesses are the engine of growth; risk-takers and innovators should be rewarded.’”

Re-imagining movement beyond status quo

Far from being a solution, Martin says, “Big business is the cause of the economic crisis that is confronting tens of millions of working people. The defense of jobs and living standards requires the independent mobilization of the working class against the profit system.”

Required is a movement that demands “reorganization of economic life on the basis of a rational plan that serves the needs of the people; not the profits of a few.”

Required, he concludes, is “the creation of millions of new jobs — beginning with an emergency program of public works to rebuild the crumbling infrastructure of the cities, to provide housing for the homeless and to greatly expand education, health care and other public services.”

Source: “U.S. jobless toll—a failure of capitalism” (Patrick Martin) May 7, 2012, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/pers-m07.shtml

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