This is why in the U.S. the march towards "socialist" Big Gov't is inevitable, because starting in the late 1970s-early 1980s, the compact between Management and Labor was torn asunder and there was nothing to replace it. Some of you luckier older folks just don't get it. It's a different world out there today.
U.S. workers have nothing to rely on now: no pensions, no sick leave, little or no vacation, no severance pay, and no or inadequate health insurance. Meanwhile, the productivity of U.S. workers continues to rise, as fewer employed people are asked to do more for less pay and benefits in return. Corporate owners and managers reap continued benefits from that (even in recessionary 2009, corporate profits as a percent of national income were at the 40-year average), but still they warn us constantly that cheap labor overseas threatens to take away our jobs at any moment if we get too uppity.
We are warned not to complain, or else, despite the fact that "pay for production and nonsupervisory workers—80% of the private workforce—is 9% lower than it was in 1973, adjusted for inflation," according to BW. Corporations and the MSM tell us that lazy, greedy unions are the problem, despite that only 8 percent of U.S. workers are in unions, and most of them are government employees.
This is not to mention the increasing frequency of wage theft by employers, which Dubya's Dept. of Labor failed to investigate. Wal-Mart, although probably the worst offender when it comes to non-payment, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Don't believe all that corporate-funded media propaganda about spoiled, lazy U.S. workers. The U.S. has the third most efficient labor market in the world, whose workers are the easiest to hire and fire, according to the World Economic Forum. (Meanwhile, the U.S. has been usurped by Switzerland as the #1 most competitive economy in the world for 2009-2010.)
So of course American workers are going to turn increasingly to Guvmint to help them meet their basic needs. This lemon has been squeezed dry.
Pay is falling, benefits are vanishing, and no one's job is secure. How companies are making the era of the temp more than temporary
By Peter Coy, Michelle Conlin and Moira Herbst
January 7, 2010 | BusinessWeek
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