Is America Approaching Neo Fuedalism?...
Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth
Does anyone take issue with the following? Is it reasonable to expect that when working 70 hours a week, as the gentleman who wrote the following does, a person is able to provide for the basic needs for their family and themselves without needing government assistant? Is it acceptable that government contractors make healthy profits and yet not provide decent wages for their employees? Is it ethical, moral? What, if anything should be done to rectify the unfairness, if that is what it really is? As we continue to see more economic stratification (rich/working poor) are you concerned about the long range negative and potentially volatile societal consequences that may occur? If so why, and if not why not?
Read the full article BELOW THE FOLD and register your thoughts and concerns. This is a building domestic crises that must be addressed lest we become an American neo feudalistic society.
Via: Memeorandum
Purveyor of Truth
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| Tell us this, Mr Senator: when will all federal contractors be paid a living wage? Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters |
Does anyone take issue with the following? Is it reasonable to expect that when working 70 hours a week, as the gentleman who wrote the following does, a person is able to provide for the basic needs for their family and themselves without needing government assistant? Is it acceptable that government contractors make healthy profits and yet not provide decent wages for their employees? Is it ethical, moral? What, if anything should be done to rectify the unfairness, if that is what it really is? As we continue to see more economic stratification (rich/working poor) are you concerned about the long range negative and potentially volatile societal consequences that may occur? If so why, and if not why not?
American voters should ask themselves: if presidential candidates won’t help the workers who serve them every day, will they really help the millions of low-wage American workers who they don’t know or see? I’m a Bible-believing Christian, just like a lot of the candidates. Scripture says to “Love your neighbor” and “Do unto to others as you would have them do unto you”. It’s a shame too few candidates follow the guidance of the book in which they say they believe.
My employer, Compass Group, is renewing its contract with the US government today – but none of the senators or government officials to whom we serve food asked me or my co-workers whether this multinational corporation, headquartered in the United Kingdom, is treating American workers right. No-one bothered to check if the company that makes billions in profits is paying workers a living wage and offering decent benefits so we don’t have to use public aid programs to meet our basic needs. We the workers sure have an opinion when it comes to federal contract renewals – but no one cared enough to ask us.
President Obama and each presidential hopeful should have to tell all Americans whether they will stop giving US contracts to extremely profitable companies who pay their workers so little that we have to rely on public assistance programs like food stamps. Otherwise, all their rhetoric about wanting American workers to get ahead is just empty words.
My co-workers and I are on strike because we want the current president – and those running to succeed him – to make sure that federal contracts are preferentially awarded to good American companies that pay workers a living wage, offer decent benefits like paid leave and allow us to collectively bargain so that we don’t need to strike to have our voices heard.
Most of the candidates know where to find me. I’ll be eagerly awaiting a response.
Read the full article BELOW THE FOLD and register your thoughts and concerns. This is a building domestic crises that must be addressed lest we become an American neo feudalistic society.
Via: Memeorandum
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I like Charles Murray's compromise proposition of a beef-up Earned Income Tax Credit (similar to Milton Friedman's concept of a negative income tax). That way we can help poor people and not distort the free market (the fact that we have a 4,000 year recorded history of wage and price controls not working abd actually making things worse).
ReplyDeleteSo, you would rather pay the working poor with other people's tax dollars instead of having businesses pay the full cost of their labor?
ReplyDeleteCal Coolidge is lauded by some for the quote "the business of America is business". Others would note that a better quote would be "apres moi, le deluge". However, his sentiment is not in the constitution, nor would it be until a partisan SCOTUS decided Citizens United. IMO, the theory that
ReplyDeletethe pursuit of profit spreads wealth has proven over the years to do the opposite: continuing and increasing tax breaks for that sector doing not a wit for the common good. A society of nobles and peasants can be defined as neofeudalism and that trend appears to be our path.
RN is moving away from Objectivism/Libertarianism? I mean, neo feudalism and stratification is the natural result of the ideology he has previously said he was an adherent of.
ReplyDeleteNope, not one iota. Operative word is rational self interest. If you wish not to grasp that it is your choice. It is not open for discussion by you with me.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day DS.
I grew up in the 1950s and remember the businesses that were the life of my community. All family-owned businesses – the local grocery store, the neighborhood pharmacy, the coffee shops, the haberdashery, and hardware store – all are gone having been replaced by national retail chains and conglomerates. The manufacturing company started by my grandfather – and 1,000+ jobs – are gone too!
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time, capitalism was the province of the middle class. No longer. Today, corporate conglomerates and global trading companies own virtually everything, and they demand more …
... more economic power, more tax shelters, and more political clout. To get “more,” they demand less regulation - less environmental protection (so they can earn more by polluting more), less food safety regulation (so you can acquire a taste for Salmonella with your food), less financial market regulation (so they can earn more by speculating more – while taxpayers bear the bailout burden), less occupational safety (so the Koch brothers can kill more workers with impunity), and no more Medicare or Social Security (which plutocrats regard as “socialism”).
These mega corporations work through ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Committee), which drafts generic boilerplate laws to advance corporate interests – lower wages, lower taxes, longer hours without paying overtime, union-free shops with no collective bargaining rights, tort reform (with limits on defective product/personal injury claims), and the suppression of voter rights. Bottom line: Democracy and oligarchy are incompatible.
ALEC is neo-Fascism in action. ALEC is EVIL.
".... less food safety regulation..."
DeleteOr more regulation causing the problem, Octo. I was talking to someone over the weekend who works in the bakery industry. He talked about a deadly listeria food poisoning incident which has resulted in a regulation requiring expensive equipment to be bought by bakeries. The small mom and pop ones can't afford it, so they fail. While the big boys take the hit and keep on going, because they can afford it. And the trend identified in this post and the comments continues.
Like with several years ago, I watched the mom and pop gas stations get largely wiped out by e new fuel tank regulation to prevent groundwater contamination. Was this regulation wise? Probably. But small business was clobbered by this, and, as with the bakery situation, the big companies were empowered even more. More oligarchy. Thoughts on this?
(An aside about unions: as you know. I want this choice to belong with workers, not companies OR bosses. While I support the right of workers to refuse to belong to unions that don't represent their interests, I believe it should be a lot easier for workers to choose to join... including in places like Wal-mart).
I remember those days as well. 50's and 60's America was a time of growing the middle class and capitalism grew the economy AND the middle class.
ReplyDeleteThere was something rational happening during those years. Ah the memories!
There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a handsome profit. My father, a manager and business owner always told his employees: "If I go to the candy store I'll take you with me." And he always did with those that were productive. That is what IMO rational self interest means. Far too many fail to understand.
We need more business owners like this guy.
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ReplyDelete