Power: Why corporations have so much and workers have so little. Class 5
Friends, good morning.
Our fifth class begins our focus on power — and on the relative weakness of workers and the relative power of big corporations. Just double-click below, and you’re in the class.
Background: It’s one of the oldest struggles inside the American economy and within capitalism worldwide: between labor and capital. And it has a direct effect on inequality.
The way we’ll approach it today is by looking at two sides of the same coin: antitrust laws designed to contain the market power of corporations, and labor laws designed to allow workers to organize.
Both sets of laws have been changed over the last 40 years — giving corporations greater market power, and dramatically reducing the power of organized labor. We’ll examine why these changes have occurred.
Questions: What happened to antitrust in the United States over the last 50 years? What happened to labor unions? Why are antitrust (anti-monopoly) laws stronger in Europe than they are in the United States? Why is a higher percent of the European (and Canadian) workforces unionized than in the United States? What’s the relationship between degrees of monopolization, levels of unionization, and inequality, and why?
Looking for another session? Click the link for:
Readings for you —
On organized labor:
Steven Greenhouse, “How Walmart Persuades Its Workers Not to Organize,” The Atlantic, June 8, 2015
David Madland, “Wage Boards for American Workers,” Center for American Progress, April 9, 2018
On monopolization:
John Cassidy, “The Biden Antitrust Revolution,” The New Yorker, July 12, 2021
Peter Thiel, “Competition is for Losers,” The Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2014
P.S. Apologies for the technical error today as the video link was not included in our original email.
In their messaging going into the 2024 elections, Democrats should establish that votes for our party provide the only means of ending the disproportionate influence of corporations and billionaires on policy, budget, and oversight.
This nightmare of impending oligarchy will only end when Democrats are in full control of the White House and Congress. Only then can there be campaign finance and lobbying reforms, as well as legislation and oversight muscle to pull back power from corporations.
LIFE’S TOO SHORT STOP THE HATE
All things considered we have a halfway decent Country. In order to form a more perfect union we all have to pull in the same direction. No one ever said our Country is perfect because people are not perfect!
America will never come anywhere near perfection until we improve the lives of everyone. I believe that income inequality is the kryptonite. Money, or the lack of, breeds crime and corruption! We see it everywhere. In our SCOTUS, in our Government, in almost all walks of life.
Another big reason for our Country’s downturn is we CONDONE BAD BEHAVIOR!We need stronger penalties for those who turn against our Constitution, especially those in leadership positions. These people are not Patriots. They took the oath to uphold the Constitution not to work against members of the other party! Their job is to make our Country better for all Americans not to tear our Country apart!
Term limits, or the lack of, (SCOTUS), make these problems even worse. Obviously the Government isn’t weeding out the incompetent , i.e. George Santos, MTG, etc…
So the voting public has to wait until they can vote them out of office. How Sad!
All the jobs I had throughout my life I was held Accountable to do what was required or I would be fired. There were no term limits!