Psst: Want to know why Americans are gloomy about the "best" economy since 1984?
Hint: It's not inflation.
How can it be that the U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace since 1984 last year (according to yesterday’s report from the Commerce Department) but most Americans remain gloomy about the economy, and blame Biden and the Democrats? The New York Times declares that the cause of this paradox is inflation: “Biden is suffering in the polls as high inflation saps confidence in the economy, even as growth comes in strong.”
Rubbish. Americans are gloomy about the economy despite its record growth because most Americans haven’t shared in that growth.
If you really want to understand this, a good place to begin is with the corporation often considered the most socially responsible in the nation — Starbucks. (A Pew survey on where Americans would like to live included the following question: “Just for fun: Would you prefer to live in a place with more McDonald’s or more Starbucks?” Among self-described liberals, Starbucks carried the day, 46 percent to 33 percent. And while McDonald’s won among adults 65 and above, Starbucks had a 13-percentage-point edge among 18-to-29-year-olds.)
But in fact, Starbucks isn’t socially responsible. Its brand is built on an edifice of faux social responsibility.
Starbucks is the nation’s first major retailer to backtrack on vaccine-or-test plans for its workers, since the Supreme Court’s absurd January 13 ruling that struck down the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test requirement. Starbucks is now telling its 200,000 U.S. employees they no longer have to be fully vaccinated or submit to weekly coronavirus testing.
Starbucks calls its workers “partners” — but they’re not real partners. They don’t share in the profits. Between January and September of last year, Starbuck’s revenue soared to $20.9 billion (compared to $17.3 billion in the same period in 2020). Its president and chief executive officer, Kevin Johnson, raked in $14,665,575 in total compensation. But the current average hourly pay at Starbucks is $14 and hour, or $28,000 a year. And Starbucks wants to keep wages in the basement. For years it’s fought ferociously against employee efforts to unionize.
Social responsibility my macchiato.
Now zoom out to the economy as a whole. Could it be that Americans are gloomy despite the economy’s record growth because the super-rich are taking home an ever-larger share of those gains while most people are getting the crumbs? Is it possible they blame Biden and the Democrats for promising to change this but, after a good start, not delivering?
Starbuck’s progressive branding has helped it sell lots of coffee. Yet Starbucks faces a growing dilemma — not unlike the dilemma facing Biden and the Democrats. Starbucks’s young, progressive baristas are no longer willing to tolerate Starbucks’s hypocrisy. Since two Starbucks stores voted to unionize in late August, workers in dozens of other Starbucks stores across the country have filed petitions for elections.
Starbucks can’t have it both ways — promoting itself as the face of socially-responsible capitalism while treating its workers like shit.
Biden and the Democrats may be facing a similar paradox — promising a fundamental change in the power structure of America while allowing big corporations and the super-rich to continue enlarging their wealth and power. Biden and the Democrats can’t have it both ways, either.
Perhaps it was too much to expect Biden and the Dems to alter a trend that’s been growing for four decades as large corporations have steadily gained bargaining power (a handful of big firms now dominate most industries), while hourly wage earners have steadily lost it (the share of private-sector workers in unions has plummeted from over 30 percent to 6.1 percent). This power shift is directly reflected in the increasing share of economic gains going to the top, and decreasing share to everyone else.
But it’s important for Biden and the Democrats to avoid the trap of Starbucks-like hypocrisy. Biden and the Dems need to tell the truth about what’s happening: American workers are not losing ground due to inflation. They are losing ground because they continue to lose bargaining power. The economy grew mightily over the past year but the share going to most American workers continues to shrink.
Starbucks’s workers have had enough corporate hypocrisy. They’re beginning to take power back by organizing at the grass roots. Will most Americans become so fed up with their declining share of the economy’s gains that they too decide to take power back?
Of course Americans are gloomy. They’re being told left, right and center just how badly Biden and company are doing, all the while the corporatists are raking it in like there’s no tomorrow. People are fed up and want someone to blame. Tucker Carlson tells them to blame Biden as do the rest of the GOP gremlins who don’t give a shit because their coffers continue to overflow. I don’t know what to say anymore because nothing is working in this administration. Now we’ve got the diplomat from the Ukraine telling Biden to dial it back as far as Russia invading its country…because he is “scaring” their countrymen and women, even as more and more Russian troops surround the country on all sides…what?? What game is going on here? In the meantime, Arizona’s poised to impose the greatest strikes against voting including voter subversion, introducing a slew of restrictive voting bills, including an omnibus bill that subverts nonpartisan election administration basically allowing any elector to request a new election be held should an audit be requested and the votes rejected. What?? Biden promised this and Biden promised that but we know as long as McConnell is around, the good Biden has planned to do for the country will never happen…not student loan forgiveness, not Build Back Anything unless it’s cut into little pieces with the hopes of the dastardly GOP throwing it a bone. Then we’ve got the insane Donald trump and his nighttime rallies, inciting the masses, telling them hellacious things like the “vote counter is more important than the candidate.” I know I’m all over the place but as we approach the midterms I foresee more of the same chaos, propaganda and lies, quite possibly foretelling the end of our democracy. And this isn’t me being cynical…just realistic.
PS…as for Starbucks, I’ve got no time for them or their bitter coffee. It was a good idea at the outset, with Howard Schultz who grew up in public housing dreaming of a better way for his employees. But as with everything else in this sad country, the corporatists moved in.
I agree totally about Starbuck's hypocrisy. I also think most Americans are gloomy because so far - every government toadie and elected official who orchestrated 1/6/21 has not been held accountable for their actions, and too many members of Congress are constantly thumbing their noses at voters while they rake in the cash. I turn 69 next week and have never felt more demoralized about the fact that cheaters, liars and people with not one ounce of integrity continue to prosper!!