New Normal?

If we continue to allow corporate America to take away all the gains made by the working class in the post-war 20th century -- a decent wage, health care and retirement benefits, security -- we would do well to realize those are gains it will take decades to win back -- if ever. It's not like once this economy turns around the beneficent management class is going to return those gains. They are using the financial crisis to consolidate economic power, by downsizing workforces, outsourcing jobs, forcing furloughs, cutting pay and slashing health care and retirement benefits.

The downsizing, the outsourcing, the layoffs that have led to the demise of the working class -- foreclosures, unemployment, bankruptcy -- are all part and parcel of corporate business decisions aimed at increasing profits and shareholder dividends. Why do you think it is that Wall Street has (for the most part) largely recovered from The Meltdown, while unemployment remains stubbornly high? Because shareholders and CEOs mostly earn their money by decreasing the expense of labor.

The unfortunate result of this change in economic reality is that it ultimately pits the working class against itself. While corporate pay and shareholder interests continue to rise, non-unionized workers find themselves questioning the hard-won gains of their unionized brethren. This is an argument standing on its head, but one management is happy to let us have. The question, again, is not why are the wages and benefits of unionized workers so generous, but why are the wages and benefits offered to non-unionized workers so paltry?