Workers are more productive than ever before, yet median income has been stagnant for the past 45 years.
Here's a graph with a longer timeline where you can see the divergence taking off right around 1960: https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
Laws that have weakened unions since the 1950s
Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
Landrum-LaGuardia Act of 1959
Reagan's union busting and anti-union propaganda took off in the 80's. That was followed by the rise of the radical right noise machine.
State-level "right-to-work" laws that diminish collective bargaining power.
Deregulation and lax enforcement of labor laws have indirectly weakened unions by empowering anti-union employer practices.
EPI
Explaining the erosion of private-sector unions: How corporate practices and legal changes have undercut the ability of workers to organize and bargain
https://www.epi.org/unequalpower/publications/private-sector-unions-corporate-legal-erosion/
The absurdly low minimum wage, the busting of unions and weakening of their power, are part of the problem. As Piketty points out, capital has been growing at a faster rate than the larger economy. Without policy intervention, the inevitable result is what we see -- the evermore obscene concentration of wealth.
The horrible truth is that not only have we failed to implement policies that counter the movement of dollars from the hands of the many to the hands of the few, we have done THE OPPOSITE.
Minimum wage that reflects the increase in productivity, progressive income tax, wealth tax, inheritance tax are the bare minimum.
As we advocate for these things, we MUST do more than cite vague benefits, like strengthening safety nets, blah, blah. In addition to Universal Health Care, we need to be levying these taxes for something truly transformative -- something like Piketty-style "Inheritance for all"
And I think we need to be calling on our electeds to start advocating for Inheritance for All NOW.
We will never build the political will for such transformative change if no one is advocating for it.
Silence and surrendering in advance on anything the Democratic consultant class deems "unwinnable" helped bring us to this point.
I know many object to using AI summaries, but this one on inheritance for all does a better job of summarizing than I could:
What it is: A universal, one-time payment given to every citizen at age 25.
How it's funded: By significantly increasing wealth and inheritance taxes on the wealthiest individuals and estates.
How much: The amount is proposed to be around €120,000 or $150,000-$180,000 in other contexts.
The goal: To counteract the inequality created by inherited wealth by providing a "starter capital" for all young adults, thereby increasing their financial power and life choices.
Context: It is presented as one part of a broader "participatory socialism" plan, which also includes other reforms like higher income taxes and worker co-determination in corporations.
As we advocate for a progressive tax on income, tax on wealth, and tax on inheritance, we need connect it with a concrete benefit for ALL. Inheritance for all is that concrete benefit. And it is absolutely necessary to reverse the inevitable, and increasingly obscene, concentration of wealth that is driven by the fact that capital grows at a faster rate than the overall economy (see Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century).
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