Joe the Biden
Last nite I watched a bit of the Inaugural Concert including incoming V.P Joe Biden's speech. Biden's speech was a bit rushed -- he realizes the next two days are not about him-- and focused on a common Biden theme: the dignity of labor. I will grant you that Mr. Biden can be overly sentimental, solipsistic and at times longwinded. But the content of his speech was a comforting antidote to the last twenty eight years.
The last twenty eight years (with small exception) have been dedicated to convincing the American people that the road to prosperity required that working people take less. Less wages. Less benefits. Less workplace safety. Less security. Our leaders set us up to compete with the poor in already poor countries and told us that even the most basic workplace guarantees were "regulating us out of business." The National Labor Relations Board and the courts established rules that made it next to impossible for workers to form a union. NAFTA gave every employer the ability to counter any workplace demand with the ominous threat to move to Mexico.
The results were predictable. For the last 28 years real wages have dropped dramatically. Our jobs have moved overseas in a race to the bottom. Our workplaces our less safe and less unionized. At the same time, people at the top of the income scale saw their incomes skyrocket. While the policies described above were bad for people who work; they were very good for people who invest, own, manage other people's money, or facilitate corporate transactions. We now live in a society in which even the modest aspirations of a middle class lifestyle are beyond the reach of too many. We can all be outsourced at will and the next generation will not have jobs as we know them, but will exist on sporadic "gigs" that have no benefits, no hope for advancement and carry the moniker "independent contractor."
Mr. Biden's speech at least betrayed some hope that we may have an administration that cares about people who work and not just about those who make money off their labor.
The last twenty eight years (with small exception) have been dedicated to convincing the American people that the road to prosperity required that working people take less. Less wages. Less benefits. Less workplace safety. Less security. Our leaders set us up to compete with the poor in already poor countries and told us that even the most basic workplace guarantees were "regulating us out of business." The National Labor Relations Board and the courts established rules that made it next to impossible for workers to form a union. NAFTA gave every employer the ability to counter any workplace demand with the ominous threat to move to Mexico.
The results were predictable. For the last 28 years real wages have dropped dramatically. Our jobs have moved overseas in a race to the bottom. Our workplaces our less safe and less unionized. At the same time, people at the top of the income scale saw their incomes skyrocket. While the policies described above were bad for people who work; they were very good for people who invest, own, manage other people's money, or facilitate corporate transactions. We now live in a society in which even the modest aspirations of a middle class lifestyle are beyond the reach of too many. We can all be outsourced at will and the next generation will not have jobs as we know them, but will exist on sporadic "gigs" that have no benefits, no hope for advancement and carry the moniker "independent contractor."
Mr. Biden's speech at least betrayed some hope that we may have an administration that cares about people who work and not just about those who make money off their labor.
posted by Jack Reed at 9:46 AM
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