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Whose Society is This Anyway?

August 27th, 2012

Every day we hear the same story from the politicians and the news media. The economy is in crisis and we are all suffering. With the election coming, it’s the same story from both the Republican Party and the Democrats – we need to fix the economy, and we need to make the necessary sacrifices to get the country back on track. But who are they asking to sacrifice?

We’ve already made lots of sacrifices. Today American workers are working harder than ever before. Since 2008, over half of American workers have taken on extra jobs or are working more hours at their current jobs. But less than ten percent of those workers are getting paid more than they were before the crisis. Workers everywhere are being forced to pay more for their health care, work longer hours, or speed up on the job.

Many more people are losing their jobs and struggling to feed themselves and their families. The number of Americans living below the poverty line is the highest it has been in 15 years. Official unemployment is at eight percent, but in reality it may be as high as 20 percent counting all the people who have stopped looking for work, or who are working part time and temporary jobs.

People are also losing their homes. The real estate crisis has hit our communities hard. There have been over twelve million foreclosures in the U.S. since 2008, and California has suffered the largest amount of foreclosures of any state.

Our children have been forced to sacrifice their future. Public schools in the K-12 system have been cut by 18 billion dollars in the last four years. Just look at Oakland where five elementary schools have recently been closed.

And for young people who want to go to college, that is becoming less of an option. College tuition has doubled. State Universities have lost 39 percent of their funding since 2007, and the U.C. System has lost 20 percent of its funding. At the Community Colleges, courses have been cut by 15 percent in the last four years. Everywhere you look the opportunities are being taken away.

But not everyone is being asked to sacrifice. The ten largest corporations in California, including Chevron, Apple, Hewlett Packard, and Oracle all made record profits this year – a combined total of $125 billion. This is a twelve percent increase from last years profits. Any one of these corporations could pay for all of the spending cuts to education and social services and barely feel it. While the rest of us are sacrificing our jobs, our homes, and our children’s futures, the rich are actually getting richer.

There is no reason we need to accept the sacrifices that are being forced on us. Why should anyone be unemployed in this society? Instead of working harder, why don’t we reduce the number of hours we have to work and hire more people? Why should we give up our homes just because the banks need to balance their books? For every homeless person in the United States there are six vacant housing units available. And why should our children sacrifice their futures? There’s no reason education shouldn’t be free to any person who wants to pursue it.

What’s stopping us? Only the profits of the wealthy. But where did they get all of that money? They got it from the hard work, sweat, and suffering of all of us who do the work of this society. What right do they have to increase their profits and make the rest of us sacrifice? It’s about time we started to ask the question – Whose society is this anyway?

Living to Work, Not Working to Live

August 27th, 2012

Working class Americans are overworked. Each year working people are forced to work more in worsening conditions for a paycheck that has a diminishing value. How many of us work more than 40 hours a week, work on the weekend, or have more than one job, just to make ends meet? Between all the time at the job, taking care of children, and doing what is required to be a working adult, there is hardly any time left over for whats most important of all – life! There is nothing natural about working conditions in this country. We only have to look at working conditions in other countries to see that our conditions are actually some of the worst.

Hours Worked Per Year in the Industrialized World

American workers work some of the longest hours of anyone in the industrialized world.

Germany: 1419 hours per year
France: 1554 hours per year
United Kingdom: 1647 hours per year
Canada: 1702 hours per year
United States: 1778 hours per year

Vacation Time Required by Law in the Industrialized World

In most countries workers are guaranteed a vacation by law, even though those rights are constantly under attack. In the United States there isn’t even a legal guarantee. Workers only get what their bosses are willing to give them.

France: 42 Days
Germany: 28 Days
United Kingdom: 28 Days
Canada: 10 Days
United States: ZERO

Productivity and Declining Wages

What do we get for all our hard work? A smaller and smaller paycheck, and a shrinking bank account.

American workers produced 80 percent more profits for their bosses between 1973 and 2011, but wages only increased by 10 percent.
If the median house income in the United States kept pace with the economy since 1976 it would be $92,000 per year, not $50,000.
The wealth of the richest one percent of Americans increased 275 percent between 1979 and 2009 while the wealth of the bottom fifth dropped 7 percent.

Consequences of Overworking

There are consequences to the level of work that American workers experience. Stressful work, no vacation, and the struggle to make ends meet is a major cause of depression and stress in our lives.

Only 45 percent of Americans are satisfied with their work.
Two-thirds of Americans say that work is the main source of stress in their life.

Anxiety disorder is the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 18 percent of the population or 40 million Americans.
Ten percent of Americans suffer from depression.

The suicide rate in America is the highest its been in 15 years. In 2009, 37,000 people took there life.

Living to Work, Not Working to Live

Our lives do not have to be limited by the demands of work, the boss, and bills. The only people who benefit from this state of things are the very richest in our society. In this country there is more than enough wealth to provide people time to have a life with substance. There is no reason we should accept that our lives are just about work. There is no reason we shouldn’t have time for ourselves and our families. There is no reason we should live to work, and not work to live.

The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

August 20th, 2012

Whether we’re in the public sector or private sector, no matter who we work for, all workers are pitted against each other. Those who don’t have jobs versus those who do, part-time or temp workers versus full-time workers, those with low pay versus those with even less. Any opportunity to further divide workers, to keep us isolated separate corners, is just another way for the bosses to try and take advantage of us.

We’ve seen the same pattern happen over and over again in every industry. Whenever profitable companies want even more profit, they just throw some more people out of work and pay fewer workers less to do even more. The bosses preach the same sob story about keeping up with the competition, cut our wages, benefits, and staffing, and then turn around and make record profits.

And what’s true in the private sector is true in the public sector too. At the Federal and State level, governments pretend there is no money coming in, and then pass budgets with huge cuts to workers and social services. But at the same time, governments are regularly making payments to the biggest banks and cutting taxes for corporations and the rich. The Federal government recently announced severe cuts to postal workers, with massive layoffs, huge cuts to hours and closures to hundreds of facilities. And now further deep cuts to Medicare and welfare and Social Security are next in line for the chopping block. States have attacked public workers across the country, introduced legislation to weaken public unions, slashed funding for schools and social services, and brutally attacked teachers, in-home care professionals, childcare workers, state workers and more.

At the same time, cities everywhere are playing the same game, using their own budget woes to go after workers, cutting pay, slashing retirement, laying off workers, closing fire stations, libraries and schools, and cutting many services. Some cities have gone bankrupt trying to keep up with debt payments to the banks, like Vallejo, Stockton and San Bernardino. With each new budget that passes, public workers are laid off and wages and benefits are cut. The city of Scranton, Pennsylvania slashed pay for public workers by 70 percent, bringing down wages to $7.25 and hour.

And everywhere, we’re hearing the same lies and manipulation from the bosses and their politicians. We’re continuously told that workers are the source of the problems, that if it weren’t for overpaid workers, the government would have more money and corporations would make more profit. They want us to believe that our wages are too high, our benefits too good, and our sick-time too generous. We’re told public workers are overpaid as opposed to everyone else is underpaid. They want us to wonder why anyone should have retirements when most people are only a paycheck away from losing it all. For the bosses, all workers are in a race to the bottom to see who can have it the worst. And then the icing on the cake is, after all the cutbacks, we’re told that we should be lucky if we even have a job.

Meanwhile, corporations and the rich have never been wealthier. Corporate profits have been breaking records the last three years in a row and CEO pay and bonuses are back at record highs. Taxes for the super wealthy haven’t been lower in decades while income inequality has never been higher. And after trillions in bailouts, billions in profits and millions in tax breaks, the rich have never had it better.

There is no coincidence here. This massive increase in wealth is the direct result in the decrease of our quality of life. For us, the misery has only increased as we search for jobs that don’t exist, struggle with bills and the rent, and worry about not having a place to live. We hope that our jobs aren’t next in line to be cut as the fear of being next hangs over our heads daily.

The bosses think they have workers right where they want us – divided, pitted against each other, willing to give up more in fear of losing it all. As workers struggle through some of the hardest times – the bosses and the rich are having the time of their lives.