|
This program is on Link right now (CST), but I'm sure will be re-run. It's a lecture type program on capitalism and how we got to where we are. The man covers our country's history, wages, manufacturing....he's making all those complex things understandable. It's a fascinating, informative program, if you get a chance to watch even part of.
For example, he talked about from early 1800's to 1975, the U.S. working people had rising wages during that whole time. That stopped in the 1970's. Wages have been flat ever since. He explains why (4 main reasons). Then he goes on to state...wait...this is good...how workers coped with that was: WORK MORE HOURS. From the 1970's to now, American workers have INCREASED the hours they work by 20%, while EVERY OTHER INDUSTRIAL COUNTRY's workers have DECREASED the hours they work during that same time period. Quite simply, we're working our asses off.
He's talking about credit cards now. That's how banks coped with the flat wages. They had to find a way to get money out of the workers that the workers did not have. Before credit cards, you had to give collateral for a loan. But with credit cards, no collateral is necessary. Ba-da-bing. Now they can loan massive amounts of money to working people who don't have anything, for extremely high rates of interest.
Very interesting show.
Oh, and the 4 main reasons the man listed for wages going flat (they weren't what I thought they'd be): 1. Computers. Computers put hundreds of people out of work for every computer used. 2. Women. For the first time, large numbers of women entered the work force. 3. Immigrants. Beginning in the 1970's, huge numbers of immigrants flowed into the U.S., mainly from South and Central America, but also from other countries. 4. Outsourcing jobs to other countries began, when Europe and Japan recovered after WWII and started competing successfully against America in manufacturing. Instead of upping their game, American businesses decided to join them, since they couldn't beat them. They started outsourcing to them, and shutting down businesses and jobs here.
These four things, he said, combined to stop wages from rising. As he said previously, workers, feeling the pinch, responded by working more hours to get more money.
He also talked about the things our leaders are trying now to help the country, and spoke about how most of them are identical to things tried before, either here or in other countries. And none of them solved the problems. I'm interested to see if he points to an example of something that worked in some country. I hope.
|