IS THE DEMS’ MINIMUM WAGE DEBATE ANOTHER DEVICE TO RAISE
WAGES FOR MILLIONS OF ILLEGALS IN OUR BORDERS, JOBS AND VOTING BOOTHS???
DURING OBAMA’S FIRST TERM ALONE, NEARLY TWO-THIRDS OF ALL JOBS WENT TO IMMIGRANTS, BOTH LEGAL AND ILLEGAL.
DURING OBAMA’S FIRST TERM ALONE, NEARLY TWO-THIRDS OF ALL JOBS WENT TO IMMIGRANTS, BOTH LEGAL AND ILLEGAL.
OBAMA AND HIS HAREM OF WALL STREET-FUNDED CORRUPT
POLITICIANS SABOTAGED E-VERIFY, AMERICAN BORDERS, AND AMERICAN LAWS PROHIBITING
THE EMPLOYMENT OF ILLEGALS.
UNDER OBAMA WORKPLACE ENFORCEMENT OF THESE LAWS PLUMMETED
70%.
The
Republicans more or less openly argue that the solution to unemployment is for
workers to be paid starvation wages. But neither the Democrats nor the
so-called liberal press take the position that workers have a right to a living
wage, which must take precedence over the amassing of corporate profit and
accumulation of personal wealth by the super-rich.
The US minimum wage “debate”
21
February 2014
On
Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report estimating the
effects of raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour, as
proposed by the Obama administration. The report intensified the debate within
the political and media establishment over a possible increase in the minimum
wage.
The
report concluded that the minimum wage hike would increase pay for 16.5 million
Americans, but eliminate 500,000 jobs. According to the CBO report, the
increase would lift 900,000 people, or 0.2 percent of the population, out of
poverty. This is a tiny fraction of the 46.5 million people—or 15 percent of
the population—now living below the federal poverty line.
The
Democratic proposal would leave the minimum wage at a lower level, in real
terms, than it was in 1968, nearly 50 years ago. At $10.10 an hour, a worker
laboring 34 hours a week—the average in America—would earn an annual pre-tax
income of $17,856. This is significantly lower than the government’s absurdly
low poverty threshold for a family of three.
If the
minimum wage had kept up with increases in worker productivity in the US, it
would have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012, according to a study by the Center
for Economic and Policy Research.
Broadly
speaking, those sections of the ruling class aligned with the Republican Party
are opposed to an increase in the minimum wage. Those aligned with the
Democrats, which are closer to the trade union bureaucracy and somewhat more
sensitive to popular opposition to social inequality and the danger of social
upheavals, are backing a minimal increase.
The very
fact that a minor increase in the minimum wage from a level that ensures
near-destitution provokes such controversy within the political establishment,
under conditions of the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression,
only underscores the bankruptcy of the entire political system and its contempt
for the great majority of the population.
The
so-called debate consists of haggling over estimates of lost jobs as a result
of increased pay and arguing whether or not minimally raising the minimum wage
will actually benefit corporate profits. The Republicans more or less openly argue
that the
solution to unemployment is for
workers to be paid starvation wages. But
neither the Democrats nor the so-called
liberal press take the position that
workers
have a right to a living wage, which must take
precedence over the
amassing of corporate
profit and accumulation of personal wealth by
the
super-rich.
The
underlying premise of both sides in the “debate” is that no measure is possible
that significantly impinges on corporate profits or the wealth of the American
corporate-financial elite. The
prerogatives of the financial aristocracy take absolute priority over the
access of millions of people to adequate nutrition, livable housing, a decent
education and a secure retirement.
That the
Democrats present their paltry proposal as a major social reform and
significant step to reduce social inequality is an expression of the
longstanding abandonment by the Democrats of any program of social reform. The minimum wage proposal is a
diversion and public relations maneuver, designed to distract attention from
the brutal austerity measures the Obama administration is carrying out.
Obama’s
empty talk of reducing economic inequality and increasing opportunity takes
place as opinion polls show his popular support sharply falling. Tens of
millions who voted for him on the basis of his slogan of “change” and the
belief that an African American president would be more sympathetic to the
plight of working and poor people have bitterly concluded that they were taken
for a ride.
The
sudden emphasis by the White House and the Democratic Party on raising the
minimum wage is a transparent political ploy to mobilize the trade union
bureaucracy and its liberal and pseudo-left allies behind the Democrats in the
2014 midterm elections. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a press
conference at the federation’s annual winter meeting on Wednesday: “Raising
wages for all workers is the issue of our time and, hopefully, will be the
issue of this election.”
For
decades, an increase in the federal minimum wage was a semi-automatic, barely
contested aspect of US politics. The federal minimum wage, established under
the New Deal in 1938, has been increased more than a dozen times. In 2007,
Congress passed a law to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 in three
annual increments.
At the
time, the move received overwhelming bipartisan support, with only three
Republican senators voting against the measure. But now, the question of a
routine increase in the minimum wage is raised to the level of a progressive
crusade.
During
the last period of economic crisis comparable to the present one, American
capitalism under Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted genuine social reforms that
reduced poverty and somewhat narrowed the gap between rich and poor. The New
Deal instituted Social Security, enacted a minimum wage, banned child labor,
raised taxes on the rich, gave legal sanction to the unions and legislated the
eight-hour day.
These
were not charitable gifts from the ruling class, but concessions won through
mass social struggles, including a wave of semi-insurrectionary strikes and
plant occupations that led to the birth of the mass industrial trade unions.
None of these measures challenged the basic class interests of the American
ruling elite, whom Roosevelt was seeking to save from the threat of social
revolution, but they did facilitate a substantial rise in living standards for
millions of workers.
There are
no social reforms on offer today. The Democrats’ proposal for a trivial increase in
the minimum wage comes as social inequality is hitting unprecedented levels.
The net worth of America’s billionaires reached $1.2 trillion last year, more
than double what it was in 2009. Meanwhile, median household income in the US
plummeted by 8.3 percent between 2007 and 2012.
Corporate
profits have shot up more than 170 percent under Obama, a greater increase than
under any other president. Corporate profits today as a share of the gross
domestic product are the highest since records began in 1947, while the share
of GDP going to wages has fallen to record lows. Since 2009, wages in the auto
industry, which the Obama administration singled out for restructuring, have
declined an average of ten percent, generating record profits for the Big Three
auto makers.
The
impoverishment of masses of workers at one pole of society has produced untold
riches at the other. CEO pay is up sharply at major US corporations. Google
announced it will award Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt $100 million in stock,
on top of a $6 million cash bonus, for 2013, bringing his personal fortune to
some $8 billion. The Google CEO pocketed $190 every minute and made in one hour
what a typical minimum-wage worker makes in a year!
The
social resources exist to guarantee all people the right to a decent income,
housing, health care, and education. But society’s wealth is monopolized by a
tiny financial oligarchy, which controls every lever of political power.
There is
no answer to poverty wages and unemployment outside of a direct struggle to
break the stranglehold of this plutocracy. The only way to secure the right to
a decent standard of living is to build a mass movement of the working class on
the basis of a socialist program aimed at reorganizing society to meet social
needs, instead of the profit interests of the corporate-financial elite.
Andre
Damon
WALL STREET LOOTS!
MASSIVE UNEMPLOYMENT IN AMERICA AS
OBAMA and the DEMOCRAT PARTY PUSH OUR BORDERS OPEN, SABOTAGE E-VERIFY, AND
PROMISE ILLEGALS NO ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS PROHIBITING THE EMPLOYMENT of ILLEGALS…
it’s all about buy the Mexican vote and keeping wages depressed for DEM POL
paymasters!
There are mounting warnings by economists that the US confronts
long-term economic stagnation and high unemployment into the indefinite
future….
"We could cut unemployment in half simply by
reclaiming the jobs taken by illegal workers," said
Representative Lamar Smith
more at this link – post on your Facebook and email broadcast
The
goal of the Obama administration, working with the Republicans and local
governments, is to roll back the living conditions of the vast majority of the
population to levels not seen since the 19th century, prior to the advent of
the eight-hour day, child labor laws, comprehensive public education, pensions,
health benefits, workplace health and safety regulations, etc.
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