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American Workers Got What They Deserved

Are you an American employee? If so, today’s column will likely offend you. If you’d rather not be offended, read no further. If you continue and then complain, I’m sorry, but that simply proves you’re, well, stupid. But then again, stupidity plays a large role in today’s topic.

Still reading? OK. You’ve had fair warning.

So you’re an American employee. Maybe you make car parts. Maybe you’re an engineer or designer. Maybe you’re an accountant, store clerk or tradesman. Whatever you do, you’re probably stupid or lazy. Yes, I wrote it, and I mean it. You are either stupid or lazy. Maybe both.

Now, I’m not referring to your work ethic or job performance. No, most of you are competent and devoted to your profession or vocation. I’m addressing the way you view economics and employment. I’m challenging your gumption to advocate for yourself and your fellow Americans.  Here’s what I mean.

Remember the Reagan standard? Are you better off today than you were a decade ago? Two decades? Three? Unless you make more than $380,000 a year, the answer is no. In fact, your standard of living over the last quarter century has actually decreased while millionaires have added 30 percent to their net wealth. Why? Two reasons.

First, hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs went overseas while the politicians you elected did nothing to stop them. Yet you continue to elect leaders who offer nothing but tax cuts, as if that would stem the flow of disappearing jobs.

Did you demand your leaders address America’s trade imbalance or continuous outsourcing of jobs? Did you demand your leaders require foreign countries to buy a dollar’s worth of American goods for every dollar of goods they sell here?

No and no. You didn’t bother. You simply crossed your fingers and prayed, “I hope my job’s not next.” You made concessions to your employer and hoped that would stem the exodus of jobs, or at least yours. How did that work for you?

Second, you bought into the myth that unions are the cause of America’s demise. You didn’t bother to learn America became a world power when union membership was at its peak. You didn’t bother to learn America became the envy of the world while 1 of every 3 Americans was a union member.

So, how are things going for you? How do your benefits compare to a quarter century ago? Are you paying a higher or lower percentage of your income for health insurance? Does your company offer a pension plan, or do you now fund your own 401(k)?

Maybe you’re thinking, “I’m not a union worker, so this doesn’t affect me.”

Stop being stupid. Union benefits provide a standard other companies have to match, or at least come close to. When those benefits are cut, yours are, too. Or do you think you operate in your own little employment vacuum?

To make matters worse, you’re again being played for a chump. The same puppets who did nothing while your standard of living decreased are now using the oldest gimmick in the book — jealousy — to continue their assault on American workers. Rather than protect Americans’ jobs, they deflect your attention through jealousy.

“Cut the pay of government workers,” they cry. “Increase their health premiums. Decrease their pensions. Break their unions. After all, you’ve suffered so they should suffer too.” And in your misery, you buy their argument while more jobs head oversees. Pretty stupid, eh?

If their antics weren’t so pathetic, if the consequences weren’t so dire, if they didn’t prey on your stupidity, and if you didn’t buy into their convoluted reasoning, this whole situation would be laughable. But of course it’s not.

I warned you I’d likely offend you, and I suspect I did. But once you overcome your anger, consider my analysis. Then, either wise up and do something about it, or resign yourself to a lower standard of living for the next decade.

Why Can America Afford Tax Cuts for the Rich, But Not Aid to the Unemployed?

The unsavory task of explaining why America apparently can’t afford to help the unemployed but can afford tax cuts for the rich fell to Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) on Sunday.

“Republicans, me included, have supported numerous extensions of unemployment benefits and we’re anxious to do so again,” the Indiana Republican told interviewer Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” “The deficit this year is a trillion dollars for the second year in a row … The American people have had it with runaway federal spending, deficits and debt, and they want to see men and women in Washington, D.C. make the hard choices.”

Polls released last week showed that despite anxiety about spending, registered voters actually favor helping the unemployed even if it adds to the deficit.

Since extended benefits lapsed at the beginning of June, some 2.5 million people prematurely stopped receiving checks. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has called for another vote to reauthorize the benefits on Tuesday, after the replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) has been sworn in. He will presumably give Democrats the 60th vote they need to break the GOP’s filibuster. People who missed checks will be paid retroactively if the bill is approved.

Blue Collar Workers Hanging By a Thread

They arrive for work at 7:25 a.m. and many of their cars are rusting buckets of crud. Except for the boss’s. He drives a Volvo.

Walk in the door at Schaefer Screw Products and there is the enemy — the clock. The oil vapors and solvents are overwhelming. The yellow light is dispiriting. The workers don’t want to be here. The liquor bottles in the weedy lot out back tell part of the story. The graffiti in the bathroom — profanely denouncing “hard workers” — tells the rest.

The workers punch the clock at precisely 7:30 a.m., not a minute later since they would be docked 14 minutes and nobody in America works 14 minutes for free. A quiet resignation settles over them as the roar of the screw grinding machines rev up. Want it or not, they need to be here. After this place, there is no place. Not in today’s America.

This machine shop may be the next wobbling domino in the collapse of the American manufacturing sector and the struggles of its blue-collar workers. There are at least seven shops nearby that are available for lease.

NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, created a free trade block beginning in 1994. But that is only part of the story. The World Trade Organization (WTO) began quietly in 1995, encouraging a sort of worldwide NAFTA that all but eliminated international trade barriers. China was admitted in November 2001 and since then Michigan has lost nearly 400,000 manufacturing jobs or nearly 50 percent of its industrial work force.

For workers here, their boss is the closest they will come to THE MAN. And by THE MAN they mean the bozos in Washington, D.C., who voted for the trade agreements and the bank deregulations that let the jobs slip away and money disappear into thin air.

When they say THE MAN, they mean the wolves on Wall Street who amplified the housing bubble and nearly took the world economy down. Instead of paying the price and going out of business and collecting their own unemployment checks, the Wall Street wizards got a multibillion-dollar bailout and bonuses.

Goldman Sachs, which was a heartbeat away from failure in 2008 and received $40 billion in federal aid, paid out $16 billion in bonuses and compensation in 2009 — an average of nearly $500,000 per employee. The bank paid just $14 million in taxes.

At the same time, Deutsche Bank forecasts that a quarter of homeowners are underwater and RealtyTrac.com reported 315,000 foreclosures in January, the most for that month on record. Many economists are predicting a bleak year in the housing market if wages and unemployment don’t improve.

“You feel the whole thing’s a swindle,” says Cindi Borbi, the 59-year-old account manager behind a desk in a cloud of cigarette smoke. Her husband took his life last year after being let go from his auto supply firm. He left his wife a broken heart, a mound of debt and a house she can’t pay for. “I’m looking for a basement if you’ve got one.”

Senate Passes Unemployment Benefit Extension

The Senate voted Tuesday to pass a $10 billion measure to extend benefits for unemployed workers and fund road projects after Sen. Jim Bunning agreed to end his filibuster.

The 78-19 vote on the 30-day extension known as H.R. 4691 came minutes after the Kentucky Republican made a final plea on the floor of the Senate for his colleagues not to borrow the money.

President Obama praised the effort after signing the bill late Tuesday.

“The bill passed tonight by the Senate will extend access to health care benefits for workers who have lost their jobs, help small businesses get loans so they can grow and hire, and extend unemployment insurance benefits for millions of Americans who are looking for work,” Obama said. “I’m grateful to the members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle who worked to end this roadblock to relief for America’s working families,” the statement said.

Unemployment Extensions to Millions Still Locked Up in Political Games

Jobless benefits suddenly ended for some laid-off workers, Medicare payments to doctors were delayed and 2,000 federal transportation workers were sent home Monday in a spending dispute tinged with election-year politics.

Adding its voice to the flap, the White House said it was trying to “shame” Republican Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky for single-handedly blocking the $10 billion extension. Bunning said he opposed the extension because it would add to the budget deficit, already projected to hit a record $1.56 trillion this year.

Most laid-off workers receiving unemployment benefits won’t be affected — unless the impasse drags on — but those seeking payment extensions won’t be able to obtain them.

With the nation’s highest unemployment rate at 14.6 percent in December, Michigan’s jobless ranks far outstrip the nation, which has an average 9.7 percent jobless rate.

“We have the highest unemployment rate in the country, and middle-class families are struggling to put food on the table as workers continue searching for new jobs and train for new careers,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, said in a statement. “These workers and their families cannot afford to wait for help.”