Let Them Eat iPads!

Whether or not Marie Antoinette ever uttered the phrase that modern myth-makers have attributed to the much maligned monarch to help spark the French Revolution, there is less doubt surrounding the harsh realities of a peasant's life in late18th century France. Rising bread prices, unemployment, rising war-related debt, an inefficient financial system leading to difficulties managing said debt exacerbated by the burden of an inadequate system of taxation and a ruling class disconnected and isolated from the realities of the day-to-day life of the population are all cited as causes leading up to the storming of the Bastilles. Fortunately, as North Americans finish their Labor Day holiday (Labour up north, eh), they can enjoy those picnic hotdogs all the more in the knowledge we've come a long way since 1789, as democracy and capitalism have spread and taken hold guaranteeing an equal voice and opportunity for all.

The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting
- Milan Kundera

The trick you see is to help/make a majority of the people ignore the relevant facts by distorting or drowning them out. Let's start with the holiday itself. The first Labor Day celebration in the US was nothing but a parade organized by unions in New York on September 5, 1882, as a celebration of "the strength and spirit of the American worker." Their goals were simple: decent wages, an eight-hour workday and the right to organize. The national holiday wasn't instated until twelve years later in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland needed good publicity cover for, get this, crushing a labour strike by sending in troops during the economic depression known as the Panic of 1893. Politicians and labour leaders were content to keep the holiday in September, far from the growing popularity of May Day. Both the workers and Cleveland turned out to be the losers as Grover lost the Democratic nomination in 1896 and the reforms labour sought did not come about for nearly half a century when the Depression-era fair labour laws that were passed under Franklin D. Roosevelt finally set standards like the eight-hour day and an end to child labour.

Those laws (and the US hegemony of the post-WWII world) set the stage for an era of unparallelled growth and prosperity. All this success inevitably bred the hunger for more, and more now. Satiating today's desires became more important than tomorrow's which were less pressing than next week's. In the business world this was reflected in a culture that rewarded results this quarter through increasing stock prices and executive pay and neglected the necessity for planning for a few years down the road. People worked longer hours, women entered the workforce then they took on two jobs or overtime. When this wasn't enough they simply financed it in an orgy of credit cards, payday loans and even turned their homes into cash machines. Of course all of this was cheered on by corporate America which adapted by shifting the entire economy away from manufacturing towards financing all that debt. General Electric doesn't make their money producing light bulbs, they are now first and foremost a finance company. This seemed great for everyone for awhile, those at the bottom needed money to keep buying more stuff, those at the top needed somewhere to invest all the cash they were making and the financial intermediaries gladly created ever more complex securities to shuffle the money from one to the other.

Well, we know all know how that wound up. Luckily the US today is nothing like France in 1789, you remember - "Rising bread prices, unemployment, rising war-related debt, an inefficient financial system leading to difficulties managing said debt exacerbated by the burden of an inadequate system of taxation and ruling royalty disconnected and isolated from the realities of the day-to-day life of the population". We're told by government statistics that inflation is under control so bread prices can't be a problem; somehow printing trillions to bail out the banks and to lend them at near zero interest rates hasn't affected prices. Oh, that's right, core inflation is what they talk about. Core, meaning the price of everything that we don't need to live, as it excludes the price of food and energy. Lucky those new iPads are tasty and keep us warm at night. Meanwhile, the financial industry has done a great job of using their free cash to bid up the price of food and oil.

"Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become"
- Arthur Schopenhauer

Incomes have risen to meet the real increased cost of living - if you were already rich to start with at least. Today, he richest 1% of households earn as much each year as the bottom 60% put together taking in a quarter of the nation's income; they possess as much wealth as the bottom 90%; with each passing year, a greater share of the nation’s treasure flows through their hands and into their pockets giving them control of 40% of the nation's riches. In twenty-five years they have more than doubled their share of income while wealth rose from 33% of the total. "Meh", says Joe six-pack, "it's not so much how you divide the pie that matters, it's how big the pie is, besides, one day, I could be part of the 1%." Unbeknownst to him, median incomes declined outright from 1999 to 2009 for those lucky enough to still have a job. For 90 percent of American workers, incomes have stagnated or fallen for the past three decades, while they've ballooned at the top, and exploded at the very tippy-top: By 2008, the wealthiest 0.1% were making 6.4 times as much as they did in 1980 (adjusted for inflation).

Cruelly, the August jobs report released just last week showed that no jobs were created which really represents a net loss as at least 125,000 are needed to keep up with population growth. Since the end of 2007, America’s potential labour force – working-age people who want jobs – has grown by over 7 million but the number of Americans with jobs has shrunk by more than 300,000. We're told the unemployment rate has been over 9% for a couple of years which sounds horrible enough but is nothing when compared to reality. Again, statistics are manipulated to manufacture cold comfort as reported unemployment only measures active job seekers and takes no account of underemployment. Taking into account long-term discouraged workers who were defined out of official existence in 1994 and those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time work, the SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate is 22.8%.

Did someone say rising war related debt? Again, if you live in America, about half of you have been convinced that the debt was either created by greedy teachers or is part of President Obama's plan to sell you into indentured servitude to his Muslim Kenyan drunk uncle. Step back, get off the Tea Party, Koch crack. If the Bush-era tax cuts are renewed next year, that policy will by 2019 be the single largest contributor to the nation's public debt -- "the sum of annual budget deficits, minus annual surpluses" -- according to new (well, May) analysis from the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Graph's on the right. These tax breaks, combined with the cost of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will account for nearly half the public debt in 2019, measured as a percentage of economic output.

Oh, it only gets worse war worriers. These figures surely underestimated the costs associated with almost 50% of returning troops eligible to receive some level of disability payment and more than 600,000 treated so far in veterans’ medical facilities. But the social costs, reflected in veteran suicides (which have topped 18 per day in recent years) and family breakups, are incalculable. Am I the only one twisted enough to find it funny that so many people have been convinced to back the union busting way of governors from Wisconsin to Ohio, Michigan and Florida by snake-oil salesmen to cut deficits when in fact it was increased defense spending, together with the Bush tax cuts that were key reason why America went from a fiscal surplus of 2% of GDP when Bush was elected to its parlous deficit and debt position today. That is the real reason wieners like Rep. Eric Cantor say the country needs to find savings elsewhere before helping the people of Vermont after a catastrophe.

Efficient modern financial market have turned out to be nothing but a pipedream as they've turned out to be worse than those in the time of Jean Valjean. We've spent countless trillions propping up a system that is rotten to the core. Without Faux News or lunatics screaming CNBC about subsidizing deadbeat homeowners creating moral hazard we may have done just that, keeping a roof over people's head instead of, you know, creating moral hazard by giving cash to the bank. The muppets keep droning on spouting supposed financial forecasting knowing full well that economists are nothing but people who see something working in practice and try to figure out if it would work in theory. Voila, socialized losses and privatized gains for the banks. The financial system creates NO wealth on its own, its value lies in its ability to efficiently allocate capital, to smoothly transfer money from savers to spenders. The key word is efficiently, there shouldn't be much friction in the system. Yet the µ (Mu) has been rising - the financial industry has increase its share of US domestic corporate profits from 16% in 1985 to over 40% today.

One need look no further than the hostage taking of Dollarmageddon this summer for proof of a nation having difficulties managing its debt. Here we see the malevolent influence of money on the gears of power as the paid lackeys parading as congressmen in Washington do the bidding of their corporate masters, creating a crisis to allow them to implement their agenda. This Kibuki theatre play is worsened by the false-front democracy of a two-party system where one is dumb, greedy, evil and only exists to be re-elected in the next cycle and the other is well, a bit dumber, greedier and more evil hoping to be elected in the next cycle. In fact, faced with a near insurmountable mountain of debt and only two ways to narrow the deficit, lowering spending and raising taxes, not one of the presidential candidates for the dumber, greedier and eviler side would consider the latter. That'll get you a credit downgrade and qualify as a difficulty managing debt.

Bigger? Click.

The final ingredient in the French Revolution, a ruling class disconnected and isolated from the realities of the day-to-day life of the population, is in heavy supply in today's America. Wall Street controls Washington through K Street with no regard to Main Street. It turns out that at a time when austerity for everyone but the rich in order to pay back the banks leaving less money for the economy is the only accepted prescription offered by the ruling class, it's better to have no government like in Belgium. You'd expect some empathy when thanks to the recession, the number of American families no longer earning enough to pass the minimum threshold to pay income tax has risen from 30% to 47%. Never mind that the number of children now living in poverty has risen to 15 million, 21% of all children in the US, that 45 million people rely on food stamps to survive, or that these people pay a myriad of other more regressive taxes such as payroll, sales, state and local - no, the crazier party believes they should pay more. That's right, CEO's who are massively rewarded with higher pay for helping their corporations dodge taxes don't need to pay any taxes (a must read report, infographic on the left), but the poor, well, they need to pay more. Forget that it's those people spending that keeps the economy going - consumer spending accounts for 70% of economic activity - they need to be taxed more. About the only elite who doesn't seem blind to the chaos caused by the chasm between us and them is one of the three richest men in the world, Warren Buffet, who took the the NY Times op-ed page to call for an end to the coddling of the super-rich. What, and have them pay as much as under Clinton? Outrageous!

Our democracy is but a name. We vote. What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real -- though not avowed -- autocrats. We choose between 'Tweedledum' and 'Tweedledee'.
- Helen Keller

In fact, some elites have become so blinded with rage by the situation somehow caused by the rest, they've decided to pull up stakes and let the poor fend for themselves. Yep, John Galt himself would be proud. Those who in their benevolence choose to stay and help us poor plebs will be sure to fight to ensure that all of their tax advantages stay in place. Of course the politicians in Washington, most of whom are part of the 1% anyway, have every incentive to only listen to the richest voices, they'll need jobs after getting out of office, self-interest and all, you know? Strangely - or more correctly - predictably enough, turns out senators only listen to the rich (PDF of study here). No wonder that slightly more evil party even thinks poor people voting is un-American.



It's all about convincing enough of the people things are fine and lies, such as the one that businesses aren't hiring because of taxes and regulation. The corporate tax rate is supposedly the highest in the world at 35% yet over 100 companies on the S&P 500 paid less than 20%, GE earned billions at home while paying nothing as did at least 15 others. Media, from Hollywood to your iPad has served her corporate masters well as it seems as long as we can buy more stuff, never mind if it's made in China and sold at Wal-Mart, everything is better than before. Amazingly, with all of the propaganda their exposed to, when asked about income distribution, Americans tend to think they live in Sweden, wish they lived in a Socialist utopia but in fact live in Turkmenistan or the Uganda. No offense Turkmen and Ugandans.

American workers' have seen their number of hours worked per week rise along with their productivity which magically seems to grow corporate profits but not median salaries. They put in an average of 122 more hours per year than Brits, 137 hours more than Japanese workers and 378 hours (nearly 10 weeks!) more than Germans. It's the only country besides Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Samoa, and Swaziland that doesn't legislate paid time off for new moms and the only country in the OECD where a right to weekends off and paid vacation time isn't guaranteed. The only explanation of satisfaction for those living in a country where income mobility is falling and people get excited when McDonald's is hiring is some weird twisted ur-myth of Ben Franklin-Horatio Alger-Henry Ford where through hard work one can attain the American Dream and become rich and successful. To get ahead though, a 70-hour work week has become the new standard. I've got news for anyone who doesn't realize the economic catastophe of the past few years will make it easier for employers to demand more while giving less. Is there any wonder why illegal drug use is at a decade high and prescription drug abuse has surged 400% in a decade while mental illness has skyrocketed?

Reality doesn't hit most until they're one of the 50 million Americans without health insurance and they get sick in a country that spends the most for health care (about double) for less than average results. They don't care until joining the 25.3 million Americans out of work, forced to work part-time, unable to find a full-time job or have given up searching for a job in the past month. Giving up is easy when they realize there is one job for every 4.5 job seekers. If you're wondering where the jobs are check out the chart to the right. By avoiding the responsibilities of taxes that mere people are required to pay and squeezing ever higher productivity out of workers while firing domestically and hiring elsewhere, American corporations are sitting pretty while workers only defense in the past, unions, are losing more and more power. In fact, the ratio of corporate profits to wages is now higher than any time since before the Great Depression. Apple, Exxon and Goldman Sachs don't exist to make our lives better in the crony capitalism that we've allowed to develop, in fact they seem a lot better at making them worse - just like the economy is going to get on our present course, hello double dip, er, recession I mean! Will it take a Robespierre to rally the retards or will enough people simply pitching tents on Wall Street September 17th to let the banksters know the other 99% are suffering? Either way, I'd say let capitalism make you rich and invest in a good, solid guillotine maker.



More suggested reading and doing:
Can the Middle Class be Saved?
The Rise of the New Global Elite
Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%
Occupy Wall Street September 17th
US Uncut
Great charts and graphs here and here

Moral Corrosion

As much of the world celebrated May Day, a day devoted to the worker which many have been indoctrinated to believe is a Communist holiday, we seem to be standing on a cultural, economic and political precipice. Voices are screaming from all directions telling us that a new pandemic is upon us while fascists are seizing control of government as the global markets teeter on the brink of collapse. Somehow during the last decade we seem to have lost the ability to objectively step back and assess situations, both good and bad, and come up with solutions to problems or game plans for success. Neither swine flu, economic depression nor waterboarding will bring about the end of the world, but you couldn't guess by reading the news.

It's hard to imagine the world pre-Y2K. Here I am typing away on my laptop on the couch in Poznan, Poland, connected to the internet by an invisible beam that grants me access to the world. Back then, I was in Canada, working at a bank, I used the internet for email, browsed a few web pages, some news oriented, many pornographic, the rest fantasy sports related. My news was still fed to me mainly through the TV, mostly CNN with most of the other networks providing entertainment of one sort or the other. I'd pick up the odd newspaper and sometimes hear the news on the way to work in my car, sometimes balanced, occasionally wacky, there were even shock jocks like Howard Stern to spice things up now and then. Perhaps my vantage point has changed more than most, but I'm assuming (dangerous word that) most people reading these words now get the majority or their information via these internets from blogs, tweets or web pages. Many more still get their news from the TV, but a different TV than I knew. There was no 'Faux' News. CNN blared in the background occasionally, but not continuously as it must do now, unless it's FOX or MSNBC, BBC or TV5. Since then we've lurched from crisis to crisis, Y2K, tsunamis, stolen election, 9/11, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, snipers, Colombia, Kerry, SARS, mad cow, 11-M, 7/7, Katrina, Virginia Tech, Sudan, Gaza, Burma, oops, Myanmar, Bali, North Korea, Pakistan, economic depression, avian flu and now swine flu to name but a few.

Point, yes. Swine flu. Well, chances are it will blow by, but we ALL know about it. Depression, that too, so steps are being taken. But while we also know that the US government executed Japanese generals for ordering waterboarding on American POW's during WWII, it still seems OK for Americans to order and execute the same torture on their own POW's, or illegal combatants. It took less than a decade, and one f#cked up terrorist attack to get to a point where our moral compass is being spun for us, by those intent on not even allowing one to form their own opinion on the ethical question of whether torture is right or wrong. Obfuscation of the question, causing confusion, bewilderment and stupefaction has been facilitated by this 24/7 news culture. The world would end when pigs flu, but it has a way to go to overtake the Spanish, Hong Kong or even just the Asian variety this century as we now seem to know what to do. The issue of torture is simply whether it's right or wrong, but the question for the masses gets mixed up with a witches brew of distractions: "is it torture?", it is, "did or does it work?", it didn't, doesn't and won't, hint: do you really believe that waterboarding someone the 183rd time in a month is any more likely to reveal information than the 182nd?, "why did Obama release the memos?", to clear the air, confirming what we already knew therefore allowing us to make up our mind about what to do, "are we now less safe?", well, thanks to the policies of torture, future American POW's will be, "was McCain speaking the truth when he mentioned the Japanese general executions?", he was. The Third Geneva Convention was created to protect prisoners of war off the battlefield. If one nation is allowed to flaunt these laws because crazy brown people are cutting off their prisoners' heads, what's to stop the rest of the world from doing the same to that nation sometime down the road? Therefore, you just don't do it. However, this question, like the flu, economics, or gay rights can be spun any which way you want these days with mind numbing effects thanks to these invisible connections.



Oops, sidetracked again, point. Yes, swine flu. Got your mask? Chrysler now being controlled by the American and Canadian government, the UAW and a (gasp) European company (Fiat) is sure to be held up as more socialist/fascist fodder for the masses that still cling to the elephantine ideals of the Republicans in America. Tea bags won't save you this time, we're talking unions, governments and Europeans, not just raising taxes from 36% to 39% on income earned over a quarter million, real socialism. Dude, get a grip. (OK, maybe it's only the top 2% of earners today...) Cars are so 1950's, so the government won't pay indefinitely to keep producing them like they keep doing for the new millennium financial industry. Strange how no one questioned the swing in our ethics as it became more and more normal for our youth to enroll in 'business', 'finance' or 'economics' degrees while previous generations valued 'medicine', 'engineering' or 'philosophy'. Stocks in our 401k, RRSP or European retirement versions became more important than those worn by our workers or Guantanamo prisoners. Is it any surprise that now you can fool people into believing anything? Torture can simply be called robbery to advance your political agenda so why not do it to save lives?

The talking point that sticks in many people's heads is that thanks to the advanced interrogation techniques, or torture, attacks were averted and therefore innocent lives saved. The ticking time bomb scenario is used ad nauseum. Problem is it's not the right question. Yes, it's a familiar tactic by the 'left' as well in issues such as climate change. The sea is rising, ice caps are melting, we're all going to die. However, even this issue, when one is allowed to step back and think, can be boiled down to a simple 2 outcome question. Do something or don't. I for one think something should be done instead of confusing the debate by questioning whether or not we're causing the problem, debating if environmentalism is a communist plot or what Al Gore's motive is. Do something or don't, simple. While Obama's saving the banksters has been a wrongheaded approach to saving the economy, imagine the right wing ire if he'd of spent that same amount of money on greening the economy. Sure, he'd of been right, but instead of cries that he is steering his country towards a socialist state or a one world government and currency, he'd of moved away from the nation's vested interest in the status quo, where their might is still right.

More TVs and god cars equals more happiness, the average Joe works longer and harder, gets fatter and dumber while being fed from the fear factory. Most of the other kinds of factories have been relocated abroad, while the financial industry has grown to replace them. Somewhat ironically, that same industry has poisoned the economy, while the one that could produce the vaccines to save lives against pandemics such as the swine flu has been outsourced to China. The US has only one flu vaccination manufacturing plant left today. Our choices today have repercussions tomorrow, whether it's repealing Glass-Steagall or authorizing torture. The Bush, Cheney and Rice's are still running around the question, while others like Alyssa Peterson have paid the ultimate price for their hubris. Worse yet for many further down the chain of command, "I was only following orders" isn't an acceptable line of defence, especially if you're on the losing side like John Demjanjuk, a man possibly known as Ivan the Terrible more than 60 years ago and still being hunted down today.

Being the leader of the world comes with a price, not only a debt. Flag-waving, pin-wearing, jingoistic hysteria took a nation to war as everyone stood by, then moved on to putting prisoners on Guantanamo, using off-shore ships or other countries in what has become known as 'extraordinary renditions' to sidestep the Convention Against Torture rules while claiming that "America does not torture". Throw in some legal mumbo jumbo, label POW's unlawful combatants, unsign international treaties and create some chaos with a little help from some background noise. So where do we find guidance? Funny enough, the more religious you are, the more likely you are to believe torture is OK under certain circumstances. I'm not a big bible guy, but the whole do unto others quote seems to apply here quite nicely, for if you ignore it you never know when you'll be repaid in spades. To avoid this moral quagmire altogether, we have the rule of law. The last 10 years has seen a huge shift in how we see the issues of the day along with a growing taste for taking the easy route. In medicine, economics and morals: "you start taking shortcuts, and over time that corrodes what’s best in a people. It corrodes the character of a country.

May Day

Aaaah, long weekend, a five day one for me, toiling as an English teacher here in Poznań, Poland, almost exactly at the mid-point between Warsaw and Berlin. While snoozing on the train returning home from a camping trip near Gdansk, I got to thinking about the holiday most everyone here in Europe was enjoying along with me. Did I know why I was able to take this trip, relax for the better part of a week, does anybody know? Foggy memories of May 1st growing up in Canada in the 70's and 80's I can remember the news showing parades in Red Square in Moscow as they put on a show for the world to see the might of the communist system. Soldiers and tanks marching and rolling beside ICBMs as the First Secretary looked down and saluted from time to time. For me, May Day, or International Workers' Day, equalled communism. As my train rolled out of the Gdansk station I could turn my head and just make out the tall cranes in the shipyard, where another association formed in my head, one with the shipyard and the Solidarity movement of the 1980's here in Poland and it's role in bringing down the Iron Curtain and opening the door to capitalism and the American Dream.

Wikipedia describes May Day as "a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labour movement." In Canada and the US, we have a similar day, known as Labour Day (or Labor Day in the US) celebrated on the first Monday of September. Ironically, the reason the rest the world celebrates on the 1st of May arose out of an incident that took place in America. May 1st 1886 was designated as the start of general strike across the US and Canada in support of the 8-hour working day movement. On Tuesday May 4th rallies were held across the continent. Although the intent was peaceful and most of the gatherings produced no problems, the centre of the movement and therefore the biggest rally was held in Chicago, where events took a tragic turn. In what has become known as the Haymarket affair, a bomb was thrown at advancing policemen and shots were fired from both sides resulting in the deaths of seven policemen and an unknown number of civilians.

Unfortunately, the bloody past of this day doesn't end in Chicago. The May Day riots of 1894 and 1919 in Cleveland, Ohio were due in part to what has become known as the First Red Scare, the widespread fear of communism and anarchism following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The Taksim Square massacre in Turkey occurred May 1st, 1977 where between 34 and 42 people were killed when shots were fired leading to security agents responding with lethal force. Curiously, the Taksim events began with unknown people firing gunshots, while the Haymarket affair also began with an unknown assailant throwing the bomb, leading to many conspiracy theories, mostly involving anti-communist agents. In the Taksim affair, shots came from either the water supply company or the Intercontinental hotel leading many to believe it was a plot by the CIA or the Deep State.

The labour movement began as a way to reduce working hours and generally improve working people's lives. The original goal was an 8-hour work day and a 40-hour work week. The mantra of 8 hours of labour, 8 hours of recreation and 8 hours of rest seems to make sense; have we gotten there in 2008. The answer would have to be yes and no. The OECD(organization for economic co-operation and development) produces lots of lovely charts and graphs showing that hours worked has fallen from 1970 to 2006. People in countries like Japan and Ireland are working less, while Americans are working more. The average hours worked is calculated as the total numbers of hours worked over the year divided by the average numbers of people in employment. However, as we all know, statistics don't always tell the whole truth. What is hidden in these numbers is the fact that there are more families where both parents are working therefore lowering the average number of hours worked per person, while the number of hours worked per household has increased. In addition, government data on hours worked don't capture time put in off the job, such as during weekends, or after-hours work that many salaried employees do on laptops, mobile phones and e-mail. Also hidden by the averaging is the growing number of people at both extremes in number of hours worked. The part-timers and the overtimers. Believe it or not, there is a Japanese word, karoshi, and a Chinese word, guolaosi, that literally translate to working yourself to death. A recent study showed that "long working hours increased an individual's chances of illness and injury. It noted that for those doing 12 hours a day, there was a 37% increase in risk compared to those working fewer hours." In another twist, the origins of the labour movement was to decrease the number of hours worked by blue collar workers, whereas today it is the white collar workers who are under the most pressure to work longer hours.

So why are we working so hard? To make more money silly. Why do we need more money? To buy more things silly! All this hard work should at least pay off, so we can head down to the mall and buy some new shoes. Wrong. Huh? How could this be? We're working more hours, and at the same time productivity has never been higher thanks to technology, therefore we should be able to buy more stuff. Not so fast brother. While we're working harder, the money we're earning is worth less and less. Real wages are what's important, how much stuff we can buy with the money we earn. So, if inflation is growing faster than our nominal wages, our real wages are actually shrinking, and yes, this is what's been happening. Measured in 1982 constant dollars, in 1972 the average American's weekly salary was $331.59, in 2004 it was $277.57, and real wages fell again in 2005, 2006 and 2007. You might be thinking, well, that's only in America, but it's happening in a nearly identical fashion over here, even in Germany where real wages are nearly at the same level as they were in 1986.

Worker productivity, the increased output of goods and services per hour worked, is up, the world economy has expanded, yet the workers are no better, or worse, off than a couple of decades ago. In an age where globalization and free markets were to bring an equitable distribution of wealth, we're seeing the opposite happen, and at an accelerating pace. I'm all for the concept of hard work and the American dream when everyone is playing on a level field. Unfortunately the field of play is tilting more and more in favour of the holders of capital. In the US, wages and salaries make up a smaller percentage of GNP than anytime since records began being kept in 1947, while corporate profits are at their highest share since the 60's. At the same time executive salaries are at higher levels than ever before. Plus, I'm sorry to say that the situation will only get worse, not better. The holders of capital are the same people who are shaping economic policies and they don't notice that the price of bread and rice is rising at a pace not seen since the 70's. The labour movement is slowly losing it's strongest component, unions. Union membership. In 1983, unionized workers made up 20% of the American workforce, it's under 12% today. No, I don't love unions, but the fact is, in lieu of decent labour laws, unions are the best option to protect workers and their wages.


Unless you live in Norway or the Netherlands you probably work more hours per day than a 14th century labourer in the UK. If you're lucky enough to live in South Korea, congratulations, you work more hours than anyone else in the world. In my adopted home of Poland, workers are the fifth hardest working according to the OECD. 25 years ago their parents were fighting for a non-communist trade union in a communist country. Martial law was the Soviet response to the demands of the people, but in the end, the will of the people won the day, and many believe helped bring down the Iron Curtain. Today's methods are much more subtle, when I asked my students what they did for the holiday, more of them worked on May 1st than took a vacation. They want to buy a car to drive to work. And me? I just want to catch a train to the next campsite...