The 40-Year Slump

A good article on the decline of labor's share of the the American Pie.

The 40-Year Slump:

American Capitalism of the last 40 years has failed the common worker. I think the corporate emphasis on the well-being of the stockholder is the key.

Boosting the company’s share price, they contended, gave corporate executives a clear purpose—even clearer if those executives were incentivized by receiving their payments in stock. After Welch’s speech, the goal of America’s corporate executives became the elevation of the company’s—and their own—stock. If revenues weren’t rising, and even if they were, that goal could be accomplished by reducing wages, curtailing pensions, making employees pay more for their health coverage, cutting research, eliminating worker training, and offshoring production.

All the other issues pointed out by the article, union busting, moving jobs off-shore, fighting minimum wage laws,  temp workers, reduced benefits, etc., all of these, result from favoring the stockholder over all the other stakeholders in the economy.

We need a change to a version of capitalism where the business exists not just for the good of the owners but for the good good of all stakeholders, the owners, the workers, the surrounding community, and the planet as a whole.

tnb

'via Blog this'