While corporations get billions and billions in ‘tax-rebates’ from the Bush economic stimulus plan ($256 million for Enron alone) companies like Ford Motors are slashing 35,000 jobs. I’m glad we have our priorities straight. There was this idiotic commentator from the Financial Times or some other such rag on Morning Edition the other day. Her position was that layoffs are a necessary expression of the freedom that business must have so that they can cut costs and then create more jobs in the future! She called it something like the freedom to fire to hire. I’m guessing she’s not taking into account that the manufacturing sector has largely been moved out of the country where the same items can be made by people who have none of the protections of American labor law. These same items are then shipped back to the US where they are sold for the same price. This is a result of the never-ending demand of higher profits. Consumers do not benefit, workers do not benefit, communities do not benefit. It is only those who trade in stock and the barons who run the companies who benefit from the increased profits. Profits which have increased greatly while wages and benefits have fallen. Workers are expected to provide for their own retirements while their wages drop below 1968 levels if adjusted for inflation.
Absolutely. You have no idea how glad I am to find a blog that addresses this stuff. Good work.