Are Elites Finally Paying Attention to How Bad Inequality Is?

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/are-elites-finally-paying-attention-how-bad-inequality

Inequality has at last arrived as the issue that mainstream politicians can’t ignore. You see it in Obama’s better-late-than-never embrace of “middle-class economics” as the signature theme in his State of the Union address; and in a surprisingly leftish report of a commission co-chaired by former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

The new report by the Commission on Inclusive Prosperity, convened by the Center for American Progress, is frank in its acknowledgment of the inequality crisis. “Today, the ability of free-market democracies to deliver widely shared increases in prosperity is in question as never before,” the report declares. It calls for several measures of the sort that the labor movement, the Economic Policy Institute, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and others on the left edge of Democratic politics have been urging for years. What’s surprising is not what’s being said but who’s saying it.

For instance, the commission offers a frank statement of what’s wrong with both labor markets and corporate behavior:

In the United States, unions represent a small fraction of workers, and therefore, many workers have little power to create upward pressure on wages. Major corporations have opted to use subcontracting to perform basic functions, and many workers are now classified as independent contractors, eroding basic labor law protections … Corporations have come to function much less effectively as providers of large-scale opportunity. Increasingly, their dominant focus has been the maximization of share prices and the compensation of their top employees. In a world where mobility is always a possibility, they have become less committed to their workforces and their communities.

For remedies, the commission embraces some surprisingly strong medicine. It explicitly calls for stronger unions and supports measures such as card-check and injunctions in cases where employers resist workers’ rights to organize. It proposes public investment on a scale of $100 billion a year for ten years—well beyond what Obama offered in the State of the Union, and it embraces a more progressive tax system as well as a higher minimum wage.

[tk2kewl]

1. I, for one, would like to thank all Occupiers for waking up the public

OWS got this ball rolling.

[hatrack]

2. Yes, they're hard at work seeking just the right lip service . . .

.

[valerief]

3. Yeah, they're trying to figure how they can profit from it. nt

[hootinholler]

4. If they're talking about doing something

They've already figured out how to make money off of it.

[valerief]

9. Bingo! nt

[edhopper]

5. Lip service

they will not endorse real remedies, like tax rate hikes, SS tax cap raises, or elimination of Cap Gain special treatment.
They will also not endorse true Universal Healthcare.

So no.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. Paying attention by wanting more ..............

private securityt trade deals, voter suppression, banking deals, bailouts, tax breaks, ...............I don't see it happening even though the commission talks about some minor suggestions.

[Orsino]

7. Republicans calling it by name is turning some kind of corner.

They'll drag their heels, but probably can't pretend anymore that it isn't a problem. For now, they'll just blame Democrats generally rather than the victims directly.

[Autumn]

8. Almost seems like an election is coming up. Hearing some of that populist talk.

Talk is fucking cheap.