Class Struggle by Senator elect Jim Webb

[SHRED]

This is what we need.
Politicians courageous enough to tell it like it is.
Bravo Senator!

---

Class Struggle
American workers have a chance to be heard.

BY JIM WEBB
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 12:01 a.m.

The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes.

Incestuous corporate boards regularly approve compensation packages for chief executives and others that are out of logic's range. As this newspaper has reported, the average CEO of a sizeable corporation makes more than $10 million a year, while the minimum wage for workers amounts to about $10,000 a year, and has not been raised in nearly a decade. When I graduated from college in the 1960s, the average CEO made 20 times what the average worker made. Today, that CEO makes 400 times as much.

In the age of globalization and outsourcing, and with a vast underground labor pool from illegal immigration, the average American worker is seeing a different life and a troubling future. Trickle-down economics didn't happen. Despite the vaunted all-time highs of the stock market, wages and salaries are at all-time lows as a percentage of the national wealth. At the same time, medical costs have risen 73% in the last six years alone. Half of that increase comes from wage-earners' pockets rather than from insurance, and 47 million Americans have no medical insurance at all.

Manufacturing jobs are disappearing. Many earned pension programs have collapsed in the wake of corporate "reorganization." And workers' ability to negotiate their futures has been eviscerated by the twin threats of modern corporate America: If they complain too loudly, their jobs might either be outsourced overseas or given to illegal immigrants.

MORE:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009246

[ljm2002]

1. Bravo indeed!

That was a great opinion piece and I hope it is widely read!

That figure about CEO's relative salaries is one of the most damning bits of data, and it should be pounded on: "...in the 1960s, the average CEO made 20 times what the average worker made. Today, that CEO makes 400 times as much." Too few people know this, and it is obscene, and perfectly illustrates the class divide that has grown in the same time period.

A friend said to me 7 years ago, that to him, it looked like we were entering a new Guilded Age. I think he nailed it.

[CrispyQ]

5. In his book "Take This Job & Ship It" Senator Dorgan states

that if minimum wage had kept up with CEO pay since 1990, minimum wage would be $23.08!

Wonderful editorial!

k&r

[DemReadingDU]

6. Dorgan has a great book, reading it now

[patrice]

2. No one WANTS to have to say these things. It would be better if it weren't true.

Some Americans never got over their infatuation with Royalty.

Accepting/confirming the differences in human and civil rights dependent upon economic class in the U.S. is an affirmation of Royalty.

[HaggardsMethDealer]

3. One of the best moments of our victory

was watching Jim Webb trounce that racist asshole George Allen. That one really made me smile.

[ninkasi]

4. This is one of the most important things facing us today

We absolutely have to find a way to stop such a massive disparity in wealth. There is no valid reason for the top few to be so obscenely rich at the expense of the many below them. Why should a CEO make 400 times as much as the lowest paid worker? Once a certain level of wealth is achieved, piling on even more wealth wouldn't even make a difference in lifestyle. How many mansions, how many private jets, how many expensive cars, and designer clothing, should one person have at the expense of those below him?

Is it in any way just that a low level worker should have to forgo medical care, or enough food, or adequate housing, so that the big shots can afford to have gold plated bathroom fixtures? There must come a way to insure that the ones who do the work which creates the wealth are not denied all of the benefit that their work creates. Something is going to have to change, or there will begin to be a great deal of unrest, and unless the elite upper class addresses the problems, there might be a terrible price to pay. I pray not, because I pray that enough of us will elect men and women who will recognize the danger of such a vast gap in income, and standards of living.

[Mythsaje]

7. "Let them eat cake."

She may not have said it, but the sentiment is still around.

"Get that bum off my doorstop and bring the Rolls around, Jeeves. No, make it the Bentley. No, make it the Mercedes. No, I think I want to drive today. Make it the Maserati."

Hah.

[jgraz]

8. And this is the guy the MSM call a "conservative Dem" -- argh

:banghead:

[benEzra]

9. That's because...

being pro-choice on guns means you're a radical right-winger with ties to the KKK, dontcha know... :eyes:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. More likely it was his ties to the Reagan admin.

I'm one of those skeptics.

This article in the WSJ has me wanting to keep a closer eye on this guy.

:thumbsup: