"McKinley or Roosevelt? This Election is as Much About the Past as the

[DemBones DemBones]

Present" by Thom Hartmann

Published on Monday, October 25, 2004 by CommonDreams.org

A good overview of our economic and political history in the US. I jumped to the middle of the article for juicy quotes, and added emphasis to catch your eye, but the whole article is worth reading.


"Following the Wagner Act's implementation, and Roosevelt’s raising of the top marginal income tax rate on multi-millionaires to 90 percent, however, the first true American middle class came into being. By 1947, over a third (roughly 35%) of America's workers were unionized, and for every union job there was a non-union job in the private sector with nearly identical pay and benefits, because unions had set the floor for labor costs and employers had to compete for workers. This meant that about 70% of American workers were able to raise a family, put children through school, pay for health care, and plan a good retirement, all on a single wage earner's salary. During this era, CEOs earned, on average, around 30 to 35 times what their lowest paid employees did, and senior management salary ratio caps averaging 20:1 were put into place in civil service, the military, and most colleges."

"But in 1947 the cheap-labor conservatives fought back. In the elections of 1946, Democrats lost control of both the U.S. House and the Senate, allowing Republican legislators to push through the Taft-Hartley bill, which essentially allowed individual states to opt out of portions of the Wagner act. It was an early domestic version of the "free trade" disaster we're seeing now with NAFTA and GATT/WTO - a race to the cheap labor bottom - that started to take root in the American south right after passage of Taft-Hartley. Although President Harry Truman vetoed the Taft-Hartley assault on labor, Republicans in the House and Senate overrode his veto and it became law."

Unions declined gradually, Hartmann writes, with 25% of the workforce being union members when Jimmy Carter became president. What happened after that?

"But then Reagan declared war on the middle class, starting with the air traffic controller's union (PATCO) during his first year in office. The conservative assault on labor has been unrelenting since then: Today only about 8 percent of the private-sector American workforce is unionized, and at the same time Education Secretary Rod Paige described the teachers' union as a "terrorist organization," George W. Bush announced plans to lay off over 700,000 unionized government employees and replace them with non-union "contractors."

"While gutting the American middle class, conservatives also launched a well-funded propaganda campaign - using right-wing "think tanks" and talk radio - to convince workers that their growing economic woes were the fault of minorities ("affirmative action") and the poor ("welfare queens"). At the same time, they began stacking federal benches with conservative judges, and passing thousands of federal, state, and local laws, ordinances, and regulations that further weakened the powers of organized labor and their ability to unionize. "

From 35% union membership to 8% membership in my lifetime, corresponding to a change from families being supported comfortably by one earner to families struggling to get by on the paychecks of two earners. It's no longer about women having the freedom to pursue a career; most women have to work even when they have small children and would rather stay home with them.

more. . .

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1025-32.htm

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Great historical overview

of where we are again. I think the entire party has done a good job of getting people to realize this is the case. I hope most voting people recognize the choice.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Isn't it? We really do need this drilled into people's heads so they

understand what's going on. There are people who vote against their own interests, of course, and I don't know how we combat that. I live in a "right to work" state and the right wing has successfully convinced a lot of people that unions are bad for workers. :crazy: