Happy Labor Day Banana Republic Day
By (O)CT(O)PUS
It was not my intention to wish everyone a happy holiday, because there is little to celebrate. Traditionally, Labor Day marks the end of summer and is supposed to honor... well... labor. These days, the facts speak otherwise.
Unemployment has reached 9.7%, a 26-year high. Worker pay has fallen 11 percent since 1973, although worker productivity has risen 78 percent in the same period.
In 1973, corporate CEOs made 45 times more than the average worker. By 1991, CEOs made 140 times more, and by last year, CEO income rose 400 times more.
CEOs take home a larger slice of the American pie. Executive pay rose from 4.8 percent of company income (1993-1995) to 10.3 percent (2001-2003), more than double in less than a decade.
Corporate interests and their shills clamor for lower taxes and more perks -- chauffeured cars, jets, company apartments, club memberships, fancy trips, sports tickets, and financial planning experts. Meanwhile, labor gets downsized and outsourced. Workers watch their home values and retirement accounts vanish, and their wages and benefits cut.
So what is there to celebrate? Maybe we should just rename Labor Day and call it by its real name: National Banana Republic Day.
(Cross-posted at The Swash Zone.)
It was not my intention to wish everyone a happy holiday, because there is little to celebrate. Traditionally, Labor Day marks the end of summer and is supposed to honor... well... labor. These days, the facts speak otherwise.
Unemployment has reached 9.7%, a 26-year high. Worker pay has fallen 11 percent since 1973, although worker productivity has risen 78 percent in the same period.
In 1973, corporate CEOs made 45 times more than the average worker. By 1991, CEOs made 140 times more, and by last year, CEO income rose 400 times more.
CEOs take home a larger slice of the American pie. Executive pay rose from 4.8 percent of company income (1993-1995) to 10.3 percent (2001-2003), more than double in less than a decade.
Corporate interests and their shills clamor for lower taxes and more perks -- chauffeured cars, jets, company apartments, club memberships, fancy trips, sports tickets, and financial planning experts. Meanwhile, labor gets downsized and outsourced. Workers watch their home values and retirement accounts vanish, and their wages and benefits cut.
So what is there to celebrate? Maybe we should just rename Labor Day and call it by its real name: National Banana Republic Day.
(Cross-posted at The Swash Zone.)
Labels: business, holidays, labor issues, unemployment
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
3:30 PM
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