Top 1% Double Their Income; Economy Sputters
A new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows that over the past 30 years, the top 1 percent of income earners more than doubled their share of the national income pie. According to the Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, that’s a recipe for disaster—not just for the other 99 percent, but for the economy as a whole.
Writing in Vanity Fair this spring, Stiglitz explained the folly of advocating, as many right-wing pundits do, that it’s not the share of the pie but the size of the pie that matters:
That argument is fundamentally wrong. An economy in which most citizens are doing worse year after year—an economy like America’s—is not likely to do well over the long haul.
Stiglitz argued that the resulting stifling of economic opportunity, the waste of talent put a drag on economic recovery. Moreover, he argued:
Trumka Helps Launch ‘Exiting from the Crisis’ at Global Economic Forum
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The global union movement today took a step forward in its effort to move the global economy away from the failed policies of the past and toward a bold new economic model that focuses on creating jobs and more equitable and sustainable growth.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joined union leaders from around the world for the 50th Anniversary Forum of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, where they held the European launch of “Exiting From the Crisis,” a volume of essays from more than 30 global trade union leaders and economists.
The book was released last month at the AFL-CIO and now you can go online here where we feature links and nine videos of presentations at the forum held at the book release in Washington, D.C., including one by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, who wrote the foreword to the book. Check out a page of videos from the release here.
New Direction Needed to Exit Global Economic Crisis
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Global trade union leaders and economists have charted a new direction for the world’s economy in a just-released book, “Exiting From the Crisis,” which outlines how to create more equitable and sustainable economic growth.
The focus of a new direction must be to develop family-supporting jobs. Governments, including the United States, are retreating from their pledge at the 2009 meeting of the G-20 in Pittsburgh to make job creation a priority. Instead, they are pushing austerity, deficit reductions and cheaper labor. As AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, says:
In other words, governments are being counseled to adopt many of the policies – “austerity” and “labor market flexibility”–that created the imbalances that produced the economic crisis in the first place.
Jobs Creation or Deficit Reduction? The Public Has Decided
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Stop by any corner grocery store and ask the people standing in line: What do you worry about most—jobs or the nation’s budget deficit?
If they don’t choke up laughing, chances are real high they’ll give the same response as did the public in two recent polls:
Priority #1: Jobs.
Priority #2: Jobs.
Priority #3: Jobs.
A poll for Democracy Corps published Nov. 30 found that when given a choice, “voters embrace a bold jobs initiative over a long-term deficit reduction program by two-to-one.” A survey taken by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) earlier this fall revealed the same: The Hart Research Associates poll found that by a margin of 53 percent to 42 percent, the public is more concerned about rising unemployment rates than the rising federal deficit.
Employee Free Choice on the Move
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Thanks to a strong pro-worker majority in Congress, the support of President Obama and a unified movement of union members and grassroots allies, the Employee Free Choice Act is closer to becoming a reality than ever.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is the latest to throw his support behind the bill. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, was one of 38 leading American economists who endorsed the bill last week.
Annie Hill, CWA executive vice president, says:
If we want to turn around our economy, if we want to counteract some of the worst income inequality our nation has seen, Employee Free Choice is the way to do it. Despite unsourced rumors in the press, we are confident that Senate Democrats, led by Harry Reid, are going to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and make real bargaining rights a reality for millions of American workers.
