The blog of a North Country Swede!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

As a member of the working class ...

Yes, I am a member of the working class. I earn my living solely through compensation for my labor—my physical and mental efforts. My economic objective in life is not to own things,but to do things. "Owning" supports my "doing," not "doing" supports my "owning."

What is more, I have always been a member of the working class. And my parents before me were working class. That's as far as I take it because my father was an immigrant, as were my mother's parents.

And from that perspective I ask, very simply: What is wrong with American Unions? They don't seem to get the needs of labor. They get the needs of their members ... and in so doing alienate all other workers ... then they wonder why overall membership in unions keeps dropping.

The primary need of workers is to be able to work and earn a living. It's clear then that the primary objective of the labor movement must be to insure that each and every individual able and willing to work can work at a job that earns a living wage ... and not a third world living, but an United States of America living. Period.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Think plantation, or company store ...

Note: This is a draft containing some ideas that I am developing.

We have a small group of elite rich folks siphoning off our nation's wealth that is produced by labor ... the mental and physical effort of workers, those who perform the labor.

The elite rich folks no longer acquire the wealth labor produces by owning the workers as slaves, which gave them unassailable rights to that wealth. They now acquire the wealth through contracts bearing interest also giving them unassailable rights to that wealth when there is no fraud. For example, people are being driven from their homes—today in droves—because they cannot pay the mortgage. The banks are the new company store where you can purchase anything you want on credit, in a pyramid raising to the pinnacle of "too big to fail."

The real problem though is the failure of these elite folks to pay the true cost of producing the wealth let alone invest in the nation's future. Their greed is so palpable that is hard to understand how their use of usury in "doing business" could have gained such a foothold in a populace voicing adherence to an Abrahamic religious faith when all three Abrahamic religions condemn usury.

They do not pay for the use of infrastructure that is provided to them by the "common good." We see all around the crumbling of our infrastructure—highways, powerlines, waterways, and so forth; due to lack of maintenance, let alone improved to meet future needs.

They do not pay for the natural resources they consume out of the common bounty of the earth, nor do they clean up after themselves unless forced to do so like any spoiled child, brought kicking and screaming to the task by the courts.

Friday, February 04, 2011

How to create jobs ...

In a country as rich as the United States of America—which already has the goal of full employment—creating jobs is a no-brainer. It's just that we don't have the political will to do it. We simply need to establish the policy that anyone old enough, willing, and physically and mentally able to work can have a job. Turn the employment offices into real employment offices, not unemployment offices.

Our nation has the resources and the needs to but everyone who qualifies—age, desire, ability—to work at a minimum living wage—providing basic food, clothing, shelter, education, and medical care for a family of four with two adults and two minor children.

First, we are rich enough as a nation from the wealth produced by our mental and physical labor to pay for real full employment. Second, we have more than enough work to do as an investment in our future to provide jobs for everyone meeting the age, desire, and ability qualifications. It would be just like a business investing to reap the future rewards of that investment.

Think of the social problems real full employment solves relative to welfare and prisons alone. In fact the cost benefit analysis should start with the costs of welfare, prison, and unemployment for those who would otherwise qualify for employment under a real full employment policy.