The Dirty Secret of the Jobless Recovery

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06 ... long-hours
All Work and No Pay: The Great Speedup
You: doing more with less. Corporate profits: Up 22 percent. The dirty secret of the jobless recovery.
— By Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery
July/August 2011 Issue

Webster's defines speedup as "an employer's demand for accelerated output without increased pay," and it used to be a household word. Bosses would speed up the line to fill a big order, to goose profits, or to punish a restive workforce. Workers recognized it, unions (remember those?) watched for and negotiated over it—and, if necessary, walked out over it.

But now we no longer even acknowledge it—not in blue-collar work, not in white-collar or pink-collar work, not in economics texts, and certainly not in the media. Now the word we use is "productivity," a term insidious in both its usage and creep. The not-so-subtle implication is always: Don't you want to be a productive member of society? Pundits across the political spectrum revel in the fact that US productivity (a.k.a. economic output per hour worked) consistently leads the world. Yes, year after year, Americans wring even more value out of each minute on the job than we did the year before. U-S-A! U-S-A!

Except what's good for American business isn't necessarily good for Americans. We're not just working smarter, but harder. And harder. And harder, to the point where the driver is no longer American industriousness, but something much more predatory.

Sure, but these are tough times—employers struggling to survive the recession are just tightening their belts, right? That's true for some. But in the big picture, the data show a more insidious pattern. Consider the charts at right: After a sharp dip in 2008 and 2009, US economic output recovered nicely to near pre-recession levels—we did better than most of our fellow G-7 economies. But not so American workers: Far more people here lost their jobs, and fewer were hired back once the recovery began, than anywhere else.

But increasingly, US workers are also falling prey to what we'll call offloading: cutting jobs and dumping the work onto the remaining staff. In all the chatter about our "jobless recovery," how often does someone explain the simple feat by which this is actually accomplished? US productivity increased twice as fast in 2009 as it had in 2008, and twice as fast again in 2010: workforce down, output up, and voilá! No wonder corporate profits are up 22 percent since 2007, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute. To repeat: Up. Twenty-two. Percent.

How does corporate America have the gall? You pretty much know the answer...: It's easier here than in, say, the UK or Germany "for employers to avoid adding permanent jobs," she told the AP recently. "They're less constrained by traditional human-resources practices [translation: decency] or union contracts." In plainer English, here's Rutgers political scientist Carl Van Horn: "Everything is tilted in favor of the employers...The employee has no leverage. If your boss says, 'I want you to come in the next two Saturdays,' what are you going to say—no?"

And lest CNBC hornswoggle you, this is not just a product of the recession. Throughout the past decade, salaries stagnated and workloads grew, but Wall Street's bubble allowed us to drown our sorrows in credit.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06 ... der-charts
Overworked America: 12 Charts that Will Make Your Blood Boil
Why "efficiency" and "productivity" really mean more profits for corporations and less sanity for you.
— By Dave Gilson
July/August 2011 Issue
You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Gains
Productivity has surged, but income and wages have stagnated for most Americans. If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000.


Growth Is Back...


...But Jobs Aren't


And it comes back to our elected representatives looking out for their corporate interests, rather than the citizens who elected them. It's been an insidious subtle journey for quite some time...
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/09 ... e-sponsors
Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart
What if members of Congress were seated not by party but according to their major business sponsors? We gave it a try.
— By Dave Gilson
September/October 2010 Issue

The Senate: Lawyers, Drugs, and Money

SECTOR | # OF MEMBERS
Finance, insurance, and real estate 57
Lawyers and lobbyists 25
Health 5
Agribusiness 3
Labor 2
Energy and natural resources 2
Miscellaneous business 2
Communications and electronics 1
No money raised 3
Total seats | 100


The House: Big Labor vs. Big Money

SECTOR | # OF MEMBERS
Labor 159
Finance, insurance, and real estate 159
Health 26
Agribusiness 23
Lawyers and lobbyists 20
Miscellaneous business 18
Energy and natural resources 10
Defense 7
Transportation 6
Communications and electronics 4
Construction 1
Unfilled seats 2
Total seats | 435

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/09 ... e-sponsors
Capitol Hill's Top 75 Corporate Sponsors
How industry donations rule the political money game.
— By Dave Gilson
September/October 2010 Issue

Want to follow the money? Below, the 75 heaviest hitters in corporate campaign cash, 1989-2010.

Are businesses comprised of Americans that benefit, absolutely. The problem becomes when businesses get preferential treatment at the expense of the general public. And, as seen in the charts above, when only the upper echelon of those businesses benefit at the expense of the workers - corporate profits are up, yet the public is still suffering and the economy's not recovering. It's not a transfer of wealth that's needed, it's a reining of corruption and greed. I see a common mantra repeated that we need less taxes because money is what creates jobs: No, what creates jobs is demand, and businesses being held to fair labor practices. People shouldn't be taking on 3 or 4 extra jobs worth of responsibilities in order to keep their jobs - companies should be hiring to fill needed positions (but don't because they make more profit that way). You wanna fix our unemployment problem - vote out the reps who keep letting companies get away with these practices and go after these companies. The lawsuit against Walmart that won is a perfect example.