'Monopoly Mayhem: Corporations Win, Workers Lose,' Robert Reich, *New

[appalachiablue]

"Monopoly Mayhem: Corporations Win, Workers Lose," By Robert Reich, July 7, 2020. *Why do big corporations continue to win while workers get shafted? It all comes down to power: who has it, and who doesn’t. - EDITED:

- "Monopoly Mayhem: Corporations Win, Workers Lose." July 7, 2020.

Big corporations have become so dominant that workers and consumers have fewer options and have to accept the wages and prices these giant corporations offer. This has become even worse now that thousands of small businesses have had to close as a result of the pandemic, while mammoth corporations are being bailed out. Worker bargaining power has declined as fewer workers are unionized and technologies have made outsourcing easy, allowing corporations to get the labor they need for cheap. These two changes in bargaining power didn’t happen by accident. As corporations have gained power, they’ve been able to gut anti-monopoly laws, allowing them to grow even more dominant. Fewer workers have joined unions because corporations have undermined the nation’s labor laws. Even before the pandemic, a steadily larger portion of corporate revenues have been siphoned off to profits, and a shrinking portion allocated to wages. Once the economy tanked, the stock market retained much of its value while millions of workers lost jobs and the unemployment rate soared to Great Depression-era levels.

To understand the current concentration of corporate power we need to go back to the late 19th century era of the “Robber Barons” like John D. Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt who amassed unprecedented wealth for themselves by crushing labor unions, driving competitors out of business, and making their employees work long hours in dangerous conditions for low wages. As wealth accumulated at the top, so too did power: Politicians put corporate interests ahead of workers, even sending state militias to violently suppress striking workers. By 1890, public anger at the unchecked greed of the robber barons culminated in the creation of America’s first anti-monopoly law, the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The 1890 antitrust enforcement waxed or waned for years and after 1980, it virtually disappeared. American industry grew more and more concentrated. The government green-lighted Wall Street’s consolidation into 5 giant banks. It okayed airline mergers, bringing the total number of American carriers down from 12 in 1980 to just 4 today. Three giant cable companies came to dominate broadband. A handful of drug companies control the pharmaceutical industry. Today, just 5 giant corporations preside over key, high-tech platforms. Facebook and Google are the first stops for many Americans seeking news. Apple dominates smartphones and laptop computers. Amazon is now the first stop for a third of all American consumers seeking to buy anything.

- The monopolies of yesteryear are back with a vengeance. Thanks to the abandonment of antitrust, we’re now living in a new Gilded Age, as consolidation has inflated corporate profits, suppressed worker pay, supercharged economic inequality, and stifled innovation. This mega-concentration of American industry has also made the entire economy more fragile – and susceptible to deep downturns. Even before the coronavirus, it was harder for newer firms to gain footholds. And it’s brought workers to their knees. There’s no way an economy can fully recover unless working people have enough money in their pockets to spend. Consumer spending is 2/3rds of this economy. As a consequence of monopolization, wealth accumulates at the top, so does political power. Massive corporations provide significant campaign contributions; they have platoons of lobbyists and lawyers and directly employ many voters. They get tax cuts, tax loopholes, subsidies, bailouts, and regulatory exemptions. While corporations are monopolizing, power has shifted in exactly the opposite direction for workers.

This great shift in bargaining power from workers to corporate shareholders has created an increasingly angry working class vulnerable to demagogues peddling authoritarianism, racism, and xenophobia. Trump took full advantage.
The declining share of total U.S. income going to the bottom 90% over the last four decades correlates directly with the decline in unionization. Most of the increasing value of the stock market has come directly out of the pockets of American workers. Shareholders have gained because workers stopped sharing the gains. So, what can be done to restore bargaining power to workers and narrow the widening gap between corporate profits and wages? This is all about power. The good news is that rebalancing the power of workers and corporations can create an economy and a democracy that works for all, not just a privileged few...

~ Please Read the Full Article, a Grand Slam! https://robertreich.org/

[elleng]

1. IMPORTANT!

We've lost our power, due to failure to maintain and enforce anti-trust laws.

[sprinkleeninow]

2. Power in the hands of those who abuse it.

Bookmarking this to read today. Thx.

[appalachiablue]

3. We have lost anti trust and other powers; retrieval is

needed in many areas, primarily the US Media! This is a major effort by Reich, tremendous. What a brilliant economist and communicator.

He's really on fire this week!!