Italian Workers Wonder: Why American Workers Support
Billionaires, to Their Own Disadvantage
The
ANNOTICO Report
Italians want to know
why the average American worker doesn't have health insurance, higher wages,
better retirement benefits, more vacation time, and rights that Italian workers
take for granted. How can we be so stupid?
The author found it
impossible to explain why Americans support
millionaires and billionaires instead of taking up for themselves.
Giving it further thought
when returning to the
BUT that is only the
beginning. Americans spout beliefs fed to them
by hundreds of THINK TANKS supported by the richest of the rich, corporations
seeking to avoid government regulation and taxes, CHURCHES. MOSQUES, SYNAGOGUES seeking a return to the Dark Ages, and
other RIGHT WING FORCES that promote agendas to control the country.
Every week they release hundreds of op eds, reports,
TV shows, commentaries and well-honed arguments to convince people to identify
themselves as independent, laissez faire individualists who oppose any
government program to regulate workers trading their time for a paycheck.
It's a wonder that
American workers support the 18th century ROBBER BARON AGENDA of the Republican
Party, a party that constantly votes against the worker interests: tax
cuts for the rich; judges who support monopolies and always rule in favor of
corporations; destruction of the environment; deregulation of rules that
protect consumers and workers; support for an avaricious
military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex; rampant business and Congressional corruption;
and a Congress that refuses to raise the minimum wage, while raising it's own
pay seven times in eight years.
Working people are not
here to create a wealthy ruling class: it's time for the working class
(and any person of means with a conscience) to demand that
people's interests be protected and that a minority of people stop getting
the lion's share of society's benefits.
It's time we start
identifying with other working people and find common cause in correcting
injustices and stopping legalized corruption. At a minimum, it's time for us to
vote for our own interests and to take to the streets when the
people's interests are ignored.
Labor, the Media and the Protests in France
The Strange Case of the
American Worker
Counter Punch
By Don Monkerud
several years ago in
My wife pointed out the
irony of marching in solidarity with workers who had rights Americans can't
imagine. Later, several Italians demanded to know why the average American
worker doesn't have health insurance, higher wages, better retirement benefits,
more vacation time, and rights that Italian workers take for granted. How can
we be so stupid? I had a hard time explaining why Americans support
millionaires and billionaires instead of taking up for themselves. They never
did understand and I don't either.
When I returned home,
As French students and
workers march to protest a new law that will allow employers to fire employees
without cause during their first two years of employment, one might expect
American workers to sympathize with them. They don't. When I said I was on the
worker's side, one friend criticized me for taking sides instead of considering
all sides of the issue. Another minimum-wage friend became agitated when I
protested tax cuts for the rich and claimed, "I haven't given up the dream
of getting rich someday."
Many of us don't consider
ourselves workers, although 80 percent of us work for an hourly wage, which has
barely kept up with inflation over the past 30 years. The rich, with our voting
support, are doing fine. The top 20 percent account for almost half of consumer
spending, while the bottom 80 percent share the
remaining 54 percent. Since 1984, 30-million full-time workers have been laid
off and forced to take lowering-paying jobs, while the richest one percent of
households increased their share of corporate wealth from 39 percent in 1991 to
59 percent today.
The media response to the
French workers strike may indicate why American workers fail to vote for their
interests. Despite right-wing claims of the "liberal" media bias, the
media reinforces attitudes detrimental to working people. A recent analysis of
the coverage of the French strikes in the American press by FAIR (Fairness and
Accuracy in Reporting) a media watchdog group, illustrates where Americans get
their attitudes.
A
U.S. News & World
Report ignored the fact that French workers are more productive than Americans
and lectured the French about their 35-hour workweek, six weeks paid annual
leave, and job security, which are going the way of "the dodo bird."
Fox's Bill O'Reilly condemned what he called American "socialism"
that would guarantee workers "a house, health care, a nice wage, (and)
retirement benefits."
Americans spout the
anti-government beliefs fed to them by hundreds of think tanks supported by the
richest of the rich, corporations seeking to avoid government regulation and
taxes, churches seeking a return to the Dark Ages, and other right-wing forces
that promote agendas to control the country. Every week they release hundreds
of op eds, reports, TV shows, commentaries and
well-honed arguments to convince people to identify themselves as independent,
laissez faire individualists who oppose any government program to regulate
workers trading their time for a paycheck.
It's a wonder that
American workers support the 18th century robber baron agenda of the Republican
Party, a party that constantly votes against their interests: tax cuts for the
rich; judges who support monopolies and always rule in favor of corporations;
destruction of the environment; deregulation of rules that protect consumers
and workers; support for an avaricious military-industrial-pharmaceutical
complex; rampant business and Congressional corruption; and a Congress that
refuses to raise the minimum wage, while raising it's own pay seven times in
eight years.
Working people are not
here to create a wealthy ruling class: it's time for us to demand that our
interests be protected and that a minority of people stop getting the lion's
share of society's benefits. It's time we start identifying with other working
people and find common cause in correcting injustices and stopping legalized
corruption. At a minimum, it's time for us to vote for our own interests and to
take to the streets when our interests are ignored.
Don Monkerud is an Aptos, California-based
writer who follows cultural, social and political issues.
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