Responsible Capitalism, Please?

One of the things so many of us fail to truly grasp is how capitalism has run amok in America.  Corporations tend to value the bottom line, and have forgotten about their human assets: the workers who make the money.

During the Industrial Revolution, workers really felt the corporate greed when automation began replacing humans.  Marx and Engels write about this in the Communist Manifesto, which unless you study economics or the humanities, it may read as if I'm displaying support of Communism or Socialism.  Let it be known, I do not support either.

However, we see automation taking the place of human workers at an astounding rate.  Entire trades and educational backgrounds are slowly being erased from the job market.  The subsequent issue is the widening gap between the haves (corporate America) and the have-nots (those who are in the middle and lower socioeconomic classes).  The most recent tax reform has added the inequity.

David Floyd on Investopedia.com states the following when trying to explain the tax reform President Trump pushed for passed last December:

"For the wealthy, banks and other corporations, the tax reform package can be considered a lopsided victory given its significant and permanent tax cuts to corporate profits, investment income, estate tax and more."

This is just one more element of the rapidly growing inequities in America.  Like President Reagan's trickle-down economics that failed to work before as planned, Trump's big breaks to corporate America has not put any real growth into worker's abilities to advance their financial situations.

Bloomberg's Stephen Gandel reports approximately only 15% of the corporate tax cuts are making their way down to workers.  That was back in March of this year, and with all of the stock buy-backs I've read about, I actually have a hard time believing even 15% is being handed to workers.

For example, when was the last time you got a raise?  A real raise that came with a performance review, not one that came with advancement in your company?  When I was working as a government contractor, my wage was based on my locality and a pre-determined rate under a government wage agreement.  Late last year I got a wage increase of 5 cents an hour.  That equates to $104 per year, before taxes.   

However, let us not discount the companies that have made real efforts to increase wages across America.  For years there has been a push to raise the minimum wage to $10 or $15 an hour for workers.  In October, Leah Zitter of Investopedia reported a short list of companies raising wages, and I know there are more out there, but all over the country, people are still being offered wages as low as $7.25 an hour.  That is not a livable wage.

I did write a paper about Capitalism in America, where I explain how corporate America has failed us, but there are ways to get back on the path to where there are companies that care about their human assets.  Some corporations have begun to do this as mentioned in Leah Zitter's article listed above, but other companies have raised wages while cutting jobs.

Actual responsible capitalism takes into consideration all assets in the company, from the entry-level worker up to the CEO.  Each cog in the wheel works in unison to keep the flow of work moving in a forward or upward motion.  When the cogs are not taken care of, eventually there is demise and decay.

We can look at Amazon and see that it has grown and expanded beyond what Jeff Bezos ever imagined, but we can't overlook all the reports of unhappy and disgruntled workers in fulfillment centers.  People will still buy from Amazon no matter how happy or unhappy their workers are, but there are consumers who will find other ways to get product because they know many of Amazon's workers are unhappy.  Add that to the amount of corporate welfare Amazon is receiving after choosing two locations for their HQ2 project, and more and more customers will think twice about their Prime Memberships, or shopping for simple items with a promise of 2-day shipping (which in my experience has become more like 3-5 day shipping).   

Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor is an advocate for saving capitalism in America.  He's got the right ideas about our American economy, and I encourage you to visit his site and read what he has to say.  It is informative, and no matter which political party you follow, it is important to understand the very basics of how we can keep America's Democracy in place, and turn away from the path in which we are currently on: an America ruled by Oligarchy.   If that comes to full term, all of us that are not a part of the 1% will lose all hope to find a higher rung on the socioeconomic ladder.