Welcome friends to the latest edition of Economic Update a weekly program devoted
to the economic dimensions of our lives, jobs, debts, incomes, ours, those looming
down the road, those facing our children. I'm your host Richard Wolff I've been a
Professor of Economics all my adult life, and I'm hoping that it prepared me well
to present to you a kind of overview of some major economic events of the very
recent past. Let me begin today with introducing you electronically of course
to Philip Alston a gentleman from Australia who has a very interesting
title he's the Special Rapporteur on extreme
poverty and human rights he started working for the United Nations
back in 2014 he's part of what is known as the special procedures of the Human
Rights Council of the United Nations and in that capacity he spent much of 2017
studying poverty and particularly extreme poverty in the United States he
issued a preliminary report in December of 2017 and will be issuing a final
report sometime in the spring of 2018 but he's already found enough to say in
his interim report of last month things that I think we as Americans and for
those others around the world interested need to know we have in the United
States a very serious problem of poverty and of extreme poverty rather than
describe it in general terms let me go over a few of the findings of mister
Alston that I found especially striking the United States spends more on health
than most other advanced industrial countries
and yet it has many fewer doctors per person and many fewer hospital beds per
person than those other countries we seem to be spending more and getting
less and indeed if there's a single theme running through this report that's
it let me go on in 2013 the last year for which we have statistics infant
mortality in the United States the percentage of newborn children that died
in the first year is greater in the United States than in any other advanced
industrial country Wow the US has the highest prevalence of
obesity overweight conditions of any industrialized advanced countries in a
ranking of access to water and sanitation the United States ranks 36th
in the world we have the highest rate of incarceration putting people in jail
it's a head of such countries as Turkmenistan El Salvador Cuba Thailand
and the Russian Federation we are incarcerated people at five times
the average rate of Advanced industrial countries the youth poverty rate in the
United States is the highest across the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development the OECD which is a Association of about 35 advanced
industrial countries one quarter of youth live in poverty in the United
States the average for the OECD 14% I could go on but the story is the same we
spend more than other people on the quality of our health care and we get
less in the way of health outcomes and clearly associated with that across the
board of in the gaiters is the extraordinary inequality
of wealth and income in the United States the extent of our poverty problem
is extraordinary and just as extraordinary as the extent
of our poverty problem is the need of our leaders not to confront it not even
to talk about it on a scale that the problem clearly merits I want to turn
next to a very brief economic update it has to do about Oreo cookies if I get it
correctly our president mr. Trump is a fond consumer of Oreo cookies and you
may remember during the campaign that he made a point of the importance of
keeping the damn Bisco company that makes Oreos producing them here in the
United States, Nabi, Nabisco is now a subsidiary of the Mandalay
corporation which is a global mega corporation so it is with a certain
sadness that I need to inform all of you that Oreos are now going to be shifted
to being produced in Mexico turns out when all of the television lights are
turned off, and the reporters on paying attention, the promises of jobs staying
here turn out not to work out so well in the months that follow
there is nothing unique about Oreo cookies Ford Motor Company has recently
announced shifting more production likewise to Mexico and the same is
happening with automobile production in China and so on and I will from time to
time bring you these sad tidings in the interests of knowing what's actually
going on the bipartisan market watch survey that is well known to people who
are active in the stock market reported on December 20th. Another
economic update which is striking one in five American households according to
market works has zero or negative net worth let me explain what that means you
can add up what a person or a family owns the home the car personal
belongings savings accounts everything you can add it up and call that assets
and you can subtract from that amount that a person or household as their
debts and what you get when you subtract the debts from the assets is what we
call net worth how much money how much value the monetary value of what you
have minus what you owe to somebody else one in five Americans have zero net
worth that is when you subtract their debts nothing's left from their assets
or negative and what does that mean it means that your debts are greater than
their assets that's a condition which means if you had to pay all your debts
you wouldn't have enough wealth to your name homeland property business whatever
you wouldn't have enough to pay off your debts one fifth of Americans that's why
you hear those remarkable statistics that for half the American people maybe
more an unexpected bill of four hundred dollars for an illness for an accident
is a crisis those are the people who have no net assets at all it's a
statement and it's a situation that we will have a lot to say about in the
years and months ahead it is a sign of an economic system that isn't working
for the majority of people in this society that's what these
statistics are all testimony to but when I say it isn't working for the majority
of people I need also to remind you that it is working for some of the people and
here I recently saw a statistic also carried by that same market watch story
and by market watch as a investor service that did an interesting thing it
ended up the net worth of the 25 richest individuals in the United States
these include Bill Gates from Microsoft Jeff Bezos from Amazon and Mark
Zuckerberg of Facebook they are among these three gentlemen among the 25
richest now hold on to your hats these three men together own with the 25 the
top rich is 25 a trillion dollars in combined assets
these 25 therefore hold more wealth than the bottom 56 percent of the American
people in simplest terms the 25 richest people in America have more wealth
together than the majority of the American people that's a level of
inequality that boggles the mind and that shapes almost everything else one
can say about American society and culture and it stands as a screaming
criticism of an economic system that would distribute its output that we all
helped to produce in such an unequal way as if to drive the point home that
things could be different my next update has to do with Germany and Germany is
going to be figuring more than once today
Germany made a commitment some years ago to sign off on nuclear energy won't do
it the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in Japan provoked such a
revulsion in Germany that they swore off and mrs. Merkel their leader went along
with the mass feeling not for Germany no nuclear power to be produced here and
there also a leader in shifting away from fossil fuels as the source of their
energy preferring wind and Sun and so forth natural forms of energy so
successful have the Germans been in providing energy production even to the
individual household through solar panels through wind farms and so on that
over the last year 2017 repeatedly in Germany the price of electricity was
negative let me explain that means on a particular day or maybe even for a
particular week the utility companies pay you to use electricity not the other
way around that's what a negative price means so much energy is being produced
not nuclear and not fossil fuel that they have more than they need and can
provide a rebate to people to use it when it's available in abundance and get
paid for doing so and thereby save from having to use it when it is costly and
as a positive price remarkable something of course that could and should be
studied in other countries next economic updates also about Germany but here it's
kind of the other side of a capitalist economy not the efficiencies it does
achieve but the inefficiency that is so basic to it Germany like many other
capitalist countries including the United States Britain and many others
has been delivering a disproportionate amount
of its increase in wealth to the richest people at the top of this society it's
not as unequal as the United States or Britain for that matter but it is moving
in that direction and that has got the working class highly organized in
Germany very angry resentful they've absorbed this inequality it is getting
worse and they've decided to put a stop to it starting on January 8th the
largest union in Germany IG Metall is the name of this union it has 3.9
million members in Germany they've started on January 8th a series of
rolling short strikes before it's over in the very first week they expect over
700,000 German workers will walk off the job for longer or shorter periods of
time what are they demanding three things first an increase in wages an
increase in wages specifically an openly defend it on the grounds that it is
intended to reduce the inequality between the top 5 or 10 percent on the
one hand and everybody else in Germany the second demand of the strikes may
strike you as even more bold they're demanding a 28 hour workweek for people
who have responsibilities at home children under the age of 15 elderly
folks they're responsible for sick people that they're responsible for and
certain other kinds of workers under special stress or having odd shifts of
work they should be reduced and here's the argument productivity has grown in
Germany workers have been better trained workers have been working harder workers
have been working more intensely and the result is growing
productivity and the workers want to share in the benefits of that
productivity partly by higher wages and partly by lower working hours so there's
a better balance as they put it in Germany between work and the rest of
life among the companies being struck Volkswagen Porsche Bombardier Otis
Elevator when it's over a hundred and forty three firms will experience the
strike because the third goal of the German unions an old one for them is to
say what we do as unions is for all the working class we want the work week for
everyone to be reduced we want wages for everyone to be made higher so that the
inequality in the society is reduced notice its unions whose demands are for
social change economy-wide change not just changes for their members but for
the society as a whole and the German unions then can make the claim as they
do that they are a social force that the vast majority have working for them
the only real serious counterweight to the power of the large corporations and
it should make all of us wonder what it means if a society doesn't have a labor
movement organized that well militant in that way committed to these larger
social changes, it's an important question that I leave with you for your
answers. Before continuing with my updates, I want to remind you that we
maintain two websites that are full of this sort of information, and that
provides you with many kinds of services. Both websites are available 24/7 at no
charge whatsoever, ever.
The first one is democracyatwork, all one word, democracyatwork.info
and the second one is rdwolff with two Fs dot-com,
democracyatwork.info, rdwolff.com
through those websites you could communicate to us, what you
like and don't about this program, what you'd like us to cover. We look at all of
these emails, you go to these websites very easy to do, likewise you can follow
us with a click of the mouse on Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram. We maintain
these websites and indeed our social media contacts in order to have you
partner with us. You can take what we do on this program and share it with your
co-workers, with your neighbors, with your family, that makes the reach of what we
do many times larger than what we alone could achieve. We want you as partners,
and we hope you make use of what we do on this program, and what we provide on
those websites to partner with us. Finally, let me address a word to those
of you that are listeners on the radio, if you would like to see this program as
the television program, the easiest way to do that, is to go to a website called
patreon.com, P-A-T-R-E-O-N, patreon.com/economicupdate and that will
allow you to see the entire program as a television program, if that would be a
preference for you. Let me return then to the economic updates we have left I want
to celebrate with you an action taken by the small country of Iceland it has now
taken leadership in something where it was already a leader that is the gap
between what men and women earn for the same work in Iceland is smaller than in
most other countries but it wasn't enough for the people of Iceland
they recognized that even though they like other countries have on the books
laws that say you should pay equally for equal work it wasn't in fact being
enforced in many workplaces so a new law took effect on January 1st 2018 in
Iceland every enterprise with 25 or more employees must be annually certified by
the government which is going to come in and review statistics of the firm as to
who's getting paid how much money for what kind of work to prove which each
firm has to do that it is paying men and women equally for equivalent or equal
work it is a commitment to overcoming centuries of unequal treatment between
the two genders and it is long overdue and it's a recognition that merely
passing a law without making sure it gets enforced is leaving to the market
forces what in fact the market forces have done which is to maintain
inequality of pay even when a majority of people pass even the laws that make
that illegal Iceland is taking the next logical step and it is something worth
noting the next economic update is a theme I returned to because it literally
cannot be said too often we are told of our highest officials on down that we
are experiencing an economic recovery the mythology goes like this back in
2008 we had a crash second worst crash in the history of capitalism exceeded
only by the Great Depression of the 1930s it was really bad in 2008-9 even
into early 2010 but since then here we go we've been on a recovery well the
truth of it is not so much of a recovery depending on how you look at
the economy you don't see a recovery at all and it is important to point out
that yes some folks are recovering but others are not not even close
and here's a statistic not to lose sight of the median net worth of American
families here's what that means 50% of American families do better than what
I'm about to describe 50% do worse in 2007 the median net worth of an American
family the assets it had - the debts it also had worked out to a hundred and
twenty thousand dollars per family in the middle half did better half did
worse fast forward to 2016 the last year for which we have comprehensive numbers
what was the median net worth of an American family these seven eight years
after the Great Crash the answer 78,000 notice the drop median 120,000 in 2007
78,000 that's not a small drop that's a catastrophic drop in the wealth
assets - debts that an American family add to which the only honest answer or
response would be what recovery with a big question mark the last update we
have time for has to do with a situation in Canada but it is applicable to
capitalism everywhere the largest fast-food chain in Canada is called Tim
Hortons started out as a coffee shop but is now into many different kinds of food
and in the province of Ontario the minimum wage was raised recently to $14
an hour this year and 15 next year and how did the Tim Hortons
Stern's respond well they responded basically by sabotaging the whole point
and purpose of the law here's what they did many of them not all they cut the
paid breaks that they had given to their workers they made the company's share of
the health insurance fees go down and the workers had to pay more in other
words they took away from the workers as much as the rising minimum wage gave to
those workers since the whole point of the legislation was to improve the lives
of the workers to make those at the bottom of the income distribution not as
bad off as they had been what these companies were doing was to literally
sabotage the law what is the point here well let me read to you one statement
that was made by one of the companies involved quote unfortunately when wages
rise at such a fast pace we cannot raise our prices at the same rate to affect
the cost to offset the costs and something has to give I love that
something has to give yes you know what has to give profits those incomes the
profits that go to a small minority of the people have to be reduced so that
what you pay to the vast majority of the people is not as miserly as it has been
no mystery no difficult problem no quotation needed do the right thing or
admit that this is an economic system that puts most of the cards in the hands
of the employers who do not hesitate to use them to get around what a majority
of people and their political representatives have decided to do in
the way of raising the minimum wage same thing happens in the United States and
is a shocking reminder that this system is the problem and passing laws is never
and an adequate way to change how this system has worked continues to work and
is driven to work by the very mechanisms of profit and competition we've come to
the end of the first half of economic update please stay with us we will be
right back
you
For more infomation >> Leo y Satán - El Rincón del Fanart - Duration: 3:00. 
For more infomation >> Funny And Lucky Moments - Hearthstone - Ep. 324 - Duration: 5:09. 
For more infomation >> V (Kim Tae Hyung) как твой парень! (Представь) СМОТРЕТЬ ТОЛЬКО С ТИТРАМИ! - Duration: 0:46. 
For more infomation >> Copia de HAGO BROMA A UNA AMIGA Y PASA ESTO :V SE ENOJA ////cris600_yt//// - Duration: 4:04. 
For more infomation >> THE CONFIRMED TEAM OF THE YEAR SQUAD HAS BEEN LEAKED! 🔥 (FIFA 18 TOTY) - Duration: 6:08. 
For more infomation >> GuardiaN : "Vega a de bonnes chances de battre G2" - Duration: 8:21. 
For more infomation >> HOW TO RAISE CANARIES | PREPARATION OF THE FEMALES FOR THE CRIATION OF CANARIES | PART 1 - Duration: 14:03. 
For more infomation >> Come restare motivati quando s'impara l'italiano | Learn Italian with Lucrezia - Duration: 8:19. 
For more infomation >> Skoda Fabia - Duration: 0:48. 
For more infomation >> Skoda Fabia - Duration: 0:47. 
For more infomation >> Skoda Fabia - Duration: 0:51. 
For more infomation >> Skoda Rapid - Duration: 0:48. 
For more infomation >> Audi A4 - Duration: 0:50. 
For more infomation >> The OFF-LIMITS Sky Train
For more infomation >> Livestream von L3ON - Duration: 38:45. 
For more infomation >> NOTRE KPOP REWIND 2017 ! - Duration: 7:43. 
For more infomation >> Taeyeon 태연 - I'm All Ears 겨울나무 [Rom/Han/Port] - Duration: 3:36. 
For more infomation >> [Brickfilm] Q&A answers! (SuperPlanetDolan Parody) - Duration: 3:19. 
For more infomation >> My little pony club - Duration: 17:19. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét