The opinion pages this past Labor Day were full of angst over the decline of labor and the rise of capital at the expense of the American worker; unemployment will forever remain high, real wages are stagnant or declining, manufacturing is dead, etc., etc.
Here is a clip from the Washington Post:
It’s not only the jobless who will be affected. No one has yet repealed the law of supply and demand. At last count, there were 4.5 unemployed workers for every job opening. Bargaining power has shifted from labor to capital. Sure, some workers will get promotions and seniority raises. Otherwise, gains will be slim. Since September 2008, annual wage and salary increases have averaged 1.6 percent, the slowest pace in 30 years, reports EPI’s Lawrence Mishel.
So, my question is, if all this doom and gloom is true and the American worker will be in a constant state of partial employment and low-income, who will be buying the products and services generated by capital? Doesn’t it seem reasonable that there must be a re balancing of all this or capital will not be able to pursue its goals or will be taxed into oblivion to support dependent labor?
Or, should we simply put Wal-Mart and Target out of business?
On the other hand in some cases labor’s bargaining power is the cause of job loss and high costs. Organized labor’s refusal to adjust to changing environments (along with managements complacency and incompetence) has contributed significantly to the problems faced by the auto industry, many states and now the postal service where labor is 80% of costs. This is not the fault of workers, (or capital) but their leaders and the politicians with whom they are aligned, however it is the workers who pay the price.
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