The Intellectual Mosquito

Senator Jim Webb's Book "A Time To Fight" Explains How Our Middle Class Is Shrinking While Corporations Seek To Hold Workers Hostage

In “From A Square Deal to a Raw Deal,” Chapter Six of his book, Sen. Webb writes that according to  the New York Times, with a one-year exception, total income reported by taxpayers increased annually after World War II right up to 2001, the year of George Bush’s election. What followed was four years of lower income totals for the majority of Americans born after 1945. Almost half of these people filed tax returns showing incomes under $30,000 while two-thirds reported incomes of  less than$50,000.

     Meanwhile, the stock market rocketed to historic heights. But this kind of growth does nothing for the little guy and his family, living off $30,000 to $50,000 a year. The phenomenal amounts of money generated by the market activity described in the New York Times  flowed to people making over $1 million a year. Who are these people? They make up less than one quarter of one percent of all taxpayers. And this tiny group hauled in nearly 47 percent of all income gains in 2005.

     Who really benefits from these market surges? The top one percent of our society which also owns more than 50 percent of stocks. So they have real power on Wall Street and the “capital gains” taxes paid on their stock earnings is 15 percent, considerably less than the percentage  the average worker pays on income earned through labor. 

     How big is the divide between the earnings of people at the top of the ladder versus the average income earners on the bottom rungs? Paul Krugman an economic theorist and columnist for the New York Times used John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in American during the late 1800’s, as a reference point.  Rockefeller made $1.25 million in 1884, about 7,000 times the average per capita income at the time. But this is chump change compared to money made by hedge fund managers who pull down billions of dollars a year. In 2007 one of them received $1.7 billion, over 38,000 times the average income. The top twenty-five hedge fund managers were paid a combined $14 billion.

     As outrageous as these numbers are, following the global sub-prime disaster when the largest banks on Wall Street lost $50 billion, those institutions began paying “retiring” CEO’s anywhere from $40 million to $160 million in retirement benefits.

     Dancing along  in the top 1 percent or "upper crust" of America is the society of the super rich who regularly replenish the ranks of the highest paid officers and directors of  huge corporate employers. If they are allowed defeat the passage of the Employees Free Choice Act, they will "own" the American working class. They will move from the virtual aristocracy they are to an invincible ruling class that will dictate wages, water down benefits even more, put the lid on retirement funds and restrain workers from having a voice in the workplace or developing any means of getting ahead. If the workers have no voice, no way to push back, no means to bargain fairly, whom among us will be there to take up their  cause?

    

       WRITE, EMAIL OR WIRE YOUR SENATORS TO VOTE FOR

         THE EMPLOYEES FREE CHOICE ACT ON JUNE 30th

Last Chance To Avoid Corporate "Ownership" Of Workers

Write or Telegraph Your Senators Today

Demand They Vote for the Employees

Free Choice Act on June 30^th

 

On June 3oth the Senate will hold a historic vote on passage of the Employees Free Choice Act. This law will allow workers to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation and establishing harsher penalties for  employers who  violate employees’ rights when they try to unionize. This new law will outlaw employer intimidation of workers who seek to have a union and streamline the process of getting union representation in place. This is the first of a two part series explaining the workers’ plight and the need for passage of the new law.

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 Corporations have never been friends of their workers. Before unions took root, every attempt by workers to earn a fair wage, to have a work day that didn’t keep them away from their families12 or more hours six days a week, to get some form of health care benefits was staunchly rejected by management. Right from the start, when workers sought to unionize to build their bargaining strength, the companies’ “union busters” took the fight to the streets where blood flowed over the principle of fair play and pay in the factories.

     In the early years big business fought furiously to keep employees under its thumb with the threat of firing that would lead to abject poverty. A mere rumor of talk about unionizing was enough to get bread and butter whisked off a family’s table.

      It took the country’s urgent military needs of World War II to give labor a footing from which they could make progress. From the war’s end and until the mid-1950’s, labor and management struggled until reaching a point of counterbalance. It was then that the middle class grew as the nation prospered through the manufacturing of consumer goods, automobiles, affordable housing and the marketing of various household appliances and conveniences.

     The average middle class family reached unprecedented well-being from the 1950’s and into the late 60’s. But by that time corrupt union leaders and the muscle labor felt in its ranks led to one unreasonable demand after another until rank and file members sensed that calls for ever higher wages and more benefits were becoming overreaching goals. Americans working in other sections of the economy agreed the unions were getting out of hand. It was evident that putting a strangle hold on large corporate employers would eventually lead to a public backlash and loss of jobs.

     From the late 1960’s into the early 1970’s labor unions lost membership and public empathy. And as unions fell out of favor, corporate employers recaptured control of workers. In some instances union leaders and corporate ones seemed to have struck a bargain where the voice of labor would be toned down while their leaders and corporate management shared the wealth.

       Labor's departure from unions led to the atrophy of labor leaders' ability to bargain effectively. Their power to negotiate from strength dried up. They were finished.

     Ever in the role of the wolf, corporate power brokers waited out the decline and fall of the unions. Even before the last of the union dinosaurs keeled over in the industrial landscape, the gains workers made during the post World War II era were undercut by the failure of wage increases to keep pace with the economy, by cutbacks in health insurance and other  benefits, the loss of jobs with the advent of automation and relocation of manufacturing plants to other states and overseas.

       Right now big business is making a hard run at finally and forever capturing America’s labor force by stamping out the remnants of the ability to unionize thereby forcing working class people to submit its will.  Victory hinges on Republican Senators getting  enough right-leaning Democrats and Independents to come over to their side.                                       

                 

No Mosquito Brains Here

Mosquitoes are one of God’s good-for-nothing creatures. They’re party crashers with a reputation for ruining everybody’s good time. They are universally disliked except by the nerdy entomologist who finds them the subject of endless fascination and makes them the heroes of  his learned writings.

     But an “intellectual” mosquito? With a brain the size of a pin point or less, how can an insect reflect on anything?  Can the entomologist unequivocally tell us whether these wretched pests even have a brain? For our purposes, let’s assume the answer is “Yes”. From there it is a short hop to assume that the typical mosquito’s brain functions much like ours do, but at a far lesser wattage.

     We at The Intellectual Mosquito aren’t interested in our mascot’s I.Q., We’ve chosen him because he annoys the hell out of people.  A cluster of them attacks like a formation of tiny fighter planes, swooping up your nose, breezing into your mouth and eyes while their comrades are stealthily slipping their long hypodermic siphons into every exposed part of your body. Even if you manage to smush the slow flying ones who have gorged themselves on your blood, the satisfaction doesn’t prevent the irritating, prolonged itching that follows.

     It’s the maddening, harassing, pestering and completely exasperating nature of the mosquito that makes him our dashing mascot.

     The editorial intent of The Intellectual Mosquito is to offer discussion and opinion over a wide area of contemporary American Life where no subject and no person shall be sacrosanct. Much of our criticism will be aimed at people who have undeservedly attained fame, power or fortune by elbowing their way onto the public stage without merit, hard work, noteworthy talent or meaningful accomplishment on their resume.

     We’re going to provide considered opinion and candid comment on politicians and politics, newsmakers, business, professional sports, and those annoying public figures we all wish would just go away.

As we wade into the arena of public opinion, we set forth some worthy suggestions for motoring through the economic waste water, paying off the deficit and the reasons why universal health care is the best solution for all Americans.

We’ll be looking forward to your comments and input and to doing our best to give you postings worth thinking about.