by Sandy » Wed Aug 13, 2014 11:52 am
The "real dollars" are irrelevant to the point. The rise of the stock market is not an indication of overall prosperity, and does not reflect circumstances of labor or the prosperity of any particular economic class. The stock market is rising, but wages remain flat, even though labor is a major factor in the increased prosperity. The disparity between what labor is paid, and the prosperity that is limited to the wealthiest economic class is a clear indication of exactly the point we are making, that the value of labor is no longer market driven, but suppressed artificially by the decline of union influence, which is the balance on labor's side to the corporate corruption and greed that channels wealth into few pockets, and exploits the suppression of the value of labor.
"Prosperity" is a subjective concept. The investor class, which is the prosperity that the stock market and the "real dollars" reflect, is much smaller than it once was, and has maneuvered itself into a position where it monopolizes and controls means of production, artificially inflates prices and artificially suppresses the value of labor.
I've used the example of the US steel mill in Weirton, WV before, but it is a great illustration of this point. The corporation was planning to close the mill completely in the early 90's, and lay off 13,000 mill workers. The local steelworkers union negotiated a deal and bought the mill at a relatively low price, since it was considered inefficient and unproductive. With the profits going back to the union members, the steelworkers themselves, in shares of the company that they owned, they were able to produce steel at prices that were competitive with foreign producers. With a worker-owned company, capital investment modernized the mill, the debt vanished in the wave of prosperity that came from increased orders and production, and the mill became one of the few successful American steel manufacturing firms. That lasted for two decades, and with profits going in shares to each mill worker, the mill weathered economic circumstances that put marginal firms out of business.
Of course, corporate business, especially in the steel industry, was horrified at the thought that workers owned the mill they worked for, and they couldn't compete with either the level of productivity, or the prices. Eventually, they infiltrated the union in Weirton through public sale of stock, gained control of the corporate management, and sold the mill to a foreign producer who promptly shut the operation down, leaving only the coke and carbon plans with about 2,000 employees. Of course, the union membership benefited from selling shares that had increased to more than thirty times their original value in the early 90's, while others took the stock options and receive dividends from the foreign company that bought the mill. The community benefited from union generosity and community building, funds for local schools, churches, and the general increase in business atmosphere that weathered the Bush economic recessions. That's what unions do. It is interesting that corporations can give money directly to political campaigns via the citizens united corruption, but unions can only contribute by collecting individual contributions. If corporations qualify as a person with religious convictions, unions should qualify as well.