The rich get richer, the rest of us need income security

The rich get richer, the rest of us need income security.

The sad reality and absurdity of our economic situation is on display in today’s New York Times. Two front-page stories, conveniently – thoughtfully? deliberately? – placed next to each other, present two sides of “the economy.”

First, because it’s higher on the page, is:

$3.4 Billion Profit at Goldman Revives Gilded Pay Packages

(Online title: With Big Profit, Goldman Sees Big Payday Ahead.)

Here are a few key sentences:

Goldman posted the richest quarterly profit in its 140-year history and, to the envy of its rivals, announced that it had earmarked $11.4 billion so far this year to compensate its workers.

At that rate, Goldman employees could, on average, earn roughly $770,000 each this year — or nearly what they did at the height of the boom.

Senior Goldman executives and bankers would be paid considerably more.

Second is:

In Recession, a Bleaker Path for Workers to Slog

(Online title: Part-Time Workers Mask Unemployment Woes)

A few key sentences:

In California and a handful of other states, one out of every five people who would like to be working full time is not now doing so.

It is a startling sign of the pain that the Great Recession is inflicting, and it is largely missed by the official, oft-repeated statistics on unemployment. The national unemployment rate has risen to 9.5 percent, the highest level in more than a quarter-century. Yet it still excludes all those who have given up looking for a job and those part-time workers who want to be working full time.

The complete articles are here and here.

The article on unemployment includes a link to a labor department data report:

U-6 Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached worker … 16.5 percent.

The complete table is here.

Income security for all – a guaranteed basic income for every adult citizen, say $1,000 a month – will ensure that all “marginally attached workers” can afford food and shelter, at least. Plus, people spending that money will stimulate economic growth from the bottom up by demanding goods and services. That would be by far the most direct, rapid, just, and democratic way to end the recession.

Recent economic policies, the conventional approaches using bailouts and subsidies, have directly and obviously enriched Goldman Sachs, but not done a lot for the rest of us.

Some of the questions I ask:

Do we still believe that government should “promote the general welfare”?

Does it make sense to continue subsidizing mostly the special welfare of Goldman, AIG, GM, et. al.?

How much are these absurdities and inequities a result of Goldman execs. holding key government positions over the past two decades?

What kind of society do we want to live in?

We need a peaceful, positive revolution.

It’s time to update ideas from the 1890s, 1930s, and 1960s and enact a guaranteed income. The updated idea is to set some amount, say $1,000 a month, and provide that to every adult citizen. It should be enough for food and shelter, but just enough, so people still have strong incentives to work and earn.

Why don’t we have that? Because we individuals and We the People are not demanding it.

The complete plan, the idea, the benefits, and how we can make it happen, is in Peaceful, Positive Revolution,.

Additional information is on the home page and elsewhere on this web site.

I hope you’ll also comment on this blog. And please help spread the word.

Steven Shafarman

Tags: bailouts, economic growth, economic stimulus, Goldman, Goldman Sachs, recession, unemployment

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 5:32 am and is filed under economic crisis, recession, unemployment.
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