Increasingly, living wages and employee benefits are being replaced by shrinking government assistance and private donations. Walmart’s wages have long been so low that the corporation almost automatically helps new employees sign up for government programs. The narrative is that it helps assure low consumer prices. And that may be true. But the unavoidable reality is that it ensures higher compensation for executives and massive profits for America’s wealthiest family – the Waltons.
The same is true for the many multinational corporations that have offshored manufacturing jobs to avoid paying living wages along with health and retirement benefits to American employees. Corporations benefit from using public infrastructure and resources often without contributing to their cost. They also often pollute our air, land and water without consequence and when they are brought to account, the officers often declare bankruptcy and simply walk away. At the same time, those corporations lobby for more incentives, lower taxes, and ever-decreasing government assistance for the very people they have helped to impoverish.
Another of their legacies is to have bought up their competition and consolidated industries to the point that they can fix prices. This process has also turned small and medium-size cities into relative ghost towns. The inevitable outcome is that they have created vast wealth disparity and a government run by corporate-fueled oligarchs. At the same time, they are funding, developing and utilizing Artificial Intelligence to replace even more human employees.
Both political parties have responsibility for the conundrum we face. But one in particular – the Republican/MAGA Party – has embraced and enabled it. In return, the politicians have benefited from millions in campaign donations and golden parachutes waiting for their retirement from government.
For many reasons, this pattern cannot continue. Corporations cannot exist without customers who can afford to purchase their products and services. And a government cannot long exist if it ignores the needs of its citizens.
However, this sort of corporate greed has existed for so long, any changes will be extraordinarily painful.
With our national debt now exceeding our GDP, even with massive increases in corporate taxes and a substantial wealth tax, positive change will demand difficult decisions. Using antitrust laws to break up the 3 or 4 corporations that now control entire industries will likely lead to precipitous drops in the stock markets affecting our individual retirement accounts. Encouraging entrepreneurship that leads to more small businesses – the heart of our economy – will require more affordable loans along with increased funding for research and technology, as well as student loan forgiveness.
Since a healthy population is more productive and less costly than an unhealthy one, universal healthcare will have to replace our for-profit insurance system. By most estimates that will save $313.5 billion per year. But it will also make the nearly $2 trillion health insurance industry largely unnecessary putting nearly 3 million people out of work. Of course, many of those workers could be employed by the federal government to regulate suppliers and prevent fraud.
Likewise, creating a fairer and simpler tax system would decimate the $16.2 billion tax preparation industry. And, as with the previous example, some of those workers could be hired by the government to review tax returns and prevent fraud.
Effectively taking on the climate crisis will inevitably eliminate jobs by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. But it could create even more jobs in what will necessarily become a more robust sustainable energy sector. It will also result in cleaner air and water and perhaps save our planet as we know it.
Addressing the decline of rural areas is equally complicated. It requires restoring locally owned and operated farms and ending the corporate takeover of land and resources. It requires new and more sustainable farming practices along with more crop diversity and more reliable commodity prices. It requires the rebuilding of manufacturing facilities in mid-sized towns. Failing that, it requires the subsidy and relocation of those rural citizens who no longer have reasonable prospects of employment to earn a living wage.
Though difficult, the transformation of our economy would yield great benefits. Creating a universal healthcare system would mean that corporations would no longer have to foot the bill for health insurance which is often the equivalent of employee’s salaries. Given the increased costs of international shipping, that alone might be incentive enough to cause corporations to bring back manufacturing jobs. That could increase competition for employees leading to higher, more livable wages. That, in turn, would likely reduce crime and allow typical American families to exist on a single household salary which could negate the need for expensive daycare. Savings that could be put toward retirement.
In addition, by requiring corporations and their officers to pay their fair share in taxes and by eliminating corporate welfare, there would more money to offset the cost of the transition and leading to programs that could further benefit society, such as free public education for all, including university tuition.
Transitioning to a more fair and sustainable economy will be challenging. But continuing along the path we are currently on will be worse. Much worse.