Labor & BI: A view from the U.S. Joel Rogers, UW-Madison 13 th BIEN Congress, São Paulo, July 1-2,...
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Transcript of Labor & BI: A view from the U.S. Joel Rogers, UW-Madison 13 th BIEN Congress, São Paulo, July 1-2,...
Labor & BI: A view from the U.S.
Joel Rogers, UW-Madison
13th BIEN Congress, São Paulo, July 1-2, 2010
What I’ll be talking about
• Labor and BI, in general terms• Exceptionalism of U.S. & U.S. labor• Hope?
I made some slides for you
Like this slide
And this one
Power corrupts
Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Absolute PowerPoint?
Just can’t be good
Labor & BI, in general terms
Pro, con, maybe
• Improves power of labor relative to capital, decommodifies labor power, enlarges space for social experiment
• Undermines contributory solidarity, existing labor contracts, and worker organizations built on them
• That no longer an effective basis of working class organization: – Boundaries of firm less clear– Job-based security disappearing (“precariat”)– Interest not best organized at the workplace underrepresented– Insider-outsider problems in social cohesion
Three public philosophies
Economic Development
A place’s wealth is determined by the productivity of its human, physical, and natural capital, and its local capture of the benefits of that productivity.
Productivity is a function of the value of products and services (e.g. their uniqueness, performance, or quality) and the efficiency with which they are produced (i.e., how much output per unit of input). Productivity is best measured not by volume but revenue produced per unit of input (land, labor, capital).
Places can compete on low-road (price reducing) or high-road (productivity increasing, with high and equitable local capture) ways.
Three public philosophies
Basic unities: i + w + c = 1; p + w = 1
Taxes 1: supply-side egalitarianism
Taxes 2: Tax universalism
Three public philosophies
Worst case?• Integrated global capital responds instantly and
punitively to any change in the rate of profit• Rate of profit identical worldwide• Cannot be lowered or raised• So any new surplus goes to the immobile workers
who helped produce it
Economy still organized in places. Well-organized places, and the high-road infrastructure within them, permits bargaining with capital.
Real case
Where we want to be
Exceptionalism of U.S.
American exceptionalism
– No labor party – Little class-based popular politics– Vast wealth, military power, and waste– Religious, violent, anti-urban
America is the first country to have gone from barbarism to decadence without the usual intervening period of civilization. — Wilde
Exceptionally low public spendingCountry Total taxes
as % of GDP Country Total taxes
as % of GDP
Australia 30.6 Luxembourg 41.8
Austria 43.9 Mexico 16.0
Belgium 45.7 Netherlands 42.1
Canada 38.2 New Zealand 35.6
Czech Republic 40.4 Norway 41.6
Denmark 50.4 Poland 35.2
Finland 46.2 Portugal 34.3
France 45.8 Slovak Republic 35.3
Germany 37.7 Spain 35.1
Greece 37.1 Sweden 52.2
Hungary 39.2 Switzerland 34.4
Iceland 36.3 Turkey 31.3
Ireland 32.3 United Kingdom 36.3
Italy 43.3 United States 28.9
Japan 26.2 EU average 41.6
Korea 23.6 OECD average 37.3
Country Total taxes as % of GDP
Country Total taxes as % of GDP
Australia 30.6 Luxembourg 41.8
Austria 43.9 Mexico 16.0
Belgium 45.7 Netherlands 42.1
Canada 38.2 New Zealand 35.6
Czech Republic 40.4 Norway 41.6
Denmark 50.4 Poland 35.2
Finland 46.2 Portugal 34.3
France 45.8 Slovak Republic 35.3
Germany 37.7 Spain 35.1
Greece 37.1 Sweden 52.2
Hungary 39.2 Switzerland 34.4
Iceland 36.3 Turkey 31.3
Ireland 32.3 United Kingdom 36.3
Italy 43.3 United States 28.9
Japan 26.2 EU average 41.6
Korea 23.6 OECD average 37.3
Middle class America
Great divergence
Gilded Age
Great compression
InequalityNew Gilded Age
Top 1% takes 23% of income. Top .1% ($1.7M in 2006) takes 9 percent – twice share in UK (4.7%), five times share in France (1.6%)
Inequality decomposed
Missed productivity dividend
Social efficiency and labor organization
Dynamics of bargainingSo
cial
effi
cien
cy
Labor power (density + centralization)
Capitalist strategy & labor strategy
U.S. labor
• Membership defined as firm majorities• “Contracts are us” • Fragmented structure, silos of solidarity, little horizontal
coordination
• Dependent politics
Frankly I used to worry about the membership, about the size of the membership. But quite a few years ago, I just stopped worrying about it, because to me it doesn’t make any difference. — Meany
Union density 1890-2008
Hope?
One answer
• In a hundred years, all new people! • Antecedents even in U.S. labor …
What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures. — Gompers
• Open source and ongoing membership recruitment and maintenance
• High road program• Functional role at the workplace
Obviously
• Current system no longer “delivering the goods”• People getting better (tolerance, environmentalism, international
concern) and more open to alternatives• Hold of neoliberal market orthodoxy weaker, need for public
goods more obvious, waste of present system more evident• Science advancing at near “singularity” rate, and innovation finally
moving into government• Scalable “high road” alternative available
Basic problem in U.S. is lack of democratic confidence. Basic reason is not internationalization, but domestic political failure, owing to lack of organized investment in relevant political infrastructure, itself owing to lack of clear leadership.
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)• Largest US anti-poverty program, bigger than
TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), Food Stamps, other
• Refundable tax credit, tied to earnings —“make work pay” by eliminating “poverty traps”
• Expanded under Clinton; plan to expand further under Obama
• More contested today than in the past, in part because of growth, in part because of growth in partisanship
Political infrastructure: CBSM4
• Communication: among leadership, to and from base, with the mass public
• Blood (new, i.e. youth): recruitment, training, placement, etc.• Message & program: something simple and positive to say to about
what we should be, and a few things to get us closer that• Messengers: many people running for office and talking in public,
showing message discipline, shared frames, talking points, etc.• Models: models of what works at scale and can be replicated• Money: patient but demanding capital – long-term but experimental
and performance based, prepared to withdraw on failure or non-performance
• Service centers: on a variety of functions best organized in one place to realize economies of scale and scope; think leadership academies, policy shops, centers of campaign expertise, media support centers, etc.