In 2011, Elizabeth Warren, contemplating a run for the Senate, said this in a speech that was later adapted for a campaign slogan by Pres. Obama:
"I hear all this, you know, 'Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever.' No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."
Sadly, the furious reaction and distortion by right-wing pols and media turned this concept radioactive. But it's time to bring it back. That's why I'm enthusiastic about Corbin's writings!
And Liz Warren [we're on a first name basis because she's the senator from my state of Massachusetts] :D.... continues to this day, calling it like it is, she's never backed down from challenging corporate greed and malfeasance. J
ust today saw a video where she's calling out one of the biggest give-aways in the reconciliation bill from last July - a hidden little provision that allows corporations and individuals to take an already huge tax break even earlier than before, saving them [and costing us taxpayers] even more billions. And of course, the only ones who can make more than a few pennies off of this provision are the ones who already have billions. No surprise there.
When I was a child my father's job paid for a house and supported a wife and two kids. We went to highly rated public schools.
When mom kicked dad out (he was an abusive Ahole) we were dirt poor for a while so she could finish her teaching degree and then THAT salary allowed her to pay off the mortgage on the house she took from him in the divorce settlement and for both of us kids (though money was still tight). Later on, she was able to sell that house and buy a condo outright and help us kids out when we needed help.
Today, after many challenges over the years, I earn less than a Dollar General employee and have only Medicare; I make too much for assistance programs and too little to pay off my mounting debts with only my income and Social Security (which I had to take early so I'd have SOME extra income). At least my "job" is teaching exercise and yoga in fitness clubs and senior centers and I have a healthy diet to manage my age related issues (severe osteoporosis, a possible autoimmune disease yet to be diagnosed, and a mild case of Post Covid Syndrome) so i am overall doing better in some ways than my wealthier peers.
I've been following the incredible work of Jesse Welles (our new Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan) who has so much insight into what's happening. One is his songs is so appropriate for this post:
PAST time to take out the trash, but it would help if we could unrig the system. Have a look at ElectionTruthAlliance.org if you haven't already and then reread The Boy Who Cried Wolf: it's what the GOP has been doing so no one believes what ETA is finding.
Ray Carey, former ADP CEO and staunch supporter of more widespread equity sharing (also founder of Carey Center for Democratic Capitalism at Rutgers) wrote a book in the early aughts blueprinting how we get there and the reasons for it, socially, politically and otherwise. Using the data folks like Dr. Joseph Blasi have collected at the Center for nearly 50 years to justify: in the aggregate companies that offer equity in any form, such as in an ESOP are valued some 9% more than those that are not at transition. Interestingly enough, Ray predicted in the book that if we didn’t get off the PE bandwagon(this was around 2002), then we might start to see a political collapse as early as the 2020s. We saw it coming. We see it: we’re experiencing it right now. And the elite simply intend to run the country right down the toilet rather than end this second gilded age.
It’s so frustrating, right? A more equal economic landscape still allows for the wealthy to remain wealthy, it just gets their worst behaviors out of the way of the rest of us.
My late father was one of the last people who got out of Armco Steel in Kansas City with his pension intact before Mitt Romney and his Bain Capital vulture capitalists descended on the company in the ‘80s. Everybody who left after Dad got fucked out of their pensions and retirement benefits.
That money wasn’t “lost” - rich assholes stole it.
My father worked for American Enka Corporation from the 1950’s until the 1980’s. (Actually, I think it was sold somewhere during that period.) For a long time, Enka was THE place to work in that town. I have been told he was lucky he bailed when he did because those who waited got LESS in pension pay than he got. I suspect the story is similar to the Toys R Us saga.
Maybe in his spare time, Corbin can do a deep dive into what happened there.
"American Equity: It was our venture capital. We just want our cut." Messaging that cuts through the "socialist" label and the negative connotations applied by corporate media that have been dutifully learned.
Let's not forget that Mitch McConnell and countless other Americans were treated for polio in their youths IN GOVERNMENT OWNED HOSPITALS that were later sold to and closed by private equites that have cut services and the numbers of h/c professionals from doctors, nurses, lab technicians etc in the creation of h/c deserts and monopolies.
Thanks so much for doing the research to articulate this! (I’d been meaning to do so for years but have too many other irons in the fire)
This situation points to a central conclusion: once a society/economy has reached maturity, the profit motive has outlived its usefulness and becomes a destructive force. “Profit” is essentially about extracting more value from a system than one puts in. It only works when resources are overly abundant. After that, it leads to inevitable inequality and systemic damage.
Private equity is the most egregious example — take over a functioning (even healthy) enterprise, strip out as much value as possible while investing as little as possible — then throw away the husk. Vampirism in corporate guise.
We will have to do some rebuilding as well as restructuring, but yes, the future of "profit" is the public ability to provide public goods and services -- health care, retirement, education, housing, etc.. With oligarchs controlling mass media, our challenge is greater, but lively political campaigns and "clean" media will win the day.
I am fed up as I am sure we all are. Constantly being held to a standard of performance that isnt sustainable to achieve something that isnt accessible and then nei.g blamed for it while those perpetuating g the system continue to amass more and more while the rest of us do with less and less until we are broken down and turned out as pointless and useless. It has got to ✋️
This kind of grift is happening in housing. After WWII a number of cities built many family homes so soldiers returning to domestic jobs had a shot at housing their families. Those are being bought up by landlords to use as rentals. I understand that in Los Angeles there are upscale high rises that are empty because there was never any intention to fill them. They are part of Mortgage-backed securities packages, traded ad nauseum in ready to sell condition. I learned this in a documentary about the homeless in LA. I expect it's true - we can't afford to buy a home in our town because they are purchased by cash as soon as they hit the market, then rented. All legal.
Some time ago I wrote up the story of C R Anthony's department store chain, which was Mitt Romney's first kill. Anthony's was the only store I ever enjoyed. They sold good solid things appropriate for their neighborhoods. I still use a kitchen knife bought there in 1974. Their secret, similar to ToysRus, was local control and local equity.
Great piece, as always! Small math correction: Stores are routinely staffed by a single person responsible for 7,500 square feet of retail space. That’s one worker for every 823 square feet.
So if consumerism is the 10 commandments of the working stooges, you and me, then we consumers, with some help from academia, should/could/must start our own corporations -- non-profit, worker/consumer owned. Every time we buy something from these corps., we get some portion of a share. Consumers build equity for other consumers. This IS a consumer economy, socialized, with, Wait For It, private capitalized owners. Why? Consider the Wizards of Oz. Not just one 'man' behind the curtain, but several thousand. Consumers ALSO extract, ship, process, build, package, ship again, stock, sell, and then manage the Garbage of all that consumption. While holding less than 5% of all stock within 70% of the population. There is a fatal, terminal disease running amok within human society. Commonly known as HOARDING. Buffett is the premier example -- a person who accumulates as much as possible, Just To Have It. Unlike the many other capitalist parasites like Bezos, Zuckerbland, Theil, Gates of Hell, etc., Buffett just likes to accumulate wealth, while living in an old house and hanging out in Omaha watching the birds fly by. The other parasites cannot control their appetites at all, they are addicted to consuming more and more, and creating massive piles of toxic garbage, and using gargantuan amounts of 'other people's money' to do all this, and unfathomable amounts of ENERGY to do it. This nation, and much of the rest of the human world, are In Decline, moving at light speed down the rabbit hole. Following them down this hole is all the garbage and toxins and rotting corpses they have created via their parasitism. If humans could ever imagine that if they owned a piece of everything they consumed and then trashed, it is a sure bet they would be much more prudent with it, and their behaviors as well. The Company Store Model has NEVER worked. But with disaster/predatory capitalism fueling the engines, this model has torn the planet apart and filled it to the brim with poisons, now killing every ecological connection that holds the planet together. The final delusion in this is that the grotesque capitalists are fanatically mesmerized with their own omnipotence and omnipresence, sans any omniscience, because that character trait is just too much work. Now, i doubt the bottom 70 percent have enough resources, let alone time, to buy out the oligarch class, unless all of us/them just STOP working for, say one month. Period, Full Stop. Nobody works. The machine breaks down. Can the 70 last out for One Month?
Great idea - a "public equity corporation" - except it already exists! It's called the United States government! Problem is, that too has been subject to a hostile takeover over time, especially since 1980!
Yes Karun. Unfortunately due to a very horribly crafted Constitution, the entire political class can be bought and sold, intimidated, bribed, coerced, extorted and turned into lackeys. With no Judge Dredd Fifth Estate, a citizenry-led police force for policing every branch of govt. AND the media, citizens are chattel. With the Extreme Sport of Injustice, godheads for life, there is no real Law, only laissez faire gaslighting and Doublethink, where a simple majority can rewrite History. Once media are whored out, how will the citizenry even know what is happening IN their backyards. Stock up, fortify your living situation, every ordinary citizen (90 percent of the population) and just stop working for at least one month. No other non-violent options are available.
Take note of the 1886 Santa Clara decision, where railroad lawyers masquerading as Congressmen obliterated the distinction between natural and artificial persons as those intended to receive equal treatment under the law, which is to say artificial protection of private profits and revolving-door politics.
In 2011, Elizabeth Warren, contemplating a run for the Senate, said this in a speech that was later adapted for a campaign slogan by Pres. Obama:
"I hear all this, you know, 'Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever.' No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."
Sadly, the furious reaction and distortion by right-wing pols and media turned this concept radioactive. But it's time to bring it back. That's why I'm enthusiastic about Corbin's writings!
And Liz Warren [we're on a first name basis because she's the senator from my state of Massachusetts] :D.... continues to this day, calling it like it is, she's never backed down from challenging corporate greed and malfeasance. J
ust today saw a video where she's calling out one of the biggest give-aways in the reconciliation bill from last July - a hidden little provision that allows corporations and individuals to take an already huge tax break even earlier than before, saving them [and costing us taxpayers] even more billions. And of course, the only ones who can make more than a few pennies off of this provision are the ones who already have billions. No surprise there.
When I was a child my father's job paid for a house and supported a wife and two kids. We went to highly rated public schools.
When mom kicked dad out (he was an abusive Ahole) we were dirt poor for a while so she could finish her teaching degree and then THAT salary allowed her to pay off the mortgage on the house she took from him in the divorce settlement and for both of us kids (though money was still tight). Later on, she was able to sell that house and buy a condo outright and help us kids out when we needed help.
Today, after many challenges over the years, I earn less than a Dollar General employee and have only Medicare; I make too much for assistance programs and too little to pay off my mounting debts with only my income and Social Security (which I had to take early so I'd have SOME extra income). At least my "job" is teaching exercise and yoga in fitness clubs and senior centers and I have a healthy diet to manage my age related issues (severe osteoporosis, a possible autoimmune disease yet to be diagnosed, and a mild case of Post Covid Syndrome) so i am overall doing better in some ways than my wealthier peers.
I've been following the incredible work of Jesse Welles (our new Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan) who has so much insight into what's happening. One is his songs is so appropriate for this post:
https://youtu.be/I6vjaimSK4E?si=elDjlHjNuWJVxC0W
Time to take out the trash.
PAST time to take out the trash, but it would help if we could unrig the system. Have a look at ElectionTruthAlliance.org if you haven't already and then reread The Boy Who Cried Wolf: it's what the GOP has been doing so no one believes what ETA is finding.
Ray Carey, former ADP CEO and staunch supporter of more widespread equity sharing (also founder of Carey Center for Democratic Capitalism at Rutgers) wrote a book in the early aughts blueprinting how we get there and the reasons for it, socially, politically and otherwise. Using the data folks like Dr. Joseph Blasi have collected at the Center for nearly 50 years to justify: in the aggregate companies that offer equity in any form, such as in an ESOP are valued some 9% more than those that are not at transition. Interestingly enough, Ray predicted in the book that if we didn’t get off the PE bandwagon(this was around 2002), then we might start to see a political collapse as early as the 2020s. We saw it coming. We see it: we’re experiencing it right now. And the elite simply intend to run the country right down the toilet rather than end this second gilded age.
Because even in the toilet an economy can feed the rich.
It’s so frustrating, right? A more equal economic landscape still allows for the wealthy to remain wealthy, it just gets their worst behaviors out of the way of the rest of us.
My late father was one of the last people who got out of Armco Steel in Kansas City with his pension intact before Mitt Romney and his Bain Capital vulture capitalists descended on the company in the ‘80s. Everybody who left after Dad got fucked out of their pensions and retirement benefits.
That money wasn’t “lost” - rich assholes stole it.
My father worked for American Enka Corporation from the 1950’s until the 1980’s. (Actually, I think it was sold somewhere during that period.) For a long time, Enka was THE place to work in that town. I have been told he was lucky he bailed when he did because those who waited got LESS in pension pay than he got. I suspect the story is similar to the Toys R Us saga.
Maybe in his spare time, Corbin can do a deep dive into what happened there.
"American Equity: It was our venture capital. We just want our cut." Messaging that cuts through the "socialist" label and the negative connotations applied by corporate media that have been dutifully learned.
Let's not forget that Mitch McConnell and countless other Americans were treated for polio in their youths IN GOVERNMENT OWNED HOSPITALS that were later sold to and closed by private equites that have cut services and the numbers of h/c professionals from doctors, nurses, lab technicians etc in the creation of h/c deserts and monopolies.
Thanks so much for doing the research to articulate this! (I’d been meaning to do so for years but have too many other irons in the fire)
This situation points to a central conclusion: once a society/economy has reached maturity, the profit motive has outlived its usefulness and becomes a destructive force. “Profit” is essentially about extracting more value from a system than one puts in. It only works when resources are overly abundant. After that, it leads to inevitable inequality and systemic damage.
Private equity is the most egregious example — take over a functioning (even healthy) enterprise, strip out as much value as possible while investing as little as possible — then throw away the husk. Vampirism in corporate guise.
We will have to do some rebuilding as well as restructuring, but yes, the future of "profit" is the public ability to provide public goods and services -- health care, retirement, education, housing, etc.. With oligarchs controlling mass media, our challenge is greater, but lively political campaigns and "clean" media will win the day.
💯🔥 Reset the standards for the American people. Our tax dollars for our own benefit. Private corporations do not get a free ride on our backs.
I am fed up as I am sure we all are. Constantly being held to a standard of performance that isnt sustainable to achieve something that isnt accessible and then nei.g blamed for it while those perpetuating g the system continue to amass more and more while the rest of us do with less and less until we are broken down and turned out as pointless and useless. It has got to ✋️
'nice things' isn't really the point. The future is 'less'. There will be no future if the multi-billionairs keep accumulating our wealth.
We will have to do this if we are to save our country. The future will not tolerate business as usual.
This kind of grift is happening in housing. After WWII a number of cities built many family homes so soldiers returning to domestic jobs had a shot at housing their families. Those are being bought up by landlords to use as rentals. I understand that in Los Angeles there are upscale high rises that are empty because there was never any intention to fill them. They are part of Mortgage-backed securities packages, traded ad nauseum in ready to sell condition. I learned this in a documentary about the homeless in LA. I expect it's true - we can't afford to buy a home in our town because they are purchased by cash as soon as they hit the market, then rented. All legal.
Some time ago I wrote up the story of C R Anthony's department store chain, which was Mitt Romney's first kill. Anthony's was the only store I ever enjoyed. They sold good solid things appropriate for their neighborhoods. I still use a kitchen knife bought there in 1974. Their secret, similar to ToysRus, was local control and local equity.
http://polistrasmill.blogspot.com/2012/10/grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.html
Great piece, as always! Small math correction: Stores are routinely staffed by a single person responsible for 7,500 square feet of retail space. That’s one worker for every 823 square feet.
Should be nine people per 7,500 square feet
So if consumerism is the 10 commandments of the working stooges, you and me, then we consumers, with some help from academia, should/could/must start our own corporations -- non-profit, worker/consumer owned. Every time we buy something from these corps., we get some portion of a share. Consumers build equity for other consumers. This IS a consumer economy, socialized, with, Wait For It, private capitalized owners. Why? Consider the Wizards of Oz. Not just one 'man' behind the curtain, but several thousand. Consumers ALSO extract, ship, process, build, package, ship again, stock, sell, and then manage the Garbage of all that consumption. While holding less than 5% of all stock within 70% of the population. There is a fatal, terminal disease running amok within human society. Commonly known as HOARDING. Buffett is the premier example -- a person who accumulates as much as possible, Just To Have It. Unlike the many other capitalist parasites like Bezos, Zuckerbland, Theil, Gates of Hell, etc., Buffett just likes to accumulate wealth, while living in an old house and hanging out in Omaha watching the birds fly by. The other parasites cannot control their appetites at all, they are addicted to consuming more and more, and creating massive piles of toxic garbage, and using gargantuan amounts of 'other people's money' to do all this, and unfathomable amounts of ENERGY to do it. This nation, and much of the rest of the human world, are In Decline, moving at light speed down the rabbit hole. Following them down this hole is all the garbage and toxins and rotting corpses they have created via their parasitism. If humans could ever imagine that if they owned a piece of everything they consumed and then trashed, it is a sure bet they would be much more prudent with it, and their behaviors as well. The Company Store Model has NEVER worked. But with disaster/predatory capitalism fueling the engines, this model has torn the planet apart and filled it to the brim with poisons, now killing every ecological connection that holds the planet together. The final delusion in this is that the grotesque capitalists are fanatically mesmerized with their own omnipotence and omnipresence, sans any omniscience, because that character trait is just too much work. Now, i doubt the bottom 70 percent have enough resources, let alone time, to buy out the oligarch class, unless all of us/them just STOP working for, say one month. Period, Full Stop. Nobody works. The machine breaks down. Can the 70 last out for One Month?
Great idea - a "public equity corporation" - except it already exists! It's called the United States government! Problem is, that too has been subject to a hostile takeover over time, especially since 1980!
Yes Karun. Unfortunately due to a very horribly crafted Constitution, the entire political class can be bought and sold, intimidated, bribed, coerced, extorted and turned into lackeys. With no Judge Dredd Fifth Estate, a citizenry-led police force for policing every branch of govt. AND the media, citizens are chattel. With the Extreme Sport of Injustice, godheads for life, there is no real Law, only laissez faire gaslighting and Doublethink, where a simple majority can rewrite History. Once media are whored out, how will the citizenry even know what is happening IN their backyards. Stock up, fortify your living situation, every ordinary citizen (90 percent of the population) and just stop working for at least one month. No other non-violent options are available.
Take note of the 1886 Santa Clara decision, where railroad lawyers masquerading as Congressmen obliterated the distinction between natural and artificial persons as those intended to receive equal treatment under the law, which is to say artificial protection of private profits and revolving-door politics.
Hard