It’s interesting because my Dad was a Bank Manager for 40 years and has ALWAYS been a Labour supporter here in the UK, instead of the stereotypical Conservative supporter (who he loathes). Even in such a high position he always thought of himself as a ‘worker’ from a working class background and that’s never changed. He always used to say to my sister and me that he had never disliked someone because of the colour of their skin, their religion or political position but because of their personal attitude or unacceptable behaviour, and that’s the way we were brought up.
K8EM, your dad sounds like an interesting chap. I thought UK politics were interesting because the UK had a political party named the “Labour Party.” I, also, mistakenly, thought the US had one called the “Democrat Party.” It seems I was wrong. If the Democrats were really pro labor, would there be such huge income inequality as exists in the US today?
It is refreshing to hear Carl Spoerer is pro labor unions, but there may be a difference between the current flavor of labor union and those that helped build the middle-class over 50 years ago! Here is an example of what has been lost because of weakened labor unions in the US:
According to James Kwak in his book, Economism: Bad Economics and the Rise of Inequality (2017), “Once upon a time, the major issue affecting workers’ wages and income inequality was unionization. In the 1950s, about one in every three wage and salary employees was a union member (27). … The changing composition of the U.S. workforce, state right-to-work laws, and aggressive anti-unionization tactics by employers — increasingly tolerated by the National Labor Relations Board, beginning with the Reagan administration — all contributed to a long, slow fall in unionization levels. By 2015, only 12 percent of wage and salary employees were union members — fewer than 7 percent in the private sector (29). Low- and middle-income workers’ reduced bargaining power is a major reason why their wages have not kept pace with the overall growth of the economy. According to an analysis by the sociologists Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld, one-fifth to one-third of the increase in inequality between 1973 and 2007 results from the decline of unions (30)(pp. 74-5).”
27. Gerald Mayer, Union Membership Trends in the United States (Congressional Research Service Report, 31 August 2004), app. A.
29. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Union Members — 2015” (press release), 28 January 2016, table 3.
30. Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld, “Unions, Norms, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality,” American Sociology Review 76, no. 4 (2011): 532.
Comments
Trump uses that tactic of making his base feel “special” as well.
“Not you guys though!”
“You get it!”
Propagandists, all of them.
The Brainwashing of My Dad is on HULU!!!
The Brainwashing of My Dad is also om Amazon–free with Prime.
It’s interesting because my Dad was a Bank Manager for 40 years and has ALWAYS been a Labour supporter here in the UK, instead of the stereotypical Conservative supporter (who he loathes). Even in such a high position he always thought of himself as a ‘worker’ from a working class background and that’s never changed. He always used to say to my sister and me that he had never disliked someone because of the colour of their skin, their religion or political position but because of their personal attitude or unacceptable behaviour, and that’s the way we were brought up.
K8EM, your dad sounds like an interesting chap. I thought UK politics were interesting because the UK had a political party named the “Labour Party.” I, also, mistakenly, thought the US had one called the “Democrat Party.” It seems I was wrong. If the Democrats were really pro labor, would there be such huge income inequality as exists in the US today?
It is refreshing to hear Carl Spoerer is pro labor unions, but there may be a difference between the current flavor of labor union and those that helped build the middle-class over 50 years ago! Here is an example of what has been lost because of weakened labor unions in the US:
According to James Kwak in his book, Economism: Bad Economics and the Rise of Inequality (2017), “Once upon a time, the major issue affecting workers’ wages and income inequality was unionization. In the 1950s, about one in every three wage and salary employees was a union member (27). … The changing composition of the U.S. workforce, state right-to-work laws, and aggressive anti-unionization tactics by employers — increasingly tolerated by the National Labor Relations Board, beginning with the Reagan administration — all contributed to a long, slow fall in unionization levels. By 2015, only 12 percent of wage and salary employees were union members — fewer than 7 percent in the private sector (29). Low- and middle-income workers’ reduced bargaining power is a major reason why their wages have not kept pace with the overall growth of the economy. According to an analysis by the sociologists Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld, one-fifth to one-third of the increase in inequality between 1973 and 2007 results from the decline of unions (30)(pp. 74-5).”
27. Gerald Mayer, Union Membership Trends in the United States (Congressional Research Service Report, 31 August 2004), app. A.
29. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Union Members — 2015” (press release), 28 January 2016, table 3.
30. Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld, “Unions, Norms, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality,” American Sociology Review 76, no. 4 (2011): 532.