Reading through your always insightful post I came to a full stop aha moment on this line “Pension funds with billions of dollars to invest.” So in pension funds have a lot of surplus capital why are nearly all companies cancelling their pensions funds? I work for a major automotive brand and it happened to us a few years ago. I get they don’t want perpetual payout obligations as lifespans grow longer but if these funds are beyond solvent and in fact growing it sounds like another case of the worker getting screwed.
why would we prevent it in such a toxic society, past local comfort.. the solidarity goes farther but with solidarity the movement can go farther… i personally hate the point that we are at but don’t we all even if unventilated.. and our privilege should take the back burner as we fight for equitable pressures even with our modern fascism. if we alienate their alienation becomes so much easier…
We need to re-look at the legislation of the first 100 days of Roosevelt's administration in 1933 when they brought it so many valuable controls on the power of capital, and at all the provisions that regulated capital that were removed during the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump administrations. Also, in Germany after World War II, the unions secured equal representation on supervisory boards that are above the board of directors of a corporation. The supervisory board appoints the directors and must approve all major financial decisions. It provides a method for workers to have some real control over the decisions of corporate Germany.
Excellent analysis. This is a phenomenon that most people don’t understand, much less realize that it’s been happening for quite some time. I couldn’t believe when I started reading that corporate America and Wall Street bankers started availing themselves of American homes- the publicly-listed, privately owned property that exchanges hands among ordinary Americans and allows people to have a place to live for fuck’s sake.
We need politicians at every level of government who have the backbone to start drafting legislation that will disincentivize these trends. These trends are not good for most Americans. A deeply rooted reckoning must come if these trends continue into the lives of the next generation of Americans. And I fear what that could look like; it won’t be good.
"I don’t want to make it sound like public financial markets are some sort of socialist utopia—but I do think that their very existence has more progressive characteristics than many people on the left have ever considered."
Love your work but disagree on this one. Stock markets function as a way of directly transferring wealth upwards. The top 10% wealthiest Americans own over 90% of the stock value. That means when a company uses its profits to do stock buy backs or pay dividends, it is directly transferring revenue squeezed out of consumers to the top 10% most affluent Americans.
The ironic statement put in Milo Mindbender's mouth: "And everybody has a share!" was on point. Not everybody has a share at all. The flock is getting fleeced, and the stock market is one of the main institutions doing the extraction - most beautifully, because it can maintain the illusion of choice, freedom, participation, and even the 'Democracy of the marketplace."
Companies that serve important sectors or that form natural monopolies or cartels should be made truly Public - that is, nationalized.
A stock market is a way for companies to tap public financing. I am aware of the inequality in stock ownership, but it is not "the existence of a public stock market" that creates inequality. The alternate scenario in which all companies are privately financed and owned does not result in greater economic equality. Actually the opposite. Think about it. If you dislike stock buybacks, think of taking a company private as a 100% stock buyback.
For sure. If we're serious though about a more egalitarian stock market, another thing to consider would be a stock ownership limit. One person should not be able to own more than, say, 1 million dollars in stocks. Some number that is a reasonable middle class retirement.
This would reduce stock speculation/manipulation/insider trading. Make it more difficult if not impossible to do predatory takeovers. Would force people with excess capital to instead of pumping up stock bubbles to maybe invest in something more useful, like expanding a business or hiring employees.
Of course I'm just spitballing in a fantasy land here :)
A lone gunman gave an answer to corporate greed this week with bullets marked, “Deny“, “Dispute”, and “Depose”, the words often used as United “Health Care” sends its customers along to die, go bankrupt, worry themselves sicker, figure that “despairicide” is the only way out without leaving their loved ones penniless.
healthcare, childcare, paid family leave, pay equity, sick pay, and more are standard operating procedures.
When will we quit our circular firing squad of demonizing political parties and look outward, together, to see that OTHER nations have figured out these challenges, are happier, healthier, and more concerned about their health and happiness than their GDP?
“Flourish envy”!
We need a massive infusion of it so we can collectively rise up and say “we want to be healthier and happier too!”
Grateful there is corruption everywhere. But the kind of in-plain-sight bullshit American corporations get by with:
the pollution; policies evoking horrific stress that actually fostering child abuse and neglect; the inequity fostered by what people are and are not paid; the unsafe and unhealthy foods, medications, and other goods that may get worse before they get better…
When will we say enough?
Was the lone gunman’s message the beginning of a “French Revolution” of sorts? How is “Les Mis” going to play out here where guns are plentiful and rage is likely to run higher, still, when the reality of what voters have wrought becomes more real in January?
Nor endorsing violence.
Am endorsing people waking the fudge up and looking beyond their real or perceived misery to see that people in other countries may be paying more taxes but they are living less stressed, happier, more fulfilling lives with greater equity among the sexes and races, and lot less distance between the “classes”.
Well, since Elon Musk is the new gilded Jesus, and is pulling the strings of his Trump puppet, I'm sure that greed will be followed by more greed and only billionaires will be allowed to eat at the table. Anybody else has no stature in a government that buys itself a Supreme Court. Let us hope that somehow the facts will filter their way into all those who voted for this mess, and that the "Emperor's new clothes" will soon be revealed to every American.
There is no end to the ingenuity of the “finance” world to squeeze us all and take control. BTW I recently read that “ finance” as it presently works only provides “finance” for about 14% of companies , old and new , to grow. The rest of finance is the constant movement of money with each moving party taking a piece and hopefully the original amount will have grown by other means.
Capitalism is fine in theory with perfect competition, but always turns into rapacious monopolies.
Reading through your always insightful post I came to a full stop aha moment on this line “Pension funds with billions of dollars to invest.” So in pension funds have a lot of surplus capital why are nearly all companies cancelling their pensions funds? I work for a major automotive brand and it happened to us a few years ago. I get they don’t want perpetual payout obligations as lifespans grow longer but if these funds are beyond solvent and in fact growing it sounds like another case of the worker getting screwed.
If we cannot manage the greed, we may need to install a commons structure to prevent the looting you are talking about.
why would we prevent it in such a toxic society, past local comfort.. the solidarity goes farther but with solidarity the movement can go farther… i personally hate the point that we are at but don’t we all even if unventilated.. and our privilege should take the back burner as we fight for equitable pressures even with our modern fascism. if we alienate their alienation becomes so much easier…
We need to re-look at the legislation of the first 100 days of Roosevelt's administration in 1933 when they brought it so many valuable controls on the power of capital, and at all the provisions that regulated capital that were removed during the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump administrations. Also, in Germany after World War II, the unions secured equal representation on supervisory boards that are above the board of directors of a corporation. The supervisory board appoints the directors and must approve all major financial decisions. It provides a method for workers to have some real control over the decisions of corporate Germany.
Excellent analysis. This is a phenomenon that most people don’t understand, much less realize that it’s been happening for quite some time. I couldn’t believe when I started reading that corporate America and Wall Street bankers started availing themselves of American homes- the publicly-listed, privately owned property that exchanges hands among ordinary Americans and allows people to have a place to live for fuck’s sake.
We need politicians at every level of government who have the backbone to start drafting legislation that will disincentivize these trends. These trends are not good for most Americans. A deeply rooted reckoning must come if these trends continue into the lives of the next generation of Americans. And I fear what that could look like; it won’t be good.
Read and write on!
"I don’t want to make it sound like public financial markets are some sort of socialist utopia—but I do think that their very existence has more progressive characteristics than many people on the left have ever considered."
Love your work but disagree on this one. Stock markets function as a way of directly transferring wealth upwards. The top 10% wealthiest Americans own over 90% of the stock value. That means when a company uses its profits to do stock buy backs or pay dividends, it is directly transferring revenue squeezed out of consumers to the top 10% most affluent Americans.
The ironic statement put in Milo Mindbender's mouth: "And everybody has a share!" was on point. Not everybody has a share at all. The flock is getting fleeced, and the stock market is one of the main institutions doing the extraction - most beautifully, because it can maintain the illusion of choice, freedom, participation, and even the 'Democracy of the marketplace."
Companies that serve important sectors or that form natural monopolies or cartels should be made truly Public - that is, nationalized.
A stock market is a way for companies to tap public financing. I am aware of the inequality in stock ownership, but it is not "the existence of a public stock market" that creates inequality. The alternate scenario in which all companies are privately financed and owned does not result in greater economic equality. Actually the opposite. Think about it. If you dislike stock buybacks, think of taking a company private as a 100% stock buyback.
For sure. If we're serious though about a more egalitarian stock market, another thing to consider would be a stock ownership limit. One person should not be able to own more than, say, 1 million dollars in stocks. Some number that is a reasonable middle class retirement.
This would reduce stock speculation/manipulation/insider trading. Make it more difficult if not impossible to do predatory takeovers. Would force people with excess capital to instead of pumping up stock bubbles to maybe invest in something more useful, like expanding a business or hiring employees.
Of course I'm just spitballing in a fantasy land here :)
Then would you let me slay these vultures? By means of:
- Closing tax loopholes
- Creating new taxes on stock buybacks and unrealized gains
- Destroying monopolies
- Place worker’s protection laws
- End planned obsolescence
And the like?
Sounds great. Can you explain in today’s political and social environment how you plan to implement this? Asking for millions of friends.
A lone gunman gave an answer to corporate greed this week with bullets marked, “Deny“, “Dispute”, and “Depose”, the words often used as United “Health Care” sends its customers along to die, go bankrupt, worry themselves sicker, figure that “despairicide” is the only way out without leaving their loved ones penniless.
Meanwhile in the world’s happiest nations,
https://www.gallup.com/analytics/349487/world-happiness-report.aspx
healthcare, childcare, paid family leave, pay equity, sick pay, and more are standard operating procedures.
When will we quit our circular firing squad of demonizing political parties and look outward, together, to see that OTHER nations have figured out these challenges, are happier, healthier, and more concerned about their health and happiness than their GDP?
“Flourish envy”!
We need a massive infusion of it so we can collectively rise up and say “we want to be healthier and happier too!”
Grateful there is corruption everywhere. But the kind of in-plain-sight bullshit American corporations get by with:
the pollution; policies evoking horrific stress that actually fostering child abuse and neglect; the inequity fostered by what people are and are not paid; the unsafe and unhealthy foods, medications, and other goods that may get worse before they get better…
When will we say enough?
Was the lone gunman’s message the beginning of a “French Revolution” of sorts? How is “Les Mis” going to play out here where guns are plentiful and rage is likely to run higher, still, when the reality of what voters have wrought becomes more real in January?
Nor endorsing violence.
Am endorsing people waking the fudge up and looking beyond their real or perceived misery to see that people in other countries may be paying more taxes but they are living less stressed, happier, more fulfilling lives with greater equity among the sexes and races, and lot less distance between the “classes”.
Well, since Elon Musk is the new gilded Jesus, and is pulling the strings of his Trump puppet, I'm sure that greed will be followed by more greed and only billionaires will be allowed to eat at the table. Anybody else has no stature in a government that buys itself a Supreme Court. Let us hope that somehow the facts will filter their way into all those who voted for this mess, and that the "Emperor's new clothes" will soon be revealed to every American.
There is no end to the ingenuity of the “finance” world to squeeze us all and take control. BTW I recently read that “ finance” as it presently works only provides “finance” for about 14% of companies , old and new , to grow. The rest of finance is the constant movement of money with each moving party taking a piece and hopefully the original amount will have grown by other means.