Nader writes: "Calling Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the rest of the Democratic Party, elected officials, political operatives and labor's leader Richard Trumka."
Ralph Nader being interviewed during his 2008 presidential campaign, 08/01/08. (photo: Scrape TV)
The Democratic Party Sleeps on FDR's Legacy
12 August 12
alling Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the rest of the Democratic Party, elected officials, political operatives and labor's leader Richard Trumka. Thirty million American workers want and need a federal minimum wage of $10 per hour which is slightly less than their predecessors got in 1968 - yes 1968 - adjusted for inflation. What will it take for you to make this a priority?
Of course you all would like to see these desperate workers get an additional $2,000 - $4,500 a year for the barest necessities of life for themselves and their children. Sure, it is easy to be on the record and not on the ramparts for a higher minimum wage. What about the trust that your voters and your rank and file invested in you?
Imagine mobilizing Congress to have workers catch up with 1968 when worker productivity was about half of what it is today.
What would President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who signed the first minimum wage law in 1938, say about today's pathetic Democrats (with few exceptions like the more than twenty Representatives who signed on to Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s H.R. 5901 bill to raise the minimum wage to $10 per hour)? Remember how FDR pushed his Democrats in the 1930s? He would not have tolerated today's Democratic Party of caution, cash and cowardliness.
Were the Democrats from the White House, to Congress, to Richard Trumka and the major labor unions to immediately make the $10 minimum wage a national, frontline issue, which they certainly could if they want, here are the arguments they can make:
1. Such an overdue raise is an economically and morally necessary initiative. The U.S. has the lowest national minimum wage of $7.25 per hour among major western nations, by a lot. France is over $11 and in Canada, the minimum wage ranges from $9.40 - $11, plus Canadians have a superior social safety net. Meanwhile, the U.S. has the highest paid CEOs, by far, in the world.
2. Over the years, poll after poll shows that 70 percent of the people support having the minimum wage keep up with inflation. That number includes many conservatives and Republicans. Even Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, over the years, stood for this principle, even though Romney has hemmed and hawed in recent months.
3. Are there any economists saying that our shaky economy does not need more consumer demand? A $10 minimum wage quickly releases billions of dollars in new spending by the poor. Poor! The single word the cowering Democrats, including presidential candidates, have refused to use since Jimmy Carter. NPR's Tavis Smiley on his poverty tour challenges Barack Obama: "Poor. Say it, Mr. President, say it. Poor!"
4. More income for the poor means less child and family poverty which means less reliance on federal outlays for the poor to survive. The big companies, for example, take advantage of this by steering some of their employees to programs such as Medicaid. As Terrance Heath recently noted in an op-ed in the Nation of Change: "So all of us are subsidizing the wealthy owners and executives of Walmart, McDonald's, and Target."
5. A new report by the respected National Employment Law Project titled "Big Business, Corporate Profits, and the Minimum Wage," said that "the majority (66 percent) of low-wage workers are not employed by small businesses but by large corporations." The 50 largest of their employers are mostly "in strong financial positions." And note this finding by NELP: "The top executive compensation averaged $9.4 million last year at these firms." This means that the bosses, before taking a lunch on January 2, made more money than a minimum wage worker makes in a year. Talk about the corrosive effects of inequality which have been fed by the top one percent taking 93 percent of the income growth in 2010, according to Holly Sklar of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage.
6. Enlightened business leaders are ready to support the Democrats on this $10 minimum wage initiative. Jeff Long, vice president of Costco, gives the obvious reasons that the retrograde corporatists ignore: "At Costco, we know good wages are good business. We keep our overhead low while still paying a starting wage of $11 an hour. Our employees are a big reason why our sales per square foot is almost double that of our nearest competitor. Instead of minimizing wages, we know it's a lot more profitable for the long-term to minimize employee turnover and maximize employee productivity and commitment, product value, customer service and company reputation."
7. A $10 minimum wage will create jobs because sales will increase. Businesses, having lunched off the windfall of a falling real minimum wage since 1968, should be willing to recognize this greater good. The leading scholar refuting the net job loss propaganda is Alan Krueger who now is head of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. Certainly the people of Santa Fe, New Mexico are not seeing job losses there where the city minimum wage has been $9.50 per hour.
8. The corporate oligarchy has no moral standing whatsoever. Many of the nations' corporate giants pay no income tax or very little, far less than a cab driver. Last month, Ford Motor Co. paid no federal or state income taxes despite registering nearly $9 billion in profits. It is hard for companies making record profits and paying executives record pay to have much credibility on this subject. Further, small business has received 17 small business tax breaks under Obama.
August is the congressional recess month. Members of Congress are back home campaigning. Go to their public meetings and ask them directly whether they will vote for a $10 minimum wage when they return to Washington, D.C. after Labor Day, or call their office. One worker went up and asked this question of his representative, Cong. Bill Young (R-Fla.), who gave him the curled lip - "Why do you want that benefit? Get a job." This snarl made news all over the country.
Ask "the question" Americans, again and again until Labor Day. By then, maybe Mr. Trumka and the AFL-CIO will bestir their political muscles and march with the low-wage workers and recognize what they do for all of us.
Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author. His most recent book - and first novel - is "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us." His most recent work of non-fiction is "The Seventeen Traditions."
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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Comments
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We Dems have settled for less for too long. We all have to admit that we thought electing an educated black President might help unite us - and we wanted America to be progressive in world affairs. What we have failed to realize is that beneath our political structure, at the heart of the financial foundation, lurks a filthy dirty mob of corruption and greed that feeds the politicians that succumb to it's wannabe wealthy trappings.
Think about who, in their right mind, would want to be subjected to the ridicule and invasion of privacy of political life without renummeration. "I took the heat - now pay me" attitude.
That attitude is not only thrust outward at the mob - but also on the American public who continues to pay these greedy old geezers for their phony Alice in Wonderland "service" as Congressional leaders - rather than protecting the public health, safety and welfare. See www.deadlyclear.com.
Keep in mind that the President isn't a dictator: he doesn't propose laws or even vote on them, Congress does that. He can only sign or veto or let it go by.
If we want Obama to do all those things he promised, we have to get him a solidly Dem House and Senate, no Blue Dogs. Work on that.
That would add his name to the list that includes very many Wall Street "Insiders with Ethics", to coin a phrase. Other than the Bethany McCleans, Yves Smith, Goldman Sachs alumni and all those in the 4 part Frontline special, "Money, Power, and Wall Street."
Better yet it would add it to the select list of those who pushed hard for it. John Reed of CitiBank was an early convert, now even Sandy Weill (the penultimate Wall Street proponent) has changed his tune. How long before Phil Gramm and Dick Armey follow? Who could defend it after all these guys switch sides, though I'll bet Romney/Ryan will be the last of the dead-enders.
I won't contribute to any publication that features this has-been spoiler.
Also, please do some research on Nader. He has revealed some rather heinous designs on citizen safety etc. He has no ego as far as his own research goes.
As I have said before, RSN is not here to please everyone. They are here to inform.
Better a "has-been" than a "never-was."
I agree, we all need to stay home and SLEEP! We all need rejuvenating SLEEP, because we have all been stressed to the max!
We, however, have the silver hammer that they fear. If we remove our money their cash flow is jeopardized and they can't last without it for very long...
Same as cashing in mutual funds. Only those that cash in first will ever see a dime in a Ponzi scheme.
We shouldn't have to take such drastic measures, but our leadership only regulates how to control us - not how to protect us.
1) Take our money out of the big banks, Wall St, and don't patronize those corporations any more than you must. (Put your money in member-owned credit unions. Or read "Locavesting".
2) We will start a lot of worker-owned, democratically- run businesses, where the people who do the actual work get the say and share the profit.
a) Form locally sustainable economies
3) We must elect progressive candidates to protect us from the destruction planned by the conservatives.
4) We will start our own currency, and gradually replace the old Dollar with the New Community Dollar, which We the People will control with our own banks or credit unions and regulating agencies.
5) Assume the frame of moral/ethical leadership. Read George Lakoff.
wish it were that easy, they'd just get more through quantitative easing. They already got $16.6 trillion and are sitting on $1.5 trillion in just the excess reserves (see http://www.mybudget360.com/engineering-bigger-financial-bubbles-corporate-profits-percent-of-gdp-ecb-fed-banking/)
Right On!!! Angelfish: If Evereyone in America went on strike, that would get them to wake up!
A $10 minimum wage is long overdue and could help prop up the lowest working class. Thanks Mr. Nader for the articulate argument for a higher MW.
Any employer, large or small, is wise to treat and pay its employees fairly and well. When employees believe their pay and benefits are directly linked to how well the company they work for is performing, they will be loyal and will make the extra effort to help the company succeed and thus help themselves to do well.
Ill-treated and ill-paid employees are resentful and have no sense of loyalty.
Resentment and disloyalty always work against a company's success.
This seems so elementary, one can only wonder at the greed and callousness displayed by those at the top of profitable companies.
Benjamin Franklin said the Constitution gives us a Republic, but it is our duty to be constantly vigilant to keep it. We have not been paying attention and democracy is near death in this nation thanks to the corruption of both major political parties. Vote them out!
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It is an obscenity that the CEOs of these greedy corporations are rolling in money while treating employees so disgracefully. To think that minimum wage employees are not even making as much as they were in 1968! It boggles the mind and puts the issues here in stark perspective.
"No moral standing" indeed! These bloated, greedy top execs (and politicians, for that matter) have less morality than an alley cat in heat.
Asking the minimum wage question of them while they're home is an excellent idea. I'll bet a lot of the repugnant ones will react just like that FL congressman did!
Why give him space or time for anything?
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Wage costs and taxes (the cost of funding a decent society) suffer under pressure of free trade not because they are too high but because the unfettered market seeks goods from wherever the work force is the most cowed - typically China. The problem can be solved in America by setting tariffs so that Americans, not Chinese, are producing for Americans. The massive Chinese flow of cheap goods can always be redirected to raising the living standards of the Chinese people.
And while you can arguably make the case that its virtually impossible to live on less than minimum wage let alone raise a family, I would argue that the necessity for it is predicated upon a virtual tapestry unintended consequences caused by other government interventions into other markets and areas of life. And yes, many of which are done in collusion with private interests.
I have supported your presidential candidacy in the past Mr. Nader, but this time around Ron Paul has captured my political imagination and convictions. I find the liberty perspective no less enlightened.
Sadly, winning the next election seems to always take precedence to the what is right and just.
Above all, since when do the Democrats "owe" the progressives. Many people who voted Democrat in the past are so tired of the party becoming more and more Republican, than in disgust they vote Green or something else. Voting is about supporting what you believe in. As parties change, so does voters' alligeance to any party. Please Democrats, save your venom for the fascists in the Tea party, and at least respect what the Greens, Socialists voters are doing.
nader did not cost gore the election. gore did. and the florida election fraud. and the supreme court.
but remember that gore picked Joe Lieberman for a running mate, and I am sorry to say did not look or sound "real" enough for many voters. and, by the way, what has Barack Obama done for you?
i did not vote for Nader in 2000, but I have looked a little harder at politics since then, and BOTH parties are selling you out.
oh, and consider the appeal of Paul Ryan.... to the extent that people like this man... or Romney... we might as well hold elections in an insane asylum and be done with it.
I would hope he would be for SELF VALIDITY instead of ANY IDENTITY!
What are you talking about, Ralph? The Democratic majorities in the House during the period you make reference to ranged between 60% and 77%. Democratic Senate majorities ranged between 61% and 78%. To this day, those remain the greatest legislative majorities ever held by a single party since Reconstruction.
And even with the huge majority supposedly at his disposal, Roosevelt STILL could not get Social Security and minimum wage legislation passed without excluding large segments of the black community.
So criticize today's Democrats if you like (as you like), but don't distort history to do so. There is absolutely no reason to suppose that FDR could have had greater legislative success in the 111th and 112th Congresses than Obama.
The Democratic Party’s neoliberal line is that Nader cost Gore the election.
Baloney! Gore’s campaign cost him the election. It would have been difficult to slip an onionskin between the two candidates’ positions. Ditto Kerry and Bush. (No fair speaking from hindsight. What happened in the there and then is what got us to the here and now.)
Please note that Nader crusaded for safety and environmental laws that over the years have saved millions of lives. Name just one member of Congress that has done the same. C’mon, name just one.
Nader also calls Richard Trumka and other labor pie cards on the carpet. Right on! As a [now retired] worker and a member of a progressive union for 46 years, I’ve seen labor’s “orthodoxy” abandon working class principles. When I began working, 33 percent of the U.S. workforce was organized. Now we’re down to twelve percent. In the early 60’s labor honchos embraced cold-warrior, red-baiting tactics and labor density fell. When Reagan did his dirty deed we were down to twenty-three percent. And the pie cards just fiddled while PATCO burned. In 1994 Clinton – as poster boy for the neoliberal agenda – pushed NAFTA, and the suits and ties just scratched their asses. Bang! Union membership fell to sixteen percent. Every retreat by labor has been followed by a loss in union membership.
For shame! The heritage of organized labor is to advocate for everyone, organized or not. If pie cards don’t get it they should be replaced.
We’re in a street fight! There is an old sidewalk adage that is particularly relevant: “I may get by butt kicked, but I’ll hurt the other so bad that he’ll never want to fight me again”.
Let’s send that message to Obama, Pelosi, Reid and other Party bigwigs, and let’s not forget to include Trumka and the Change to Win crowd. If you are afraid of a fight for us move over. We’ll find someone with the courage it takes to fight for the 99%.
Like many, I wish that Nader had stayed out of it; he would have been a great Cabinet member had Gore won.
But that is all ancient history now. Playing the coulda/woulda/s houlda game does no good.... we need to win this election- and the DEMS need to make it absolutely clear that a party platform this year is for LIVING WAGES- not just a minimum wage, but a wage, taking into account all the factors, that a person will need for life's basic necessities. I appreciate Nader on the call to Dem leadership- but would like to see him insist on Living Wages as a party platform. This will take courage and backbone... is there any left in the Democratic party? yes, there is- in the progressive caucus. Get Alan Grayson and Elizabeth Warren and a few others in there and watch them kick ass and take names. A Republican win is unthinkable at this point - forget about minimum wage, social security, medicaid, the whole safety net will be dismantled in no time if the Rs come to power again.
Now then: can anyone refute any of Ralph's specific points? [...crickets... ]
In 2009, they had control of the White House the House and the Senate and they squandered all the good intentions and volunteer effort and kept Single Payer from trying on the glass slipper and gave us the pathetic Affordable Care Act.
Now here we are again, trying to pass a bill that will only bring us up to minimum wage standard of 1968 and they're only 23 DEMS willing to co-sponsor. Here's the list of them:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr5901
Why should we expect anything different in the next FOUR years unless we make our demands now before we go to the voting booth?
Occupy Wall Street has given us an opportunity to collectively band together and create the most formidable citizen lobbying force in modern day.
Many will dismiss them as powerless, but good chance these nay-sayers are partisan hacks from either party. All one has to do is find a local group and attend their next general assembly. Only in numbers will there be an outcome!
For Ralph's sake and ours, I hope we the people don't squander this opportunity.
The minimum wage hasn't even kept up with inflation, let alone poverty wage. All of the positions put forth in this article can be checked out for truth and factual reality. Micky D's and the like can afford to raise the minimum wage, and the wages of all employees by three dollars an hour without putting their bottom line even close to redlining. The true question on most issues comes down to Americas identity. Are we a nation of We the People, or do we just except changing the preamble of the constitution to, We the mighty Corporations and the rest can live in poverty? It's our decision not lowlife, bought off politicians from either party. Are we just Democrats and/or Republicans? Or are we Americans living in the UNITED STATES of AMERICA.
If Nader had suddenly dropped out his supporters wouldn't have supported Gore.
Today is quite different Libertarians Greens and Dems are not spouting hate.
The problem is what could Obama agree to for Green Libertarian votes that he couldn't be pushed the other way on next year.
Perhaps apologizing and ending the embargo on Cuba.
http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/84-84/12665-from-homeless-child-to-vice-president-is-possible
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