Category: Income Inequality

Labor unions reborn

Long before the current spike in inflation backed millions of workers into a financial corner, American workers have been getting a raw deal.  In real dollars, the buying power of the Federal minimum wage peaked in 1968!

But it wasn’t always this way. There was once a brief window in which American workers enjoyed the unfettered right to organize nationwide.

In the depths of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt and New Deal Democrats ended a brutal war that business – backed by police and military – had been waging against labor unions for more than 50 years.  But while passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 gave workers the right to bargain collectively, but unemployment levels of nearly 25% rendered the legislation largely symbolic.

World War II brought the return of jobs, along with price and wage controls.  And once American workers had won the war and prosperity returned, the first Republican Congress in 30 years promptly passed so-called ‘right to work’ laws that effectively neutered labor unions.  After that, it was straight downhill for organized labor.

That is, until 2022… when union election wins jumped 80% over the previous year.  The 2022 wins also represented more than twice as many workers as those in 2021.

Retail, service, health care, and transportation industries all saw growth in union formations in 2022, most notably at Starbucks, Amazon, and Apple.

Bloomberg reports that unions have won nearly 77% of this year’s elections, the highest rate since it began recording data.  Members overwhelmingly support their unions, and half of non-union workers surveyed say that they would join a union if they could.

But the embrace of unionism is occurring not just among workers, but among the American public, among whom 56% say that the decline in union representation has been bad for the country as a whole.

Among workers aged 18-29 who are leading the new push for unionization, support surges to 69%.

There was a time when unions were bashed as Big Labor over-reach, but in this era of multi-national companies presided over by American oligarchs, the pendulum is finally swinging back.

Yet is seems shameful that these ‘essential workers’ who kept the nation running through COVID have been made to wait so long for an expression of the nation’s gratitude where it counts most.

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Voting rights at risk

Voter discrimination and other manipulations of the electoral process are nearly as old as the republic itself, but such abuses were dealt a decisive blow by the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which barred jurisdictions with evidence of voting discrimination from changing their voting procedures without “pre-clearance” from Federal authorities.

And – not unlike Roe vs. Wade – the 1965 act was the law of the land for 50 years until 2013, when the Shelby County v Holder ruling released counties with histories of voter discrimination from Federal oversight.

Since then, states have been ramping up discriminatory voting practices.  Many of these, taken individually, may appear to have limited impact, but applied in combination they have a game-changing effect on electoral outcomes.

A Brennan Center analysis of data released by the Federal Election Assistance Commission found that nearly 11 million voters were purged from rolls between 2016 and 2018, overwhelmingly led by counties with a history of voter discrimination.

The telltale signs of discriminatory efforts to disenfranchise are many:

Registration

The simple failure to process voter voter registrations received prior to deadlines renders them void.  Many states also impose severe restrictions on – and its officers even harass – voter registration groups.  Other states mandate prejudicial qualification requirements for Deputy Registrars.

Voting

Attempts to restrict voting are far more insidious, and fall into two categories:

The first is the creation of logistical obstructions such as reducing and/or eliminating early voting dates. The most blatant, though, is gerrymandered consolidation/positioning of polling places to relocate them away from public transportation stops, and to reduce or eliminate them on Native American lands and college campuses.

Other election boards will – in selected precincts – reduce both the numbers of polling place staff and the amount of training that staff receives.  In those same selected precincts, they may also fail to assure adequate numbers of functioning voting machines, optical scanners, or electronic polling books, or alternatively to stock an insufficient number of paper ballots.

Another obstructive tactic is language discrimination both in the selection of polling place staff and wording of election documents.  Other blatant discrimination against minorities can include failure to accommodate voters with disabilities including barring assistance by family members.

Shortened deadlines for absentee ballot returns combine with complicated absentee ballot requirements to further deny access for those with mobility issues or irreconcilable schedule conflicts.

The second is the creation of administrative obstructions, among which the most prominent is excessive purging of voter registration rolls.

However, even a duly registered voter can be denied the right to vote by stricter photo ID laws, combined with gerrymandered closings of the DMV offices which issue them. This ID challenge tactic may imnclude failure to accept student ID’s issued by state universities, and/or Native American tribal IDs.  It also may include barring Native American voters living on reservations through “no P.O. Box” residential address requirements.

“Exact match” signature requirements are another ID challenge tactic to deny voters access to polls.

Practices less widely employed are:

  • Requiring the payment of outstanding civil fines/fees as a voting pre-requisite.
  • Failure to assist or accommodate voters displaced by natural disasters, and failure to inform formerly incarcerated persons of their voting rights.

The U.S. is unique among Western democracies placing the burden of voter registration upon the individual.

In Canada, a voter is automatically added to Federal election rolls at age 18, and remains registered even after a move. It is unsurprising that 93% of Canadians are registered to vote vs. only 68% of Americans.

These increasingly frequent abuses leave little question that after decades of progress toward universal enfranchisement, many states are rolling back voting rights in an echo of Jim Crow.

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Student Loans: It’s Complicated

The scope of student loan default is staggering.

Over 1 million student loans enter default every year, and 1 in every 10 Americans has defaulted on a student loan.

Some 7.8% of all student loans are currently in default… a total debt of $124.4 billion.

A high percentage of borrowers default long before they enter peak earning years:  More than 1 in 10 default within Year One… and 1 in 4 by Year Five.

The effects of default are devastating both for borrowers and their families.  Federal student loans are only considered in default after 270 days of non-payment, after which:

  • The loan is immediately due in its entirety, and interest and late fees continue to accrue until it is paid.
  • The borrower loses eligibility for future benefits including further student aid, deferment or forbearance of payment, and tax deductions.
  • The borrower’s credit score declines, which impedes the ability to secure home and auto loans.
  • The government or private lender can sue in court to garnish a portion of the borrower’s wages until the loan is repaid.  The borrower will incur court costs or other fees related to the lawsuit.
  • Schools may withhold proof of attendance.  It is also legal for them to withhold academic transcripts.

But default is only part of the story. 

Within a year of graduation, almost 3 in 5 borrowers are delinquent at least once, and nearly another 1 in 3 are already chronically delinquent.

The challenge for student debt relief is arriving at an equitable formula for a very unevenly distributed problem.

For starters, while more than 1 in 3 borrowers owe less than $20,000, almost 1 in 5 owe more than double that.

Student’s choices also play a significant role in default.

Those attending private, for-profit colleges are almost twice as likely to default as those attending other schools.

That should be unsurprising:

The average tuition and fees at public schools for in-state students in 2021 was $5,514 ($12,145 for out-of-state.  The average tuition for private schools was $24,107.

But even tuition at public universities rose by 63% between 2008 and 2020.

Default rates are also significantly higher for borrowers employed in selected professions and industries, and holders of selected degrees:

Regardless of the band-aid ultimately slapped on the current problem, the real question is whether the high cost of higher education is strangling American competitiveness and upward mobility.

College tuition at public universities is free or nominal for nationals of a long list of nations large and small, and both developed and developing: 

Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Iran, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay.

But in America, education – like healthcare – is too often driven far more by profit than by public interest.

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A sad win for Big Pharma

Insulin has been around since the 1920s, but Big Pharma – at least in the U.S. – is still pricing it as if it was the product of billions of R&D dollars.

In fact, the monthly cost of diabetes in the U.S. is over three times that of India and nearly 20 times that of Italy.

It hasn’t always been this way.

According to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, insulin prices tripled between 1996 and 2014 in the wake of Eli Lilly’s introduction of its market-leading Humalog insulin brand.

The U.S. accounts for only 15% of the global insulin market, but generates almost 50% of the industry’s insulin revenue.

Skyrocketing costs now impose an extreme financial burden on the 1 in 7 users for whom insulin consumes at least 40% of income remaining after costs of food and housing.

As many as one in four Americans with diabetes are now shaving insulin doses or going completely without, and those suffering the most either lack insurance or are chained to high-deductible policies.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 caps insulin costs at $35/month, but for Medicare patients only.  A proposal to extend the cap to everyone covered by private insurance – including coverage purchased in marketplaces established under the Affordable Healthcare Act – was thwarted by the opposition of 43 Republican senators.  The seven Republicans who broke ranks to vote for broader coverage were:

  • Cassidy (LA)
  • Collins (ME)
  • Hawley (MO)
  • Hyde-Smith (MS
  • Kennedy (LA)
  • Murkowski (AK)
  • Sullivan (AK)

In 2020, Colorado was the first state to cap the price of insulin, limiting it to no more than $100 per month, but the cap only applies for those with health insurance.

Western social democracies leverage the buying power of their national healthcare systems to negotiate drug pricing, and their buying clout delivers substantially lower pricing

In contrast, Medicare/Medicaid – the nation’s largest buyers of drugs to the tune of over $1 billion annually – are actually barred from negotiating drug prices.

Reforms that would allow Medicare to negotiate prices, cap out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, and limit insulin cost-sharing would make lifesaving drugs more affordable…

...but that will require a working Congressional majority for the Democratic Party.

Something to remember in November.

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Affordable healthcare at risk

The Affordable Care Act (2010), created access to affordable health coverage for nearly 25 million Americans.

In 2014 – the first year of operation –  enrollment was over 8 million, in the following year over 11 million, and in the final year of the Obama administration to over 12 million.

The CMS reports that the ACA marketplace remains an important source of coverage and financial assistance for millions of low-income and middle-class Americans.

  •  52% benefit from reduced deductibles and other cost-sharing
  • Over 90% live in household with income at or below poverty level

According to Pew Research, only inflation ranks as a higher concern than rising healthcare costs.

And yet, from Day 1 of his administration, Donald Trump repeatedly tried to repeal the Act, and when that failed launched a sustained attack on the program:

  • Within days of taking office – and while enrollment for 2017 was still open –  slashed the enrollment assistance budget by 90% and cancelled television ads for the marketplace outreach campaign.
  • Halved the duration of the enrollment period, reducing open enrollment from 90 days to 45 days.
  • Eliminated the individual mandate penalty and loosened regulation of ‘short-term junk plans’…effectively diverting applicants away from ACA.
  • Stopped reimbursing insurance companies for their costs of compliance with the ACA’s financial assistance to low-income enrollees. Insurance companies responded by increasing premiums for silver plans to cover the cost of the cost-sharing subsidies.

The Center for American Progress estimates that if not for these added obstacles, at least 1.26 million more people would be enrolled in marketplace coverage today.

America’s ‘essential workers’ cannot endure without basic healthcare coverage. Protect their rights in November.

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The widening income gap

The G.O.P’s ability to highjack a labor vote which once made up the Democratic Party’s core is unsurprising in light of the continuing rise of income inequality.

The Federal Minimum Wage has not been increased since  2009… the last time that the Democrats held a working Congressional majority.

And despite periodic increases, the purchasing power of the Federal Minimum Wage peaked in 1968!

While a number of states have enacted laws raising the minimum to as high as $13+/hour, the 2009 Federal Minimum wage of $7.25/hr. is the minimum in 20 states (GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MS, NH, NC, ND, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI, WY).

The effect is also unsurprising.

Since 1980, income gain for the top 1% is nearly 5 times the gain for the bottom 20%.

The richest 1% now own nearly half of the world’s wealth.

In the depths of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt’s 1935 National Labor Relations Act explicitly granted employees the right to collectively bargain and join trade unions.

When the G.O.P. regained control of Congress in 1946, it passed the Taft-Hartley Act, the so-called right-to-work law, that effectively neutered unions.

Today, America is experiencing a rebirth of organized labor as workers at deep-pocketed multi-nationals including Amazon and Starbucks struggle to regain their American dream.

They deserve our support as voters and as consumers.

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America’s war on women

When Katharine Graham became CEO of the Washington Post Company in 1972, Congress had just ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, and hopes were high that a wave of women would finally shatter the glass ceiling..

50 years later, women occupy just over 29% of chief executive roles in the US, but they are largely relegated to running small and medium-sized enterprises.  Within the Fortune 500, the percentage of women CEO’s remains in single digits.

It is, however, not just C-level jobs in which women are under-represented.  They still represent less than half of Managers in more industries than not.

And women make less for the same work. Fortune 500 female CEO’s earn, on average, 74% of what their male counterparts take home, and wage inequity carries through to the bottom of the labor pyramid. Part-time female workers earn 40% less than their male counterparts, and full-time female workers earn 53% less.

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But the inequality does not end there. Over 18 million American adults alive today were raised in single-parent households… of which 74% are still female-headed.

And two-thirds of of single-parent households receive no child support.

All of which explains why Women food stamp recipients outnumber Male recipients almost 2-to-1.

At a time when abortion is no longer a guaranteed right in every state, forcing a woman to carry a child to full term is only one more aspect of America’s war on women.

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