The Right's Crusade to Repeal the 20th Century

[babylonsister]

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/rights-crusade-repeal-20th-century

Salon / By Joan Walsh

The Right's Crusade to Repeal the 20th Century
Opposing the minimum wage, overtime pay, even child labor laws, the GOP is trying to make it easier to exploit workers.

snip//

The president’s policies are in fact making it harder for employers to exploit their workers. That’s all. As Jared Bernstein told the New York Times. “I think a potential side effect is that you may see more hiring in order to avoid overtime costs, which would be an awfully good thing right about now."

Or you’ll see higher wages, which would also be an awfully good thing. One of the major causes of rising income inequality is that back in the 1970s, rising productivity suddenly became detached from rising wages. For decades — since the labor-rights reforms and social welfare advances of the ’30s and ’40s — the two lines climbed in tandem, with higher productivity translating into higher paychecks. The two came apart, in what’s become known as “the great divergence,” at the same time as income inequality began to climb. There are many reasons for the productivity-wage split, including a stagnant minimum wage, declining union membership, and weaker labor rights overall – including less compensated overtime.

Republicans no longer accept that it was government intervention in the economy, first in the Progressive era and then, more forcefully, after the Great Depression, that created the greatest economic boom and the biggest middle class in history. The 40-hour work week. The weekend. Vacations. Child labor laws. The minimum wage. Social Security. Health and safety protection. All of these represented government intervention on the side of working people, to balance the playing field with exploitive employers, and to carve out a realm of family and personal life that could be protected from ceaseless labor. Progressive public policy essentially created childhood, as a time when kids who weren’t wealthy might be educated and protected from labor abuse.

These became bipartisan values, with some debating around the margins, through Richard Nixon’s administration. But then a pro-business backlash put all of those gains back on the table. Republicans are now trying to repeal the 20th century.

“The federal government, in particular, shouldn’t be involved in labor markets in any way, shape or form,” says Jeffrey Miron, economic studies director at the Cato Institute. Cato is a libertarian think tank, but Miron’s once-radical point of view is now the GOP mainstream.

[Dirty Socialist]

1. One Great Article

K & R

[Wounded Bear]

2. Kind of what I've been saying...

unfortunately, they're almost there.

[underpants]

3. +

[Warpy]

4. Republicans never did accept the fact that the government ended the Depression

and have always loudly trumpeted that it was WWII that ended the Depression. I see people here on DU mouthing that lie again and again, so they've gotten that message out.

The bulk of the New Deal, the jobs program, only had four years before conservatives in Congress forced an end to it, causing the Great Recession of 1937. That Great Recession, combined with their aversion to full employment at living wages, was what needed a war to end it.

Conservatives started the Depression and conservatives forced an end to the programs that were ending it prematurely.

If you've ever wondered why they squander money on the Pentagon while people in this country can't find jobs and have jobs that don't feed them, that's why. It's their Biggest Lie.

[jwirr]

13. What they ignore was that it was the spending during and for the war that helped to end the Great

Depression. IMO it does not matter what the government spends the money on from the prospect of ending a depression. What does matter and we need to pay attention to this today is what the return from the spending is.

For example when we spend money on new weapons and they do not get used then they just set there. On the other hand if we would spend the money on alternative energies they would be used and add to the economy. That is why war spending does not work today - we get nothing back from it.

If we had used the money from all these middle east wars to build alternative energy sources we would be far ahead because these sources would still be paying off long after the middle east oil runs out.

[malaise]

5. MUST READ

Rec

[Brigid]

6. TR would definitely agree.

And he would be horrified that it is his party that's doing it. He warned the rich of his Tims that there was going to be an explosion if the inequality of that era continued, and he was right. If he were to come back today, he would think we still don't get it; and he would definitely be looking to pound a few people.

[etherealtruth]

7. K and R

[KG]

8. their efforts would be fruitless but for hordes of dellusional idiots voting for them.

[arely staircase]

9. recommended nt

[tooeyeten]

10. And the voters on the right

Are happy to oblige against their own self-interest, and the policies that made them the middle class.

[kestrel91316]

11. They are on a crusade to repeal the Renaissance and Enlightenment.

Just sayin'.

[yuiyoshida]

12. I can't even imagine the kind of world Repulicans want for the country...

Maybe something like the Old Soviet Union... ?? Disgusting in any event.

[SoapBox]

14. +100

[nxylas]

18. More like the third world

Tiny pockets of immense wealth surrounded by grinding poverty. Of course Republican voters all *think* they'll be in the enclaves....

[LongTomH]

15. The 20th Century? Try everything progressive since the founding of the US

Benjamin Franklin fought for the establishment of public libraries; Bobby Jindal in Louisiana is closing them. Publicly funded schools were established soon after the American Revolution; Republicans across the country are on a crusade to replace public schools with charter and religious schools.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. And none of that government intervention...

would have happened without a strong union force. Government just reacted to labor, because they had no choice.

[africanadian]

17. K&R

Great title!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. What gets me is the GOP acting like half of America owns a business....

And employs the other half who are lazy, shiftless time card punching losers.

There are a whole lot fewer bosses than workers.

[lindysalsagal]

20. More like repealing the 19th,18th,17th, and 16th.

The GOP is entirely 9th century.