The Scary Economic Trend Making Americans More Job-Insecure Than Ever

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/scary-economic-trend-making-americans-more-job-insecure-ever



They’re stuck in pieced-together part-time gigs and often getting paid off-the-books. Too discouraged to look for regular jobs, these are the inhabitants of what trendwatchers are calling the “gray economy.” In California alone, their numbers, which include many freelance workers, are 6.2 million, or over 16 percent of residents.

Like a dismal cloud spreading over the sky to blot out the sun, the gray economy is trapping millions of Americans in a dark world of haphazard and insecure jobs, few or no benefits, nonexistent chances for advancement, and little recourse if they get screwed.

As Tiffany Hsu explained in a recent LA Times report, measuring the extent of this economic netherworld is challenging:

“It's hard to track the growth of the gray economy because so many employers hide workers for tax purposes. Experts generally agree, however, that the ranks of the underemployed swelled during the recession — more than in past downturns — and have remained substantial in an unsteady recovery.”

Some experts fear this is more than a cyclical change, it's evidence of a more fundamental shift toward job insecurity. This shift appears to be driven by a myriad of trends and policies, from globalization to outsourcing to shareholder value ideology which focuses corporate attention to short-term profits and stock market manipulation. These factors, plus the decimations of unions and the giant Wall Street-driven economic shocks which create high unemployment, have shifted power away from workers and toward employers who seek their short-term advantage no matter what the social and economic costs. Starting in the '70s, the lifetime career at one company gradually shifted to a less secure full-time job, then work as an independent contractor, and now, finally, to under-the-table work.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for labor. n/t

-Laelth

[Todays_Illusion]

2. No one wants to admit the truth, Capitalist era is over, labor not so important, are you

going to simply be shuffled out of the deck and let the powerful make the decisions. The powerful see 7 billion people and they don't want to share and they don't need you for labor.

[RagAss]

8. So true...and the trend will continue until my long-time SIG line becomes a reality...

[LuvNewcastle]

10. They'll never share it voluntarily.

We're going to have to take what we need. Why we put up with this is beyond my understanding. They are so few and we are legion. I fear that by the time people finally decide they've had enough, it will be too late. The powerful are always several steps ahead of us.

[Moostache]

15. The French Aristocracy though THEY were ahead of the mob too...(n/t)

[elzenmahn]

27. Power in any form (money or otherwise) will NEVER concede willingly...

...it must be demanded and taken.

My fear is that the sacrifices (e.g. deaths, injuries, jail time) our great grandparents (and earlier) made for the advances made possible by unionization may have to be made all over again. I hope it never gets to this point, and I don't advocate violence of any kind.

But I still say that the most dangerous person alive, is someone with nothing to lose. And when enough of the population gets to that point...look out.

[tazkcmo]

28. Exactly

This is the same argument I make for a social safety net. I simply look the Teabagger in the eye and ask, "What lengths would you go to in order to feed, shelter and clothe your children? I'd do ANYTHING."

[Todays_Illusion]

30. Yes, they have tools, bigotry, fear and economic insecurity.

[ctsnowman]

3. K & R

[KG]

4. expect no help from the dem party on this issue.

[closeupready]

22. Of course. They make money when the 1% do - they ARE 1%'ers

for the most part, so without any restraints, why WOULDN'T they act with complicity?

[Todays_Illusion]

31. Who do you think is going to help you?

[Android3.14]

5. Here's the link to the real story rather than alternet's cribbed piece of empty research

Alternet - It's like leftovers rummaged from the restaurant's dumpster.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-contract-economy-20140803-story.html#page=1

[mopinko]

7. thx

i see what they are saying, but as a freelancer myself, this is the way i want it. i cant work a regular job. i have my farm. but i can work in the slow times.

[7962]

14. Beat me to it. Another piece of "excellence" from alternet.

[4dsc]

6. 30 years of failed conservative economics

Lets just call it like we see it. Conservative economics is killing the middle class and the Democratic Party isn't coming to the rescue.

[Cosmocat]

9. In part

Globalization is/was going to happen regardless of economic paradigms. And, with it, the good and bad. Good, cheaper goods and ramping up the of the electronic age. The bad, cheap labor abroad under cutting our middle class.

Democrats have limped in line on the margins of the neoliberal "economic" thinking, but the old democratic paradigm isn't going to work now, either. A 40 hour work week in long term jobs with pensions being the gold standard.

This is heresy to Americans, but the model moving forward SHOULD be built on Universal Health Care that everyone pays into at a rate determined by the government and a more robust SS system that everyone has to pay into, also. Push for increases in the minimum wage to match current costs, then work from there.

Draw back all of the benefits that have been given to businesses to take/hide their money oversees. You either have your jobs here in America and pay your taxes here or you don't get government handouts.

Never going to happen, cause this country is nothing if not absolute in its insistence on allowing the republican party to shovel bullshit down its throats, but this is how it SHOULD be worked out.

[valerief]

11. Obscenely rich people must get richer. That's the most important thing in the world.

Apparently.

[Fred Sanders]

12. Since Americans have the worst by far employee benefits of anyone in the world.......who cares? More

From full article:

"Informal workers also tend to be underpaid. They have no benefits — sick pay, employer-funded health insurance or retirement accounts. They're not protected by minimum-wage laws."

Anywhere else in the civilized world, and most of the uncivilized world also, the "informal workers" would have guaranteed sick leave, vacation leave, maternity and paternity leave, minimum paid national and state holidays, a government employee assistance program, matched pension payments, etc......you would not want to be an informal worker......

More subtle brainwashing of the slightly smarter masses brought to you by the 1% media.....what, you thought they only went after stupid people?

[daleanime]

13. K&R....

[LuvNewcastle]

17. LOL

Did you get lost? Discussionist is that way....>>>>>>

[closeupready]

23. +1.

[moondust]

25. Competitive?

I'm pretty sure most any CEO sucking up millions in salary and benefits each year could be fairly easily replaced by a dirt-cheap replacement from India or elsewhere that produces lots of business graduates. When are they, too, going to start "adapting" to a globalized workforce?

[Earth_First]

29. You cannot be serious with this sh*t...

So much GOP bullsh*t.

So little time to refute it.

[nightscanner59]

18. How to change the corporate top-down mentality that's gotten worse since RayGun beats me, however.

I've seen where companies used to appreciate long term employees, give incentives for good work and retention. Where the hell did this completely get trashed in favor of reminding employees at every staff meeting how easily they all can be replaced? I'm astounded how many idiots are getting led by the nose by the likes of Faux News to make things tougher on themselves and others. Sometimes I play around on SodaHead wedging sensible commentary between floods of baseless, misspelled and 99 percent rhetorical Obama-hatred messages that abound there. I do so, so the youth on there pick up on that the "liberals" they bash copiously still appear to them to be the only calm messengers of a hopeful outlook. AND THEY DO! I've seen where younger, newer voters who start out chiming in with all the hateful crap... then grow silent... then comment how the democrats seem the only ones willing to really discuss anything!
Weird part is such a good part of many of these corporation's markets are still right here in the U.S. Aren't they essentially shooting themselves in the foot with this employee bashing and impoverishment?

[LuvNewcastle]

19. I believe American workers are masochists.

They'll let their companies fistfuck the hell out of them at every turn and all they'll do is bite their pillows and whimper. American workers live in constant fear of losing their jobs because they don't work long enough or hard enough, but they won't support laws that hold those companies accountable for how they treat their employees and God forbid anyone mentions unions! They're utter fools, and the companies know that and continue to exploit it. It's really that simple. European workers laugh at Americans.

[redqueen]

20. Corporations shoot themselves in the foot all the time.

It's a result of their tunnel vision focus on short term gains and stock prices.

Capitalism is fucked.

[whereisjustice]

21. Tax incentives for offshoring to Asia and bringing in H1B workers to replace US workers

must end.

As long as corporations are allowed to bribe Congress and Executive branch, things are going to get worse.

Much worse. Our political leadership looks at India, sees people working for $2 a day, then scolds us for demanding something better than that for ourselves, trying to hide behind a smokescreen of standard test scores. That's it in a nutshell. Quality of life is in decline as wealth is transferred from middle and lower classes to the upper class. Both political parties benefit greatly from it at our expense, with no incentive to stop targeting workers with legislated abuse.

When the current bubble implodes, the rich will be first in line to get their care packages, carved out of the backs of working families.

It is class warfare and working families continue to get slaughtered like feed stock.

We need to up our game. The Democratic Party should have no place for the economic apologists for the 1%. There really is a war being fought. It is Washington and Wall Street fighting against US workers and their families.

[snot]

24. We're in a looting economy.

The 1% squeeze all they can from us, threatening to take their business to countries where they can do business cheaper – with lower labor costs, fewer labor and environmental protections, less regulations in general, lower taxes – creating a race to the bottom among states and nations.

Meanwhile, impoverished workers have less and less money to spend, and once-healthy economies go into a negative spiral.

We could have a "virtuous" cycle, where people are allowed a greater share in the wealth they create, and they have money to spend, the economy can grow instead of stalling out, and the rich might even get a richer.

It takes a little more time and effort to get that going and maintain it; but that's what we had for the 50 years or so after the Great Depression.

One possibility I wish I'd see more discussion of: pass a law that says, whatever non-cash benefits provided to full-time employees must also be provided to part-time employees and contractors at least in proportion to their average hours worked. I.e., if a manager gets health insurance covering 90% of her family's medical costs and works 50 hours/week, a part-timer working 25 hrs. must receive ins. covering at least 45% of her family's medical costs, etc.

[ReRe]

26. K&R

I guess I need to write to both the alternet author and to the author of the LA Times article.

All they need to do is read The Shock Doctrine: Disaster Capitalism. by Naomi Klein to explain what is really happening to our jobs and to our country.

Put the blame where it belongs: On the grave of Milton Friedman and his merry little band of neoliberals.