Omaha Steve's Labor Group

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts) Mon Mar 2, 2020, 09:03 PM Mar 2020

Jack Welch, the CEO of GE, is dead. (X-posted from GD)

I heard the hosts of Morning Joe speaking of what a wonderful man Welch was, and as I listened, I was reminded of what Welch said about moving his factories. And here it is:

Several years ago Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, captured the new reality when he talked of ideally having “every plant you own on a barge”. The economic logic was that factories should float between countries to take advantage of lowest costs, be they due to under-valued exchange rates, low taxes, subsidies, or a surfeit of cheap labor.

Globalization has made Welch’s barge a reality. However, in doing so it has made capital mobility rather than country comparative advantage the engine of trade. And with that change, “free trade” increasingly trades jobs and promotes downward wage equalization.

https://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2007/10/thomas-palley-j.html

Welch was the prototypical free trading capitalist. He valued his wealth over all else, including the workers who created that wealth. And he was serious when he spoke about literally moving his factories to anywhere that offered lower wages and fewer regulations for predatory capitalists just like him.

In this new reality, a reality created by predatory capitalists like him, workers are seen as less than human.

In this new reality, a reality created by predatory capitalists like him, workers are seen as no better than machines that can be discarded.

In this new reality, a reality created by predatory capitalists like him, workers are seen as not having any real input into how predatory capitalists ruin their lives.

Welch, and people like him, people like Jeff Bezos, and the Walton family, are a huge part of the problem, and a reminder of why capitalists need to be strictly regulated.
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