“If you apply yourself and work hard, anyone can become a millionaire.” This is a popular adage in the United States.
For the overwhelming majority of working-class people, all working hard ever gets you is more work. But if you are an
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In spite of meltdown in the sub-prime mortgage sector, in which over 100,000 people were laid off, 2007 was a banner year if for bankers at Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns investment firms.
A record $38 billion in bonuses will be doled out to 186,000 employees. Many of those receiving bonuses are actual office workers. However, CEOs and top management will get holiday gifts of bonuses of $10 million and more.
At the same time, workers who have a retirement plan or pension managed by these Wall Street wizards will all get a lump of coal. The funds managed by these five companies lost $74 billion in value in 2007.
The billions in bonuses come from the theft of unpaid labor of millions of workers. And workers’ productivity has been rising. From 2000 to 2007, productivity rose by 20 percent.
The capitalist bosses and the media refer to workers as shareholders or stakeholders in the company for which they work. They appeal to workers’ legitimate sense of ownership of our jobs. At the same time, they hide the truth that workers have no say over matters of company management.
While the ruling class wants workers to believe “What’s good for the company is good for everyone,” statistics on wages during the same seven year period of increased worker productivity paint a different picture.
The Economic Policy Institute reported that median hourly wages in the United States rose a meager three percent from 2000 to 2007. Most of the increase took place before 2003. Wages declined by 1.1 percent from 2003 to 2007.
It is a crime that workers are producing more and earning less while the bosses are squandering billions and getting paid record bonuses for doing so.
