Post by the Scribe on Apr 19, 2024 15:13:29 GMT
“There is nothing in the economic universe that will automatically rescue us from runaway inequality. There is no pendulum, no invisible political force that “naturally” will swing back towards economic fairness. Climate change is not going to heal itself. Either we wage a large-scale battle for economic, social and environmental justice, or we will witness the continued deterioration of the world we inhabit. The arc of capitalism does not bend towards justice. We must bend it.”
Les Leopold
Author, Runaway Inequality
runawayinequality.org/
Wall Street's War
www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2024-04-17-show/
About the show
In the first half, Les Leopold, the director of two non-profits, discussed how corporations in the US have used mass layoffs and stock buybacks to enrich shareholders at the expense of employees and how the impact of this financial strip mining and legalized looting is destroying the integrity of democratic institutions. The deregulation of Wall Street and an emphasis on greed created this situation, he noted, citing the example of Bed, Bath, & Beyond, where investors made gigantic stock buybacks, and this eventually led to the collapse of the company, where 30,000 people lost their jobs. Mass layoffs take a significant psychological and physical toll on workers, he reported, and to lose one's job is considered a severe life event.
Another example he detailed was Toy R Us, which was bought up by private equity firms with borrowed money. After they paid themselves huge management fees, the company collapsed under the massive debt service. He also pointed out that many tech companies in recent years have made significant layoffs in their workforce, even though they remain profitable. One solution he proposed is that if a corporation receives a federal contract or a federal subsidy, then they should not be allowed to conduct forced layoffs and instead set up a voluntary layoff system with incentive packages for people to leave. Leopold was also critical of how companies allocate their funds, paying out enormous salaries to their CEOs, which have ballooned to 800 times that of the average employee.
Salon said “Runaway Inequality has many virtues besides its timeliness. It doesn’t just explain where the U.S. economy went wrong; it also explains how American citizens can organize to get it back on track.”
