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I love the fact that MSNBC has a new program, "Morning Meeting", which regularly unpacks the fiction that ‘too big to fail’ or ‘Wall Street traders’ are so sacred that nothing should mess with them. I love the criticisms of a corrupt marketplace and I relish the comments about how AIG has been economically irresponsible.
Imagine my horror in watching a segment today that basically makes economic parasites out to be ‘economic heroes’ and castigates labor, the AFL-CIO, and Trumka as a pack of deceitful, unproductive, economic parasites. (can’t find it on youtube, so here’s a link):
The clip starts with a replay of AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka, speaking in favor of single payer health care on Rachel Maddow last night (in the same segment with FDL’s founder Jane Hamsher). Then, we are introduced to the ‘msnbc analysts’:
Welcome to ‘Inside Baseball 101: Health Care Episode’, and get ready to delegitimize and marginalize ‘labor’.
The summary of points made in the clip goes like this:
First, AFL-CIO has ‘drawn a line in the sand’, on single payer.
Second, single payer would ‘damage’ the ‘union brand’ - because if everyone can get health care without going through a union, then what’s the point of a union?
Third, since #2 above is true, then Trumka could not possibly mean what he says; he must surely be lying.
Fourth’ unions are strong-arming Obama’. (Because unions must be thugs, right…?)
Fifth, ‘ unions are not competitive, and are ‘holding American back from winning’. Nevermind about AIG, Citigroup, or Goldman Sachs; always blame laid off automakers and people who work for a living for all economic problems.
Sixth, ‘American competitiveness is damaged’ by labor’s economic demands. TARP? Never heard of it. Ignore the failure of a GOP President and a GOP Congress to hire mortgage fraud investigators in 2005, 2006, and 2007 — instead, just blame unions and employees!
Seventh, "[Trumka's statements on Maddow last night and labor's insistence on single payer health insurance is only] a bargaining position.
I almost expected Bernard and Allen to tell viewers that HealthCo$ are the true ‘creators of wealth’, or ‘creators of value’ in the US Economy.
How creating hundreds of plans and using monopolistic practices ever ‘creates value’ and generates economic innovation escapes me, but Bernard and Allen seem to think that healthCo$ are a natural part of the way the world works.
Please watch the clip.
Please consider contacting "Morning Meeting" to provide some thoughtful feedback.
Oh, BTW: neither Allen nor Bernard explained Wyden’s plan, nor did they explaine what single payer actually is, nor did they explain how things currently work. But then, they were only on to give the ‘political analysis,’ so evidently knowledge of the facts and comparing — you know, REAL plans — is not part of their job.
Here’s hoping that Trumka will be a guest on "Morning Meeting" within the next few days. Maybe he can help viewers understand that the American economy is currently being ‘held back’ by economic parasites called health insurance companies, which extract wealth for very little value in return.
Just for the record, I’m not a union member. Doubt that I ever will be.
But after a few forays into high tech (where stock prices made more money for ‘shareholders’ than most employees will ever see), and other observations of economic parasites like AIG, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, etc, etc, I have no patience left for people who insult the value of work.
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** Rattigan is often spot-on in his analysis of the bogus Wall Street Ponzi Scheme, and caustic about what he terms the ‘vampire capitalism’ that is sucking the lifeblood out of the US economy. Here’s hoping that he comes to his senses, keeps the ill-informed Bernard off his show, and continues to invite Elliott Spitzer and Nassim Taleb. And AFL-CIO’s Trumka.
4 Comments
Hi ROTL, Dylan Ratigan is entertaining sometimes and he is definitely very concerned about big business abuses of the market system and the corruption of capitalism involved in the bailouts. He’s one partisan of capitalism who knows that Government is necessary to maintain free markets, because they can’t maintain themselves. On the other hand, he’s also definitely anti-labor, because he thinks labor unions undermine free markets and competitiveness, and he views them as opponents of innovations. I doubt that Trumka, who is an effective exponent of labor can do anything to change his mind.
Yeah, I respect Rattigan’s willingness to try and explain bullshit.
What I don’t get is his blindness to the importance of the quality and caliber of people who work — ‘labor’ is too simple a term, but I think that even Rattigan would agree that Apple, Microsoft, GM, Ford, and other companies don’t view it as a simple cost of business.
They’re competing for the best, smartest employees they can find.
And that’s what Trumka needs to help Rattigan grasp — ‘labor’ doesn’t need to mean, ” I show up for a paycheck”, it needs to mean, “I show up to create value, and without me, you cannot create wealth.”
Does ANYONE actually believe that WallStreet is not a de facto union of sorts ,itself?The GOB-Good Ole Boys Club.Except WE are paying THEIR dues!
No union ever created has swindled the American taxpayer in the manner that these Wall Street weasels, thieves and thugs-in their Gucci loafers – have.
And they did it once BEFORE, back in the ’80’s with the BCCI and S&L scandals-led by ANOTHER Bush.
I pinpoint the disdain for the American worker beginning with Ronnie Raygun busting up the Air Traffic controllers . Selling out to “Free Markets” trade agreements and selling off the souls of American workers ever since,bit by bit.
Labor is the superior of capital,or so said Abraham Lincoln.
Yes, but since the 1980s the idea that ‘capital’ is the Secret Ingredient behind economic success has warped a lot of economic thinking and government actions.
Globalization was about freeing up capital to avoid any kind of restrictions or government regulations. In that framework, workers and labor are a ‘cost’ of doing business and as such the objective is to minimize labor costs.
What’s missed in that framework is the quality and productiveness of workers, and the factors that make people perform well. It’s really a very clunky, dumb approach to economics — no wonder these guys walked right off a cliff blindly.