Short Takes
From time to time SA will become self-indulgent and trot out our favorite posturings and perfidies spoken by our leaders in tones that ring hollow even to the committed —calculated to soothe the savage beast (us) with promises of rainbows and lollipops in the future that never comes. One of the more recent examples that made us curl our toes ran like this “We will build an economy where everyone who wants a good paying job will get one…Where you can get a good job…” (Hillary Clinton accepting the democratic nomination for president 7/28/16.) Sound familiar? Eight years ago, at another democratic convention, another democratic candidate thrilled us with similar rhetoric: “It’s a promise that says… businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, to look out for American workers…(Barack Obama accepting the democratic nomination for president 8/28/2008) How time flies. While Hilary’s promises are still aspirational, Barack Obama’s after eight years in office are quantifiable. So how did he do? Depends who you ask. Ask Hillary and here’s what you get—“I don’t think President Obama and Vice President Biden get the credit they deserve for saving us from the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes…Nearly 15 million new private-sector jobs.” Here’s President Obama singing from the same hymnal on his job performance stats at his last state of the union speech —“We’re in the middle of the longest streak of private sector job creation in history. More than 14 million new jobs, the strongest two years of job growth since the ‘90s…” Finally a shout-out from the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) unwrapping the onion to display the gritty reality behind the illusion —“the US labor force is in a state of decline as evidenced by the eroding middle class and the transformation from full time to contingency [i.e. minimum wage, benefit-free, part time) workers.” The BLS report backs this contention up with statistics—two of the most revealing—since 2000 the economy has suffered a net loss of 12½ million workers (i.e. 25,862,000 left the workforce, only 13,395,000 workers joined). The BLS does agree with Clinton/Obama that since 2010,14,401,000 jobs have been created. What the dazzling duo “forgot” to mention? Forty percent of the current US labor force is made up of contingent workers or in the more salubrious government-speak— those engaged in “alternate work arrangements”. Translation: 60 million Americans are stuck in low wage, benefit-free jobs like agency temps, on-call workers, contract workers, independent contractors (AKA the gig economy, eg. Uber drivers} and part-time workers. It gets worse. According to BLS projections, one-half of all US workers will be contingent by 2030. If any proof is required to buttress this bleak employment picture, here’s the topper: 81% of all new jobs this decade came out of the “service providing industries” (e.g. Starbucks baristas, fast food workers, call center employees etc.)
The short takes we have assembled for this issue range from the muck of politics, the election season in a neo-liberal imperial kingdom to the world-wide celebration of the quadriennal reality show extravaganza, the Olympics.
