Identity politics

I don’t think it makes much sense to talk about helping victims of traffic accidents or hurricanes as identity politics. And I didn’t think it made much sense to talk about Black Lives Matter as if that were identity politics. The obvious point in every one of those cases was that someone has been hurt who should not have been and was not treated properly. Helping innocent victims just seems humane. Just as it doesn’t seem proper to me to complain about giving medicine to sick people but not to healthy ones – it’s not inequality but equal treatment in the same conditions. But America is not reacting the way I think it should. Trying to move to equality is perceived as inequality by too many, especially Republicans.

So let’s look at the politics. Obamacare is very popular – it has resisted all efforts to repeal it – because it is available for everyone. Social security doesn’t have any labels – we all get it. That’s the way President Roosevelt designed it. So I think we need to design many policies that way – we need to put all kids through college if they want it. Of course that’s what public colleges once did but we’ve started to think of support for higher ed as a special benefit that needs a special excuse. So of course those who don’t get it fight it. That’s American politics. Always has been and I suspect always will be. Of course they make higher education available for all young people in Europe, but we must be better than the Europeans because we don’t.

James Madison learned to trade for what he wanted. The Constitution is a set of compromises so both North and South would sign on. By contrast, all the Founders knew we needed to build canals to open up the vast lands of the new republic and realize its economic potential, but it took forty years before New York finally built the Erie canal because of bickering over who would get the benefits and who wouldn’t. Democracy requires compromise and ways to spread the benefits.

That may be immoral and philosophically unsatisfactory but if we want to accomplish anything, we have little choice. Every news report tells us how some community or group is doing something for their own benefit despite the damage to the rest of us. I’m personally upset by leaving people on the street without homes, food or jobs, and “solving” housing problems by pushing people away and out of sight. And I’m upset by the notion that every community needs its own airport so they can have their own industry, though the impact on the environment is huge and will eliminate much of the good we’ve been trying to do to save our world. But people looking for jobs want us to bring the jobs to them, not just make them available in other places like New York City or Buffalo. Everyone does have a right to decent jobs and homes and I’d put a lot into making that a reality. But leveling New York State to rebuild the old rust belt would be an environmental disaster.

Still, somehow, everyone has a right to a place to live, work and earn a decent living. I’d make that a right. But, like health care and social security, it has to be universal. It has to be done in ways that will protect the environment. And it has to feel like everyone is getting the benefit. If we can’t get over those humps, we’ll all die together.

— If you think I’m on target, please pass it on. For the podcast, please click here. This commentary was scheduled for broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, on May 21, 2024.

Living with Complexity

A friend invited me to a discussion of blasphemy in Islamic law. Watching, I realized that the issue was sparked by extremist reactions to complexity, modernity and changes that make our lives more complex, and affect all of us, all religions, races, and nationalities.

To liberals, conservatives look like cowards, terrified by complexity and science, intolerant of differences, scared of dealing with people of color or liberals without the aid of bang-bangs; they look like scaredy-cats who become, support or protect, terrorists, traitors, racists, and misogynists – causing very serious injury. Underlying the alt-wrong’s extremism and name-calling, liberals see fear.

If the liberals correctly understand the alt-wrong’s motivation for hate-speech and hate-crimes, some of their fears could be lessened in ways that strengthen rather than weaken the country.

Smart economics would moderate the blows to blue-collar workers. I suspect Biden will be working on that. But the loudest-yelling conservatives reject government effort to ease the blow to blue-collar workers, reject funding infrastructure, reject expanding the safety net, reject programs to help parents take care of their kids. Their stereotypes tell them that others would benefit, not them. The screamers would leave workers to their own devices, or to go down the tubes. Yet a safety net and paths to good jobs so people could support their families would calm some of the angst. If the economy is handled properly, everyone would benefit. That’s a liberal solution but one that could weaken support for conservative scape-goating.

But the confusion of that economic problem with other issues undercuts the blue-collar case among conservatives. People who are better off have repeatedly divided and conquered the working class with social issues – the many disputes over the place of women, African- and Native-Americans, other people of color, and people with different native languages and sexual orientations. Conservatives fuss about what they call identity politics, but bring it on by refusing to treat people properly.

It’s tempting to think social differences might be eased by a version of when in Rome do as the Romans do – often expressed as federalism in American constitutional law. But federalism is unacceptable when used to deprive others of essential freedoms. Conservative demands, which they describe as freedom for themselves, are all about denying freedom to women, Blacks and others. That’s not freedom but a throwback to slavery. And federalism doesn’t work when their actions affect us all – like gerrymandering congressional elections or encouraging the spread of the pandemic. If some of the most prejudiced parts of the country could live their pre-modern lives without hurting the rest of us, they could be backwaters in an otherwise progressive country. But those lines are very hard to draw. As John Donne wrote centuries ago, none of us is an island, entire of itself. Given that conservatives don’t just want to be allowed to live their own way, but to turn it into law that binds, limits and even destroys the lives of others, there are no good solutions for the social issues as there are on the economic issues.

I feel very lucky that I’m not in Biden’s shoes. I had the same dream that many other Americans have growing up. Now I think Biden’s job is just too darn hard. But at least the economic issues can be solved.

— This commentary was broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, on April 13, 2021.

What We’re Worth to Each Other

In this time of crisis, when many are sick, grieving or out of work, and the new Administration is trying to address their needs, I’ll resist the politics, and just talk about what we’re worth. Some people define our value by whatever it would cost to replace us at work. That’s the capitalist answer. Whatever someone else will do the work for, that’s what you should get. When people complain about having to help or support others, they seem to be saying people are worth whatever they get, and no more.

That of course is the cheapest way to value people. But there are other ways to measure people’s worth. Economists describe producer’s surplus as the value we create above and beyond our wages – including what our employers keep. That spread, of course, is why employers fight unions – they know our work is much more valuable to them than what they pay us. They pocket the difference to increase their own wealth. To some extent that’s necessary and fair. But the difference gets very large with companies who skim a lot of the value of what workers do and turn the benefit over to the folks on top.

The value of work to society is greater even than the economic benefit. Think of the essential workers, the aids, helpers and drivers who make large differences in our lives. Most of us can’t afford the full value of the difference they make in our lives far above what they ask for or we could pay them.

There’s no clear answer to how much is fair. But the problem with our economic system is that it is stacked against workers, paying people the least possible for their labor. That’s not fair either.

The Supreme Court, a century ago, recognized that people could become so desperate that they’d sell themselves into slavery. The Court responded that the Thirteenth Amendment prohibits such deals. The argument about a living wage is similar – is it fair to take so much from people that they can’t live on what’s left?

In many religious traditions, every child goes through some rite of passage indicating that they’ve reached a respectable mastery of the traditions – whether it’s confirmation, b’nai mitzvot or something else. Since virtually all the kids can do it, a capitalist could say it isn’t very valuable. But we heap praise and presents on the kids. They must have done something of value. The value of what they did isn’t defined by the price one could pay someone else to do it in a competitive market. The respect and appreciation we owe people isn’t the same as what they’re paid.

That leads me to be skeptical of claims that people are only entitled to what they can earn or can pay for. It heaps disrespect on people who deserve our respect and appreciation. I feel morally committed to a safety net and respect for the value of the lives we can make tolerable. Programs to help others don’t leave me feeling cheated. They leave me feeling enriched. As Tom Paxton sings, “If the poor don’t matter, then neither do I.” There’s value in people, value in caring, and it goes both ways.

I hope you’ll think about what people are really worth when we think about bills to provide relief and a livable wage to people who can’t provide for themselves during this pandemic and in more normal times as well. It’s important to add that those who think they owe nothing to nobody need only open their eyes.

— This commentary was scheduled for broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, on March 9, 2021.

To Heal the Pandemic Economy

I’d like to give thanks for those whose lives we can save and whose futures we can restore. To do that, there’s no choice between defeating the virus and rebuilding the economy; we’ve got to do both.

People protect themselves from Covid by staying home, not shopping or dining out. Those who’ve seen the virus up close and personal won’t be coaxed back easily. Those cautions crushed the economy. Companies went bankrupt, shut their doors, closed their books, eliminated brick and mortar stores. With those changes, there could be no snap back. There’s permanent damage.

The economic depression is deadly too. People without jobs are stressed. Tempers flare as they lose jobs, businesses, homes, cars, self-respect, even their families. Stress, violence and suicide kill.

Because they’re connected, we’ve got to deal with the virus and the economy, whenever we expect an effective vaccine to be available – the virus is killing and disabling far too many much too fast. To open the economy, people must cooperate with virus driven restrictions – a nuisance but a lifesaver. The map and data on the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center are eye-opening. There are a million new cases every week, all over the country. If people wait ‘til it hits their family, friends, town, or a vaccine’s available, it will be far too late for those infected and the economic disaster that follows.

If we cooperate to deal with the virus, there’ll be plenty we can do to restart the economy.

Government can provide emergency relief for people displaced by the depression.

Government can provide jobs by building and delivering essential public goods that private businesses can’t on their own

• roads, bridges, clean air, water, flood relief, public health services;
• postal service, electric and internet grids, and transit services that reach all corners of the country;
• the education and training American workers need to better compete and attract investment here at home;
• the basic science that made American farming, pharmaceuticals, the digital economy and industry lead the world.

We once called it a mixed economy where government and business each contributed what they could. That’s not socialism; it’s just smart. Plus projects can be targeted at areas that are hurting – if we work together as the U.S.A.

Government can target tax relief to strengthen the economy – tax relief to the bottom of the ladder where it drives markets, sales and business. Taxing the working classes to give tax relief to the wealthy doesn’t put food on the table and it doesn’t get the economy moving; it’s just a silly, corrupt bargain for campaign contributions.

Government can re-energize the economy by focusing on the welfare of American families, farmers, and workers. That’s the decent, humane way to drive demand and investment in America. To heal America we have to care about each other and develop the economy for us all.

In emergencies, Americans roll up our sleeves and help whoever’s been hurt, wherever they are. Helping each other now is crucial both to save each other from the pandemic and to rebuild the economy. That’s good old American teamwork and it’s essential.

If I were Biden, by the way, given Mitch McConnell’s intransigence, I’d follow president Truman’s example, run against the “do-nothing” Senate, and in these days of continuous campaigns, I’d start now.

 — This commentary was scheduled for broadcast on the WAMC Northeast Report, on November 24, 2020.

Strategies for Working People—Unity vs. Let’s You and Him Fight

I want to talk with Trump’s white supporters for a moment. Workingmen and women, white and black, have real grievances. Big shots want you to play Let’s You and Him Fight because then nobody gets anything and all of us slave for the bosses. That’s a game of rhetoric. Some big shots bellow about bad people coming across the southern border – women and children mostly – or Black people with the effrontery to suggest that cops shouldn’t be shooting them in the back. Some whites object that Blacks are trying to be higher on the pecking order but there isn’t a single job produced by that rhetoric and it won’t shrink the deaths of despair from drink and drugs that have been taking too many white as well Black lives. White men and women want, need and deserve jobs – decent ones that you can take care of your families with. But all Trump gave you is that bellowing. Everyone knows how to create jobs – things need to be built and improved – some talk about infrastructure ‘til they’re blue in the face but Republicans block it – first they didn’t want a Black president to take credit for improving our infrastructure but they insist everything should be produced by capitalistic magic – a fancy way to say they don’t want to do anything for you or the country. The internet and electrical grids need to be improved and hardened – including the retraining that could create a real income stream. But they stopped Obama, and they stopped the work. What good did that give you? Bragging rights? Try and feed your families bragging rights.

The other strategy is unity, working together, forming or growing unions, welcoming everyone so unions get stronger. That’s what Republicans really fear because unions and unity could really get you better jobs, better pay, better lives and better futures. They’ve been cutting back on union rights since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. I know – only us old guys remember that but it’s been continuous for seven decades – so that unions have been shrunk to a fraction of their former strength. Unions once gave you power, not just bragging rights but money in your pockets.

If we built what this country needs, the country would be stronger and the work would be here in the U.S. The big shots don’t want that; they don’t care about what our country needs or what you need for a decent future. They can invest their money all over the globe. They can have their companies buy company stock back with company dollars and increase its value – that’s a pure financial gimmick, not a reflection of what the company can do – just stock manipulations and it doesn’t do a thing for you.

I don’t believe that our country should withdraw from the world – that would leave us in a dangerously weak position. But we have been watching countries all over the globe, on literally every continent, narrow the gap toward our strength by simply investing in what they need, and investing in the education that produces the trained and educated talent they need. But this government is driven by people for whom only dollars and votes talk – so we’d better get the votes because we sure haven’t got the dollars. Unions and unity can bring those votes together and design strategy that will lead to common objectives.

Either we work together or undercut each other. If we are to get beyond Trumpian bellowing to real results, we have to unite. If we can do that, we’ll all be holding our heads high – and winning what we all need – jobs, salaries, futures – instead of hot air.

— This commentary was scheduled for broadcast on the WAMC Northeast Report, on October 6, 2020.

 

A House Divided Cannot Stand

Trump’s base thinks they can make America great by kicking out people they don’t like, people with different heritage, faith or color. Yet the evidence is that there are more and better jobs available in communities with more recent immigrants. A larger economy creates jobs and opportunities. It needs more goods and services. By contrast the effort to get rid of people is what economists call a deadweight loss. Deadweight because it is costly but produces nothing. We accomplish more working together than working against each other.

America’s great accomplishments have all come from making it easier to work together. Even before the Constitution, the states gave each other’s citizens all the “privileges and immunities” they gave their own. Sadly, they left most African-Americans in slavery, but they created a common economy to take advantage of America’s size and scale. The Constitution tightened and enlarged those promises. A single economy gave us the resources to do what a great nation must do and do well.

Before we could adopt what were called internal improvements like roads and canals, we had to learn that jealousy beggars us all. Projects wouldn’t pass without spreading the benefits to the vast majority of us. The Washington Administration designed the first American financial system. The Jefferson Administration purchased the Louisiana territory from the French and built what they called “the national road,” connecting the seaboard with the Ohio River valley. Steps like that laid the foundation for America to connect the oceans and stave off the European powers that still kept land and garrisons to our north, west and south.

The Civil War threatened everything but for the fact that Lincoln kept the British from intervening on behalf of Confederate cotton, and he kept the Union together.

American power solidified after the Civil War made ours one country, ended slavery, and Lincoln signed, in 1862 alone, the transcontinental Railroad Act, the Homestead Act and the act that built the great land grant universities, which together laid the agricultural, commercial, industrial and intellectual basis for America as the dominant twentieth century power.

We can’t have a great nation by fighting among ourselves. We can’t maintain national infrastructure by jealously keeping others from the benefits. We can’t maintain a great educational system by fighting over whom to keep out. We can’t continue to grow and prosper by jealously excluding each other from important national institutions. As Lincoln told us, “A house divided cannot stand.”

Armed ethnic, religious and racial animosities threaten American power and success. We’re all threatened by domestic terrorists who target people because of the color of their skin, the words and language they use to pray, or where they came from.

America’s strength has always been Americans’ ability to work together. Our major institutions understood the importance of cross-cultural cooperation. The U.S. Army worked to unify soldiers with different heritage, faith or color and who spoke different languages so that all could work as a team. Corporations unified their workforces, capped with ceremonies in which new Americans stepped out of what were labeled melting pots. Major sports leagues learned to take advantage of talent regardless of where it came from. Schools taught each new wave of Americans about democracy and gave them the skills to participate in our government and our economy.

It’s time that all Americans get with the program for the greater good of all of us – including any orange-Americans.

—This commentary was scheduled for broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, March 3, 2020.

 

 

Too Liberal?

People claim Elizabeth and Bernie are too liberal, that their projects would beggar the country, so we can’t select them.

There must be something wrong with programs that have existed in Europe for decades. There must be something wrong and beyond our resources, with liberal programs, even though many corporate leaders support them.

Health care? The money is obviously there. People have been buying insurance forever. Employers have been paying for it for decades. And what they wouldn’t buy, the public has been paying for through emergency rooms. Let me explain the real difference. If employers pay their share through the tax system, they won’t have to worry about so-called employee benefits every time they hire someone. Even though corporations would pay about the same, the shift from a payroll expense to a public program would take the cost out of the calculus whenever business thinks about hiring someone. Or thinks about giving people a real job instead of a gig. Public programs help the economy flow. Many corporations understand that. Competition can be built in with a public option, for example. And small business would function much more easily. But false conservatives, playing on the fears of the public, don’t want to admit that they’re behind the logical eight ball.

Business could rarely get going if they had to build their own physical and social services. In fact business always wants the public to give them whatever they need. They don’t even want to build ballparks on their own dimes! But if they had to find and get water to their businesses and workers, or build their own electrical systems off the grid, or cut and pave their own roads, it would cost more and few could get started. They’d be stuck next to waterfalls like the old mills. But that’s what the fear mongers call socialism. And if they had to build all the physical and social infrastructure they need, they’d spend as little as possible and sacrifice the health of their employees. I’m not making that up – it’s the history of company towns that virtually enslaved employees, paying them in what was called company scrip. Complain and you lost your job, your home, and went into the world penniless, homeless and likely without your family as well.

Social investments protect our jobs and our freedom. Americans who know their history know that’s the world that President Franklin Roosevelt rescued us from with the New Deal by the end of the great depression. Some rich folk hated him for it because it gave most of us a chance at decent lives instead of slavery to corporate masters. Now that corporations are finding ways to take it back through the gig economy, outsourcing and union busting, we need to recreate the New Deal that gave us Social Security, unemployment insurance, the right to organize and that eventually led to Medicare. Far from being unsustainable, Americans had their best years since Roosevelt and the New Deal. And corporations too know that they can live with it because public programs give them the flexibility they want to add employees without the added expense of so-called benefits.

Too liberal? Don’t make me laugh through my tears at the ruin of the American worker.

— This commentary is scheduled for broadcast by WAMC Northeast Report, on February 11, 2020.

Globalization and Democracy

Amy Chua wrote World on Fire two decades ago, arguing that globalism and democracy would collide by bringing out ethnic and religious resentments around the globe. She identified animosities country by country that would explode when times got tough.

Many of us connected economic and democratic health. In hard times people look for scapegoats and blame each other. I’ve gotten jobs from and lost them to people of other races and genders. That’s normal and goes both ways but I did fine and don’t need to blame anyone. Many who don’t feel as well are looking for reasons.

Chua’s analysis isn’t destiny. Unions in Hawaii realized workers would do better if they were united. Hawaii developed a lovely multi-cultural society as a result. But Yugoslavia came apart in rough times. I fear the European Union and the United States can come apart if we engage in an orgy of blame.

Franklin Roosevelt focused on creating jobs in the 1930s and World War II finally pulled us out of the Great Depression. John Maynard Keynes explained that, when an economy is in the doldrums, spending and investment, by government, industry or consumers, pulls the economy out most effectively. Democrats have worked with his ideas ever since and the overall, national, economy has done well with Democrats in power, particularly when Democrats had a strong labor union base focused on workers.

But capitalism is built on creative destruction. Miners’ desires notwithstanding, other industries have been replacing coal for most of the twentieth century because coal dust and soot blanketed cities, killed plants and got into people’s lungs. The process accelerated recently as more sources of heat and power became available. It’s a benefit that capitalism allows shifts like that but also a problem that capitalism makes workers pay the greatest price for such change. Macroeconomic, Keynesian thinking helps but it doesn’t solve the harms to specific groups of workers who’ve lost out through no fault of their own. More is needed.

Republicans view the economy differently, particularly since Ronald Reagan became President, focusing on supply side economics which stresses putting more resources in the hands of companies, entrepreneurs or so-called job creators. Unfortunately, supply side economics leads Republicans to ignore what business does with money, hoping that enough will be used to create jobs at home. But business also uses their money to outsource to foreign countries, buy stock back, build monopolies and the like, which don’t help American workers. Business helps American workers when they find demand for what American workers produce. That’s not automatic.

So supply side economics leads Republicans away from strategies that would actually help workers and aggravates hard economic times that tend to push workers to fight among themselves for the available jobs. Under most conditions, supply-side economics is a smokescreen for policies that make things worse. Staying away from anything related to supply-side economics is much better for workers, brotherhood and labor unity. But the alternative Keynesian economics isn’t enough.  There is a gap with respect to finding work for areas which have lost their main industries.

To save our democracy, it’s crucial to get across what actually will help American workers and what won’t. That’s why the argument over government projects, like rebuilding infrastructure, is so important.

The “Caravan”

Only Trump could turn a line of destitute and terrified people walking thousands of miles in hopes of finding safety in the America that all admired until recently, into a caravan of desperados bent on breaking laws, robbing, stealing and raping Americans.

Actually that’s wrong – the last time I know of was when Gen. Douglas MacArthur ran the bonus marchers off the mall in Washington, D.C. The bonus marchers were veterans of World War I, trying to survive the Great Depression. They came to Washington to petition their government to give them their promised World War I bonuses a little early, since they were desperate and destitute. Disobeying orders, MacArthur ran them off. MacArthur disobeyed four presidents until Truman finally fired him for insisting on widening the Korean War into China.

But the Bonus marchers and the Caravan both remind me more of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath – farmers who lost their lands to the banks after drought, the dust bowl and the Great Depression made it impossible to farm or earn a living in those farming communities. They joined a sad and sorry march from Oklahoma to California. They were farmers, not thieves or rapists. But they were vilifield as beggars. Oakies, originally meaning from Oklahoma, became an epithet. To the loss of their income, the loss of their farms, often the loss of their families, they now added the loss even of human empathy. Cold and hungry, the migrants gathered in shantytowns they called Hoovervilles, named for the president in office when the Great Depression began. They lit fires in steel drums to keep warm. I wish Steinbeck had written a sequel. He described great suffering and often death. Yet some percent of them survived and eventually melded into the population of California.

I thought we had outgrown demonizing the homeless and destitute, but not Donald Trump.

I thought we had outgrown running off the homeless and destitute like vermin, but not Donald Trump.

I thought we had learned that the problems of massive unemployment are not the workers’ making, but not Donald Trump.

I thought we had learned that farmers who’d lost their lands, shopkeepers, factory workers and miners who lost their jobs, were decent people suffering from forces beyond their control, but not Donald Trump.

Come back John Steinbeck and remind us all of our humanity.

Come back Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and show us how to care for our fellow human beings and build a better world out of love and compassion.

Come back America and show a large heart to each other and to the cold and desperate trying to reach the safety of our shores.

We can do it. There is no economic reason why we can’t. We could get to work rebuilding our infrastructure and make plenty of work for everyone. This is America. Si se puede; yes, we can and be stronger for it.

— This commentary was broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, November 13, 2018.

 

 

Stop Dumping All the Risks on Blue Collar Workers

I have been thinking about all the blue-collar workers who believed that Donald Trump would do a great deal for them.

We often talk about the risks that entrepreneurs face but capitalism does its best to outsource risk to blue-collar workers. If there are environmental problems, poisons in the air or water, blue-collar workers and their children will be the first to become sick – they are the canaries in the coal mines. But the irony is that they are also the first to be affected by any attempt to remedy the situation. Prohibitions may force their workplaces to shut down or lay them off.

Liberals often respond by saying that new methods will create jobs. But blue-collar workers have good reason to assume that any jobs created will probably be for other people. Liberals also argue that the proper method for creating jobs is with public works, renovating American infrastructure, etc. But who’ll get the infrastructure jobs? And even more important, no one has been able to promise those jobs. Obama tried but Congress blocked much of what he wanted to do. Trump promised a huge infrastructure program but he put it in the budgets of the states, not his own budget. In effect American politics has not been able to deliver on that jobs promise for the people whose jobs are at risk.

Other relief programs are more automatic: Except for Puerto Rico, we regularly protect people flooded by major storms even when they should have known better than to build on flood plains. The farm program, whatever its shortcomings, protects farmers with formulas that can be calculated in advance. Unemployment insurance is statutory but often grossly inadequate. Social security and Medicare have been reliable though they have become political footballs. Obamacare still exists despite Republican attempts to kill it. But you can’t feed and house a family on medical care. The earned income tax credit comes annually after April 15.

All of this suggests political winners and losers – we like some folks and we don’t trust others with whatever we might do for them. Government has not been willing to become the employer of last resort, so that there are always jobs and wages, although some candidates are urging it now. A negative income tax has been deemed too expensive. And Trump has spent huge tax dollars on enriching the super rich instead of reducing or eliminating the payroll tax in order to encourage hiring more workers for jobs that pay well. There’s lots that could be done if we have the will.

The result is that our political system has not been willing to care for workers. They are not the only ones our politics has left to hang in the breeze. Our unwillingness to insist on decent, honest and ethical behavior for everything from payday lending to mortgage loans, from manufacturing to toxic waste, leaves masses of people at risk, unable to protect themselves or their families.

We need statutes that protect all workers when employers reduce their workforce. Protections need to be reliable so that people don’t have to fear for their jobs when they demand safe working conditions and decent contractual terms that don’t shift all the risks to the people who are most vulnerable and least able to protect themselves. We need reliable worker protection so that people needn’t fear for their jobs when we demand safe products and safe byproducts of business activity. We need to rethink how we protect American workers so that they don’t become the losers whenever we try to improve the American environment and working conditions for everyone.

— This commentary posted by WAMC on their website on June 5, 2018 but the audio was pre-empted by the Pledge Drive. It was broadcast in its usual spot the following week on WAMC Northeast Report, June 12, 2018.