First: Jimmy Hoffa’s medical labor market wet dream:
a) cannot stop technical employees from organizing,
b) demand is everywhere and ever growing
c) bills paid automatically by insurance or government,
d) bonus: once trained, employees can change location.
Jimmy Hoffa’s labor worst labor market nightmare – gouging physician residents:
a) half the pay of physician assistants (PAs),
b) full four years in medical school versus only three for PAs,
c) perform more complicated diagnosing and procedures than PAs,
d) 100 hour work week versus 40 for PAs,
e) median pay $65,000 a year versus $75,000 for nurses!
I’m not trying to make a big pitch for medical residents today. I am just using their extreme plight as an example of remuneration lost when labor has no wherewithal to defend itself with. Even trained medical doctors can be (will be) duped on payday if they lack bargaining punch. What can the rest of we unorganized expect?
(I'm not sure why residents have no means to fight back – possibly feel trapped because that they suspend their education the moment they suspend their work – or perhaps stuck in the “social/cultural" calculus that they are in school and lucky to be getting paid any amount at all. When confronted with such deep “social/philosophical” questions ask myself: What would Jimmy Hoffa say? :-)
Labor unions effectively couple employees to paying customers in free market bargaining-- allowing them to calibrate their wage demands according to how much they think they can squeeze out of paying customers. Walmart labor costs are 7% -- Imagine what the Teamsters Union could do with that. Add 7% to the price of merchandise – even if sales dropped 7%, most employees would be far better off.
Walmart’s sales might go up if its pay raises were part of a nation wide movement to up lower wages, sending more dollars to retailers who serve lower income shoppers.
Quick and easy path to across-the-board unionization of America: federal legislation mandating regularly scheduled union cert/recert/decert elections at every private (non-gov) work place: https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/
Fifty percent of American workers say they want to be in a union.
Only 6% of non-government workers are union members. The only thing standing in the way of starting a political wild fire of support for regularly scheduled union elections seems to me nobody thinks it possible to turn the labor market around that much, that quickly -- too good to be true – grandiosity insufficiency? :-)
This essay seeks to make it seem impossible to work without a union.
Sunday, January 7, 2024
Jimmy Hoffa’s wet dream – Jimmy Hoffa's worst nightmare
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2 comments:
Print our way out of so-called Social Security crisis: print bonds and stuff them into the so=called Trust Fund: problem solved.
No need to worry about causing inflation -- or anything else -- from printing this money. It is just part of a mechanism that converts income tax revenue into Social Security retirement outgo.
From 1983 until 2010, FICA took in more revenue than retirements paid out. For those 27 years, the left over FICA revenue was used to pay for so called "on budget" items like court houses and bridges and aircraft carriers.
For 27 years the FICA overage was credited to the so-called Trust Fund to be drawn down when -- in the course of time -- FICA underage could not completely keep up with expanding retirements outgo.
It now looks like said Trust Fund may only be able to match retirements shortfalls until 2035. Then what? Did the 1983 Congress have some hidden knowledge that the world was going to end in 2035? If not, what was the point of it all? To stave off paying for increasing retirements out go until we are an even worse spot -- and need help even more?
Maybe it was to take money from workers when per capita income was lower to cover taxes on earners when per capita income should be a good deal higher.
Does anybody want to start another so-called Trust Fund, today?
Meantime the artificial crisis can be avoided by rolling out the presses and pumping out the "Monopoly money" as needed.
[just safe keeping while I do last draft]
What kind of Social Security retirement system pegs part of its funding for retirees to a revenue stream that will suddenly dry up just as that revenue stream reaches its maximum contribution (about 25% of payouts)?
Answer: the Federal Social Security's so-called Trust Fund.
For about 25 years (1983-2010), excess FICA revenue was diverted to pay for so-called "on budget" items (items usually paid for by income tax) -- like court houses and bridges and aircraft carriers and FBI salaries.
For approximately the following 25 years (until around 2035) growing FICA revenue shortfall is expected to be made up for by income tax revenue -- and here comes the crazy part -- in the exact same amount that FICA excess had been used to pay for "on budget" items (1983-2010).
Whenever the so-called Trust Fund "dries up" that is supposed to trigger a Social Security crisis. "Social Security is running out of money." "Only 77% of retirement benefits will be able to be paid." Crap. Bonds put into the Trust Fund are only IOUs to ourselves. Just get out the old printing presses and print our way out of the so-called crisis.
If we want to fund retirements some other way, great -- that would be a propitious moment to do it. Meantime we can just keep the funding funded the same phony old way. :-)
[more cloud safekeeping while I am switching computers]
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