MYTHS about our ECONOMY
Many conservative economic myths have embedded themselves
into the conventional wisdom of America. They are
believed not only by conservative Republicans, but by
many Democrats and the mainstream media. The myths are
declared, then repeated and repeated again, until they
are accepted as fact without regard to reality. The
information below can help you educate others and refute
these harmful myths.
1. The economy is in great shape!
Only the rich are getting richer. They're the ones
benefiting the most from the booming stock market.
They're the ones getting fat raises. CEOs saw their pay
jump 499 percent from 1980 to 1995. But we working
families got a puny 9 percent raise in those 15 years-not
enough even to keep pace with inflation.
Yes, unemployment's down-but so are the number of
decent-paying jobs, and jobs with benefits like health
insurance and pensions. A lot of folks have to take two
or three of these new jobs just to make ends meet.
THE BOTTOM LINE: The economy today is great for the lucky
10 percent- that minority of Americans who have 70
percent of the country's wealth. The rest of us are
having a rough time.
2. We'd all be better off if government left the free
market alone.
Without the government "interfering" in the free market,
we'd still have child labor, seven-day work weeks,
monopolies to keep prices high, and industry barons
keeping wages low.
If corporate America really wanted to get rid of
government regulations, it could start with "corporate
welfare" that gives billions of dollars in handouts to
companies. Or say "No, thank you" to government services
like law enforcement that protects its property and air
traffic control that keeps its executives and all of us
safe in the air.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Corporate America doesn't really
want a market free of government intervention. It wants a
market that's free of those pesky government efforts to
protect workers and consumers.
3. Businesses aren't to blame for driving wages down.
Global competition made them do it.
"Global competition" has been a great excuse for driving
down wages and workers' rights. Ever notice that some of
the companies using the "global competition" excuse do all
their business right here in the U.S.? Mining companies,
for example, and construction and retail companies-even
government.
Where global competition is real, we could have won!
Instead of using American ingenuity to expand their
markets and make better products more efficiently, when
global competition heated up in the 1970s, U.S.
businesses took the low road. First they slashed wages
and benefits here, then packed up the jobs and sent them
to the lowest-wage countries they could find.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Corporate America has no business crying
about global competition. It's an excuse for multiplying
its profits without sharing the wealth.
4. Free trade agreements create jobs.
The North American Free Trade Agreement has sent more
than 420,000 U.S. jobs to Mexico and Canada since 1993.
New U.S. jobs in the export sector never materialized
because the collapse of Mexico's peso made it even
cheaper to move factories and jobs south of the border.
NAFTA hasn't even helped our trading partners. With the
peso's collapse, Mexican workers are earning less.
THE BOTTOM LINE: "Fair" or "managed" trade is a much
better approach. It protects U.S. workers and U.S. jobs.
It also protects workers in other countries from being
exploited by rich companies offering pennies-an-hour
wages and inhumane working conditions.
5. Big government is what's wrong with America.
If your parents are getting by because of Social Security,
thank the government. If your water is safe to drink,
your food is safe to eat, and your medicine is safe to
take, tip your hat to the government.
And government today is smaller than it's been in
two decades. Government employees make up less of the
nation's workforce than they did 20 years ago, and
federal taxes are a smaller part of the nation's income.
But corporations and the wealthy have been shifting the
cost of government to working families. Corporations
contributed 31 percent of the nation's tax revenues in
1953, but just 9 percent in 1993. Families earning
$560,000 or more a year pay an average of $15,674 less in
taxes than they did in 1977; families earning $48,000 pay
an average of $287 more.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Corporate America likes the services
that government provides just fine. It just wants you and
me to pay for them.
6. Unions are bad for the economy.
Heavily unionized automakers, airlines, aerospace
companies, telecommunications giants, and others are some
of this country's largest and most successful companies.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Unions raise everybody's living
standards in a "virtuous cycle": When wages grow,
consumers spend more; businesses invest more in
efficiency, and productivity increases. This leads to
higher wages and economic growth-and the cycle continues.
==================================================================
Fight Back With These Facts:
Write letters to the editor to refute any of these
economic myths.
Photocopy this leaflet and give it to your co-workers.
Join the Labor Party and support its agenda for working
people.
OCAW Research and Education Department