With all the evidence of growing disparities in wealth between the middle class and the wealthy over the last 10 years, it's truly revolting to know that the economic recovery now underway is again rewarding those at the top. Harold Meyerson writes in today's Kaplan Daily:
"Indeed, many of the nation's leading corporations have been spending more money buying their own shares than they have on job-creating investments, research and development, or higher wages. . . The jobs that businesses have been creating, moreover, aren't anything to write home about. They pay significantly less than the jobs that have been lost. . . It's one thing for a nation to be downwardly mobile during a recession. It's quite another to be downwardly mobile during a recovery - but that looks to be precisely what's happening."A major factor the Meyerson cites is the decline in private sector unions, which in the past forced management to share increased revenue, and which helped to create a vibrant middle class in post-WWII America. Meyerson calls the corporate focus on increasing shareholder value "shareholder capitalism," which is obsessed with cutting costs -- even if middle class jobs are lost in the process. With corporate balance sheets in the black by roughly $2 trillion, maybe it's past time to call on the corporate predators to do their part in the recovery, and remind them it's about jobs, jobs, jobs.
