How can we best support the American Worker?

Is there going to be an honest conversation about corporate responsibility or are we going to overlook that right now, as the unemployment rate hits 13%, the worst rate since the Great Depression (Washington Post)?

Every day, when I scroll through my LinkedIn feed, I see people posting about their work ethic and discussing this disaster as the perfect time to build skills and reimagine one’s career. In fact, I saw one opportunist author a post entitled, “Thank You, Covid.” 

I can understand the attempt to rephrase the problem and find some silver lining, but for most Americans, this is one of the toughest times of their lives, and I’m disappointed by the lack of empathy I’ve seen lately.

I’ve seen a lot of selling. And, furthermore, I feel that those promoting their brand, work ethic, or “way of life,” are missing the point. This isn’t a time to get ahead, it’s a time to help other people, who have lost their jobs, healthcare, sources of income, and in some cases, their lives. 

Now is the time when we should come together and unite, and to support the most vulnerable. Systemic racial injustice is causing this virus to hit the African American community much harder than any other, costing lives. Not careers. Not jobs. Not skills. Lives! Muriel Bowser, Mayor of Washington, D.C., on Sunday said the virus casts a “spotlight” on health disparities among African Americans that draw their roots in “slavery, racism and Jim Crow roles and laws” (Politico).

Asian Americans are also being targeted for attacks. “We’ve never received this many news tips about racism against Asians. It’s crazy. My staff is pulling double duty just to keep up,” said Benny Luo, founder and CEO of NextShark, a website focused on Asian-American news (New York Times). 

And American workers are being sacrificed like cattle for the sake of shareholders. 

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that one hotel company decided to furlough most of its American workers, “jeopardizing their access to healthcare, even as the company paid out more than $160 million in quarterly dividends and pursued a raise for its chief executive.” Like several noteworthy CEOs, this one is forgoing his salary this year. It’s also unclear if this CEO will receive millions in bonuses from stock and other perks. What about the others we’ve read about and celebrated?

Two days ago, one company furloughed 43,000 employees while keeping only 200 on the payroll. Thankfully, the company will continue to provide healthcare coverage for up to 12 months. The furlough was agreed to only after a deal was reached with the union that represents the employee. The company’s stock has risen by roughly 10% since the news broke (CNBC).

We are in a strange time. A time when the government is bailing out companies, who are furloughing employees, and yet stock prices are rising. Is it just me or is something wrong here? What should we make of the two headlines on “Mad Money” that simultaneously read “The Dow’s Best Week since 1938” and “More than 16 Million Americans Have Lost Jobs in Three Weeks?” 

The entwining of lobbying and industry consolidation have left us with less jobs, lower wages, higher consumer prices, and less competition. It’s not political. 70% of Americans believe the economy is rigged (The Myth of Capitalism). And that was before the virus.

We need to come together and look at the source: greed. Wealth inequality hasn’t been this disparate since the Great Depression. CEO’s today make up to 361 times what their lowest paid employee earns (They Myth of Capitalism). How do you think that impacts their decisions on share buybacks, lobbying, and other short-term interests?

Long ago, we sacrificed US manufacturing and the well-paying jobs that came with it for the sake of keeping consumer prices low. Then we allowed the biggest companies in the world to merge. Instead of reducing prices, those companies reduced their workforce. They reduced R&D and spending on innovation. Yet, executive pay increased, and we brought back stock buybacks, which had been outlawed following the Crash of 1929, enabling CEOs to manipulate their performance through internal stock purchases. All at the expense of the worker and consumer.

We need to learn our history. We need to band together. We need to stand up for the worker. For the average American. We need to stop bailing out corporations. To paraphrase Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of Social Capital: capitalism is a game. When you win, you make a lot of money, but when you lose, we have a process called chapter 11. He shared these views on CNBC last week, going so far to say, who cares if hedge funds fail? Who cares if a few billionaires lose their homes in the Hamptons?

And he knows firsthand, how the poor and the rich live. As a child his father bounced between jobs and his mother worked cleaning houses. He was on public assistance, before working his way to become the CEO and Founder of Social Capital (Wikipedia).

Empathy. Chamath has it, because he’s been there. If we haven’t struggled ourselves, it’s harder to understand where someone else is coming from, but it’s not impossible, if we try. So how do we proceed? Do we continue to promote ourselves? Our products? Our “way of life”? Or, do we start to put others first? Do we stand up to the system that continues to bailout corporations and reward CEOs for focusing on their short-term compensation over the long-term health of their businesses. How can we best support the American Worker?