Reply #27: no surprise indeed [View All]

Corporations will never make a concerted effort toward putting MORE people to work, even in the best of times. This trend has been clearly established over the last decade or so. The trend is toward fewer companies (M&A) employing fewer and fewer people, and squeezing more and more work, for less money usually, out of those they do employ. That's the natural evolution of a capitalist system, especially one with effective globalization, and the more we shy away from properly regulating and controlling capitalism, the more effects we are going to see from this trend.

In the news today is the negotiation taking place between US Air and United. If this deal goes down, you can bet the farm that it will result in (a) one less choice and therefore higher prices for the consumer, and (b) fewer people employed in the airline industry. You've noted another really pernicious effect of capitalism run wild, that is, capital flowing into regions of the world where labor is cheapest. That, of course, has been happening for multiple decades.

Why do the capitalists do this? Because they can. They've been allowed to make great strides toward eviscerating the middle class in this country, which suits them just fine because they don't need us - not in the absurd John Galt sense, but because they've got vastly larger middle classes emerging in Asia to sell to now. If nothing is done to stop this particular exploit, we here in America will, sooner or later, be the backwater that China and India once were.