‘People Need to Accept They’re Poorer’

Posted on by under Economic issues, Global Issues, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Our friend Ben Berwick writes from across the pond of a problem that we here in the U.S., perhaps in every country in the world, are well familiar with: wealth inequality. The Covid pandemic, while taking a heavy toll on the average household finances, greatly boosted the bottom lines of the largest corporations. Did they share that wealth with the people whose blood, sweat and tears go into making their products? Hell no! Here in the U.S., it has been 14 years since the federal minimum wage rate has been raised, allowing greedy corporations to see record profits while walking on the backs of their workers. And people wonder why I have a basic dislike for the wealthy. Read Ben’s take on it …

Coalition of the Brave

This is the position of one Huw Pill, the top economist of the Bank of England. The former Goldman Sachs banker, who has a £1.5 million home and an annual salary of £180,000, is arguing that the desire to combat increasing costs with increases to wages is not realistic. At a time when the likes of Nestlé, PepsiCo and McDonald’s are reporting boosted sales due to higher prices, and during a time where energy companies are making record-breaking profits, is it reasonable to declare the desire to be paid fairly is unacceptable, as Mr Pill is doing?

I wrote about this quite recently. Wages do not drive inflation. That’s an excuse by these companies raking in huge profits, whilst people go hungry. To suggest there’s no means to pay people a fair, living wage is a joke. The ignorant among us might make nonsensical arguments to the contrary…

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11 thoughts on “‘People Need to Accept They’re Poorer’”

  1. Thank you for sharing!!.. it is greed pure and simple.. higher wages mean a cut in their profit, if they raise the prices they may lose business so in their minds the best remedy is keeping the people poor so they don’t lose money, at the same time in order for the people to survive and maintain the economy they have to get credit cards and go into debt… I am thinking that today’s technology and knowledge is changing things, much to the dismay of capitalism… 🙂

    Hope all is well in your part of the universe and until we meet again…
    May your day be touched
    by a bit of Irish luck,
    Brightened by a song
    in your heart,
    And warmed by the smiles
    of people you love.
    (Irish Saying)

    Liked by 1 person

    • You’re so right … it is greed and nothing more. Capitalism run amok, as I often say. Just as people still believe the 2020 election was “stolen”, they also still believe their members of Congress when the tell them that all the ‘gifts’ they give to the wealthy corporations, like rolling back environmental regulations, tax cuts, not raising minimum wage, etc., will “trickle down” from the wealthy to the workers and middle class. We all know that ‘trickle-down’ economics is a fallacy, but obviously some are not savvy enough to understand, no matter how many times we explain it. In some ways, I think today’s technology is actually benefiting the wealthy capitalists more than it benefits us, but you may be right.

      Thanks, Dutch! Your Irish Sayings and poems are always so uplifting!

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  3. Left this message on Ben’s blog:

    The basic fallacy of capitalism is that any rise in costs, including increased wages, must be passed on to comsumers. To some, this makes sense, but not to me. Capitalists, otherwise known as the wealthy, choose to pass on these cost increases to protect their profit margins. What they do not admit to is continually increasing their profit margins, and one way to do that is to pass on the cost increases.
    What we, the consumers, must ask ourselves is: Are we willing to pay for their increasing profit margins by paying the prices as set by the capitalists, while at the same time losing buying power by accepting lower wages and poorer benefits?
    As long as we continue to be corporate sheep, wealth inequity is going to widen. One way to stop this is to elect small-g governors who would place limits on profit margins while increasing taxes on corporate income and profits. But this is not going to happen anytime soon, since there are hardly any small-g governors who would be willing to even consider such things.
    Therefore, in my mind, we need to stop being sheep and refuse to buy the products of capitalism. We need to find a way to first stop living beyond our means (using credit to buy things) while finding ways to barter for goods and services for those things we absolutely need to have to survive. By using monies controlled by governments who in turn are controlled by capitalists, we are playing into their hands.
    I am not saying I know how to do this, but this is what I see as a necessary step in starting to take control back from the wealthy. If we continue on as we are, we might as well bare our backs and let them whip us to death like they once did to slaves, for that is what we will become!

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  4. Absolutely disgusting that guy! But let more of them say things like that, then we will get an uprising of the poor at a point. The Governments get paid by those people or get help with elections or whatever favour, that’s just as disgusting.

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    • I fully agree! I keep thinking it’s time for a major boycott of products and perhaps a tax rebellion too, but this nation is currently so divided that getting people to pull together as one would likely be an impossible task.

      Liked by 1 person

      • That’s what the politicians and the media do, divide us, so that there isn’t any solidarity. News of protests are also suppressed. For example our mainstream media here in Denmark did not really report about the heavy confrontations in France, where firefighters were colliding with the police and other situations. It is suppressed so that we others don’t get similar ideas. Thumbs up for the French!

        Liked by 1 person

        • Yes, two phrases/sayings come to mind: “Divide and conquer” and “A house divided cannot stand”. You’re right … I’ve seen some coverage about the protests in France, but not nearly as much as I would have expected.

          Liked by 1 person

          • France has had protests, sometimes violent, ever since the covid lockdowns. Then the lawyers took to the street and now it is everybody against their president, who seems to think that he is another Napoleon. None of it was properly covered by the Danish mainstream media, and what I hear, not in Germany either. (They had their own protests.) But why they don’t dare to show them is maybe because some of the police officers showed solidarity with the protesters, that’s too dangerous 😉 And not long ago the firefighters were fighting police officers … they have similar protective gear 🙂 😀

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  5. Pingback: ‘People Need to Accept They’re Poorer’ — Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

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