This means that American companies will continue to be attracted to cheap labor abroad, and will persist in their quest to further marginalize workers at home. The trends toward outsourcing to nonunion shops and toward hiring part-time workers without benefits will continue unabated. While the Teamster's victory in the recent UPS strike was reminiscent of the good ol' days, it was a fluke, owing more to timing and rare public support than a resurgence of labor's power. Momentum lost is difficult to regain and closing the gap on the wealthy without the great equalizer of a devastating economic downturn is not going to be easy, but it is going to require a fine set of brass knuckles. Below are five fundamental corrections of past mistakes that will level the playing field with the minimum transfer of wealth by taxation and government programs.
Globalization is a mantra conjuring up visions of the flip-side of a Marxist utopia.
Free trade between uneven economies disparages the immense variety of human activity and expropriates the local economy for the benefit of a few world-class hustlers committed to the bottom line. Pillage the forests and rivers, destroy the production of local artisans and farmers, a new definition of colonialism is afoot. The banks, savings and loans, telecommunications, and transportation should be regulated anew. Deregulation will go down in history as one of the more stupid accommodations to big business. It has given us unsafe airlines, the savings and loan piracy, capital without borders, banks that are vouch-saved from their profligate ways by the public treasury.