This is about money and politics.
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Fast-food workers in hundreds of cities across the
country and the world went on strike in mid-May to demand higher pay and
better working conditions.
These workers targeted
the richest and most powerful fast-food corporations such as McDonald’s and
Burger King.
Walmart workers went on strike in 20 cities across the country a few
weeks later, making demands similar to those of the fast-food workers.
These mobilizations are
the latest in the fight of ordinary people to make the big corporations pay
their workers enough to live decent lives.
Meanwhile, rich
corporations are doing better than ever. According to the National Employment
Law Project, the 50 largest employers of low-wage workers are highly profitable, massive corporations with executive
compensation averaging $9.4 million.
This now commonplace
predicament — rich executives reaping fat paychecks from companies that exploit
low-wage workers — has become a symbol of extreme inequality in America.
Here are two ways
former Labor Secretary Robert Reich illustrates this point: The United States
has the 4th-highest degree of wealth inequality in the world, behind
only Russia, Ukraine, and Lebanon. And the 400 richest Americans own 62 percent
of wealth in America.
What we don’t talk
about often enough is why this is happening.
Income inequality isn’t
just about money. It’s about politics.
In this age of extreme
inequality, the Supreme Court is handing down decisions that enshrine the
political influence of wealthy Americans. The rich aren’t just getting richer.
They are getting more powerful. As a result, the ability of average citizens to
make our voices heard is eroding.
Low-wage workers are
organizing to demand basic rights because the wealthy have expanded theirs.
In 2010, the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling gave corporations the right to spend
unlimited amounts of money to influence elections under the guise of free
speech.
This year, its McCutcheon decision allowed
individuals to give unlimited amounts of money to any candidate or political
party.
In the wake of the
McCutcheon ruling, a single donor can now funnel an unlimited amount of money
to a variety of political candidates, parties and committees at the federal
level.
Only a few hundred
people will be able to take advantage of this new “right” a Supreme Court
majority has defined.
That isn’t democracy.
That’s granting a few wealthy Americans the right to control our politics.
Bestowing such rights
on the extremely wealthy in an age when ordinary Americans are barely getting
by erodes our democracy. These legal precedents make it harder for workers to
challenge exploitation or claim the right to a decent living.
When thousands of
McDonald’s and Walmart workers go on strike, they are exercising their basic
democratic right to have their voices heard.
The American people are
listening, but not Congress.
An overwhelming
majority — 76 percent —
of Americans believe Congress should boost the federal minimum wage to $10.10.
However, that wage
increase has stalled in Congress. A bill that would
raise the wage from $7.25 to $10.10 was shelved in the Senate in late April.
It’s unacceptable that
the will of the people doesn’t stand a chance in the halls of Congress. That’s
why we must overturn these shameful Supreme Court decisions byamending the
Constitution. It’s about protecting our democracy.
In this fight to reduce
inequality, let’s ensure that the democratic means to do so aren’t taken from
us as well.
OtherWords
columnist Marjorie E. Wood is an economic policy associate
at the Institute for Policy Studies, the Managing Editor of Inequality.org, and
the co-author of the new IPS report Restaurant Industry Pay:
Taxpayers’ Double Burden. IPS-dc.org
Distributed via OtherWords.org
Distributed via OtherWords.org
