Labor Discipline is the Point

(c) Mark Dempsey

 This Intercept article confirms what I previously wrote: The object of raising interest rates is not so much to quell inflation as to make workers feel insecure. The idea of worker insecurity rather than, say, reducing windfall profits, or reducing outrageous CEO compensation, as an inflation remedy is commonplace in current political circles. The article actually cites an internal memo from Janet Yellen saying just that.

Of course, in this atmosphere, a job guarantee is simply not even worthy of consideration--even though that option would probably be cheaper than the massive expense of dominating the poor. Remember, with 5% of the world's population, the U.S. has 25% of its prisoners. I've been told 65% of prisoners have a substance abuse problem, and medical treatment is both cheaper (one-seventh as much as incarceration) and more effective. But the beatings must continue until morale improves!

In fact, I just saw testimony (below) from a British minister admitting that settling the rail strike they're experiencing now, paying the workers' demands, would be cheaper than the stonewalling they have been doing. But the beatings must continue until morale improves!

Reminder that crushing unions/strikes isn’t just about the short term money it’s about maintaining the hierarchy of economic power https://t.co/E1HNwhNUTW

— Mac (@GoodPoliticGuy) January 20, 2023

 

One potential reaction:

I think if we discovered an endangered species of monkey that let huge swaths of its population starve to death so that one monkey could sit on an enormous pile of food, we would decide those monkeys were too stupid to save and leave them to their fate

— Janel Comeau (@VeryBadLlama) January 21, 2023