Our Workplace Press

We publish workplace bulletins every two weeks. Below is the most recent editorial from our workplace newsletters. Older editorials are linked to the right.

Take the Hoarded Money
– Create Jobs!

Jan 29, 2012

Professional liars drown us in numbers, trying to convince us the economy is getting better.

They say it’s recovering, because housing sales are up.

Housing sales may be up – but only because banks are dumping their toxic mortgages once again. Selling off repossessed homes is driving down prices, undercutting homeowners who are trying to sell their homes.

That is NOT a recovery!

They say there’s a recovery because the unemployment rate is getting better. The unemployment rate may be getting better, but the percentage of people who have a job is ... worse. Workers who have been unemployed for a year are being dropped off the charts. If they don’t look for work every week, they’re not counted – even if there aren’t any jobs out there for them to find.

In the two months before Christmas, only 300,000 new people found work – temporary work for the holiday season. But what about the 24 million workers who need work NOW? At that rate, it would take more than 13 years to employ 24 million – even if Christmas came every two months!

They say there’s a recovery because factory output is up. Yes, it is – a little. But only because the bosses squeeze more work out of the same number of people.

There is NO recovery in things that matter to working people – jobs and a decent standard of living.

There IS one recovery, however – in profits. Corporation after corporation announces record profits. That means bigger bonuses for the executives, bigger payouts for big stockholders.

The corporations making those big profits are not using them to invest in more factories, or buildings. They aren’t increasing wages. And they certainly aren’t paying more taxes, which could be used to improve public services.

No, they are hoarding that money, and they are speculating with it.

Today corporate giants hold over two trillion dollars, stashed away unspent. “Private equity” investment funds have over half a trillion dollars in unspent cash hoards. The banks have many trillions more, including from government bailouts.

The capitalists’ hoarded money represents the labor that millions of workers put out. That accumulated hoard was created by the daily work of millions, using machinery and materials worked up by earlier millions.

That money the greedy hoarders have accumulated needs to be put to work.

Those trillions of dollars could be used to produce the goods and services we need, providing jobs for everyone who wants to work.

If the capitalists say there isn’t enough demand for their goods, then let the work be shared out, and slow down the speed on the jobs – with no loss of pay for anyone.

We could all work fewer hours, at a slower pace – and not be dead tired when we come home. And everyone needing a job could have work, everyone getting a full check to live on.

The money the banks stole from our taxes could be used to fix all those things that are rotting away. Repair vacant housing. Provide medical care. Build and repair schools. Provide a decent education to every young person. Restore public services. Repair roads, bridges, tunnels, dams.

The resources exist. The housing that is now vacant, the office buildings now standing empty “for lease,” the factories now chained shut, the equipment and tooling now idle, the people without a job – and yes, the money now hoarded up.

Everything needed is right here at hand. Put it to useful work. That would make society hum and come to life again.