THE HISTORY LESSON CONTINUES:......................................................... July 4, 2007—Hundreds of workers at Sunbeam’s profitable plant in McMinnville, Tennessee, are laid off and ordered to train their replacements in a factory in Mexico, in a firing ordered by Sunbeam CEO Al Dunlap. Dunlap has makes a personal fortune as a serial downsizer of businesses. Jack Wahl, owner of Sunbeam competitor Wahl Clipper Corporation, criticizes the Sunbeam layoffs as shortsighted and “extremely wasteful,” and says his company runs profitably with U.S. workers. 2007—The richest 1 percent take a near-record 23 percent of the personal incomes paid to all Americans, earning a combined $1.35 trillion a year, which is more than the entire economies of Canada, Italy, or France. 2007—Among economic sectors, corporate profits see their share of national income rise during the Bush years to the highest level since 1943, while the share of national income going to employee salaries and wages sinks to its lowest level since 1929. 2008—In a Cornell University survey, 57 percent of people say they have never benefited from any government program or policy. But questioned in more detail, it turns out that 94 percent have actually benefited from at least one program. The average person has used four government programs. 2008–2009—In the recession, hundreds of major U.S. companies such as General Motors, Eastman Kodak, Sears, Motorola, UPS, FedEx, Hewlett-Packard, and National Public Radio either cancel or cut back their employer match for 401(k) programs. 2009—After a taxpayer bailout, big Wall Street banks rebuff President Obama’s appeal to “hire American.” They continue offshore hiring and domestic layoffs. In the 2000s, the Hackett Group reports, 3.9 million jobs in finance, IT, human resources, and back-office functions have been lost in North America and Europe. In 2011, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup sign new contracts to offshore $5 billion worth of ITJ and back-office work to Indian firms. 2009—Millions of average Americans, including Pam Scholl and Mike Hughes, become middle-class dropouts—the New Poor. Pam is laid off for a second time and, despite an intense search for work, remains unemployed for 18 months. The only work Mike can find is as a night custodian at a local high school at about one-fourth of his old pay at RCA. Scholl eventually gets a public sector job, at about half her old RCA salary. December 2009—The U.S. ends a decade with the slowest economic growth of any decade since World War II. Economic growth was slow prior to 2007, even before the Great Recession despite President Bush’s promise that his tax cuts would spur growth.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 23:29:48 +0000