Goals for Economy Training

1. Goals for Economy Training • To understand how the economy impacts our lives, our communities and the broader landscape. • To understand how and why the economy has shifted over time,and who has power in decision making in our economy. • To understand how we are connected in our relationship to the economy despite differences • To challenge the myth that “There Is No Alternative,” and inspire hope that another way is possible

2. A little history:Mass Mobilization Led to Victories for Poor and Working People in the ’60s

3. Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Voting Rights Act, 1965 • Medicare, 1965 • Medicaid, 1965 • Food Stamps • Head Start • OSHA, 1970 • Clean Air & Water 1970-1972

4. The Uprising Was Global

5. Corporate Elite Feared Rising Tide of Anti-Corporate Sentiment

6. The Lewis Powell MemoAugust, 1971, prepared for the US Chamber of Commerce • “No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack….The overriding first need is for businessmen to recognize that the ultimate issue may be survival— survival of what we call the free enterprise system, and all this means for the strength and prosperity of American and the freedom of our people.” • “Business must learn the lesson, long ago learned by labor and other self-interest groups. This is the lesson that political power is necessary; that such power must be assiduously cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination — As unwelcome as it may be to the Chamber, it should consider assuming a broader and more vigorous role in the political arena.” • “Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations.”

8. Get control of government Get your people elected or appointed to leadership positions throughout the economic, social, and political institutions of the public sector at all levels.

9. Corporations Pour Billions into Politics • - Corporations • - Trade/Membership/Health • - Labor

11. Deregulate Reduce or eliminate government power within the market.

12. Corporate Regulatory Agenda • Weakening of antitrust laws • Defunding of regulatory agencies • Explosion of Free Trade Agreements

13. Massive Deregulation • Airlines, 1978 • Trucking, 1980 • Telecom, 1984 and 1996 • Electricity, 1992 • Oil and Gas Extraction, 1980 • Finance, repeatedly between 1978 and 2000

14. Privatize Capture resources and decision-making by transferring from public to private ownership and control.

16. Privatization: Wealth Extraction and A Battle for Democratic Control of Public Services • Criminal Justice • 2/3 of CCA and GEO state prison contracts have bed guarantees of 80 %to 100% • 2012 CCA CEO salary: 2.8 million • Education • For-profit charters claim curriculum is a trade secret • 2012 K12, Inc CEO salary: $2.9 million • Infrastructure • Chicago paying Morgan Stanley consortium for revenue lost in parking meter 75 year lease

17. Use tax policy to consolidate wealth. Cut marginal rates or eliminate taxes altogether to redistribute society’s wealth to the top

22. Undermine and distort public programs Render ineffective and even damaging the public provision of housing, healthcare, education, criminal justice and welfare

24. Weaken democratic centers of power Neutralize competition for power by weakening unions, community groups, and communities of color.

26. Result – Inequality

27. Rising inequality Gilded Age Great compression Great divergence Middle class America

28. The super-rich benefit the most

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31. Corporate Profits Have Skyrocketed Since Mid-70’s(Corporate Profits in billions)

33. Economic Reality Since the Mid 1970’s • They Pay Less, • We Borrow More, • They Get Rich, • We Get Poor!

34. People Earning less, Borrowing MoreConsumer Debt Exploding Since 1970’s(Total Consumer debt in $trillions) • 21st Century Serfdom: • Forcing People and Communities into Debt Dependency • $8 trillion in housing debt • $1 trillion in education debt • $1 trillion in credit card debt------------------------- • $11 trillion in total household debt • + $4 trillion in Municipal Debt

35. The rest of us live in “Wal-Mart America” - A “Second Gilded Age” • America’s retirement deficit: $6.6 trillion, according to Center for Retirement Research at Boston College • 68% - of workers in large and medium firms have no defined benefit pension plan, up from 24% in 1986. (Source: BLS) • 57% of private sector workers have no retirement account of any kind whatsoever (Source: EPI) • $23,000 - was the median amount in a 401(k) account in 2012, according to Fidelity Investments. • 15.7% - Percentage of Americans without health insurance, now 48.6 million (Source: US Census Bureau, 9/12/12) • Workers paid 47% more for health care in 2010 than they did in 2005 • 15% - Percentage of people in poverty, 46.2 million, up from 11.4% in 2002 (Source: Census Bureau). Poverty is defined as $23,021 for family of 4.

38. Small Group Questions • Name a few ways in which this strategy of the corporate elite impacted your life or the life of people in your family and community. • Who else is impacted by this strategy? • How does this strategy relate to the ‘common sense’ stories of the economy that we discussed earlier? What in this strategy contradicts or supports that story? • Who benefits from this strategy and who loses? • What are the core values behind this strategy?

39. Key Concepts of Our Economy • Maximizing corporate profits is THE goal of the economy. • Inequality is inherent and intentional due to increased concentration of power and wealth in and through the economy over time. • Those with control of capital, control the economy and all decisions affecting it • The value of people and their worth is their monetary value – whether as workers or as consumers, everything in our lives is a commodity to be bought, sold or exchanged

40. Hope in Difficult Times “To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.” Raymond Williams British Literary Critic and Political Theorist