{"id":1317507,"date":"2023-11-08T07:00:29","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T07:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=303782"},"modified":"2023-11-08T07:00:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T07:00:29","slug":"seeing-through-the-economic-bait-and-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/11\/08\/seeing-through-the-economic-bait-and-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing Through the Economic Bait and Switch"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
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Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair<\/p><\/div>\n

Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, recently issued a scathing statement<\/a> about the shameful state of the United States economy. On October 31, 2023, De Schutter called out several top private employers in the U.S., Amazon, Walmart, and DoorDash, for trapping their workers in a cycle of poverty.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cJobs are supposed to provide a pathway out of poverty, yet in all three companies the business model seems to be to shift operating costs onto the public by relying on government benefits to supplement miserably low wages.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a related letter<\/a> to the U.S. government, De Schutter wrote, \u201cDespite being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the United States has a high rate of poverty among workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such public statements by the representative of a top international body ought to be a mark of shame for the U.S., which has historically marketed itself as being a place where people\u2019s dreams come true.<\/p>\n

In contrast to De Schutter\u2019s rhetoric, the corporate media\u2019s assessment is quite rosy, relying increasingly on the word \u201cresilient\u201d as a popular descriptor for the economy as a whole. According to the Financial Times<\/a>, \u201cThe stunning resilience in the U.S. economy to date has stemmed from one primary force: consumer spending.\u201d Economist Kathy Bostjancic, who was interviewed for the story, cited, \u201cincredible job growth,\u201d and lauded how \u201c[b]alance sheets look in really good shape, stocks have generally performed really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. government also sees nothing but cause for celebration. Officials at the Treasury Department<\/a>on October 26, 2023, boasted how the nation\u2019s economy this year \u201coutperformed expectations along three key dimensions: growing economic output, labor market resilience, and slowing inflation,\u201d and that the nation\u2019s economic progress, \u201cstands out across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to explain these striking contradictions in assessments between the United Nations and those of the corporate media and the U.S. government?<\/p>\n

In short, evaluations by the U.S. media and politicians are based on corporate prosperity while the UN\u2019s evaluation is based on individual prosperity.<\/p>\n

If we look closely, there is a dissonance on display. We, the people, are being sold the lie that the values of the wealthy are the same as ours. But what\u2019s on offer does not reflect reality.<\/p>\n

Merriam-Webster defines<\/a> the term \u201cbait and switch\u201d as \u201ca sales tactic in which a customer is attracted by the advertisement of a low-priced item but is then encouraged to buy a higher-priced one.\u201d It\u2019s an apt phrase to understand the way in which mainstream economists, corporate media outlets, and many politicians promote the idea of stock values as something ordinary Americans should care about.<\/p>\n

A year after dropping to a record low in 2022, child poverty in the U.S. more than doubled<\/a>, partly as a result of COVID-19 related government benefits expiring. Additionally, median household income fell significantly. Economists rarely address such pesky details when celebrating the \u201cresilience\u201d of the stock market, preferring instead to focus on the fact that more people are employed, not whether their wages and benefits support a decent standard of living.<\/p>\n

Occasionally there are<\/em> stories that undermine the corporate narrative, such as an NBC story in March 2023, headlined, \u201cMost people have jobs, but many are unhappy about their money<\/a>.\u201d But such coverage is the exception.<\/p>\n

The story we are expected to internalize, in direct conflict with our own financial worries, is that we must be content with the nation\u2019s financial status quo because stocks are performing well and corporate balance sheets look good.<\/p>\n

There is another story, one that is consistent with individual bottom lines. \u201cInternational human rights law recognizes a right to a living wage,\u201d wrote<\/a> De Schutter. \u201cWorkers should be provided, at a minimum, with a \u2018living wage,\u2019 regularly adapted in accordance with costs of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Schutter\u2019s assertion that Americans have the right to earn a living wage is one that rarely enters mainstream U.S. discourse. When people are denied their rights, they will rise up to claim them, and the recent surge in union activity and strikes<\/a> is an indicator that growing numbers of people are seeing through the economic bait and switch.<\/p>\n

The changing narrative on wealth inequality, wage stagnation, and economic health is reflected in the simple and direct message that United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain regularly displays on his \u201cEat the Rich<\/a>\u201d shirt. UAW members are voting on major wage gains<\/a> that their union won from the Big Three automakers after weeks of militant strike activity grounded in an entirely different set of values than those that frame a rosy economic outlook.<\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cEat the Rich<\/a>\u201d has its origins in the French Revolution and the anger of the poor aimed at 18th-century aristocracy. The quote, \u201cWhen the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich,\u201d is attributed to French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Its popularity in contemporary U.S. society is a warning to those in the media and the halls of government against selling the lie that corporate values are equivalent to people\u2019s values.<\/p>\n

Congress and the White House could easily thwart the growing popular tide by adopting any number of simple and direct policy changes. Echoing progressive recommendations, De Schutter made several suggestions in his letter<\/a> to the government: if the minimum wage is too low, raise the federal minimum wage and build in cost-of-living increases. If unions are too weak, close the loopholes that allow corporate employers to undermine union activity.<\/p>\n

Another direct solution<\/a> is this: if the pandemic-era benefits cut childhood poverty rates, renew the benefits.<\/p>\n

One can understand why the Biden administration wants to cheer on the state of the U.S. economy. In spite of congressional gridlock and, especially, Republican roadblocks<\/a> to commonsense economic legislation, economic stability is one of the central responsibilities that government is charged with, and achieving success in this realm is key to Biden\u2019s reelection efforts in 2024. So, his administration is putting a happy face on the economy and papering over the contradictions between stock values and real wages.<\/p>\n

One can also understand why the corporate media cheers on economic indicators that are important to the wealthy. Media companies are cut from the same commercial cloth as Amazon, Walmart, and DoorDash, the corporations that De Schutter singled out for exploitative treatment of their workers.<\/p>\n

What is less understandable is why the public has accepted the bait and switch in economic values for so long.<\/p>\n

This article was produced by <\/em>Economy for All<\/em><\/a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Seeing Through the Economic Bait and Switch<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, recently issued a scathing statement about the shameful state of the United States economy. On October 31, 2023, De Schutter called out several top private employers in the U.S., Amazon, Walmart, and DoorDash, for trapping their workers in a cycle of poverty. More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Seeing Through the Economic Bait and Switch<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1150,266],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317507"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1319991,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317507\/revisions\/1319991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}