Back near the beginning of the 1980’s I joined a new beer distributorship as sales manager. The owners included a college friend (who had even been in my wedding) and the business plan looked pretty good.
Months later I found myself applying for unemployment – and discovering that the company had never paid its unemployment premiums or most of its other bills.
Back then the State of Missouri had real people to help those seeking work. The older gentleman I met offered very helpful tips for my job search and gave me a warning: don’t settle for the first open position. Too many jobs remain unfilled for good reasons, mostly that they pay next to nothing. Once you slide down the economic ladder you’ll never climb back as high as you should.
I took his advice and waited, yes for months, till a job as Director of Development with a local charity opened. Without that selectivity my path would never have led to successfully leading non-profits.
Alas, it’s easy to take “any job” and get forever trapped at the bottom of that ladder. Take Senator Marco Rubio’s parents as examples. As noted in several accounts, they left Cuba middle class but dad found himself working as a hotel bartender for many, many years while his wife worked at K Mart. [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/04/16/rubios_father_gone_but_very_much_a_campaign_presence_126286.html] Yes, they worked very hard to build a better life for their son but all their efforts in America never got them up the ladder.
Now, step back and think about the Missouri Republican Party’s grand plan: force workers into low wage jobs, make it a crime for them to organize for better pay and conditions, push more of the tax burden down on those with less, and, build an economic wall to prevent the kids of workers from getting a college degree. The plan is not a secret. The GOP has been very open about their goals.
Remember, back in December Missouri’s unemployment rate stood at 4.4% – about as close to “full employment” as economists think a state can get. [http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/missouri/] Yet, a tight labor market has not, as the tenets of capitalism promise, forced wages higher. Wage growth hasn’t matched inflation for years and Missouri’s median household income continues to fall further behind the national median.
To help force workers into low-wage jobs, last week the Missouri House of Representatives voted to cut unemployment pay to a maximum of 13 weeks while keeping benefits extremely low. “We will be second from the bottom in unemployment benefits,” Rep. Judy Morgan (D – Kansas City) said. “If the measure become law, only Florida would be listed lower.” Yes, as with state worker pay, Missouri now looks up at Mississippi and Alabama. [http://themissouritimes.com/38298/house-passes-limits-unemployment-compensation/]
Listening to the floor debate on that House Bill 288, I heard two Republicans justifying their meanness with the story of a waiter at ‘the Lake’ who lives off unemployment every off-season. I suspect that’s a lake legend: with Missouri unemployment rules, I doubt if a waiter paid sub-minimum wage and tips could build up the credits needed to collect months of unemployment checks every year. And, he’d still be required to document his work search efforts every week. Of course, there remains no rule that Missouri Senators or Representatives only speak the truth while working for (against?) us.
This session the legislature passed and Governor SEAL signed Right To Work legislation, Senate Bill 19. [http://www.senate.mo.gov/17info/pdf-bill/tat/SB19.pdf] Besides targeting existing union workplaces, the bill makes it a crime to try to organize new bargaining units. Legislative efforts to further lower pay by gutting prevailing wage requirements and other protections seem unstoppable.
Meanwhile, despite already slashing taxes on businesses, more bills to cut revenue from corporate folks are moving in the Capitol. The worst on my list, Senate Bill 285 would pay, in part, for the business tax cuts by eliminating the “circuit breaker” tax credit for low-income seniors who rent their home. [http://www.senate.mo.gov/17info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=57611624]
I do give Governor SEAL credit for not playing favorites. Even though his wife teaches at the University of Missouri, he took a machete to Mizzou’s budget. Less noticed are the cuts to higher education which slip all the way down to the community colleges.[http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/state_news/missouri-budget-fiscal-year/pdf_0b36ba68-e96f-11e6-8b78-e72501191715.html p. 47 in the PDF]
So, despite a lot of majority party talk about the importance of a college education, the Republicans in Jefferson City actively push it further out of the reach of the children of working people. The goal seems to be to use taxes to just make college available for the kids of rich people.
The Missouri GOP has been working on their plan for years. They’ve knowingly passed legislation prepared by right wing zealots in a war on Missourians largely paid for by two old rich guys – David Humphreys of Joplin and Rex Sinquefield of Westphalia (take US 50 past Loose Creek to US 63, head south over the Maries River and the locals will point you at his plantation). After the November election results we knew things would get bad.
Obviously, the master goal of the plan is to reduce most working families down the ladder to one rung above slavery, in indentured servitude. People trapped in debt and constantly struggling to survive are much less likely to have the time and energy to be politically involved. And, thanks to friends in Washington, corporations count as people and they have more rights than we do. Chief among their benefits is the ability to shovel all the money they can find at friendly Republican office holders.
Where do they get that money? By paying workers as little as possible, avoiding taxes and pocketing the profits. Essentially we pay so they can make us poorer.
Some Jayhawks recently mounted rebellion against their version of the GOP plan: meanness prevailed. [http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article134334184.html]
Don’t get discouraged. Every political meeting I attend has more people there than I’ve seen in decades. It will take a while – probably a few election cycles – but The GOP Plan will be defeated.
In the meantime, be sure to remind your friends how voting Republican empties their pockets and hurts them and their children. While we do that, we’ll be working on The People’s Plan – government committed to reasonable and fair taxes on all to finance necessary services for all citizens.
That bad employer I mentioned? I got some satisfaction going to the one guy’s sentencing hearing at the old federal courthouse downtown. Embezzlement, forgery, tax fraud, non-payment of debts, etc. The lead bad guy, of course, escaped jail. Till his death he blamed his woes on those who don’t give a businessman a fair break. He would have voted for President Trump and Governor SEAL.
Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member