so I compiled a couple things that I think are really interesting
that we should remember in honor of Labor Day
and not many people are aware the saying in fact I didn't know then
about a year ago I through a ridiculous amount OVA reading
and learning about the labor movement you value come across interesting little
factoids like this
on April 6 1933
the black connery bill past
in the United States Senate by a wide margin you know that bill did
it fixed the official American work week
at five days and thirty hours
you heard me correctly the united states senate
passed a bill making the work week
30 hours in fact it was such a strong bill
they would even give you penalties for working overtime
like it was a hard limit at 30 hours
is amazing especially when you think about how much the american people work
today
to think that the Senate passed the bill say no 30 hours that's it
yet you were forcing you to have some leisure time god damnit
it passed in the Senate I mean I again it just blows my mind so it was a few
as a means %uh increasing employment
during the recession and maintaining full employment in the future
and that's actually good idea because their reasoning was
if you cut the hours for individuals then you can spread the workaround more
evenly
and lower the unemployment rate that idea
wouldn't ever be entertained today
it can be the furthest left person
in congress even Bernie Sanders even he'd be like yeah
now that's too liberal FDR was also in support of this art labor secretary
Frances Perkins
initially endorsed the idea however
the National Association of Manufacturers
AKA the lobbyists lobbied their shit out of the house of representatives
and they derailed it they voted it down
but we were that close to actually having a 30 hour work week in the United
States
and it was the brainchild of the labor movement now the labor movement in the
US
use actually have some clout today doesn't have any clout back then
it did they for for basic regulation to the workplace
they fought for child labor laws which of course today are viewed as a no
brainer
you can thank them for the week ended the weekend I love how some people in
polls
well you're not allied Union sound like the labor movement at now now
really that's interesting so I work seven days a week and shut the fuck up
about it well
wat remover get your weekend so you're trying to say you're like the weekend
all what I don't know you like the labor movement all that's weird it's funny how
that works
all but this shows you that there was a time
US history when we were much closer to seeing
we would split or work time and leisure time up
in a better way and for we'll meet a great ideas about
what we should move towards in the future and how we should have more
leisure time to balance with our work time
and in fact you're in New York Times headline on July 31st 1910
quote how long should a man's vacation be
President Taft says everyone should have three months
peppers Republic that was at a time when
workers were producing roughly a tenth
what they do today and a conservative Republican
argued that all workers need two or three months a holiday each year
took quote improve health family connections
and productivity again if a democrat propose this today they would be laughed
at a town called a socialist
now the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for American Progress have
done some
great work on this and they've been able to track
the war on workers and the war on the middle class in the United States
so let's take a look at one video that explains this
this graph plots the importance have unions
to shared prosperity to repost middle-class early in the century
share the American workforce which belong to you
blue line was meager nearly 10 percent to the labels
at the same time inequality was store
share of national income grew into the richest 10 percent of Americans
the redline student nearly 40 percent this gap widened in the nineteen
twenties
but in 1935 the New Deal created workers basic collective bargaining rights
is organizing drives in the late nineteen thirties
union membership grew dramatically followed by an equally dramatic decline
income inequality this yielded in Europe broadly shared prosperity
running from nineteen forties into the nineteen seventy after that however
unions came under attack in the workplace
in the courts and in public polls as a result
union membership has fallen and income inequality is worse
reaching levels not see since the 1920s
so it's very clear
as you can see the stronger the unions are
the better the middle class to us furthermore we put up another graph for
you here
this shows you that as union
membership rates decrease middle-class share
income shrinks and the top one percent
incomes explode you can see the different lines there
the Green Line is the top one percent see how that increases
and then out the red line and the blue line
is union membership rate and middle-class share of income
so the red and blue are connecting go down
and then the green line goes up so the one percent does better
as the middle class struggles so there are three factors
that are consistent with the help of the middle class number one
is unionization rates the higher the unionization rates the better the middle
class does
number two is the fairness of the tax system the more progressive the tax
system the better the middle class does
and number three is the well for the top one percent
the more reasonable the top one percent share of the income is
the better the middle class to us so for example in
1929 right before the Great Depression the top one percent
May 24 percent of the nation's income such a tremendous number it's incredibly
disproportionate
the rest of us were fighting for the crimes essentially right well
but from roughly nineteen forty-five until about nineteen seventy-five the
Golden Age economic expansion in the United States
the top one percent made anywhere between
8 percent of the nation's income and 12 percent of the nation's income
so things were more evenly distributed
and we had a middle class with the envy of the world well in 2008
after we had you know all war on unions
more on the middle class attack system now the benefits just the rich and
personal question or
how much money the top one percent Nick we were right back to 24 percent
above the nation's income going to the top one percent
the same as it was before the Great Depression so you know something
consistent manner
right before the Great Depression and ride for the Great Recession
the top one percent with making our vastly disproportionate amount of the
income
when times are better they make a more
balance them out more and a the wealth is more
evenly shared so another char that's important
is wages versus productivity take a look at that
now what you see here
is the productivity of the american people steadily climbing
throughout our history but if you realize something about 1975 1980
but when we stop pushing for unionization and in fact we crack down
on unions
when we started shifting the tax burden to the middle class and the poor
and relieving it from the rich more what happened
our wages now stagnate the middle class wages
have now stagnated even or productivity has been rising someone is always going
somewhere
know it's been going to the rich