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Monday, January 31, 2000 Page: 8A
We’re being bombarded by the media and corporations with fairy tales of how
the free-market approach and government privatization will benefit workers and
consumers. The claim clearly has no substance.
Privatization and free-market concepts have one deep underlying motive: to
profit extravagantly at the expense of labor. Working people have only to read
between the lines: The free market is not a fair market to labor or consumers.
The wealthy and influential are the only people who will benefit from the
drastic changes they envision. The recent mega-merger hysteria among
corporations clearly demonstrates this. Big business never was and never will
be a friend to the consumer or worker. It is now attempting to control
government.
If it wasn’t for government regulation of business and industry, consumer
and workers’ rights would be nonexistent. Of course, we sometimes need change
if we are to improve, but what type of change are we talking about? Who will
be impacted and how will they be affected?
You can bet what little you have left that the corporate elite won’t suffer
any dire consequences. Their hidden agenda is all dressed up neatly and
disguised under the worn-out slogan, “We must remain competitive if we are to
survive in this global-based economy.” The truth is the United States is the
most productive country in the world.
The free-market philosophy calls for an exhaustive search to find the
cheapest method of providing a product or service and to charge what the
market will bear. In simpler terms, don’t expect the cost of products and
services to go down, despite the fact that worker’s wages will take a nose
dive. When “think-tank academics” who don’t know what it is to put in an
eight-hour work day speak of cheapest methods, they are referring to labor
costs – your wages.
The World Trade Organization is solidly behind this international push,
tirelessly lobbying governments around the globe to effect massive changes in
trade laws. If these changes were implemented, it would lead to the spiraling
decline of our present standard-of-living. We can grasp some idea of what this
would mean in our society if we only look at how the salaries of corporate
CEOs and workers today illustrate the greatest disparity in history.
The new rallying cry will become “government of the business, by the
business and for the business.” With the slow decline of unions, working
people are losing their voice in government. Corporate America is very
satisfied with this situation.
A massive educational program is needed to alert working people to the
dangers on the horizon. Unions need to be team players and prime motivators in
this endeavor. We need to have the true story reaching the people, not the
corporate fabrications being continually fed through the media and other
anti-labor avenues controlled by big business.
Ed Burns
Scranton