PROGRESSIVE VIEWS
According to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, the average American worker earns about $36 per hour in pay and benefits compared to $25 per hour in the late 1960s. That’s an increase of over 40%.
If this same worker pay had increased by the same percent as CEO pay, they would be paid a whopping $430 per hour. CEOs are now being paid 280 times that of a typical worker. In the late 1960s that ratio would have been about 30 times the typical worker.
Why is this? The system is rigged for the wealthy.
CEOs enrich themselves by putting cronies on their boards and by doing stock buybacks which reduce the number of outstanding shares. This drives up the share price without adding any real value to the corporation.
Since CEOs often receive a big share of their compensation from stock options, they reap a reward they are not due, while the worker is cheated. This is the essence of the “K” economy where, today, the rich are doing way better than average working folks.
The richest 1% of our population owns 34% of the nation’s wealth, more than 10 times that of the bottom 50%. The top 100 richest families gave $2.6 billion to federal elections in 2024 according to the Americans for Tax Fairness organization.
This money overwhelming went to Republicans as we see billionaires benefiting from their outsized political power. We need a movement to stop this concentration of power. Noble Prize winning economist, Paul Klugman, wrote, “This power grab is arguably the most important fact about contemporary U.S. politics.”
Political power concentration has been happening for many years but got a big boost from the 2010 Citizen’s United Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for huge money to enter politics. Both Sen. John McCain and President Barack Obama condemned this ruling. The New York Times reported that “In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama roundly criticized the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, arguing that it had “reversed a century of law.” That practically sounds like a hymn of praise compared to what McCain had to say on “Meet the Press. He called Citizens United “arrogant, uninformed, naïve.”” After WWII, Americans pushed for a more just and inclusive society. Tremendous progress was made; but now, democracy is under attack by those who believe some people are better than others. Politicians tied to the ultra-wealthy attack their opponents as communists while their tax cuts and deregulation move wealth dramatically upward.
We are witness to actions by white supremacists in league with the billionaire class, who are striving to disrupt our society and the basic principle of our democracy, that the majority gets to rule within the bounds of the Constitution. They have traded the rule of law for the rule of an individual who is weaponizing the Department of Justice against innocent people and pardoning loyalists convicted of crimes.
They have openly rejected a world based on the values of equality and democracy for which Americans, like my father, fought for in World War II. In its place, they are building a nation controlled by a small group of elites in league with our current president, who are taking in huge amounts of money from their immoral, unethical and often illegal actions.
The dysfunction threatening our democracy requires immediate action. While it may not be possible to reverse the Citizen’s United ruling, there are actions that could be implemented.
Democrats, independents and Republicans must come together to force Congress to enact laws that make all political contributions public with full disclosure of the donors. The only people not in favor of transparency are those benefiting from the deceit. We should ban stock buybacks. States like Texas should enact stringent campaign finance laws particularly for corporations.
Antitrust laws should be used to breakup big companies that have too much power in their industries. Finally, we should support labor unions in their effort to improve wages for our workers and require that corporations have labor representation on their boards.
To learn more, check out the Kendall County Democratic Party website: kcdems.us
Kevin Henning is a local Democrat
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