Meyerson: It's About More Than Macroeconomics | National Catholic Reporter

Meyerson: It's About More Than Macroeconomics | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Harold is correct about the institutional factors.  It was the sixties, not the fifties, where strikes slowed down.  One reason was that the top tax rate was 93 percent (federal) - and state taxes made it 103 percent at times.  JFK proposed and LBJ enacted a tax cut to 70%, but that was not enough of a benefit for the CEOs to push back much at labor.  What had them do it was Reagan cutting the top marginal tax rate, not once but twice, the second time during tax reform.  Now, if they cut wages, it was not the shareholders who got the value, it was the CEO.  If we offshore jobs, the shareholders make the same nominal dividend, but the CEO buys a mansion or a new Degas.  This is no longer institutional, it is microeconomics and the micro-economy will look bad fore workers unless one of two things happen.  One, tax rates go back up.  I think that ship has sailed.  Two, we go to a large citizen dividend/guaranteed income so workers can stay home if not for a decent salary.  Maybe.  Three, we could make workers owners, either through capital homesteading (too much banker involvement) or through redirecting Social Security employer tax proceeds (shifted to a VAT so there is no income cap and equalized so each worker gets the same), invested in employer voting stock - not in the hedge funds and mutual funds that leave the CEO largely unaccountable.  Favored solution, not sure on passage.