Those Who Can Least Afford It Are Hurt The Most

The chart above is from Axios.com. It shows the percentage of jobs that are vulnerable (will be laid off or fired) due to the current Coronavirus epidemic.

As is usual, the workers who can least afford it are the ones being hit the hardest economically in the Coronavirus shutdown. That's usually what happens in an economic disaster in a capitalist country like ours.

About 77.4% of those making $20-$25k a year are vulnerable to being laid off, and the same is true of those making $25-$30k (about 55.6%). And those who keep their jobs are in "essential" workplaces (like grocery stores) where they expose themselves to the virus on a daily basis.

Far smaller percentages of those making over $40k a year are vulnerable to losing their jobs. Many of them are able to socially-distance by working from their home.

The Corporations Who Lied To Get A Tax Cut

Cartoon image is by Mike Konopacki at huckkonopackicartoons.com.

When the Republicans passed their tax cuts last year, they made a lot of promises -- workers would get a 4,000 raise on average and massive numbers of new jobs would be created. Of course, neither of those things happened.

One of the groups lobbying Congress for the massive tax cuts was the Reforming America's Taxes Equitably Coalition (RATE). This was a group of corporations, and equitable for them meant a huge tax cut for corporations. To get that cut, they joined Republicans in promising the cuts would produce a massive number of new jobs. They lied.

Instead of giving raises or creating jobs, they used most of their tax cut to buy their own stock (which raised the price of that stock for owners and managers. Then many of them did just the opposite of what they had promised -- they started laying off workers!

From Think Progress, here are some of the corporate members of RATE who laid off workers:

AT&T

The Guardian reported in August that while AT&T received a windfall of tens of billions from the tax bill, its outsourcing and facility closures continued apace. According to the Communication Workers of America union, the company had already laid off about 7,000 workers since the company celebrated the bill’s passage. AT&T disputed this number at the time and told ThinkProgress that it hired nearly 16,000 workers in the first 10 months of 2018.

Brown-Forman

A June report in the Louisville Courier Journal noted that the makers of Jack Daniel’s and other alcoholic beverages had recently “extended early retirement offers to about 150 salaried employees, looking to shed dozens of workers earning solid six-figure salaries.” 

Capital One

At least two major job cuts were reported in 2018 at Capital One: one impacting 180 employees in Delaware and another affecting 286 employees in Texas. 

Cox Enterprises

Cox’s automotive division decided to make several hundred layoffs, according to an October report in Automotive News. A spokesperson told the publication “These changes, while difficult, are needed for Cox Automotive to deliver on the most relevant products and services for our clients and the industry.”

Ford

Amid Donald Trump’s tariffs — which cost Ford a reported $1 billion — the company announced in October a major restructuring that would include layoffs. They said these cuts were “to support the company’s strategic objectives, create a more dynamic and empowering work environment, and become more fit as a business.” This came after thousands of hourly assembly plant workers in Michigan were temporarily laid off by the company.

General Dynamics

In February, General Dynamics reportedly filed documentation warning it would soon lay off 73 employees in Virginia. The mammoth defense contractor’s San Diego-based General Dynamics-NASSCO subsidiary announced another 300 to 350 layoffs in August.

Intel

In June, Intel announced it had “decided to reduce its workforce by laying off approximately 65 employees at its facilities” in the Silicon Valley. This came on the heels of the company’s decision to shutter its smart glasses division, which it predicted would also mean some layoffs for employees on that 200-person team.

Kimberly-Clark

The New York Times reported in January that Kimberly-Clark, makers of Kleenex and Huggies, would cut 5,000 to 5,500 jobs — about 13 percent of its work force. According to that report, “To help pay for the cuts and other restructuring moves, Kimberly-Clark said, it will use savings from the recently enacted corporate tax cut.” 

Lockheed Martin

The defense contractor announced at the end of July that it was laying off all of the employees in its 500-person Sikorsky-Lockheed Martin facility in Palm Beach, Florida.

Macy’s

Macy’s announced multiple store closures in 2018 as part of its previously announced downsizing. Additionally, it laid off several members of its human resources team. 

Northrop Grumman

The defense contractor Northrop Grumman announced 59 layoffs at Fort Hood in Texas in January 2018. The same month, it increased its predicted layoffs at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado from 50 to 85.

T-Mobile

Following the April announcement that T-Mobile and Sprint would attempt to merge, the company’s union predicted such a move could mean 28,000 job cuts. But according to the Kansas City Star, the company was already preparing to layoff 500 employees at its headquarters this spring.

Verizon

In October, Verizon reportedly offered a “voluntary severance package” to 44,000 employees and outsourced thousands of information technology jobs to a company based in India.

Viacom

In August, after acquiring the California-based Awesomeness, the entertainment company reportedly laid off 98 employees — half the staff.

Walmart

In January, Walmart closed 63 Sam’s Club locations, laying off about 10,000 employees. The subsidiary’s CEO told the Wall Street Journal that this was part of a strategy “to transform the business.” The company also reportedly made hundreds of layoffs at its Walmart stores and corporate headquarters. The layoffs came almost at the exact same time as the company made a big show of giving a bonus to some employees in recognition of the tax cuts.

Walt Disney

According to Variety, Disney’s Consumer Products Interactive Media Group laid off fewer than 50 employees in September. Deadline also reported layoffs of fewer than 20 employees at the company’s Digital Disney Network in November.

Association of American Railroads

The trade association for the rail industry represents railroads across the nation. At least two of its members, Union Pacific and CSX, have reportedly made layoffs in 2018.

Edison Electric Institute

The trade association for the electric industry represents numerous American electrical utilities. At least two of its core members, AES and PPL, reportedly decided to cut jobs in 2018, as did two affiliated companies, General Electric and Schneider Electric.

The National Retail Federation

The National Retail Federation does not publicly disclose its members, but major retail companies cut thousands of jobs in 2018, including many positions at companies like Toys ‘R’ Us, Macy’s, Sears/Kmart, J.C. Penney, and Foot Locker.

Workers Are Worried In This Poor Economy

These charts were made from information provided in a new Gallup Poll. The survey was conducted between August 7th and 11th of of 1,039 nationwide adults, and has a margin of error of 4 points.

It is the day after the Labor Day holiday, and Americans are returning to work (those lucky enough to actually get a holiday off). I think that's a good time to look at the state of workers in this economy. We already know that the unemployment rate is too high (well above 7%) and millions of Americans still cannot find work. In addition, too many workers are having to accept part-time jobs because they can't find full-time work -- and many more have to accept low-wage, no benefit jobs because most of the new jobs being created are that type of job.

But its even worse than that. Many of those Americans who still have a decent job are worried about that job in this poor economy. The top chart shows they have several worries. They are worried that they might have their benefits reduced, their wages cut, their work hours reduced, or getting laid off. And these are legitimate concerns, since businesses know there are millions of desperate people who would accept that poorer job if a worker does not.

And the bottom chart shows the increase in the worry workers have about being laid off from their job. Note that the worker worry about this has doubled in every demographic group from what it was just five years ago (in 2008).

There is no doubt that the rich are getting richer and the corporations are making record profits, but the same cannot be said for American workers. It is on their backs that the rich and corporations are doing so well. Productivity increases are no longer shared with workers, which means that even if a wage is not reduced the inflation will reduce a worker's buying power. Outsourcing continues, and just the threat of that also keeps worker wages from rising. And there is always the threat that a worker will be replaced by someone unemployed and desperate, who will work for less pay and no benefits.

This is a bad time for workers, and Congress should be doing something about it. Unfortunately, that Congress only seems to be interested in giving more to the rich and the corporations. The workers have been abandoned and forgotten by far too many politicians in our government.

Wall Street: Where Profits = Layoffs

The Republicans in Congress have been preaching incessantly that the giant corporations would just love to hire new workers, but can't afford to do so because the the abnormally high income taxes they must pay. They say that all we need to do to open the floodgates to massive job creation is to lower taxes on these corporations (and on all of the rich). In fact, some of the congressional Republicans (probably most of them) don't think corporations should have to pay any taxes at all.

The truth is that the share of tax revenues paid by corporations is at the lowest level since the 1950s, and corporations have more cash on hand (trillions of dollars) than the U.S. government does. Even in the midst of this recession that is still hurting countless millions of Americans, corporations (and rich people) are doing very well. But let's put that aside and just look at one American corporation doing pretty well -- Goldman Sachs. Are they turning massive profits and lower taxes into new jobs?

During the second quarter of 2011, Goldman Sachs recorded a profit of $1.05 billion (a $1.85 payout of each of their millions of shares of stock). Understand, that is not sales or income -- that is pure profit, after all expenses have been accounted for. And it is for only one quarter of this year, meaning the yearly profits would fall in the range of $4 billion or more. When compared to their quarterly profit of this same period in 2010, this year's profit looks even better. The 2010 second quarter profit was a mere $453 million -- less than half of this year's quarterly profit.

And to reward their executives for this very nice profit, the company has set aside $8.44 billion which will be paid out in bonuses at the end of the year (and taken out of expenses, not profits). Now that sounds like a company in pretty good shape, doesn't it? That sounds like a company that could help the economy by hiring a few workers. Well, that's not the way corporate America works.

The company was disappointed in their $1.85 a share payout. They wanted the payout to be more in the range of $2.27 a share. Now this could have been easily accomplished. All they had to do was take a couple of billion out of the executive bonus fund and declare it as profit. After all, should the executive bonuses be more than double the company profits? That would have put the share payout above the desired range.

But that would have made sense, and common sense isn't nearly as important to a corporate executive as plain old-fashioned greed. So instead of dipping into the executive bonus fund they have come up with another way to increase profits. They are going to fire at least 1,000 workers (and make other "noncompensation" cuts like buying smaller drinking cups and getting rid of potted plants). Why cut executive bonuses when you can just send another 1,000 workers to the unemployment office?

Now this is just one anecdotal bit of evidence about one company, but it does highlight a very big flaw in the Republican argument (which says companies will hire more workers when they have more money). While the Republican "trickle down" theory may sound good in the abstract, it doesn't take into account one important factor -- GREED. Why would a corporation hire a worker (which they don't think they need) when they can just put that extra money in the bank, or pay out bigger executive bonuses?

That's the way corporate America works. They are not in business to help their community or their country, but only to maximize profits. Depending on corporate America to save this country by creating jobs through lower taxes will just further increase the country's deficit and debt while fattening the bank accounts of the corporations (and the rich).

There are ways to create new jobs in America, and President Obama listed some of those in his jobs bill. But giving rich people and corporations more money is not one of them.

Fox Network Thinks Layoffs Are Entertainment

I have to wonder just what the hell is wrong with the people over at Fox Television. Their news network has long been a sick perversion of journalism, and now it looks like their entertainment division is going down the same sick path. These depraved nutjobs have decided that people losing their jobs could make for fun and entertaining television.

They are developing a new reality series called Someone's Gotta Go. Each week, the series will go to a small business that is in trouble and needs to layoff at least one employee. The employees, in true game show style, will get to decide which employee will be fired. The fired employee will be given a small severance.

I am amazed that they would even consider doing such a show, but they say they have had no trouble finding businesses that want to participate. Do they really think someone losing their job is entertaining?

In this economy, we have thousands of people losing their jobs each week. I can assure you none of those people found it fun or entertaining. They have lost the ability to support themselves and their families, and in a shrinking economy like ours, the chance of finding a new job is not good.

Mike Darnell, chief of Fox's alternate programming says, "It’s certainly no worse than watching the news every night and hearing all the statistics and watching what is happening." He's very wrong. People watch the news to get the facts about what is happening, and I don't believe they find the news of growing job losses to be entertaining. It is much more likely that they find it to be frightening.

Instead of canning some poor working man each week, how about a show where a Fox TV executive gets fired each week (with no golden parachute)? Now that would be entertaining!