Move over Jack Welch “Shareholder Value” proselytizer.
Welch began the financialization the US economy and destroying worker power via shifting production to foreign lands with cheap labor. The US government joined hands with the JCs with passage of NAFTA and tax laws that did not tax income made overseas if it was not brought home to USA. By 2000 there was a gold rush to China building factories there. It looks many years for the US government to realize how hurtful was the intellectual thievery done by the Chinese was. The economic war upon China began in 2018 with the imposition of stiffs tariffs with has expanded to technological imports bans to that nation.
UPS, rails, Amazon & automaker are recent subjects of unions demands. And apparently the health care workforce has been added to the list.
THe professional class benefited hugely from the financialization of the economy as they maintain and increased their income and bought stocks that benefited from 20% increases in S&P 500 in the late 1990’s.
Hopefully more Americans will now benefit from the wage increases and better work conditions to fund their retirements and spend more money to drive the stock market higher.
Of course, industrial policy isn’t just about bending metal, but about ensuring that the ownership of our social resources is distributed both wisely and efficiently. It would be hard, for instance, to find a more corrupt area of American economic activity than health care. Last week, medical providers at Unity Health Care, Washington D.C.’s largest community health center, announced their intent to unionize. Doctors claimed that, despite Unity’s mission to provide “compassionate, comprehensive, high-quality health,” they were forced to prioritize “quantity over quality,” leading to provider burnout and turnover.