Logo for The Tapback from Civic Action [[link removed]]
WHILE THE IRON IS HOT
Every time a group of workers threatens to go out on strike, the media is quick to trumpet the potential “economic impact” of the job action — which impact always seems to be a big scary negative number. So over the past year we’ve read that the potential rail strike was going to cost $1 billion a week [[link removed].] , the potential UPS strike was going to cost $7 billion [[link removed]] , and the potential strike by autoworkers [[link removed]] would supposedly cost $5 billion in ten days. The methodology behind these impact numbers is shady but irrelevant , because the only real point of these figures is to generate headlines that blame organized workers for hurting the economy, attempting to turn public opinion against them.
Take a half-step beyond the headlines, and there’s a strong argument to be made that strikes and credible threats of strikes are a net positive for economic growth, because collective bargaining is one of the most powerful tools workers have to shift substantial amounts of money from excess profits to higher wages. Consumer spending is what drives the economy, and workers having more money is what boosts consumer spending. So why is there so much speculation on billion-dollar costs, and so little reporting on the positive economic impacts of unionization as a way to reduce inequality?
Make it make sense.
Three Numbers [[link removed]]
60% of Americans [[link removed]] say unemployment is a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” national problem, according to a recent YouGov poll [[link removed]] . Unemployment rates have been at historic lows for months , but four times as many people report hearing mostly negative economic news as report hearing positive economic news.
$182.6 billion [[link removed]] was given in tax-free gifts by the ultra-wealthy in 2021 , double the amount of the prior year. Apparently, the zillionaire class is concerned the trickle-down Trump tax cuts may not be renewed, and so are rushing to take advantage of the ability to hand out $14 million tax free [[link removed]] , which with some clever accounting can actually be worth far more.
250,000 manufacturing jobs [[link removed]] could be created over the next two years, according to a new estimate [[link removed]] by Goldman Sachs. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act sparked the investment s which are driving the boom.
A Chart [[link removed]]
In an egregious statistical crime, the notoriously incorrect but unfortunately influential economist Larry Summers recently overlaid inflation numbers from the 1970s with more recent inflation figures [[link removed]] , stating that the pattern was a “sobering” warning that the current trend of declining inflation might not continue. Instead, he suggested, the numbers could follow the shape of the lines from 50 years ago, when inflation spiked, then fell somewhat, then jumped a second time. But as a huge number of people pointed out, Summers manipulated the y-axis to make the two series look more similar than they really were, and seemed implicitly to be predicting not the underlying logic of inflation, but a second coming of the 1970s oil embargo. And in any case, lines with a vaguely similar shape don’t have causal power on the world, so the whole thing was more like reading entrails than economic analysis. But perhaps the best takedown came in the Financial Times [[link removed]] , which compared the use of the word “stupid” in corporate earnings calls with inflation numbers , nailing the underlying absurdity of matching lines on charts and calling it analysis.
[link removed] [[link removed]]
Blowing up the Groupchat [[link removed]]
Workers lose an estimated $50 billion a year [[link removed].] to wage theft, including unpaid overtime, working off the clock, missed breaks, and subminimum wage pay rates — more money than is taken in total in all the robberies, burglaries, and car thefts in the country. But while people who are caught stealing tend to be punished for their crimes, punishment almost never falls on employers who commit wage theft . Even when an employer is investigated for violations of labor laws, the penalty is rarely more than making workers whole for the wages stolen from them — a remedy equivalent to letting a burglar get away with simply returning what they took. So it’s heartening to see the state of New Jersey bring real consequences for the crime of wage theft by shutting down 27 Boston Market locations until $2.5 million in penalties and damages [[link removed]] for unpaid wages gets paid — a move that might very well rattle corporate scofflaws enough to make them take wage and hour compliance as seriously as they take every other law. More of this in more states, please.
What did you think? Choose a reaction:
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]
Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here. [[link removed]]
SUBSCRIBE [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]

Civic Action
119 1st Avenue South Suite 320
Seattle, WA 98014
United States
If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe: [link removed] .