On a practical level, this is doomed to fail:
- There are too many demands, which are disconnected from anything that employers can actually deliver. Strikes are most useful for achieving concessions in negotiations, but in this situation, there is nothing employers could do to placate their striking workers.
- There is no strike fund. Successful strikes take a long time, which means a lot of lost income - this is even more important for a general strike where the costs are spread across multiple employers. As this strike is not being organised by a union with a large strike fund, people will quickly return to work.
- Internet leftists consistently overestimate their ability to mass strike. Remember the Women's Strike of 2nd October? No, because barely anyone participated. I remember an attempt to protest transphobic media articles by striking - again, almost nobody participated. Unless you're facing a personal situation which presents an immediate threat to yourself, it's hard to get motivated to strike - most people will not strike for principles.
I think it's silly to pretend that implementing these measures would turn the US into Airstrip 1. However, a lot of the ideas are bad:
- A $20 federal minimum wage would cause job losses, particularly in low-income areas. A $12 minimum wage seems more realistic and less likely to have harmful effects - and it would represent a significant wage increase.
- Working 4 days a week is already an option.
- 38 days a year would be right at the global high end, and combined with a 4 day week it would be far higher than any country in the world. However, it's pretty disgraceful that the US doesn't guarantee paid leave, making it the only advanced economy in the world to not do so.
- Comprehensive universal single pay healthcare would be extremely expensive, and again, isn't offered by a single country in the whole world. This system would probably lead to very long waiting lists for healthcare and effectively force a lot of people to go private and get into medical debt just as they currently would. Again, the current American situation is very bad, but the demand here is poorly thought-out.
- Doubling corporation tax is a bad idea. Most economists favour cutting corporation tax - particularly as the burden largely rests with workers and consumers. If you combined this with a $20 minimum wage, then it wouldn't be passed on to workers... but workers would quickly find themselves out of a job.
- A tax on revenue ("AMT") is plainly stupid. It would put low-margin businesses out of business.
- Most forms of "wealth tax" are difficult to raise, inefficient, and economically harmful. Most countries who have had general wealth taxes have abandoned them, and only one, Spain, still taxes at above 1%. Wealth taxes encourage capital flight and discourage investment. They also discourage public listings of companies, which makes inequality worse. It would be more sensible to propose a tax on specific forms of wealth that cannot be created, destroyed, or moved, such as land.
- Parental leave - support, although I would prefer shared leave to be LGBT+ inclusive and encourage men to do their share of childcare.
- Right-to-organise - depends upon exactly what is meant by this. In general, the right to organise has to be a fundamental right in any capitalist society. However, it is possible that specific forms of this "right" might actually involve taking away people's rights, such as the right to not join a union, or start a new union if you don't like the current one.
- End Citizen's United - support, but again I'd do things differently - focus on the politician rather than the donor. Limit campaign spending, and then it keeps money out of politics altogether.
- 100% carbon negative economy by 2030 - this is nonsense. You can't be 100% carbon negative - 100% of what? It's not realistic or desirable for the US to be carbon-negative by 2030 - you simply don't have, and can't get, the infrastructure. The only solution would be to deliberately cause the sort of recession which is unthinkable to modern Americans, the "no food on the shelves" type of recession. Carbon neutrality by 2050 is both ambitious and realistic, but net-negative technology will be necessary.
- A Green New Deal - not in the form that has been kicking around DC for the past few years, which discourages several important technologies and comes packaged with some outright bad ideas, like protectionism and a jobs guarantee.
09 Oct 2021, 9:11 am
