How Runaway Inequality Is Destroying the American Dream

Transcription

1 How Runaway Inequality Is Destroying the American Dream And what we can do about it. Presentation by Sarah Daniels & Daniel Buffington runawayinequality.org -- The Alliance for Economic Justice

2 Outline of Presentation Part 1: What is Runaway Inequality? Part 2: What is the cause of Runaway Inequality? Part 3: How does Runaway Inequality impact contemporary social problems and issues? Part 4: What can we do to reverse Runaway Inequality?

3 Part 1: What is runaway inequality?

4 Discussion Questions How big is the CEO-to-worker wage gap? How much do you think a CEO of a Top 100 company receives each year in total compensation? How much do you think an average worker in a Top 100 company receives? In 2009, Americans estimated that the ratio was 40:1

5 CEO-Worker Wage Gap: What Americans Think it Should Be 12 to 1 5 to 1 7 to 1 Strong Democrat Strong Republican All Americans Source: Leibinz Institute for the Social Sciences, International Social Survey Programme: Social Inequality IV-ISSP 2009

6 The Actual CEO-to-Worker Wage Gap Ratio of CEO-to-worker pay, Top 100 firms 794 to to to to 1 45 to Sources: author s calculations based on data for 2013 from Equilar CEO compensation survey reported on in New York Times, June 8, 2014; average wages from Bureau of Labor Statistics,

7 The Changing Value of Labor Productivity vs. Real Wages for Non-supervisory Workers $1241 Productivity What happened to this income? Real wages $790 $687 $ Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

8 Part 2: What is the cause of runaway inequality?

9 What is Causing Runaway Inequality? Financialization 45% How much of a nation s economy is devoted to Wall Street-like financial services 10% 19% Technology / Automation of Labor Globalization of Labor 25% Declining Gov t Programs & Unions Source: International Labor Organization, Global Wage Report 2012/13: Wages and Equitable Growth

10 How does so much value end up in financial sector? 1. Buy up a company using borrowed money 2. Pay top executives primarily with stock incentives Proportion of CEO pay, by source (2013) Stock Options, 83.6% Other, 11.2% Salary, 5.2% Source: Standard & Poor s ExecuComp database, calculations by Matt Hopkins

11 How does so much value end up in financial sector? 1. Buy up a company using borrowed money 2. Pay top executives primarily with stock incentives 3. Downsize the company to create cash on hand Reduce workforce through layoffs, automation, or sending production abroad Lower wages & benefits Raid pension funds or discontinue them Speed up production Sell off product lines & divisions Reduce spending on Research & Development Reduce spending on building new facilities or revamping old ones

12 How does so much value end up in financial sector? 1. Buy up a company using borrowed money 2. Pay top executives primarily with stock incentives 3. Downsize the company to create cash on hand 4. Use cash to buy back own stock, driving up price Before the Stock Buyback Each owner holds 1 unit of stock worth $200K After the Stock Buyback Each owner holds 1 unit worth $250K $200K $200K Company buys & dissolves 1 unit of stock $250K $250K $200K $200K $250K $250K $200K

13 How does so much value end up in financial sector? 1. Buy up a company using borrowed money 2. Pay top executives primarily with stock incentives 3. Downsize the company to create cash on hand 4. Use cash to buy back own stock, driving up price 74% 59% 41% 42% 24% 25% 2% Source: William Lazonick, The Academy-Industry Research Network

14 How does so much value end up in financial sector? 1. Buy up a company using borrowed money 2. Pay top executives primarily with stock incentives 3. Downsize the company to create cash on hand 4. Use cash to buy back own stock, driving up price 5. Major shareholders sell off stock at higher prices In strip mining (pictured), the valued mineral or ore is extracted, but at the cost of leaving the surrounding environment devastated. Similarly, financial strip mining involves extracting as much financial value out of a company as possible, often leaving it in ruins.

15 Change to the Prevailing Business Model Retain & Reinvest Dominant before 1970s Downsize & Distribute Dominant after 1970s

16 Part 3: How does runaway inequality impact other social problems & issues?

17 Corporations Stop Paying Fair Share of Taxes PERCENTAGE OF STATE & LOCAL REVENUES FROM CORPORATE TAXES 6.3% Corporate Tax Contribution in 2017 Corporate Tax Contribution in 2017 at 1980 rate Net Loss in Corporate Tax Contributions $54.3B $106.9B $52.6B 4.2% 4.7% 3.2% 3.2% Source: Bureau of Economic Affairs, Table 3.3. State and Local Government Current Receipts and Expenditures

18 Corporations Stop Paying Fair Share of Taxes In 2011, off-shore tax shelters cost $150B in federal taxes and $39.8B in state and local taxes Annual Tax Revenues Lost to Tax Havens Individual & Corporate Income Taxes Combined Rank State Revenue Losses 1 California $7.1 billion 2 New York $4.3 billion 3 New Jersey $2.8 billion 4 Illinois $2.5 billion 5 Pennsylvania $2.1 billion 6 Minnesota $2.0 billion 7 Massachusetts $1.7 billion 8 North Carolina $1.0 billion 9 Florida $.98 billion 10 Maryland $.97 billion Source: U.S. PIRG (2013) The Hidden Cost of Offshore Tax Havens Georgia = $.92 billion

19 How does Runaway Inequality Impact the Environment? Lack of tax revenue means reduction in environmental enforcement Reduced budget NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) annual budget dropped $120M from Reduction in workforce NC DEQ has lost one third of workforce over same period Inability to keep up with mandate 40% of permits are expired or backlogged Source: When companies are caught, they claim they have no funds In 2018 Duke Energy requested a 14% rate hike claiming it did not have enough funds to pay for coal ash cleanup. In 2015, Duke used $1.5B to repurchase stocks.

20 How does Runaway Inequality Impact Healthcare? Less health insurance coverage Lower health measures Speed up of hospital work Lack of innovation (example: pharmaceuticals) Much of the news from the pharmaceutical industry over the past five years has been about scaling back R&D. Companies like Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Merck have done just that, much to the delight of Wall Street analysts who have been urging pharmaceutical companies to rethink investing 17-20% of revenues into R&D and to scale this back to 10-14%. While such a decrease in spending can bring short-term returns with respect to higher financial returns, such policies have negative long-term consequences. Those companies that aggressively cut their R&D budgets will ultimately experience shrinking pipelines. More importantly, for patients, these cuts will lessen the chances of coming up with new medicines for diabetes, Alzheimer s disease, cancer, etc. (Forbes, Jan )

21 Runaway Drug Overdose Deaths 65,000 DEATHS FROM DRUG OVERDOSE 65,000 52,000 39,000 26,000 13,000 6, Source: from Josh Katz, Drug Deaths in America Are Rising Faster than Ever, New York Times, 6/5/2017; prior years from National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System, involving_oa_heroin_us_ pdf.

22 Les s chart Runaway Opioid Deaths

23 Part 4: What can we do to reverse runaway inequality?

24 What do we do about it? Need to form a mass popular movement Focusing on economic justice offers a potential link across silos

25 An Example: The Populists, Faced similar economic and political conditions as today Broke down major silos: race, political party, region Sent 6,000 educators into the field to help farmers understand the financial system

26 Public Policy: Reducing Relative Inequality In order to reduce inequality, policies must be implemented that both raise up the middle and lower class, while also putting controls on financialization. Support and empower the working & poor: Living minimum wage Medicare for all Controls on Wall Street: Reinstate limits to corporate stock buybacks Financial transaction tax

27 How to Get More Involved National: Join the Reversing Runaway Inequality movement by going to Current Runaway Inequality trainer map. We need more in SENC! State: Join Raising Wages NC in their campaign for a higher state minimum wage Local: Join early efforts to form organizations dedicated to reversing runaway inequality (Alliance for Economic Justice)

28 How Runaway Inequality Is Destroying the American Dream And what we can do about it. QUESTIONS? Presentation by Sarah Daniels & Daniel Buffington runawayinequality.org -- The Alliance for Economic Justice