Introducing the Libertarian Democrat. Are You One? [View all]

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

Remember when liberals cared about wages, Social Security, Medicare, and fair competition? We'll, they don't anymore. Check your cell phone. If you have the Uber app or Airbnb app, you're part of the problem. It started with the internet behemoth Amazon. Amazon benefited from tax laws their lobbyists wrote precluding internet sales from sales taxes. That's fair competition, right? Remember book stores? Ask displaced owners of the now extinct brick and mortar bookstore if it’s fair. They may not have been as convenient, but they had employees. But Democrats don’t care about jobs anymore. Venture capitalist and early Amazon investor, Nick Hanauer, explains that "Amazon didn't create jobs, it probably destroyed 1 million jobs." While some industries have reached the point of no return, we need to fight fight to save existing jobs before they become extinct.

Wages have been stagnant since the 1970s. In lieu of raises, corporations have opted for ways to lower prices thus creating “proxy raises.” It works like this: seek lower wages and benefit expenses by exporting US jobs overseas, and introduce technology that allows companies to replace full-time employees with part-timers and contractors. This is today’s business model of multi-national corporations and upstart tech companies like Uber and Airbnb. By replacing full-time employees with part-timers and contractors, companies avoid employer expenses like paid vacation, Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment tax payments.

Since the Reagan administration, business, and its subsidiary, the main stream media, have been winning the war on organized labor. And they continue to win because Democrats take weekends, the 40 hour work week, Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment for granted. Democrats seem oblivious to the fact that, left to their own devices, corporations disregard human dignity.

Think about that next time you click on these apps.

Nick Hanauer on Income Inequality