Inequality for All Page #6

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Remember that government

sets the rules

by which the market functions.

We deregulated Wall Street,

allowing Wall Street to engage

in more and more excessive

behavior.

These are

the financial sector wages

relative to everyone else's.

Does this graph look familiar?

I mean, this is

our bridge graph,

our old inequality graph.

It's the same pattern.

And meanwhile

you've got many working people

succumbing to this huge lie

that government is bad,

that the market is good,

that everything government does

works against you

and everything the market does

helps you.

Our Father in heaven,

we thank You for this food

that's been placed before us.

We ask You to bless it.

Bless the hands

that prepared it.

Bless it'll strengthen

our bodies.

We ask a special blessing

this day, Lord,

for those that have no food.

Bless them

with comfort and hope.

Amen.

Ooh, ooh.

This looks good.

I am registered

as a Republican.

It probably has to do

with our religion too,

okay, Mormons.

The majority

of the Mormons are.

There are those rare Democrats,

but the majority of them

are Republicans.

Oh, I called them,

but you know what it is?

I don't look at myself

as someone

that's economically troubled.

No way.

But I am worried about my kids.

- We have paid for doctor bills.

- We've paid for dental bills.

Two of my children right now

do not have health insurance.

Our kids without health care

was a big turning point for us.

That really got my attention.

I'm a power plant operator.

Where I work, The Geysers,

it's a renewable energy source.

Calpine is a good company.

They are.

So then why are they

cutting back on people

and cutting sick leave?

Well, the operation

will be more profitable

if they cut back on personnel.

That's a given.

I've always been pro-union

from a philosophical standpoint.

I consider myself

part of the labor force.

Therefore I think labor

needs a say.

The company brought in

anti-union consultants

and put on a good campaign

to counter the union.

Let me just say I came here...

Some of you were still

on the fence.

Some people walked out.

There was tension in the air.

The underlying reality

is that if workers

don't have power,

if they don't have a voice,

inevitably their wages

and benefits start eroding.

It happens inevitably.

Personally

I'm a proud Christian.

I'm a proud Calpine employee.

I think they treat me more fair

than I should be treated.

If you have a company that is

dependent on shareholders,

there is growing and growing

pressure on that company

to show better

and better profits

and have higher and higher

share prices.

That's just

the way capitalism is.

That's not bad.

But what that means inevitably

is that there's greater

and greater pressure

to push wages and benefits

down to the minimum.

- So you're a capitalist.

- I'm a capitalist.

I say for these people

making their millions,

that's fantastic.

I could have done

the same thing

if I went to school

and had the brains for it.

I do not.

So I'm a laborer.

And there's such a burden

on the companies

in the United States now

that the cost of business

drives that...

them to go elsewhere.

But this right now

is the richest country

in the world,

and we are richer

than we've ever been.

Believe me,

we as a nation are doing great,

and certain people

in this country

are doing better than anybody

has ever done in the world

in world history.

It's not just Calpine.

I took a $12-an-hour

cut in pay, okay?

My benefits are going down.

I do twice the duties.

I'll be running two plants

instead of one.

If you have $10 million

or if you have $1 billion,

why do you need

that little bit that I have?

Okay?

Big companies are designed

not to generate good jobs

in the United States.

Big companies are designed

to make profits.

And thanks to the members

of the administration,

Jeff and Cass

and others that have worked...

This isn't a matter of fault.

You know, the head of GE

is on the president's

Jobs Council.

I want to start off

by thanking Jeff

for his continued outstanding

leadership of this Jobs Council.

Well, GE has been creating

more jobs abroad

than it's been creating jobs

in the United States.

So who is taking care

of the American worker?

Who is looking out

for the American worker

as GE and other big companies

and Wall Street

and the very wealthy,

who basically have capital

all over the world...

As they have more and more

political power,

who is actually working in a way

in Washington

and in state capitals

that improves the well-being

of the American workforce?

The answer is nobody.

So why didn't the nation

respond to the great regression

that started around 1980?

Why didn't we take bold steps

to make the economy

continue to work

for just about everyone?

Because we figured out

three ways

to cope with flattening

or declining incomes

without reducing

our relative standard of living.

Remember,

starting in the late '70s,

the typical wage is flat.

But a lot of people are buying.

How did they do that?

How does the middle class

manage to keep on spending

when wages are flat?

The first coping mechanism,

starting in the late '70s,

is, women go into paid work.

Tumble out of bed

and stumble to the kitchen

Pour myself

a cup of ambition

And yawn and stretch

and try to come to life

Young mothers

went into work in huge numbers.

We haven't seen

anything like it,

a social revolution.

Traffic starts jumpin'

With folks like me on the job

from nine to five

Working nine to five

What a way...

Nine to Five.

Dolly Parton?

Dolly Parton, you know,

she is only five feet tall.

And they never

give you credit

It's enough to drive you crazy

if you let it

Nine to five

They didn't go to work

because there were

all these wonderful professional

opportunities open to women.

Some of them did,

but that's not the major reason

women went to work.

They went to work mainly

because they had to prop up

family incomes

that were dropping

because the men in the family,

their wages were going nowhere.

But there's only a limit

to how many young mothers

can go into work.

And so the second strategy

used by the 1990s

was that families...

both men and women...

worked longer hours.

Working nine to five

What a way to make a living

Barely getting by

When I was secretary of labor,

I remember looking at the data,

and I was amazed,

and then I'd go out

into the field,

and I'd go to various cities,

and I'd talk with people,

and people were working,

you know, all hours...

I mean, second jobs,

third jobs, overtime.

If they were professionals,

billable hours

coming out of their ears.

We were working 300 hours a year

more than the typical European.

I mean, we were working harder

than the industrious...

enormously industrious Japanese.

But there's a limit

to how hard you can work.

When those were exhausted,

the third coping mechanism

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