Donald Trump is boastful of a low unemployment rate, rising average wages and a soaring stock market. I suspect when you give corporations trillions of unexpected dollars – the impact of the GOP corporate tax giveaway – it would be pretty shocking if share prices did not send the market flying. But that money did not come from more efficient business operations or solid increases in sales revenues; it was a wealth transfer of hard cash from the taxpaying public (now on the hook for the resulting deficit payback) to rich companies.
Those companies have yet to explode with those “new and better” jobs Trump promises, but corporations are doing what economists told us they would do. Mostly, they are buying back their own shares, a way to boost stock prices, and using that newfound capital to buy other companies. What they are not doing is massive hiring into those higher-paying jobs. What wage and salary increases have crept into the market have pretty much gone to the top of the corporate ladder, and the disparity between CEO and average worker remains unjustifiable (the worst in the world), generating an income inequality reality that just gets worse as the new tax act rolls into play. For 70% of American workers, wage stagnation remains their lot in life… as everything around them costs more, much of which is a direct result of new federal policies.
The overall averages are barely tolerable, but the ratio of CEO/average worker at the biggest companies tends to be double: “A recent survey of 356 public companies by Equilar, an executive compensation and governance research firm, found that the median CEO pay ratio was 140 to 1. But it also suggested that the figure for Honeywell [333 to 1], which is No. 73 on the Fortune 500, would not be that out of line with other similar size companies. Companies above $15 billion in annual sales had a ratio of 263 to 1 and those with the greatest number of employees (43,000 or more) also had the largest ratio, at 318 to 1. Honeywell had 2017 sales of $40 billion and has more than 143,000 employees.” Washington Post, February 21st.
For all the federal deregulation, especially in the coal sector, between automation and a general fall in global demand for coal and fossil fuels, jobs in those industries remain stagnant or still falling. Mines continue to close; workers are still losing jobs.
Donald Trump’s new tariff-trade war has seen retaliatory tariffs being imposed that will impact everything from our agricultural exports (red state, red alert) to hard manufactures like Boeing aircraft or Harley Davidson motorcycles. “Prices of Harley-Davidson and Indian motorcycles could rise after President Donald Trump announced import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium… How much imported steel and aluminium goes into their bikes is not known… However, US investment firm Wedbush Securities estimates the increased import tariffs could add up to $30m a year in costs to Harley, alone.
“The news gets worse for Harley in Europe where leaders are threatening retaliatory import duties on their motorcycles as well as other American icons such as Kentucky whiskey and Levi jeans… Europe represents about 16% of sales and is instrumental in the company’s plans to grow its international business 50% by 2027.” MotorBikeWriter.com, March 11th. Fewer jobs, jobs, jobs.
The Trump administration’s antipathy for the Affordable Care Act, where his government policies have slashed support for basic programs, given some states a free pass to cut benefits and subsidies and generally made healthcare more expensive at every level (Trump’s self-fulfilling prophecy to make the program into an “I told you so” failure), has not killed an increasingly popular program… just made it more expensive to those who can afford higher costs the least.
As for the few hints at Trump’s intended infrastructure plan, and you can figure out that not only are we going to be charged new fees and higher tolls to use roads, bridges, parks and other government facilities that are now free… as they are improved… but we are going to pay a premium (a hard dollar profit mark-up) because Trump wants to privatize that infrastructure. Big corporations will make many of these governmental improvements, but travel and commuting costs are likely to skyrocket well above what the ordinary tax dollars would have been required to fix the system… because Trump’s rich cronies will own or lease the former taxpayer-assets!!!
The Trump war against California, a state whose economy is heavily dependent on undocumented farm and construction workers, is making harvesting prohibitively expensive, often leaving unpicked crops to rot on the fields. Whether you condone California’s desire to provide sanctuary to these workers or not, the ICE sweeps through farmlands here will continue to push grocery costs incredibly higher. In California, it’s just an economic fact of life that U.S. citizens will not accept jobs as stoop labor farmworkers, even at $16/hour or more.
“[Recent major random arrests of hundreds of undocumented workers who have not committed any crimes] were part of a larger sweep in California’s agricultural heartland that has sent fear through the Central Valley, where for generations, immigrants here legally and illegally have picked crops. In some fields, almost all of the foreign workers are in the country without legal status.
“While many immigrants have been on edge since President Trump vowed a crackdown on illegal immigration, the recent sweeps have been particularly concerning because they included the arrests of people not specifically targeted by ICE.
“The concern extends to farmers, who fear more sweeps will drive away labor at a time when some are struggling to get enough workers to pick the crops… Manuel Cunha Jr., president of Nisei Farmers League, which represents agricultural employers and their workers throughout the state, said farmers are worried about losing trusted workers. He said the increasingly tense relationship between the Trump administration and California, which declared itself a ‘sanctuary state,’ has upped the anxiety.
“‘They’re not going to be replaced by American workers,’ Cunha said. ‘Don’t punish the businesses. We’re not the ones that came up with the sanctuary state.’
“Director of ICE issues a warning… ICE Director Thomas Homan has said that immigrants who have entered the U.S. illegally ‘should be afraid.’… He warned that California’s so-called sanctuary policies, which limit cooperation between local and federal law enforcement, give the agency no choice but to make arrests in neighborhoods and at work sites.” Los Angeles Times, March 31st.
The overall impact of Trumpconomics is higher profits for the rich, a higher deficit debt borne by the rest, stagnant wages for most, virtually no major trend towards higher paying skilled jobs, and higher costs for just about everything ordinary people consume in the normal course of life. You just might say that Trump is proving expert at draining money from most of us, a disproportionate burden, I might add, on his own base who prefer to believe the slogans and reject the facts.
I’m Peter Dekom, and unless you can eat fake news, meaningless slogans, inane tweets and empty braggadocio, Trump is just making life incredibly less affordable for most Americans.
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