"We're all Waiters Now"

By Ethan Brown, Section Economy
Posted on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 07:50:00 AM EST
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That's the conclusion of a must read piece in Harper's by Chicago-based labor lawyer Thomas Geoghegan about what our culture of legalized usury has wrought.

Writes Geoghegan:

"Basically, we're all waiters now; we're bowing and scraping and working for the banks. Look closely at any American, and it's even odds that he or she, directly or indirectly, is somehow employed by the 'financial services' industry,' which covers insurance and real estate and financial instruments of any kind."

[More....]

Geoghegan argues--rightly--that rising education and health care costs swallowed any gains in income. And the rising costs of basics--coupled with de-unionized workplaces--led to a paradox. "As the economy grew," Geoghegan writes, "individual people were actually becoming worse off."

So, the next time the likes of Rick Santelli or Megan McArdle complains about those high-living Americans who helped usher in the financial crisis remember that the economy hit the rocks thanks in large part to mostly stagnant wages despite rising productivity, skyrocketing health care costs and a wave of usurious rates on student loans, credit cards and adjustable rate mortgages.

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"We're all Waiters Now" | 18 comments (18 topical)

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Yes, and an easier way to describe (5.00 / 2) (#1)
by eric on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 02:12:46 AM EST

this is that we have a huge disparity in income and wealth. The rich have more and make more. The rest of us make less and have less.

Now, while I might say this is unfair and I want it to change, it is also bad for this country. The concentration of wealth is so profound that we have reached a point where the working class is so much without power that they can't even bargain anymore.

: This phrase continually runs in my mind (5.00 / 6) (#7)
by Jjc2008 on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 08:20:00 AM EST

"You can have wealth concentrated. in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both." - Louis Brandeis ...

This has been happening for a long time, our losing of our democracy to a few. I used to get angry because no one took to the streets....when Reagan fired all those air traffic controllers....silence. When companies were moving out of states to states that were "union free"....so much silence. When companies moved to places around the world where they could set up sweat shops, set up systems where family members worked long hours for low wages in cities far away from their families....silence.
As long as we could buy cheaply from anti labor companies like Walmart, silence.
We sold out our own democracy for cheap stuff....

Student loan rates for 2009-2010 (5.00 / 2) (#4)
by Munibond on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 06:23:42 AM EST

6.8% for Stafford
8.5% for grad student PLUS
This when treasury and CD rates are at all time lows.

Remember when Bill Clinton (5.00 / 4) (#13)
by oldpro on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 01:19:23 PM EST

tried to 'cut out the middleman' (better known as the banks)and make low-interest student loans directly from the government? The Republicans and banks' lobbyists went nuts.

Obama should take that idea out of mothballs.

The time is ripe for a tit for tat with the banks and it's a winner for students and families...and a job stimulus for higher ed!

Trifecta.


Isn't the (none / 0) (#17)
by eric on Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 09:35:31 AM EST

Direct Loans program still around? I used that program for my law school loans.


: Good question. Dunno. (none / 0) (#18)
by oldpro on Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 12:50:41 PM EST

If so, why would anyone use anything else?

The wealth in the country (5.00 / 1) (#6)
by pluege on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 07:57:11 AM EST

has always flowed to the rich. Its the flow rate that has varied, at times from mighty river to torrent. The plutocracy finished off their major river widening project that they undertook since reagan by saying in the waning years of bush 'the hell with it' lets just burst the dam. And so they did.

There can be no question that most of the beneficiaries of the financial crises knew and didn't care that what they were doing was leading us to the ruination we now are experiencing; and chutzpah or chutzpah, they continue to game the system for more financial gain to them and more ruination for the nation. They are greed obsessed monsters that care nothing for people or country - only accumulating wealth.

Good point Munibond (5.00 / 1) (#8)
by Ethan Brown on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 10:39:28 AM EST

Even though, for example, mortgage rates are at historic lows, the spread between the rates we can borrow at and the rates the banks can borrow at is still huge...

: I read the article. (none / 0) (#16)
by hairspray on Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 09:31:48 AM EST

His main points were that the legalization of usury, union busting and the abandonment of contract obligations to workers has led to the demise of a manufacturing based economy to one of a financial house of cards. It was a good read. The over riding objective of the wealthy class always seemed to me to be based on reducing labor to something akin to slavery. Kevin Phillips wrote "Wealth and Democracy" some years ago and said as much. He also said that over concentration of wealth on one segment of the society would kill democracy.

sorry (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by blogtopus on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 11:34:57 AM EST

I'd love to read it, but I'm not in a position to pay $17 for it. Thanks for the clip, tho.

: Here's an interesting piece for free (none / 0) (#10)
by DFLer on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 12:25:00 PM EST

recommended by Tom Engelhardt (tomsdispatch)

Bill Moyers sits down with socialist historian Mike Davis for his critique of the government's response to the economic crisis and how he thinks it compares to Roosevelt's New Deal. Mike Davis is a writer and historian, who currently teaches creative writing at University of California, Riverside.
Mike Davis latest book is titled: In Praise of Barbarians: Essays Against Empire
The Davis article referenced in the Moyers' interview is "Can Obama See the Grand Canyon? - On Presidential Blindness and Economic Catastrophe"
October, 2008

: You can read it for free (none / 0) (#14)
by Alien Abductee on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 03:13:54 PM EST

on Scribd, here.

Th saddest part is... (5.00 / 1) (#11)
by kdog on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 12:50:11 PM EST

we're all happy to be waiters and we'll keep on waitin'...all because we're scared of the unknown.

Rolling Stone article (none / 0) (#2)
by oldpro on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 03:51:19 AM EST

on AIG and the banks...heavy duty...(sorry, I don't do the linky thing...yet).

This article? (5.00 / 0) (#5)
by Erehwon on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 06:59:59 AM EST

Did you mean this article?


: Yup. Thanks! (none / 0) (#12)
by oldpro on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 01:12:42 PM EST

This calls for (none / 0) (#3)
by Wile ECoyote on Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 06:07:58 AM EST

another round of taxpayer bailouts and or stimulus.

At least somebody speaks out (none / 0) (#15)
by koshembos on Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 02:51:53 AM EST

We have traded an industrial society for a bunch of fat cats that produce toxic assets. The other day, i went to a second hand book store to sell close to 20 books, most of them were history, society and a few novels. The total value of the book when bought new is way over $200, the second hand bookstore will fetch close $100-$150 for the books. I got $20. This is our industrial base now.

A bunch of people who make money for no reason and way too much of it. Does a lowly second hand book store in a rural area have to make $400,000 a month?