We’re Not #1

[kalm]

Not even close when it comes to working class folks. Selling American exceptionalism to younger generations is becoming difficult.

A new Oxfam survey on worker well-being compares us to the other advanced and semi-advanced economies. America remains exceptional-y bad.

BY HAROLD MEYERSON JUNE 26, 2023

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When it comes to the affordability of medications, a number of our political leaders note that they’re a lot cheaper in Canada. Noted radical Bernie Sanders will sometimes observe that access to health care more generally, as well as things like paid sick leave and affordable (or even free) child care, are available in much of Europe.

Such international comparisons, however, barely scratch the surface. A fuller appreciation of American exceptionalism has now been made available by the folks at Oxfam, who have produced a multifaceted and exhaustive study of the 38 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These are countries, to quote the survey, that are “similar to the United States, in that they commit to democracy and free-market economies, and have relatively robust gross domestic products.” They include not only countries in Western Europe and Canada, but also Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Australia; former Soviet bloc nations (Poland, Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania); and, for good measure, Turkey, Israel, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico.

In each of those nations, Oxfam measured 56 variables in national laws, which it then lumped into three categories. The first was wages and unemployment insurance, including such measures as national minimum-wage standards, whether those standards met livable-income criteria, and the eligibility for minimum-wage payments, along with unemployment insurance standards, and the duration and scope of UI eligibility. Under the heading of worker protections, Oxfam measured the adequacy and scope of nations’ laws on some of the particulars that were in the Biden administration’s Build Back Better bill but not passed, such as paid sick leave and child care support, as well as health care availability, work scheduling rights, and the eligibility of gig workers for any of those particulars. The third category measured workers’ right to organize, both the public and private sector, and the right to sectoral bargaining.

Herewith, then, the mournful numbers.

On wages and unemployment benefits, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands ranked 1-2-3. The U.S. ranked 36th, behind the Czech Republic, but ahead of Denmark and Mexico.

Denmark? The survey notes that neither Denmark nor Sweden ever enacted minimum-wage laws because their wage levels were almost entirely set through the collective bargaining of their labor unions, which in Sweden for decades represented close to 90 percent of the nations’ workers. If the U.S. level of unionization were anywhere close to Sweden’s, rather than its current 10 percent (and just 6 percent in the private sector), we wouldn’t need minimum-wage laws, either.

It’s important to note that these indices measure national minimum-wage laws, not the state laws. So they don’t reflect the fact that, say, California and New York have set minimum wages at a level more than twice that of the national standard ($7.25). Points are awarded, however, for nations that allow for higher state or provincial minimum wages. Otherwise, instead of finishing 36th, we might have come in at 38th.

The U.S. did hit that magic 38 when it came to the next category: worker protections. There, our failure to provide paid sick leave or affordable care for little kids, not to mention our comprehensive failure to provide affordable health care to our citizenry (much less all our residents), thereby exposing them to a thousand natural and unnatural shocks, has landed us at the bottom of the pile. On this scale, Germany, Finland, and Norway rank 1-2-3; the nation that scooched above us into 37th place is Estonia.

What’s particularly notable here is that, when the 28 different particulars that are measured to produce an aggregate score in this category are totaled up, we come in way below Estonia. On the 1-to-100 scale measuring the adequacy of worker protections, first-place Germany had a score of 72.91, while 37th-place Estonia’s score was 44.41. Then (like something that the cat dragged in) came the U.S., with a mind-bogglingly low score of 25.23.

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-06-26-w ... er-survey/

[houndawg]

Not even close when it comes to working class folks. Selling American exceptionalism to younger generations is becoming difficult.

A new Oxfam survey on worker well-being compares us to the other advanced and semi-advanced economies. America remains exceptional-y bad.

BY HAROLD MEYERSON JUNE 26, 2023

facebook sharing button twitter sharing button email sharing button sms sharing button sharethis sharing button linkedin sharing button reddit sharing button

When it comes to the affordability of medications, a number of our political leaders note that they’re a lot cheaper in Canada. Noted radical Bernie Sanders will sometimes observe that access to health care more generally, as well as things like paid sick leave and affordable (or even free) child care, are available in much of Europe.

Such international comparisons, however, barely scratch the surface. A fuller appreciation of American exceptionalism has now been made available by the folks at Oxfam, who have produced a multifaceted and exhaustive study of the 38 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These are countries, to quote the survey, that are “similar to the United States, in that they commit to democracy and free-market economies, and have relatively robust gross domestic products.” They include not only countries in Western Europe and Canada, but also Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Australia; former Soviet bloc nations (Poland, Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania); and, for good measure, Turkey, Israel, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico.

In each of those nations, Oxfam measured 56 variables in national laws, which it then lumped into three categories. The first was wages and unemployment insurance, including such measures as national minimum-wage standards, whether those standards met livable-income criteria, and the eligibility for minimum-wage payments, along with unemployment insurance standards, and the duration and scope of UI eligibility. Under the heading of worker protections, Oxfam measured the adequacy and scope of nations’ laws on some of the particulars that were in the Biden administration’s Build Back Better bill but not passed, such as paid sick leave and child care support, as well as health care availability, work scheduling rights, and the eligibility of gig workers for any of those particulars. The third category measured workers’ right to organize, both the public and private sector, and the right to sectoral bargaining.

Herewith, then, the mournful numbers.

On wages and unemployment benefits, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands ranked 1-2-3. The U.S. ranked 36th, behind the Czech Republic, but ahead of Denmark and Mexico.

Denmark? The survey notes that neither Denmark nor Sweden ever enacted minimum-wage laws because their wage levels were almost entirely set through the collective bargaining of their labor unions, which in Sweden for decades represented close to 90 percent of the nations’ workers. If the U.S. level of unionization were anywhere close to Sweden’s, rather than its current 10 percent (and just 6 percent in the private sector), we wouldn’t need minimum-wage laws, either.

It’s important to note that these indices measure national minimum-wage laws, not the state laws. So they don’t reflect the fact that, say, California and New York have set minimum wages at a level more than twice that of the national standard ($7.25). Points are awarded, however, for nations that allow for higher state or provincial minimum wages. Otherwise, instead of finishing 36th, we might have come in at 38th.

The U.S. did hit that magic 38 when it came to the next category: worker protections. There, our failure to provide paid sick leave or affordable care for little kids, not to mention our comprehensive failure to provide affordable health care to our citizenry (much less all our residents), thereby exposing them to a thousand natural and unnatural shocks, has landed us at the bottom of the pile. On this scale, Germany, Finland, and Norway rank 1-2-3; the nation that scooched above us into 37th place is Estonia.

What’s particularly notable here is that, when the 28 different particulars that are measured to produce an aggregate score in this category are totaled up, we come in way below Estonia. On the 1-to-100 scale measuring the adequacy of worker protections, first-place Germany had a score of 72.91, while 37th-place Estonia’s score was 44.41. Then (like something that the cat dragged in) came the U.S., with a mind-bogglingly low score of 25.23.

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-06-26-w ... er-survey/

Well........at least Warren Buffet's tax rate is lower than his secretary's....that has to count for something ....doesn't it..?

[kalm]

Not even close when it comes to working class folks. Selling American exceptionalism to younger generations is becoming difficult.



https://prospect.org/labor/2023-06-26-w ... er-survey/

Well........at least Warren Buffet's tax rate is lower than his secretary's....that has to count for something ....doesn't it..?

Oh yeah…I guess Oxfam forgot to use that metric. Losers!

Philosophically we are hyper-focused on the “winning” part of life and those who don’t “win” or need help from others, are the problem.

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

[kalm]

Jon Stewart is right about some shit…again.

Yellen’s response: Because, capitalism?