Here we go again. The bailout debate rages, though this time it may arrive at a roid-induced level due to the unprecedented gravity of the situation. Shale oil companies? Cruise ships? The fucking airlines, again??
As is laid out nicely in this piece by Tim Wu, the airline industry racked up tens of billions of dollars in profit over the last decade via a variety of practices and fees that figuratively and literally squeezed passengers. What did they do with that money? A rainy day fund to plan for ebbs and flows (or earthquakes) in the economy? Increased pay so employees might do something similar with their own finances?
No, they poured most of it into stock buybacks to push up their stock price. And so continued to live in the land of glorious profit, money pouring in. And so continued to live mired in debt, on the brink of bankruptcy and catastrophe -- the land of America, of the global economy.
In many ways, we are all the airlines, be it by choice or circumstance. In the faux reality of a "booming" job market, an estimated 57% of Americans are self-employed or work on an hourly basis. Job quality in the United States has declined such that more than 30 million "employed" Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck and earn less than $24,000 per year. Mired in debt, on the brink of catastrophe.
For most, there is no safety net. In the coming weeks and months, as quarantines cause tens of millions of jobs to disappear, the wealth of capitalism has funded no existing social programs capable of dealing with this crisis.
Why do we choose to live in a way that makes it impossible to stop work?
As is laid out nicely in this piece by Tim Wu, the airline industry racked up tens of billions of dollars in profit over the last decade via a variety of practices and fees that figuratively and literally squeezed passengers. What did they do with that money? A rainy day fund to plan for ebbs and flows (or earthquakes) in the economy? Increased pay so employees might do something similar with their own finances?
No, they poured most of it into stock buybacks to push up their stock price. And so continued to live in the land of glorious profit, money pouring in. And so continued to live mired in debt, on the brink of bankruptcy and catastrophe -- the land of America, of the global economy.
In many ways, we are all the airlines, be it by choice or circumstance. In the faux reality of a "booming" job market, an estimated 57% of Americans are self-employed or work on an hourly basis. Job quality in the United States has declined such that more than 30 million "employed" Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck and earn less than $24,000 per year. Mired in debt, on the brink of catastrophe.
For most, there is no safety net. In the coming weeks and months, as quarantines cause tens of millions of jobs to disappear, the wealth of capitalism has funded no existing social programs capable of dealing with this crisis.
Why do we choose to live in a way that makes it impossible to stop work?
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