Unions will make a comeback:

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Unions will make a comeback.

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They’re coming.

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Went to the grocery store this morning.

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Showed up and they were closed for a labour dispute.

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A few of the workers were outside holding picket signs.

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Not the first time I’ve heard or seen this.

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A PhD student working at my firm this summer told me about the protest that happened at UofT for post-graduate students.

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We’ve seen this with UK rail workers.

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We’re seeing this with the writer’s and actors strikes in the US.

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More and more are coming.

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There’s a reason corporations wanted to bust unions in the 80s.

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Chomsky talked about it beautifully in his documentary ‘Requiem for the American Dream.’

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There were tons of unions pre 1970.

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The middle class flourished.

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The marginal tax rate for the ultra-wealthy was 80-90%.

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Following the war, the American government invested in the people.

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Billions of dollars for infrastructure, jobs, education and healthcare.

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A family with a single income could afford a car, house and spending money.

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That all disappeared in the 70s and 80s.

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Thank Nixon and Reagan-omics.

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Trickle down economics baby.

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The best trick the ultra-elites ever pulled.

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Corrupt the elite academic centres like Harvard and Stanford and make those people believe that trickle down economics works.

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Make the world believe that rich people wouldn’t accumulate all the wealth and that they would pass it down for everyone to enjoy.

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What a load of bullshit.

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What happened during that time?

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De-regulation of industry.

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Lower personal tax rates, particularly for the wealthy.

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Lower corporate tax rates.

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With this also came union busting.

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Corporations didn’t want unions to form.

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Why?

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Because people have more power together.

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The labourers could negotiate for more wages.

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Instead, the corporate media in America convinced the population that it’s better to be individualistic.

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It’s better to be on your own instead of together.

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Another great lie.

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So unions disappeared.

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While this happened, executives, capitalists and asset owners have made exponentially more money.

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And labour has fallen behind.

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40 years behind.

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If you have a job and earn an income, you cannot become wealthy.

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The income tax rate is higher than the capital gains tax rate.

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It’s impossible.

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However, if you own assets like stocks, real estate, or a business, your taxes are incredibly lower.

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The top 1% in the US pays way less taxes than everyone else.

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Especially if you’re a corporation.

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There’s a reason companies like Facebook and Amazon are domiciled in Ireland and Luxemborg.

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No taxes baby.

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Imagine that.

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Companies who dominate the economy, earn hundreds of billions and take all the money from the population pay ZERO in taxes.

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Zero.

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This is a result of what’s happened the last 50 years.

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Corporations have become so wealthy in that time that those who run them have accumulated enormous wealth which they’ve spent to aggregate more and more power while the rest of us have seen our costs exponentially increase while our income has stayed relatively the same.

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Labour has lost since World War 2.

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Now it’s making a comeback.

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Why?

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Inflation.

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Long term debt cycles.

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Covid.

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But fundamentally, it’s a tale as old as time.

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The bourgousie have wealth, they spend that wealth to accumulate power and change the laws in their favour, they accumulate more wealth, they keep spending money to aggregate power till they erode the middle class and most of the population is too poor to survive.

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Then boom.

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A revolution, famine and/or conflict.

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It’s coming.

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Not tomorrow.

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But this decade.

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Dalio has said it.

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Druckenmiller has said it.

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Jim Rogers has said it.

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All great investors who know the cycles of history.

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The fight for power between the ultra elites and everyone else.

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The mega-rich better get used to higher taxes and paying more to their workers.

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Because if they don’t, revolutions are coming.

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They can be peaceful or they can be violent.

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If governments, corporations, executives and capitalists don’t start paying more to their labour force, the uprisings will be coming sooner than later.

We’re starting to see signs everywhere.

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Pay attention.

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Unions are coming back.

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