I want to ask for your help to preserve the leverage workers gained in the past 2 years.
For too long, workers have been screwed over. We have worked extreme hours, in unsafe environments, for low wages, and have very little protections and very little power.
In the United States, the absolute disgusting lack of benefits as shown this week by one of our own:
During the Great Recession, workers were again, thrown to the curb – this time purely because of the greed of big banks and insufficient regulations. Of course you know the devastating effect it had on middle and low income families.With such high unemployment, once again, workers lost what little power we had to employers. During the recession and in the slow growth that came after, employers had the leverage to keep pay low because we all needed money to survive.
“A hungry dog is an obedient dog” – Jon Taffer
When the recession hit, we became that obedient dog. We were desperate to provide for ourselves and our families and employers took full advantage of this – even as the economy slowly improved. I know you’ve seen the job applications that require a graduate degree and still only pay $15/hr.When the pandemic hit – it was the same damn story.
Between February 2020 – April 2020, the unemployment rate went from 3.5% to 14.7%.
Although we were immediately abandoned, the crisis wasn’t as severe as employers anticipated. As we adapted to this new world, employers realized the people they threw away would actually still be needed. (OOPS!) The difference this time?
Money
Expanded unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, rent moratoriums, and significantly fewer places to spend your money led to the highest savings rate since 1959. Which means workers, for the first time in seemingly forever, GAINED power.
The hungry dog wasn’t so hungry anymore. We saw through the bullshit pizza parties and ‘we’re all family here!’. We were done with the unsafe or high stress environments, the low pay for back breaking work, the unpaid extra hours rewarded with nothing but a pat on the back.
We said NO, because we finally could.
Fast Forward to 2022 and we’re looking down the barrel of yet another recession.
In April of 2020, the personal saving rate reached 33.8% – the highest since 1959
“The U.S. personal saving rate is personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income. In other words, it's the percentage of people's incomes left after they pay taxes and spend money.” – BEA.gov
In September of 2022, the personal saving rate dropped to 3.1% and consumer loans (Credit Cards and other revolving plans) hit a high of $906 billion (October hit an all time high of $926 billion, but the personal savings rate hasn’t been published for October yet)
I am NOT showing all of this data to make anyone worry that we’re all completely screwed. I do NOT have the financial knowledge to guess what may happen to the economy.
I AM showing you all of this because I am asking YOU to take good care of yourself. As I mentioned previously, workers gained power when the pandemic hit because we COULD.
We could afford to finally say no.
We were no longer desperate.
We were not the hungry dog, so we no longer had to be the obedient dog.
I am asking you to help keep the power we gained. Build your savings.
I know we are in a time of incredibly high inflation and have to spend way too much on food, clothes, rent, medical care, and other needs for ourselves and our families. I am not asking anyone to go without anything they need.
However if you can, save.
WE CAN NOT AFFORD TO GO BACKWARD.
WE CAN NOT GIVE UP THE LEVERAGE WE GAINED.
WE ARE NO ONE’S F**KING DOG.
Thank you for listening to my selfish request.
TL;DR – If you can, build your savings so that we don’t lose the leverage workers gained from the pandemic if the economy goes down the toilet.