The United States is the richest nation in the world. But it is also one of the most backward, when it comes to protecting the rights of workers. This is clearly shown in the image above (from the website of Mother Jones).
The U.S. government is quick to protect Wall Street and the giant corporations. And beginning about 1980, when the Republicans took control, the government systematically began to dismantle the power of worker unions, eliminated regulations requiring Wall Street and the corporations to treat both consumers and workers fairly, and reduced taxes for the corporations (and the rich). This led to a stagnant (and now falling) national median wage, a minimum wage with 1/3 less than in the late 1960's, corporate refusal to share any of the rising production with workers, a shrinking middle class, and the widest gap between the wealthy and the rest of America since the 1920's.
All of that is bad enough -- and must be fixed to get the economy moving again. But there is an even more fundamental problem with how the government treats American workers. It doesn't guarantee them any fundamental rights to fair treatment like other nations do (both developed and third world nations). Note that the United States is one of only 16 nations in the world that doesn't mandate that workers must have time off each week. It is one of only 9 nations that doesn't mandate workers get some paid vacation each year, and it is one of only 6 nations that doesn't mandate some paid maternity leave.
And it doesn't stop there. A fourth chart could have been included, because the United States is one of only a small handful of nations that doesn't mandate any paid sick leave at all for workers. That means that low-wage workers, the workers who are already being paid poverty wages by their employer, must go to work no matter how sick they are (or they will have their pay cut).
I would love to blame only the Republicans for this, but the truth is that there have been times where both parties enjoyed control of both the White House and Congress -- and neither has bothered to institute these basic worker rights. They haven't done it because the corporations and other business interests oppose mandatory time off, paid vacations, paid maternity leave, and paid sick time. Even though some of them give these as "benefits" (instead of rights), they whine that employers can't afford to be mandated to provide these rights to every worker.
That is a ridiculous load of horse manure. The business community in almost every other nation in the world has no problem meeting these mandates. Why couldn't the American businesses do the same? They could. They just don't want to be mandated to do so. They want to maintain the right to abuse their workers.
This is pretty good evidence that the American democracy is disappearing, and it is being replaced by a corporatocracy -- a country where corporations have more rights than the citizens do. I don't think this was what the Founding Fathers of this country intended. They created this country and wrote the Constitution to give rights to citizens -- human beings, not corporations. It is time to fix this. Other countries maintain a prosperous business community while protecting the rights of workers and other citizens. There is no reason why the United States cannot do the same.
