6 - Social Wage and Rebellion

ucla | HIST 12B | 2023-10-26 18:37

Table of Contents

Social Wage

  • the govt expenditure on welfare
  • includes unemployment income, stipends, stimulus, children/elderly support, subsidies for low income, subsidized healthcare, govt investment in making life better

    War on Poverty

  • poor ppls movements for radically diff economic systems were defeated by big corp
  • war on poverty - from cold-war from idea of aid
  • US push for free-market as the sol - solves poverty, but bc US still has poverty, foreign aid became domestic aid -> poor are foreign and ppl need to assimilate to “culture” to treat poverty as a problem of culture
  • “capitalism is not the reason for poverty, its culture” (work ethic, etc.)

    Failed “War” (onpoverty)

  • pre to post war caused 25% less poverty in Blacks and 43% less for Whites
  • corps focused on job training instead of making more jobs
  • high cost of vietnam war -> less resources for increasing poverty line (not solving income inequality, suitable income, safe working places, etc. ONLY poverty)

    King family on Poverty

  • took a stand against free-market as the solution to poverty
  • against vietnam war - lost them a ton of funding and support when most ppl supported war (later changed)
  • Corretta King: “peace and justice are not indivisible”
  • supported “Freedom budget” radical views on govt sanctioned socialist welfare

    NWRO, Feminist, Anti-capital vision

  • NWRO (National Workers Rights Org) a feminist movment led mostly by black women suggesting work rights are civil rights
  • suggested childcare and housework is unpaid labor and should be treated as paid (data to suggest industry is 10.9 trillion globally and 1.5 trillion US)
  • women and poor should deserve to be treated w dignity -> increased welfare and removed stigma of welfare

    Guaranteed Annual Income

  • anyone below the poverty line receives GAI
  • to decouple marriage, employment ,and personal behavior from criteria for aid
    • ppl would check for the presence of men, jobs, etc. to make sure there is no income source
  • would’ve significantly decreased costs of govt welfare efforts previously (due to logistical issues of all the bs laws)
  • would’ve replaced the stigma based system of food stamps, free lunch, embarrassment, etc

    Nixon’s Poverty Plan

  • one of the only prez that considered GAI
  • realized it would decrease welfare bureaucracy
  • but did not consider cost of living which led to inequitable social wage

Monetarism & Crisis

  • econ theory that focuses on macroeconomic effects of money supply (introduced with Keynes)
  • Friedman argued against suggesting money supply regulation is inflationary and should only be used for price stability
  • Friedman opposed Bretton Woods (idea of US international dollar pegged to gold) and promoted tight monetary policy to handle inflation -> argued for floating forex to allow market to determine value

    Vietnam & Econ Crisis 1965-1971-1974

  • war drained 9.5% of GDP -> increased debt -> run on gold
  • by 1971, 300 billion overseas due to exports, war, tourism, forex
  • Nixon tried to curb inflation w wage freezes and monetary policy to raise interest rates -> Stagflation
  • Stagflation - low economy, inflation, low employment
  • 1971 - US abandons gold for fiat
  • recession forced biz to lay off workers -> reduced tax revenue
  • volatile exchange rates -> forex & futures trading
  • fiat money allowed US to increase supply by 40% by 1973 (British by 70%) -> inflation
  • 1973 - Arab OPEC launches Oil embargo for anti-support of Israel war -> high gas prices, limited oil -> increased crisis

    Impact of Crisis on Working Class

  • relative wages decline to price of goods
  • unemployment doubled bw 73-75 -> 9.5% in 82
  • -> strikes -> neoliberal conception of strikes as a problem -> weaken unions
  • 1970s deindustrialization/capital-flight
    • 4 million jobs lost to firms relocating outside of US
    • 32 million lost as shutdown, relocation, scale-back
  • Coretta King’s push for full employment - led NCFE/FEAC
    • President Ford’s policies did tax cuts, credits for biz -> didn’t create jobs or dec unemployment
    • NCFE/FEAC rejected Ford’s policies -> pushed for inc public sector jobs, extending unemployment benefits, lower interest rates, invest in alternative energy to combat oil monopoly
    • Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act 1978 - goal of 3% unemployment -> less abt employment, more abt economic growth, price stability, more balanced budget -> all goals driven by corp