28 July 2013

Cartooning for Capitalism

It’s a sad state of affairs when the demise of a once-major American city is laid at the feet of the wrong people. If Detroit is seeking bankruptcy protection, why is no finger of blame pointing at the companies which have shipped jobs to places where labour is less protected, fueled calls for lower taxes, and taken big bail-outs from government when their own decisions have driven their businesses downward, all the while compensating their executives at a level that allows them to earn in the first few hours of a new year the equivalent of what they pay their workers for the whole year?

There may be some level of blame to be reserved for politicians who seem to cave so easily to those corporate interests, but the unions trying to establish and protect a reasonable level of income and other essential benefits for those creating the value? I can’t accept that.

That editorial cartoonists, likely working for major corporate interests themselves, should blame those who will most suffer the consequences of a dying city while the company skips off to earn huge returns on investments for its wealthy shareholders by lowering labour standards and evading taxes, is not so much unexpected as it is disappointing. Shame on them.