Consummating Corporatist Conspiracies

“Conspiracy - an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; plot.”

George Rebane

Over the last year or two corporatist conspiracies have come into full bloom with the various progressive factions of the government and media as counter-parties.  Today the dominant vehicle for promoting the fruits of such conspiracies is the ‘green new deal’ in all its facets.  What makes the ‘surreptitious’ part of the plan work is that most Americans think that the GND was promoted as a temporary far-left hot flash to attract the socialist cum communist factions of the Democratic Party to support Teams Biden and Pelosi.  Walter Russel Mead goes into some detail in the 23feb21 WSJ (here) to remind us that  -

Those who dismiss ideas like the “green new deal” as mere left-wing fantasies miss the enormous appeal of these programs for corporations looking for new business opportunities. It isn’t only renewable energy companies looking for government mandates and funding. It’s major auto manufacturers dreaming of replacing every gasoline-powered car and truck on the planet with an electric vehicle—and reaping the public-relations reward of looking virtuous. It’s construction companies looking to replace the existing energy infrastructure.

To these corporatists we add our technology oligopolies like Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft.  A blatant example of corporatist trade of corporations’ support for suppression of competition is made in Amazon’s full page ad (see nearby photo) propagandizing of the $15/hr federal minimum wage in the 22feb21 WSJ and other lamestream outlets.  In this unashamed appeal for the government gun, Amazon wants its retail competition quashed through mandatory increases in labor costs for those small enterprises that still offer entry level job opportunities as opposed to integrating expensive new technologies or simply folding their tents.  As justification, the copy in its ad reads –

The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009.  For millions of workers, that’s 12 years without a wage increase – despite significant cost-of-living increases and the economic toll of the Covid-19 crisis.  That’s why we support the Raise the Wage Act that’s currently being proposed in Congress.  This legislation will increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour four years from now, giving 32 million US workers the raise they deserve while helping accelerate the recovery from the pandemic. … At Amazon, we saw the need to do more.  That’s why in 2018 we decided to provide all our US employees a starting wage of at least $15 an hour.  Since then, applications have doubled, our employees have had an easier time providing for their families, and local economies have seen a boost. …  We’re calling on Congress to pass the Raise the Wage Act.  It’s the right thing to do.

This piece of drivel has more holes in it than a sieve.  Nowhere have there been millions of deserving workers increasing their skill sets for over a decade without getting raises and promotions.  There exists no permanent cohort of American workers condemned to only $7.25/hr for years.  And Amazon’s applications have doubled because misguided government lockdowns have destroyed thousands of retailers among other businesses.  During this time Amazon’s online retailing business has boomed from people ordering their necessaries from home, thereby increasing Amazon’s happy requirement to build more distribution warehouses that need thousands more workers off the unemployment rolls.  (Amazon can afford to train and pay the $15 to carefully selected and appropriately capable new employees.)  The longer the lockdowns stay in place, the more money Amazon makes.  And in return Amazon and the oligarchs promote Democrat vote-buying policies with added benefit of virtue signaling to the nation’s light readers.

And fuhgeddabout “local economies have seen a boost”.  The promise of a $15 minimum wage has had nothing to do with any growth of local economies, growth which is only fostered by businesses that are allowed to operate at current labor costs to provide needed goods and services to people hunkered down in their homes.  Were that not so, then even more growth would come about if the minimum wage were to be $20 or $30 or even higher. As Raise the Wage Act becomes law and labor costs start rising, there will be a net fewer jobs available across the country (1.4M fewer according to the CBO), especially for the uneducated and unskilled who are also promised government checks if they vote correctly.

Walter Russel Mead concludes his adroit commentary with –

Business lobbies around the world are experts in regulatory capture and in diverting subsidies and mandates to serve corporate interests. It won’t be the greenest possible grid that wins the political contest; it will be the system that provides the most-entrenched interests with the highest rents that the best PR firms can present as sufficiently green. As lobbyists and green entrepreneurs rush to cash in on one of history’s greatest bonanzas, pigs will be adorned in green lipstick and white elephants dipped in green dye.

Yes indeed, you scratch mine, I’ll scratch yours.

Comments

[Don Bessee]

Keeping them dumb is to their false narratives advantages -

We recently read a research paper called "How Informed are Americans about Race and Policing?" It was published by the Skeptic Research Center, and it's a pretty amazing document. The researchers asked people to estimate the number of unarmed African-Americans who were killed by the police in 2019. Accrding to the results, 44% of Americans who describe themselves as liberal believe about 1,000 or more than 1,000 unarmed African-Americans were gunned down by cops that year. The actual number of unarmed African-Americans killed by the police in 2019 was 27.

The rest of the study found similar results: Self-described liberals, for example, believe that a strong majority of people killed by police in 2019 were African-Americans. The actual percentage was less than half that, closer to 25%.

These are not small mistakes. A lot of Americans are completely and utterly misinformed, and that has actual consequences. Public policy can change dramatically on the basis of things people think they know but don't actually know. So it's worth finding out where the public is getting all this "disinformation."

Is it QAnon? Marjorie Taylor Greene's Twitter feed? The Kremlin? The Proud Boys? Alex Jones?

The answer is none of the above. It was cable news and politicians talking on TV. They're the ones spreading disinformation to Americans. Apparently, not only are huge numbers of unarmed African-Americans murdered every year because of their race, to deny that or question that fact is to effectively participate in those killings yourself.

Where, and this is the missing piece of the puzzle, are all the victims of this indiscriminate racial violence? Last month, MSNBC was pretty sure they had found one. The channel claimed cops had tried to execute an unarmed African-American man called Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. They repeated the claim that Jacob Blake was unarmed again and again and again.

However, someone in MSNBC's news division forgot to check with Jacob Blake about that because a week later, Blake himself admitted on camera that he was, in fact, armed.

We can give you many examples. Here's one from the weekend. Hundreds of activists gathered in New York to stage a march against White nationalism. They said they were seeking justice for an 84-year-old man from Thailand who had been attacked in San Francisco and later died from his injuries.

Protesters stormed through Washington Square Park chanting slogans like "Whose streets? Our streets!" One held a sign that read, "White nationalism is the virus." Maybe it is, but it's hard to know exactly who's been infected with it. Police have arrested a 19-year-old man called Antoine Watson for the crime, and let's just say it's hard to imagine that Antoine Watson is a White supremacist.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-media-disinformation-more-powerful-destructive-qanon

;-)

[Barry Pruett]

Nailed it. CNN et al are the root of all problems.

[Thomas O'Toole]

Bessee, Good Post. Thank you

[Bill Tozer]

The House can pass any bill the choose. However, the Senate has a different set of rules. Wonder how long the Senate Parliamentarian keeps her job or how long Chuckie the Clown Schumer tries a work around. What the heck does the minimum wage have to do with C-19 relief?? The new word for today is ‘germane’.

‘Biden’s COVID-19 Relief Plan Can’t Include $15 Minimum Wage, Says Senate Parliamentarian’

“Under the reconciliation process, the Senate can pass a bill with a filibuster-proof simple majority, but any amendment must be germane, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-covid-19-relief-plan-cant-include-15-minimum-wage-says-senate-parliamentarian

[Bill Tozer]

Essay.

‘Environmentalism, Trumpism, and the Working Class’

https://quillette.com/2021/02/20/environmentalism-trumpism-and-the-working-class/

Our Covid-19 lockdowns and closures is just a dress rehearsal for the Green Raw Deal and other Big Brother dictates (I say again and again).

[Bill Tozer]

‘AOC's Terrible Minimum Wage Argument’
Denmark can afford its system because high taxes are paid by all its citizens, not just the wealthy.

“Then there is the matter of what exactly $45,000 — the salary an employee making $22 an hour on a full-time basis would earn — means in each country. Denmark can afford its system because high taxes are paid by all its citizens, not just the wealthy. Not only do Danish fast-food employees making $45,000 hand over around half their earnings to the government, they pay a 25% value-added tax on most purchases, as well as a number of other levies. In return, Danes are afforded all kinds of government-provided services. Presumably, Ocasio-Cortez approves of this arrangement. Either way, Americans whose eyes light up at the prospect of making $22 per hour should know that nearly $11 of that goes straight to the state.“

https://patriotpost.us/opinion/78192-aocs-terrible-minimum-wage-argument-2021-03-05?