Crisis in Legitimacy

The sky is falling, the sky is falling - or at least the stock market is...

Today we will see whether Wall Street follows the tumble some of the global exchanges, notably Europe and Japan, took today. Notably, Communist China's market posted a 100+ point rebound. This seems to show that socialism is even better at managing stock markets than capitalism (I'm being witty here of course).

It would be too easy to say that the only people affected are the speculative elites. Unfortunately the reality is that many workers in the west have most of their savings tied to equity markets, so a prolonged decline will hurt a lot at a time when we can ill afford it.

Therefore the news that economic ministers in Europe are calling on businesses to share their profits with workers is very encouraging. The Financial Times reports:

European companies must give workers a bigger share of their soaring profit or risk igniting a “crisis in legitimacy” in the continent’s economic model, Germany’s finance minister warned on Tuesday.

Peer Steinbrück’s comments were part of a concerted attempt by Europe’s economic leaders in Brussels to persuade companies to share profit with workers as well as shareholders.¹

I applaud these leaders for standing up in the face of business might in an extremely hostile climate and stating the truth - we the workers create the wealth of the world and deserve our rightful share. Of course we should not have to rely on meek government officials to go begging for business to behave in an ethical manner.

The gains of the working class have been fought for and died for by countless nameless agitators and organizers. These heroes of the past must be honored by a new generation who will stand up and demand the wealth they create be given back to them - reversing the current trend.

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