Donald Trump Advises Automakers To Kill Jobs To Increase Corporate Profits

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:10 pm

There is little doubt that Republicans will do anything to increase the profits of their corporate masters, even if it means deliberately killing jobs and sending more Americans into the ranks of poverty. It is just what Republicans do, and this week Donald Trump revealed one of the GOP’s tactics to increase income inequality, kill jobs, and force more Americans to work for poverty wages. Trump’s revelation comes on the heels of a new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that explained why there is such crushing income inequality in the U.S., and how to combat it with great effect. It is likely that, unbeknownst to them, the IMF also explained why Republicans attack labor unions with such venom and why they work tirelessly to keep wages in America so despicably low for tens-of-millions of hardworking and highly-productive American workers.

Donald Trump may not have realized he was revealing what may be the most dastardly GOP-corporate tactic to force Americans to work for poverty wages. When Bush-Republicans crashed the economy in the Great Recession and killed tens-of-millions of Americans’ jobs, corporations and businesses did not hire new workers, patiently waited for President Obama’s economic recovery, and then hired desperate workers for poverty wages. Now, according to Republicans and corporate bosses the Kochs, it is the American workforce, specifically those earning decent wages such as Detroit autoworkers, that is destroying business profits; because their wages are just too extravagant.

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Using that argument, Donald Trump proffered a typically Republican plan to help the big three automakers increase their profits without moving their manufacturing operations out of country to pay less-than-poverty wages in Mexico. Trump said U.S. automakers should shift production away from Michigan to other American communities where autoworkers would make minimum wage, receive no benefits, and sink into poverty. It is a “destroy jobs and starve workers” until they are willing to work for slave wages  plot so typical of corporatist Republicans. He said, “You can go to different parts of the United States and then ultimately you’d do full-circle — you’ll come back to Michigan because those guys are going to desperately want their jobs back; even if it is earning less. We can do the rotation in the United States — it doesn’t have to be in Mexico. After Michigan loses a few plants, all of sudden you’ll make good deals in your own area.” Good deals in Republican corporate-speak means hiring unemployed auto workers desperate for a job to work for poverty wages and no employee benefits. This is exactly how corporations have thrived after the Great Recession and President Obama’s recovery gained steam and why the income gap continues widening.

As is typical, there is one major problem with Trump’s GOP-corporatist “plan;” auto workers will make the same union wages wherever they build automobiles in the United States according to the labor contract negotiated between their union and domestic automakers. That is the beauty of being a unionized auto worker in America; “Although wages are lower at non-union U.S. plants owned by foreign automakers, hourly employees for Detroit’s Big Three are paid the same no matter what state they’re in, under the terms of United Auto Workers contracts.” Obviously Trump was unaware of that fact or he would have said what Republicans typically say about labor unions; unless Republicans attack them like they are ISIS and condemn them as terrorist Nazis, America is going to perish.

There is a reason Republicans go to great lengths to destroy unions and keep wages at poverty levels; it is the best way to increase income inequality and raise the top one percent’s share of income. That was an “unbelievably startling revelation” in a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that stated; “the decline in unionization is related to the rise of top income shares and less redistribution, while the erosion of minimum wages is correlated with considerable increases in overall inequality.” Not only is the IMF stating the obvious and something any non-Republican with a pea-brain comprehends, the organization described the economic policy and goal of corporatist Republicans and their funding mechanism the Koch brothers.

According to Inequality and Labor Market Institutions, “a steep decline in union density is followed by a 8% increase of top incomes and a 3% decline for workers’ share; if de-unionization weakens earnings for middle- and low-income workers, this necessarily increases the income share of corporate owners, CEOs,  and shareholders.” According to an economist and co-author of the report, Florence Jaumotte, “declining union strength is associated with less income redistribution, likely through a reduced influence of unions on public policy benefitting the labor force.” The report also revealed what Republicans deny religiously; it is a well-established fact that “Unions help raise wages, both for organized labor members and the community at large;” what semi-intelligent human beings recognize as one of the greatest benefits of a strong labor movement; “prevailing wage.” Although the IMF has never been a champion for anyone other than big business, it did readily acknowledge that its findings proved that “higher unionization and higher minimum wages help reduce inequality.” It is something that Republicans and their corporate masters are well aware of and why they so stridently oppose labor unions and higher minimum wages.

The IMF study also noted that any country that actually supports shared prosperity among all its citizens will enable their workers to form unions and ensure a living wage for all. Obviously, with the Koch brothers controlling Congress and the Supreme Court, as well as half the state legislatures in the nation, the concept of “shared prosperity” is an abomination which is why there is a robust Republican war against workers forming unions or a living wage for all Americans. It is also why the big three auto makers are considering moving their production facilities to Mexico, and why Donald Trump thought he came up with a brilliant plan to save automakers money by simply moving their production plants to Republican states with ‘right to work’ for less laws and poverty wages instead of Mexico; then moving back to Michigan to hire desperate auto workers for low wages.

Trump’s plan is closely related to the tactics Willard Romney’s company, Bain Capital, employed on a regular basis; buy a company, fire all the workers, and hire the workforce back at minimum wage and prohibit them from organizing with union representation. Many Americans just cannot comprehend why after the economy is recovering, all the proceeds have flowed directly to the top while the poor and middle class continue steadily losing ground. After the  2008 Republican crash, corporations and big business simply waited until out of work Americans became desperate for any kind of job and would work for minimum wage; a minimum wage Republicans refuse to raise because their only regard is, as the IMF reported, “a steady rise of top income shares and less redistribution” to permanently “increase overall income inequality” to benefit the rich.

It is tragic that the media finds an abundance of time reporting Donald Trump’s every utterance but ignores his typical Republican plan to increase income inequality; even if it means destroying jobs. It may be the only time that a Republican blatantly admits that the GOP supports tactics that purposely kills jobs, and unions, to increase poverty for the masses and wealth for the richest one percent even though there are some Americans who understand that is the only economic policy any Republican supports.

Rmuse

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.

Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.

Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.