Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It)

 (The University Center for Human Values Series Book 50) 

Kindle Edition

 Why our workplaces are authoritarian private governments—and why we can't see it

One in four American workers says their workplace is a "dictatorship." Yet that number probably would be even higher if we recognized most employers for what they are—private governments with sweeping authoritarian power over our lives, on duty and off. We normally think of government as something only the state does, yet many of us are governed far more—and far more obtrusively—by the private government of the workplace. In this provocative and compelling book, Elizabeth Anderson argues that the failure to see this stems from long-standing confusions. These confusions explain why, despite all evidence to the contrary, we still talk as if free markets make workers free—and why so many employers advocate less government even while they act as dictators in their businesses.

In many workplaces, employers minutely regulate workers' speech, clothing, and manners, leaving them with little privacy and few other rights. And employers often extend their authority to workers' off-duty lives. Workers can be fired for their political speech, recreational activities, diet, and almost anything else employers care to govern. Yet we continue to talk as if early advocates of market society—from John Locke and Adam Smith to Thomas Paine and Abraham Lincoln—were right when they argued that it would free workers from oppressive authorities. That dream was shattered by the Industrial Revolution, but the myth endures.

Private Government offers a better way to talk about the workplace, opening up space for discovering how workers can enjoy real freedom.

Based on the prestigious Tanner Lectures delivered at Princeton University's Center for Human Values, Private Government is edited and introduced by Stephen Macedo and includes commentary by cultural critic David Bromwich, economist Tyler Cowen, historian Ann Hughes, and philosopher Niko Kolodny.

AMAZON ALLOWS A FREE CHAPTER DOWNLOAD WITH KINDLE

CAPITALIST CRISIS; OVERPRODUCTION

'Millions of Cases' of Truly Hard Seltzer Will Be Destroyed as Hard Seltzer Boom Fades

Mike Pomranz
Mon, October 25, 2021

Cases of Truly Hard Seltzer

Shutterstock

The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and on Friday, the makers of Truly Hard Seltzer admitted their massive bet on the popular brand had come crashing down with a resounding thud, including choosing to destroy millions of cases of the fizzy alcoholic beverage.

Truly is America's second most popular hard seltzer brand after White Claw, and as the hard seltzer category exploded over the past few years, Boston Beer Company — the parent company behind Truly, as well as other brands such as Sam Adams, Angry Orchard, Twisted Tea, and Dogfish Head — ramped up production in line with the projected growth.

But though hard seltzer still claims a significant percentage of beer sales, the astronomical growth has slowed to more sensible levels, catching Boston Beer overcommitted to the waning phenomenon. In July, the company's stock plummeted after poor second-quarter results tied specifically to Truly's underperformance. Shortly after, Bloomberg reported that hard seltzer sales were up just 4 percent for the four weeks ending on July 11 as opposed to 49 percent growth over the previous 12 months. And when announcing their third-quarter earnings last week, Boston Beer admitted they were still dealing with these miscalculations.

On Friday, Jim Koch — who became a bit of a household name in the '90s handling Sam Adams ads himself and who is still chairman of Boston Beer — spoke to CNBC about the Truly's stumbles. "We were very aggressive about adding capacity, adding inventory, buying raw materials, like cans and flavors, and, frankly, we overbought… And when the growth stopped, we had more of all those things than we were going to be able to use, because there is a shelf life," Koch said in an interview. "We want Truly to have that fresh, bright taste, so we're going to crush millions of cases of product before it goes stale."

If destroying perfectly drinkable booze sounds a bit unreasonable, CNBC seemed to agree, pressing Koch on why the brand couldn't try to move the product at a discount. "You know, that's just not what we do at Boston Beer Co.," Koch continued. "Our mission is to sell high-quality products and to build high-quality brands. So rather than take a chance of it getting out in the market and going stale and consumers having a bad experience, we decided to make the hard decision and eat a lot of product, just to make sure consumers didn't get stale product and have a bad Truly."

Still, despite the slowed growth, Koch was optimistic about hard seltzer as a permanent fixture on the drinking scene. "I think us and White Claw together are close to that 70 percent [of the total hard seltzer market], and then there's a lot of clutter, and I think a lot of that long-tail clutter will go away," he added. "I think that will be very helpful for long-term growth of the hard seltzer category because consumers won't get so confused."

STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE
Puerto Rico Bankruptcy Judge Threatens Dismissal of Case Without Plan



Michelle Kaske
Mon, October 25, 2021

(Bloomberg) -- The judge overseeing Puerto Rico’s record bankruptcy threatened to consider dismissing the island’s more than four-year case if she is unable to confirm a debt restructuring plan soon, U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain said during a hearing Monday.

The judge’s comments came in a hearing Monday to discuss an impasse that has delayed the passage of legislation that would allow for a debt-restructuring plan to move forward.

“I will be frank with you, my patience is wearing thin,” Swain said during the hearing. “I’m not convinced that further delays are at the interest of Puerto Rico.”

A dismissal of Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy would upend years of negotiations with bondholders, insurance companies and labor groups to find a way to resolve $33 billion of bonds and other obligations, including $22 billion of general obligations and debt backed by the commonwealth. It would allow investors to sue Puerto Rico for repayment of bonds as a stay on such actions would be lifted without bankruptcy protection.

The debt-cutting agreement struck with major bondholders has been imperiled by the territory’s legislature, which failed to approve a measure that would allow Puerto Rico to issue new debt to implement it. Under the deal, investors would exchange their debt for a lesser amount of new bonds, reducing what the government owes.

Puerto Rico’s legislative leaders late Sunday, however, reached an agreement that could end the stalemate.

Puerto Rico has been in bankruptcy since May 2017, after years of population loss, economic decline and borrowing to pay for operating expenses.

Billionaires Blast Wealth Tax: ‘One-Way Ticket to Venezuela’

Noah Kirsch
Mon, October 25, 2021


REUTERS

It has been a summer of scrutiny for the ultra-rich—and now the billionaires are fighting amongst themselves.

The culprit: a so-called “Billionaire Income Tax” that Democrats in Congress are reportedly mulling to help finance Biden’s agenda. The proposal would only target several hundred of the wealthiest Americans by taxing the rising values of certain assets, like stocks, even before they are sold.

“I doubt it’s legal, and it’s stupid,” the billionaire investor Leon Cooperman complained to The Daily Beast. “What made America great was the people who started with nothing like me making a lot of money and giving it back. A relentless attack on wealthy people makes no sense.”

Another billionaire, the grocery chain magnate John Catsimatidis, shared his comrade’s ire. “These people are just nuts. They're trying to change our way of life, and it’s not going to happen,” he said. “If they don't like the United States the way it is, I'm buying them a one-way ticket to Venezuela.”

Other billionaires were less aggrieved, including the real estate developer John Sobrato and restaurant entrepreneur Jimmy John Liatuaud, founder of his namesake sandwich chain.

“I know a lot of people that… have accumulated massive, massive wealth, and then they take loans against that to live on. And that's tax free. And I think it’s bullshit,” Liautaud said.

“[With] Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, every year this shit’s compounding,” he added, referring to stock investments that are typically not taxed until they are sold. “I paid more tax than Warren Buffett. And I'm worth 2 billion fucking dollars.”

The debate follows a series of explosive media reports on the low tax rates enjoyed by the ultra-rich.

In June, ProPublica published an investigation which found that a number of billionaires, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Carl Icahn, and Goerge Soros, paid no federal income taxes in certain years.

The report also used an invented term, “true tax rate,” to depict the percentage of a billionaire’s wealth they had paid in taxes during the four years ending in 2018. Warren Buffett’s “true” rate, for instance, stood at just 0.1 percent, while Musk’s stood at a comparatively high 3.27 percent.

Any person who holds appreciating assets—billionaire or not— would likely have a lower “true” tax rate than the percentage of income they pay in federal and state taxes. But the numbers were nonetheless striking.

In September, The White House added to the uproar with a report asserting that the wealthiest 400 billionaires in the U.S. paid an average of 8.2 percent of their income in federal taxes between 2010 and 2018, though it also lumped in assets that aren’t traditionally taxable.

“Biden is fanning the flames of resentment,” fumed Cooperman, who argued that the administration’s methodology was distortive.

He also assailed the viability of a “Billionaire Income Tax,” which could theoretically force wealthy stockholders to sell shares in order to meet tax obligations. “Is Bill Gates gonna have to sell his Microsoft Holdings, is Jeff Bezos gonna have to sell his Amazon holdings?” Cooperman said.

He also pointed out the challenge of taxing individuals on the value of a high-priced stock, since its value could later drop. The 78-year-old investor said he favors other revenue generating measures, like eliminating the “carried-interest” tax loophole for private equity tycoons, and regulating 1031 exchanges, which allow investors to roll over gains indefinitely.

Cooperman said that he pays an effective tax rate of roughly 34 percent and would support a minimum tax on the ultra-rich as high as 50 percent.

It’s unclear if Democrats will be able to find the votes to move forward with a “Billionaire Income Tax.”.

Catsimatidis is skeptical. “Everybody knows it’s never going to happen. I think they’re just trying to make everybody feel like, ‘We're going to go after those people.’”

But it’s not just left-wing activists who are assailing the 0.1 percent. Liautaud took aim at billionaires with publicly traded companies, who are able to take out cheap loans backed by their stock, thereby preventing them from ever needing to sell a significant portion of their shares.

He offered the example of a hypothetical billionaire who wanted to buy a $1 billion yacht. One option would be to sell roughly $1.5 billion in shares, which would incur a massive tax obligation. The other option, Liautaud said, is “he takes a loan against [his shares], buys his yacht, pays no tax whatsoever, and spends one or 2 percent on interest... instead of paying a $400 or $500 million tax bill.”

Liautaud, who donated to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, outlined what he described as a middle-of-the-road approach. “I don't want to disincentivize the guys that are creating this wealth for you and I,” he said. “But we shouldn't wait 70 years for Warren Buffett to pay.”

Ex-Alitalia Flight Attendants Strip In Labor Protest


AP
Mon, October 25, 2021, 3:30 AM·1 min read

Dozens of former flight attendants from defunct Italian airline Alitalia stripped off their uniforms Wednesday, wearing only undergarments in a silent, choreographed protest in central Rome.

Long financially ailing, Italy’s decades-old airline flew its last flight on Oct. 14. A new airline, ITA, began flying the next day, using some of Alitalia’s aircraft. It also bought the Alitalia brand, but it is taking on fewer than 3,000 of Alitalia’s 10,000 employees.

Union officials say those who will work for ITA are being hired at significantly lower pay scales.

Some 50 former flight attendants stood in rows in a square atop Rome’s Capitoline Hill, lowered their company shoulder bags to the cobblestone pavement, then slowly and in synch, removed their overcoats, then uniform jackets, then skirts, then stepped out of their high-heeled shoes.

They remained barefoot, wearing only a slip, in silence for a few minutes. Then they carefully gathered up their garments and shoes and together shouted, “We are Alitalia!”

Union leaders have been pressing for the government to extend unemployment benefits for as long as five years.

U.S. Dairy Cows Too Expensive to Feed, Causing Herd to Plummet


Elizabeth Elkin
Mon, October 25, 2021, 11:53 AM·1 min read

(Bloomberg) -- The number of dairy cows in the U.S. is plunging at a pace not seen in more than a decade, signaling elevated costs for products like butter.

The cost of feeding dairy cows has been soaring, said Nate Donnay, director of dairy market insight at StoneX Group. That’s forcing dairy farmers to slash herds. Corn futures in Chicago are up 29% from a year ago and touched an eight-year high back in May.

The U.S. herd shrank by 85,000 cows between June and September, the biggest four-month drop since 2009. Milk production is consequently less than expected, rising in September just 0.2% from last year, falling way short of StoneX’s forecast of 1.3%.

Lower milk production could mean that prices for dairy products could be more expensive, and add to rising food inflation that’s already hitting Americans’ wallets.

“We’ve never seen a drop this big without a more severe drop in margins preceding it,” Donnay said in a report.

Prices for American dairy products have been climbing recently, helped by the bullish production report, said Matt Gould, editor of The Dairy Market Analyst. Global milk supplies are tight, and butter in particular is limited, he said.

THEY EAT THEY FART THEY CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING

Alibaba Has Lost $344 Billion in World's Biggest Wipeout



Jeanny Yu
Mon, October 25, 2021

(Bloomberg) -- Few people could have predicted the downward spiral for Alibaba Group Holding, when founder Jack Ma delivered a blunt criticism of China’s financial system last October.

Yet one year on, the technology titan has lost a whopping $344 billion in market capitalization -- the biggest wipe-out of shareholder value globally, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shortly after the now infamous speech, Beijing suspended the listing of its fintech arm Ant Group and has since followed up with a widespread crackdown on the country’s most vibrant sectors -- causing Chinese stocks to tank.

Alibaba shares sank from an all-time high that month to a record low three weeks ago in Hong Kong, as Beijing stepped up its scrutiny of the company’s practices and urged a restructure of its fintech business. Despite a 30% recovery from Oct. 5, the stock is still 43% lower than its October 2020 peak.

Bloomberg Intelligence expects fiscal second-quarter active users at the e-commerce giant to have beaten consensus projections as a result of China’s zero-Covid policy. Alibaba is set to report earnings on Nov. 5.

In major ocean polluter Philippines, group turns plastic waste into planks


Sun, October 24, 2021

By Adrian Portugal

MANILA (Reuters) - A group of recyclers in the Philippines is trying to ease the country's worsening plastic waste crisis by turning bottles, single-use sachets and snack food wrappers that clog rivers and spoil beaches into building materials.

The Plastic Flamingo, or "The Plaf", as they are commonly known, collect the waste, shred it and then mould it into posts and planks called "eco-lumber" that can be used for fencing, decking or even to make disaster-relief shelters.


"(It) is 100% upcycled material, 100% made from plastic waste materials, we also include some additives and colorants and it is rot-free, maintenance-free, and splinter-free," said Erica Reyes, The Plaf's chief operating officer.

Having collected over 100 tonnes of plastic waste to date, the social enterprise is doing its bit to address a local problem that has global ramifications.

Approximately 80% of global ocean plastic comes from Asian rivers, and the Philippines alone contributes a third of that total, according to a 2021 report by Oxford University's Our World in Data.

The Philippines does not have a clear strategy on tackling its plastics problem and its environment department has said it has been in contact with manufacturers to identify ways to manage waste.

COVID-19, though, has made the battle against plastic waste harder to win.

Some 300 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced annually, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, a problem that has been exacerbated by the pandemic which sparked a rush for plastic face shields, gloves, takeaway food containers and bubble wrap as online shopping surged.

"People are unaware of how to dispose of these plastics," said Allison Tan, The Plaf's marketing associate.

"We give that avenue that instead of putting it in landfills or oceans...you give it to recycling centres like us and we would upcycle them into better products."

As well as tackling waste problems, the group says it is in talks with other non-government organisations to help rebuild houses destroyed by typhoons using their sustainable building materials.

(Reporting by Adrian Portugal; Editing by John Geddie and Muralikumar Anantharaman)






In major ocean polluter Philippines, group turns plastic waste into planks
Making lumber out of plastics
Adrian Portugal

 

A mom told Jeff Bezos that Amazon was underpaying her $90 a month, sparking an internal probe that found the company was shortchanging some workers, a report says

Isobel Asher Hamilton

Mon, October 25, 2021

• An Amazon worker on leave emailed Jeff Bezos to say she'd been underpaid, The New York Times said.

• A subsequent investigation found that Amazon was systematically underpaying some workers on leave.

• A spokesperson told The Times that Amazon was still identifying underpaid workers.

An email sent to Jeff Bezos from an Amazon worker who was on leave triggered an internal investigation that exposed flaws with the company's payroll system, The New York Times reported.

Tara Jones, an Oklahoma Amazon warehouse worker, emailed Bezos in 2020 to tell him she was being underpaid $90 out of $540 she was supposed to get a month, The Times reported. She had a newborn baby at the time, The Times said.

"I'm behind on bills, all because the pay team messed up," Jones wrote in her email. She added, "I'm crying as I write this email," the report said.

The Times interviewed Amazon staff and reviewed internal documents that showed that Amazon subsequently discovered it was shortchanging some employees who were on leave, including medical and disability leave. The problems spanned at least a year and a half, and it potentially affected as many as 179 warehouses.

An Amazon spokesperson told The Times that the company was still in the process of identifying workers it had underpaid.

One of those people, a warehouse worker from Tennessee named James Watts, told The Times that his disability payments stopped for several months in the spring. Watts told The Times that his car was repossessed and that he and his wife sold their wedding rings.

Current and former HR employees also told The Times that workers facing medical problems were automatically fired by Amazon's attendance software after it mistook their leave for absence.

Bethany Reyes, an Amazon HR employee who has recently been charged with fixing the company's leave system, told The Times that the company was trying to rebalance its mantra of "optimizing" for the customer.

"A lot of times, because we've optimized for the customer experience, we've been focused on that," Reyes said. She added that the company was working to address "pain points" and "pay issues." She also said the automatic firings were "the most dire issue that you could have."

Amazon did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider for comment on the report.

In a letter to shareholders last year, Bezos boasted that the lowest-paid Amazon worker made more than 40 million people in the US.

Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon on July 5 and was replaced by Andy Jassy, a longtime executive. Bezos remains the chair of the company. 

Read the original article on Business Insider

Big Banks Haven't Quit Fossil Fuel, With $4 Trillion Since Paris

Tasneem Brogger and Alastair Marsh
Sun, October 24, 2021

(Bloomberg) -- As executives from JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and other lenders prepare for the most important UN climate summit in six years, their companies continue to help provide almost as much money for fossil fuels as for green projects.

Scientists have made clear that time is running out to prevent a climate catastrophe. Yet this year alone, banks have organized $459 billion of bonds and loans for the oil, gas and coal sectors, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At the same time, they arranged $463 billion worth of green bonds and loans, with fees more or less evenly split.

Since the Paris Agreement at the end of 2015, banks have played a prominent role in enabling the warming that’s behind increasingly deadly storms, fires and floods. During the period, the industry generated more than $17 billion of fees from facilitating almost $4 trillion of fossil-fuel financing. The money has helped feed carbon emissions that, at the current pace, mean temperatures will rise well above the 1.5 degrees Celsius identified as critical to avert irreversible damage.

Now, as global leaders prepare to descend on Glasgow, Scotland, for the COP26 climate talks, a growing chorus of investors and activists are demanding that banks stop funding polluters -- before it’s too late.

“What banks need to do is extremely clear,” said Miguel Nogales, co-chief investment officer at Generation Investment Management LLP, the $36 billion fund manager co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. “No financing for new coal plants, no financing for new oil fields.”

Next month’s talks in Glasgow have been dubbed the finance COP, meaning focus will be on the extent to which the banking industry is pulling its weight to help prevent carbon dioxide from spewing into the atmosphere. In the lead-up to the talks, banks and asset managers have released a deluge of climate declarations, assuring stakeholders they’re committed to eliminating net emissions from their lending and investing portfolios -- or reaching net zero -- by the middle of the century.

On the surface, banks are acknowledging the issue. Most of the world’s biggest lenders, including JPMorgan, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Corp., are part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. But in reality, they’ve yet to show that they can purge their loan books of CO2 fast enough.

“At the top of many big banks, there is a realization that they will have to step back from financing certain fossil-fuel projects, but many are only just beginning this journey,” said Jessica Ground, the London-based global head of environmental, social and governance at Capital Group, which has $2.6 trillion of assets under management.

Bill Winters, the chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Plc, said earlier this month that " it’s just not practical” to expect banks to stop financing the fossil-fuel industry, in part because to do so would undermine transition efforts, particularly in the emerging markets. And then last week, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO David Solomon said his firm won’t abruptly stop working with fossil-fuel companies, stressing the need for a balanced transition to green energy that avoids higher energy prices.

According to the Sunrise Project, an environmental nonprofit based in Australia, if banks are to be taken seriously on their net-zero commitments, they need to stop financing companies and projects expanding coal, oil and gas output infrastructure or power generation. And all corporate finance and underwriting of rich-world coal companies should be phased out by 2030 “at the very latest,” the group said in an email. For non-OECD countries, the deadline should be 2040, it said.

Banks will often respond to criticisms of their fossil-fuel financing by citing their commitment to funding clean energy, Sunrise Project said. But the group characterized this as a “distraction.” Investing in clean energy doesn’t alleviate the effects of lending to the world’s worst polluters, it said.

JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank, is the world’s leading provider of finance to the fossil-fuel industry and also ranks as the No. 1 underwriter of green bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The New York-based firm has made about $985 million in revenue since the end of 2015 arranging debt and lending for the oil, gas and coal industries. That compares with the roughly $310 million it generated in income from green finance.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. provides even more loans to the fossil-fuel industry than JPMorgan, but does far less bond underwriting. Citigroup places second among the top providers of fossil finance, from which it has generated almost $890 million in revenue during the past six years, Bloomberg data show. Bank of America is next with roughly $690 million.

To measure the involvement of each bank, Bloomberg’s data include the bonds and syndicated loans underwritten for companies that produce or extract oil, natural gas and coal. Those figures are assessed against the debt that each bank arranged on behalf of corporate and government issuers for eligible climate or environmental projects.

There are weaknesses in the data set. For example, it’s possible some portion of a loan to an oil company might have been used on a clean-energy project. Bloomberg started tracking fees that banks earn from extending loans in 2018, so fees from 2016 and 2017 might be under-represented. But none of that changes the overall picture left by the data -- namely that banks have financed hundreds of billions of dollars worth of carbon emissions.

At the current rate of greenhouse-gas emissions, the United Nations warns that the average global temperature is set to be 2.7 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century. At that level of warming, whole populations will be displaced by rising sea levels, vast numbers of species will face extinction, and deadly wild fires and flooding will become far more frequent.

The International Energy Agency said this month that the world is woefully behind in delivering the necessary emissions cuts. “Every data point showing the speed of change in energy can be countered by another showing the stubbornness of the status quo,” the agency said in its latest report.

At JPMorgan, executives say they’re aware of the urgency of the moment. “Climate change is a critical issue of our time, and we are committed to doing our part to address it,” Marisa Buchanan, the firm’s global head of sustainability, said earlier this month in connection with a public commitment to carbon neutrality by mid-century.

JPMorgan said in May that it plans to report a 35% reduction in “operational carbon intensity” for its oil and gas portfolio by the end of the decade. The commitment followed the company’s announcement last year that it was aligning its financing activities with the Paris Agreement.

Nogales called JPMorgan’s decision to join the Net-Zero Banking Alliance a “positive step.” But he also referred to it as “a high standard of action that, according to the IEA, means turning off the finance tap to new fossil-fuel projects as soon as this year.” The extent to which signatories do this will be the “real test,” and one that investors “will be watching very closely,” Nogales said.

An important plank of the 2015 Paris climate agreement was to involve the financial industry, reflecting the need to steer money away from activities that pollute. The latest flurry of net-zero commitments from banks and asset managers follows on from that agreement. But details on how they plan to achieve carbon neutrality 30 years from now remain scarce.

Nogales said part of the problem is that most net-zero goals are too far in the future. “The problem with very long-term targets is that it’s typically going to be a different set of executives running those businesses at that point,” he said, adding that Generation Management wants to see CO2 targets set for 2030, in line with the UN’s recommendations to halve emissions in the coming decade.

The latest assessment by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “was extremely clear,” Nogales said. “We’re facing a massive emergency.”