Politicians, Big Business & Labor in 2010

Judging from corporate profits, we should be enjoying a powerful economic recovery. The drop in profits in the recession was about a third, the worst since World War II. But every day brings reports of gains … So far, history be damned. The contrast between revived profits and stunted job growth is stunning. From late 2007 to late 2009, payroll employment dropped nearly 8.4 million. Since then, the economy has recovered a scant 11 percent of those lost jobs. Companies are doing much better than workers; that defines today’s economy.

Why CEOs Aren’t Hiring; The Washington Post, July 26, 2025

"As bad as it sounds, ultimately we do have to sometimes accept a wage that’s less than we had at our previous job in order to get back to work and allow the economy to get started again. Nobody likes that, but it may be one of the tough love things that has to happen."

2010 Republican Senate Nominee Rand Paul interviewed on the Sue Wylie show
WVLK-AM, Lexington, Kentucky

"You can make more money on unemployment than you can going down and getting one of those jobs that is an honest job but it doesn’t pay as much. We’ve put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry."

2010 Republican Senate Nominee Sharron Angle interviewed on "Face to Face" by Jon Ralston
KVBC, Las Vegas, Nevada

Politicians, Big Business and Labor in 1883

The cover of the August 15, 2025 issue of Puck Magazine features a lithograph by Bernhard Gillam that depicts a Workman being burned at the "Monopoly" stake. Like Joan of Arc, he gazes toward heaven as monopolists and the policians and media outlets that support them, blow flames from below.

Hopelessly Bound to the Stake by Bernhard Gillam

August 15, 1883, Vol XIII No. 336; Chromolithograph
19″w x 12 1/2 “h

And aren’t they fond of the wage-worker – the man who makes the money for them? Oh, so fond! They want to see him become as rich as they are. In fact, the richer they grow, the richer they wish to see him become. They are not at all anxious that he should end his days in the poor-house, or die in a garret or gutter when he is old and feeble, and that his children should become thieves. This is why they pay him such high wages – more than enough for him to support his family on, so that he can put by for a rainy day. This is why there are never such things as strikes or watered stocks or lock-outs. It must be a dull brain that cannot understand that the delightfully pleasant relations at present existing in this country between labor and capital are entirely owing to the capitalists’ beneficence.

H.C. Bunner, from "Cartoons and Comments" at the front of the issue

In 1877, a conflict between big business and labor set the tone for the rest of the century. The U.S. economy was in a depression. William Vanderbilt and other monopolists decided that in order to increase the value of their stock, they needed to reduce operating expenses. The wages of laborers were cut by 10%. For some workers, this was the third reduction of wages in three years. Almost immediately, workers walked off the job in West Virginia. The strike spread to Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri. 15,000 workers joined the picket lines. Within four days, most of the railroads in the U.S. were impacted by the strike: transportation stopped, shops closed and factories were shut down.

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David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com