‘Free Market’ Vices and Income Erosion

What is sorely missing from the Republicans’ much-feted regard for ordinary American working families is any concern for affording them pay that sustains a decent standard of living. Enacting middle-class tax cuts proposed by Newt Gingrich and Pete Wilson that put a few dollars into people’s pockets won’t compensate for lower incomes experienced by so many U.S. workers since the 1980s.

America’s economic system isn’t unique because of free markets or even technological achievements. Rather, this nation boasts of the first economy where workers could afford to buy what they produce.

Elsewhere, such a goal is only a fanciful dream. Witness “In the U.S., It’s a Hot Toy; in Thailand, a $5-a-Day Job” (Dec. 19) describing how a Thai worker earning $5 a day could not possibly afford to buy her son a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger costing $13.50 in this country--and $88 in Thailand. Other forms of exploitation also mean that this Bangkok Power Ranger plant employee does not dare speak on the job. “I cannot smile,” she said. “I cannot talk. I cannot make a sound.”

Pay and protections for workers have often been sacrificed in developing economies such as Thailand and Mexico. That is the chief competitive advantage they enjoy over the United States.

GOP politicians such as Wilson and Gingrich frequently talk about releasing our free-market system from restraints such as enforcement of job safety and environmental laws and regulations that safeguard workers and other Americans. They’ve spent years staunchly opposing unions. Declining living standards for U.S. workers are a measure of their success. How much more success will we allow them to realize?

RICARDO F. ICAZA

President, UFCW Local 770

President, Los Angeles County

Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO