Decent Work or Indecent Politics

Written on February 3rd, 2017 in politics Comments Off

Published on Social Europe, by Guy Ryder, Feb 1, 2017.

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development commits UN member states to “leave no one behind.” One crucial component of that commitment – encompassed in the International Labor Organization’s own agenda – is decent work for all. At a time when worker frustration and disillusionment is being expressed in elections across the world, this goal could not be more important.  

Nowadays, the expectation that each generation will be better off than the previous one, both socially and economically, is no longer automatic. For many, downward mobility has become the new normal … //

… In Europe, the highest-paid 10% of employees account for, on average, 25.5% of total wages, while the lowest-paid 50% get just 29.1%. The share of earnings taken by the top 10% is even higher in some emerging economies, such as Brazil (35%), India (42.7%), and South Africa (49.2%). In Europe, the top 1% earn about €90 ($95) per hour – eight times more than median-wage earners, and 22 times the average wage of the bottom 10%.

We are now faced with the twin challenges of improving the lot of those at the lower end of the wage distribution, while creating enough new high-quality jobs for the tens of millions of new labor-market entrants each year. With the global economy having yet to recover fully from the global economic crisis that began a decade ago, meeting these challenges will be no easy feat … //

… Expanding access to decent work opportunities is the most effective way to increase labor-market participation, lift people out of poverty, reduce inequality, and drive economic growth. It should be at the center of policymaking. The alternative is a dog-eat-dog world in which too many will feel left out. One need look no further than today’s headlines to see the instability and insecurity that can result – and has resulted – from this approach.

(full text, hyperlinks).

(Guy Ryder is Director-General of the International Labor Organization ILO.org).

Links:

Putin visits PM Orban to talk business with Euroskeptic Hungary, on RT, Feb 2, 2017;

Sweden extends border controls amid ‘still unclear situation’ with asylum seekers, on RT, Feb 2, 2017;

India: UBI an alternative to subsides for poverty alleviation, a powerful idea whose time has come – Economic Survey, on The Economic Times, by Yogima Sharma, Feb 1, 2017;

America’s Media War Scam, on New Eastern Outlook NEO, by Gordon Duff, Jan 31, 2017: there is no news reporting in America other than the White House and the “humiliated” media, bantering back and forth like spoiled children …;

Markus Lanz vom 31. Jan 2017 – u.a mit Gregor Gysi (Die Linke), 74.18 min, von Freie Propaganda NEO, am 1. Feb 2017;
Buch: Was bleiben wird, ein Gespräch über Herkunft und Zukunft, von Hans-Dieter Schütt (Herausgeber), Gregor Gysi (Autor), Friedrich Schorlemmer (Autor), on amazon.de;

Alternative trade deal, on Inquirer.net, by Philippine Daily, Jan 30, 2017: as he promised during the election campaign, US President Donald Trump has officially removed the world’s biggest economy from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an international agreement aimed at strengthening trade and investment relations among a dozen countries that signed it, including Japan and Australia …;

The economic impact of colonialism, on VOXeu.org, by Daron Acemoglu, James Robinson, Jan 30, 2017: the immense economic inequality we observe in the world today is the path-dependent outcome of a multitude of historical processes, one of the most important of which has been European colonialism. This column, taken from a recent Vox eBook, discusses how colonialism has shaped modern inequality in several fundamental, but heterogeneous, ways;

Cooperation between Armenia and Iran May Result in Benefits for the EAEU, on New Eastern Outlook NEO, by Dmitry Bokarev, Jan 28, 2017: … today, the Republic of Armenia and the Islamic Republic of Iran are credible stable political partners …;

… and this:

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