Financialization may be a root cause behind union decline and offshoring

Evidence

A stronger claim might be that financialization also contributed to the drop in union density, increases in global production strategies, up-skilling of production processes, and declines in capital investment. Such a claim would be consistent with Davis’s ð2009Þ argument that financialization is a new cultural value infusing all aspects of the economy. Harvey ð2010Þ has argued that financialization was central to the neoliberal political project, which he ties to all of these outcomes as well. If this were the case, all of the primary mechanisms currently identified as driving the rise in income inequality might be in part a product of the more fundamental financialization of the economy. In such an expanded account, because financialization weakens workers’ bargaining power and encourages managers to avoid investments in production, it leads to declining unionization as production is subcontracted globally. — Ken-Hou Lin & Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Financialization and U.S. Income…, 185

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Harvey’s account of financialization as core to the neoliberal project, and to David Harvey’s Neoliberalism literature generally. — connects to: Financialization may be the root cause behind deunionization, globalization, up-skilling, and falling investment.; Financialization may erode the postwar capital-labor social pact — Greta R. Krippner, The Financialization of the American…, 142; Union decline cannot be blamed mainly on industrial-to-service economic shifts — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 265 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Financialization may be the root cause behind deunionization, globalization, up-skilling, and falling investment. #expands (0.95)
• Financialization may erode the postwar capital-labor social pact #expands (0.85) — Greta R. Krippner, The Financialization of the American…, 142
• Financial income reallocates resources away from workers and strengthens owner bargaining power #expands (0.85)
• Financialization theory links wage-compromise collapse and shareholder value to inequality #expands (0.80) — Natascha van der Zwan, Making Sense of Financialization, 109
• Financialization means accumulation through financial channels rather than production #expands (0.80) — Greta R. Krippner, The Financialization of the American…, 11
• Union decline cannot be blamed mainly on industrial-to-service economic shifts #corroborates (0.75) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 265
• Union decline reflects weakened attachment to membership itself, not unions specifically #qualifies (0.75) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 267
• Union decline combined employer attacks with passive consumer alternatives #qualifies (0.72) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 105
• Outsourcing trade receivables shifts interest income out of nonfinancial firms into the financial sector #exemplifies (0.72) — Greta R. Krippner, The Financialization of the American…, 84