Four steps that can help end unemployment and poverty now
SMU Economics Prof. Ravi Batra says, "the main cause of our troubles is monopoly capitalism, which is a system dominated by giant companies that charge high prices, pay low wages and extract huge productivity from employees."
More than seven years after the Great Recession began in 2007, many Americans are still struggling to put their economic lives back together. Factors such as low wages, high interest rates on credit cards and a mediocre job market continue to make a lot of families feel like the recovery passed them by, says Dr. Ravi Batra, an economist and author of the new book “End Unemployment Now: How to Eliminate Joblessness, Debt and Poverty Despite Congress.” (www.ravibatra.com)
It doesn’t have to be this way, he says.
“The main cause of our troubles is monopoly capitalism, which is a system dominated by giant companies that charge high prices, pay low wages and extract huge productivity from employees,” says Batra, an economics professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. “As a result, supply rises faster than demand and generates layoffs. So the solution lies in breaking up the behemoths and returning to free markets, where many firms engage in price and quality competition.”
That’s easier said than done, though, because of the political considerations, Batra concedes. He surmises that any attempt to move legislation through Congress would meet with failure.
But he points to other options. Batra says any U.S. president could take actions to improve the situation without going through Congress.
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