The history of capitalism is, not surprisingly, the history of the moneyed class borrowing money to hire workers to build more capital, whether it be coal mines, oil wells, steel mills, factories, rails, roads, skyscrapers, houses, office towers, ships, trains, cars, airplanes, satellites, computers, smartphones, or restaurants.

But if the peak age labor force has stopped growing, then we don’t really need to build any new physical capital to handle future population growth, all we need to do is replace existing capital when it wears out or becomes obsolete. And economic growth increasingly seems to be heavy on intellectual capital rather than physical capital — cloud-based infrastructure and data systems, not railroads, roads, or skyscrapers.

Here’s a very interesting take on the post-boomer economy by Conor Sen, a former hedge fund analyst.

Fast food workers in Detroit are striking today, in what organizers predict will be the largest strike since 400 people walked off their jobs in New York last month. (“According to the campaign, a walkout by twenty workers at Detroit’s 10400 Gratiot Avenue McDonald’s prevented the store from operating. Some workers brought in as strikebreakers to replace those striking workers chose to join the strike instead.”)

Congress is expected to consider a bill this week to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act. But some say the proposed changes are anything but fair. The bill, called the Working Families Flexibility Act, would give private employers the right to offer hourly workers paid time off instead of overtime.

If you could choose between paid time off or overtime, which would you choose? Overtime, right? Where’s Christian Brown when we need him?

Photo: Kheel Center

In Chicago, 500 fast food workers from a dozen chains are striking today to protest low wages. (“Like their New York counterparts, the Chicago workers are demanding raises to $15 an hour, and the chance to form a union without intimidation.”)

And around the country, workers in 100 Walmart stores are confronting management today to demand changes to the company’s scheduling system. (“Workers have charged that insufficient and erratic work schedules consign them to poverty, wreak havoc on their personal lives and shortchange customer service.”)

The writers for FASHION POLICE are on strike. This is a good little case study in labor. Let’s learn together.

From the guild’s letter (via Deadline):

Although Fashion Police is one of E!’s highest-rated shows, its writers lack health and pension benefits, residuals, and industry-standard compensation. When the writers began to organize earlier this year they were met with threats and delaying tactics.

The writers notified the company they are finished writing until they are covered by a Guild agreement and compensated appropriately. There are two possible endings to this conflict. Either E! will agree to cover the writers under a Guild contract, or it will no longer benefit from the writing talents of the current staff of Guild members.

Eliza Skinner is one of the writers, and she posted on Tumblr a plea for other writers not to cross picket lines to work during the strike. She gives a bunch of good reasons (it’s bad for them, you, and your future—if you’re not in the guild now and you scab, you won’t be in the guild later).

Josh Eidelson talked to Ai-jen Poo, who directs the National Domestic Workers Alliance, about what’s going on right now in organizing for care workers and other domestic workers. It’s great. I learned some things. Ai-jen Poo is awesome. Our current labor sitch is not:

“As more and more people become temporary, part-time or contracted, nobody knows who their real boss is, no one has collective bargaining, no one even knows what bargaining is, and no one works in a workplace where bargaining is actually feasible. We’re essentially all becoming domestic workers.”

A Boston Globe reporter spent eight nights as a licensed cabbie in Boston to get a “driver’s side view of Boston’s taxi industry,” which mostly consists of immigrants struggling to get by.

Laboring 12 to 24 hours a day as independent contractors, without job protections or benefits, they will endure shifts of public service and private indignities, outsized risk and systemic exploitation.

Many will be cheated by their taxi owners and customers. They will confront hazards more potent than potholes: violent crime, distracted and impaired drivers, and their own debilitating fatigue.

Josh Eidelson has a great piece in Dissent exploring the widespread abuse of guest workers in the U.S. He focuses on the gripping story of workers at a shrimp processing plant in Louisiana where a manager frequently threatened to beat employees with a shovel and the owner said he’d “send armed men to assault their families.” REALLY FUN READING. Josh does such a good job of giving a voice to people who are systematically ignored. (“In interviews with Louisiana guest workers, I heard the word impotencia (powerlessness) again and again.”)

One year from today, New York businesses with 20 or more employees will be required to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Sarah Jaffe explains what went down last week and why it’s a big deal. At Salon, Randy LoBosso argues that paid sick leave is the new “litmus test” for dems.

“There’s no manpower in the store to get the merchandise moving,” says Tifft, who oversees grocery deliveries and is a member of OUR Walmart, a union-backed group seeking to improve working conditions at the chain. “Customers come in, they can’t find what they’re looking for, and they’re leaving.”

Walmart has had a labor problem for quite some time now (as we’ve learned from Josh Eidelson), and now the discount retailer may be doing some self-sabotage. Walmart’s cost-cutting measures ended up reducing stores’ staff, which has resulted in a lot of empty shelves and a lot of customers leaving to competitors like Target, Walgreens and Kohl’s for things they can’t find. Walmart has also placed last on a “Customer Satisfaction Index” survey.

And competitors are reminding customers that Walmart isn’t always the best place to shop. Grocery stores like Publix has started advertising campaigns arguing that Walmart doesn’t always offer the lowest price. The competition is good because it leads to lower prices, which means a win for customers. Maybe the competition could get Walmart to get their act together and fix some of their labor problems as well.