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There are very many paradoxes about the largest economy with the highest GDP in the world, and which also bears the burden of the largest national debt. That is, the United States’ GDP is $30 trillion, and national debt of the $40 trillion. And these macro numbers seem to find a reflection in the economic trouble spots.
There are two big issues troubling the American economy. On the one hand, there is the lockout of the British Petroleum (BP) refinery at Whiting in Indiana, where 800 union workers are sitting out since March. BP is using the tactic to derive maximal advantage in its bargain with the union. In basic terms, BP wants to drive down the wage bill and other facilities.
The union is holding out so far. BP representatives argue that it is necessary to strike a hard bargain to keep the refinery competitive so that it is kept running and the jobs are saved. It is the old reality where times are bad and if you want to keep the job you may take home reduced wages. But the refinery had developed a community of workers, where in some families, the third generation worked at the place.
But in soulless capitalism, social bonds do not matter, and in the words of 19th-century English writer Thomas Carlyle, human relations are reduced to ‘cash nexus’. The owners of BP, and of other big oil refineries like Exxon and Marathon, cite the compulsions of the market but they continue to make enormous profits. It is not the case that the refineries are making losses and the business is down.
Texas politicians had been bamboozled not too long ago by the magic of AI and the data centres that use AI. But the politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, found that the costs of mega data centres are tooo high in terms of land, water, energy. And there is also the fact that the data centres occupy large tracts of land, and in the bargain barren and ugly landscapes. People are now rejecting the excessive consumption of energy, and also the electricity that keeps nights lighted up. The politicians may have no scruples in accepting new technology at any price, but they are afraid in election season to go against the sentiments of the people.
The irony is that the situation of the lockout of refineries in the north, throwing workers out because the companies want to make more profits, contrasts with the south of the country, with politicians and captains of industry being rebuffed by people of Texas and preventing them from setting up the big data centres for environmental and aesthetic reasons.
Observers are sure to say that these are the contradictions of the capitalist system, and that it cannot be wished, and that you have to take the good along with bad aspect of the system. They will also say that these contradictions are what make America a fascinating and great country, with an open-ended economic system.
Tell this to the workers in Whiting and to the politicians and investors in Texas. They would look at their own situation and curse the system and society. There has to be some way that the workers can have their jobs and their loyalty to the company respected and nourished, and there should be a way for the new technology and their masters, the investors and the entrepreneurs who can build their data centres in modest proprtions and abandon their monstrous plans.
