I read in the Courant today that the Dow Jones passed 10,000 for the first time since last year’s down turn. While this news means that stock prices are back up and that people with investment portfolios have regained some of their wealth, it is not necessarily good news for workers.

Walter Hamilton of the Tribune Newspapers reported that economist Allen Sinai stated that this recovery could be slower and generate fewer jobs than previous recoveries have, producing an even more pronounced gap between economic haves and have-nots.

“There’s a dramatic night-and-day juxtaposition of a booming stock market and rich financial firms, and jobless Americans” Sinai said. “Part of the prosperity we’re seeing on Wall Street is because of massive job losses, which preserve profits” of American Companies.

So, the rich get richer and the hard working employees of this state and of this country continue to suffer. For my part, I don’t believe that our economy is “healthy” until and unless it provides good paying jobs for hard working employees and a legal system that helps protect the rights of those employees. Corporations these days are not only “too big to fail”, they are too big to control. As corporations get bigger, they dominate the employment market and have the power to shape the laws that affect employees in the workplace. Mandatory arbitration agreements, class action waivers and other devices serve to deprive employees of the few rights they have left. Look for more posts soon on these topics.