{"id":568,"date":"2025-07-07T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/when-we-fight-we-win\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T18:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T18:30:00","slug":"when-we-fight-we-win","status":"publish","type":"essays","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/essays\/when-we-fight-we-win\/","title":{"rendered":"When We Fight, We Win"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

For a few hours on the Fourth of July, I did the most patriotic thing I could imagine: joining local Safeway workers on the picket line as they continued a sweaty, weeks-long strike to protest unfair labor practices. The company had been using illegal bargaining tactics (\u201csurveilling, threatening<\/span><\/a>\u201d) during contract negotiations, and the union\u2014UFCW Local 7<\/span><\/a>, which represents more than 23,000 food and agriculture workers in Colorado and Wyoming\u2014was determined to force better behavior.<\/p>\n

The first picket lines germinated at a handful of Colorado stores on June 15, mushrooming to new locations with each passing day. By July, workers at more than 45 stores were on strike, some picketing all night. The company had to import expensive contract labor (\u201cscabs\u201d) from other states to keep shelves stocked. <\/p>\n

When I pulled up to the first store, situated across the street from a Porsche dealership and dental implant center, the parking lot looked unusually barren. As I got closer, I noticed the front windows had been boarded. I approached a cluster of people standing next to the sliding doors with lettered signs hanging around their necks. \u201cThey just came and shut this one down,\u201d a young gas station attendant named Christopher told me, \u201cbut we\u2019re holding the line.\u201d Beside him stood a longtime cashier named Velma. Together, they told me what was at stake: The company was considering halving the pensions for the 30- and 40-year store veterans, removing a guarantee that part-time workers would get to work for at least 20 hours per week, and, worst of all, cutting healthcare. Their frustration was palpable. So was their loyalty. \u201cMy mom\u2019s got 46 years at her store,\u201d Christopher noted proudly.<\/p>\n

The temporary closure of the first store represented a union win, sending a message in the only language corporations understand: loss of revenue. I moved on to the next location, a much livelier, active strike with dozens of picketers packed densely across the store\u2019s sun-bleached expanse. Some customers who walked past sheepishly averted their eyes (\u201cSorry, guys, there\u2019s a sale on soda\u201d); others read the signs (\u201cPLEASE DO NOT PATRONIZE SAFEWAY\u201d) and ceremoniously announced, to whoops and cheers, their decision to shop elsewhere in solidarity. A much smaller percentage, bewilderingly, antagonized with expletives and middle fingers\u2014one patron, presumably intoxicated from holiday festivities, stumbled toward his car and then wheeled around and began shouting incoherently. I only picked up a few words from across the parking lot: something about work ethic, handouts, and \u201cstriving.\u201d<\/p>\n

After about an hour, I met Anthony, a middle-aged man with a wide grin who started working at Safeway before the pandemic introduced us to the concept of \u201can essential worker.\u201d When I asked him the same question I had posed to Christopher and Velma, he reiterated their concerns and shared his own\u2014how quickly food prices had been rising for his customers, who he felt responsible for protecting. \u201cIn just the last few years, the prices have jumped like crazy,\u201d he said, adding quickly, as if to make it clear employee greed wasn\u2019t to blame, \u201cand we haven\u2019t seen a dollar of that.\u201d <\/p>\n

A receipt tracker compared 2022 Safeway receipts to 2019 receipts for the same items and found the company\u2019s prices rose a stunning 76%<\/span><\/a>, outpacing overall food inflation nearly sixfold. Founded in 1915 and commandeered by the private equity firm Cerberus since 2006, Safeway\u2019s recent history is checkered with failed mergers, delayed IPOs, and\u2014as anyone who\u2019s shopped there can attest\u2014staggeringly high prices. (They boast 27% gross margins<\/span><\/a>, compared to Kroger\u2019s 22% and Costco\u2019s 13%.)<\/p>\n

After decades of mergers and acquisitions, the US grocery industry\u2014which employs around 2.6 million Americans<\/span><\/a>\u2014is an oligopoly. Safeway, one of 22 chains owned by parent company Albertsons, is a portrait-in-miniature of this trend. In coverage of the proposed 2022 Kroger-Albertsons merger, antitrust journalist Matt Stoller wrote<\/span><\/a>, \u201cThere are already 30% fewer grocery stores than a few decades ago and most major metropolitan areas\u2026are heavily concentrated among just a handful of grocery chains. That means large chains not only secure better prices for goods than their smaller counterparts, but can also increase prices faster than costs, contributing to inflation.\u201d At the end of last year, the FTC blocked<\/span><\/a> the Kroger-Albertsons merger in a rare antitrust coup, taking the position that the two grocery behemoths needed to \u201ccontinue to compete for workers through higher wages, better benefits, and improved working conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

A mutating syndicate of private equity firms still owns large swaths of the now-publicly traded Safeway, with Cerberus at the head (fittingly, \u201cCerberus\u201d in Greek mythology is the three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell). Over their uncharacteristically long tenure, they executed the standard-issue PE playbook<\/span><\/a>: selling the company\u2019s real estate for an infusion of cash just to lease it all back, assessing onerous management fees, and, of course, saddling the stores with the billions in debt necessary to grease the wheels of High Finance. As is customary, the firm used Safeway\u2019s assets as collateral to borrow the money they needed to buy it<\/span><\/a>, after which they could use the grocer\u2019s operating cash flow to pay the interest on the debt. Between 2013 and 2018 alone<\/span><\/a>, Cerberus reportedly charged $350 million in (debt-financed) fees. As The Onion<\/em> so eloquently<\/span><\/a> put it:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n

Earlier that morning about 1,600 miles east of Denver, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. One of its most unpopular features is a new administrative hurdle for Medicaid users, which would require them to frequently requalify for coverage by proving they\u2019re always working at least 80 hours per month (conveniently, this cost-savings portion of the law wouldn\u2019t take effect until 2027, delaying the pain until safely after the midterms). When Christopher told me about the \u201c20 hours per week\u201d guarantee being rolled back, I came face to face with the cruel truth that Matt Bruenig highlighted<\/span><\/a> in his piece about the idiosyncrasy of Medicaid work requirements: It is employers, not employees, who control things like hours and scheduling.<\/p>\n

Much of the discourse around the legislation has\u2014rightly\u2014emphasized all the ways in which poor, working-class,<\/span><\/a> and rural Americans<\/span><\/a> have been sold out. The average critic might analogize the country to an airplane where the First Class cabin keeps siphoning snacks and square footage from Basic Economy. But this elides an even more humiliating reality: It\u2019s more akin to auctioning off the fuel and engine fan blades to subsidize cushier seats for the 12 folks upfront. Sure, they might be incrementally better off for a little while, but the tradeoff will look pretty stupid when you sell off one too many parts and the whole plane goes down. Unfeeling legislation in service of sound economic policy is one thing\u2014a bitter pill for a healthier future\u2014but it is another thing entirely when the underlying mechanics more closely resemble the dwindling final hours of a coke-addled bender. <\/p>\n

You have to hand it to Congress: If nothing else, the legislation is a tonal match for the private sector of our economy, where you\u2019ll find financial parasites transforming one of America\u2019s largest grocery store chains into a host organism, deploying \u201cgratuitous layoffs and price hikes<\/span><\/a>\u201d to feed the junk debt required to wear it like a skin suit. The Congressional Budget Office\u2019s dynamic estimate<\/span><\/a>\u2014the most generous projection, as it takes economic growth into account\u2014expects the legislation to add, conservatively, $2.8 trillion to the federal deficit by 2034. While some modest growth is anticipated from extending existing tax law, every credible independent analysis<\/span><\/a> (save for the White House\u2019s own fantasy projection) warns it will be dwarfed by the costs of borrowing to make up for all the lost revenue as we mortgage our collective future at six percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n

Deficit spending that makes a direct investment in productive capacity\u2014say, investing in the care, health, and education of our nation\u2019s children, as opposed to, I don\u2019t know, slashing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program<\/span><\/a>\u2014is like taking on debt to buy a cash-flowing asset. An initial outlay of borrowed money is a strategic way to create long-term gains based on real value creation. But deficit spending for another round of tax cuts is more like getting blackout drunk on bottom-shelf tequila sunrises and heading to Neiman Marcus with your AmEx superglued to your forehead, praying that when you come to, you\u2019ll have purchased a few items that retain resale value at least until the bill comes due. <\/p>\n

To say this legislation is designed to disproportionately benefit the Americans who need it least is an understatement. To quickly understand why, consider its most expensive components<\/span><\/a>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n

The largest expense is the approximately $2.2 trillion allocated to extend the tax brackets introduced in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Of that $2.2 trillion, $1.1 trillion\u2014fully half\u2014is just the cost for the 1% of Americans who earn more than $500,000<\/span><\/a> per year. It only gets more egregious as you scale the income distribution ladder into the rarefied air of seven-figure incomes: More money will flow to the 1.2 million Americans who earn $1 million or more per year than the bottom 127 million Americans combined\u2014those who earn $100,000 or less.<\/p>\n

The second-most expensive component, at $1.3 trillion, is extending the repeal of the alternative minimum tax. Established in 1969<\/span><\/a>, writes the investment firm Charles Schwab, the alternative minimum tax was \u201cdevised to target a small number of very wealthy taxpayers\u201d who avoided paying their share by \u201cexploiting tax loopholes.\u201d Prior to the passage of the TCJA in 2017, only 3.1% of households were impacted. Under the current legislation, this number shrinks to fewer than 0.1%\u2014which means a $1.3 trillion loss of revenue benefits only the 3% of loophole-happy households who would\u2019ve otherwise triggered it.<\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t be controversial to say that income tax cuts primarily benefit high earners, for one obvious reason: Most low- and middle-income people pay relatively little of the federal income tax to begin with. In 2021, the top 1% paid 45.8% of all income taxes; the top 10% of earners, or those earning more than $169,800, paid 75.8% of all federal income tax. The bottom 50% of earners accounted for only 2.3% of total revenue, a fact less reflective of their contributions than how little money they received for those contributions to begin with. <\/p>\n

This is an argument that gets trotted out to refute the idea that the rich \u201caren\u2019t paying taxes,\u201d but it works equally well as proof that tax cuts\u2014by definition\u2014can\u2019t really benefit the middle and working classes in the same way they benefit high earners. So why do it? The persistent myth that making rich people incrementally richer will unleash feverish economic growth is a fantasy plucked directly from Milton Friedman\u2019s wettest dream: In a landmark 2020 paper, a team led by London School of Economics<\/span><\/a> researcher Dr. David Hope studied the economic effects of major tax cuts in 18 wealthy nations over 50 years. Their conclusion shook the leaders of the high-income world and surprised approximately nobody else: \u201cThe rich got richer and there was no meaningful effect on unemployment or economic growth.\u201d <\/p>\n

When they published their findings, they were\u2014and I quote Dr. Hope directly here\u2014\u201caccused of being socialists.\u201d He recalled how the strongest negative reaction came from Americans, who have not only enshrined a commitment to the debunked logic of trickle-down economics into law many times over, but ritualized it culturally, believing the world functions best when you have a few brilliant individuals at the helm and the rest of us along for the ride, content to huff the fumes of elite farts. Economic journalist Paul Krugman calls the fear<\/span><\/a> that raising taxes at the top will stunt investment, innovation, or growth a \u201czombie economic doctrine\u201d that \u201cshould be dead in the face of vast amounts of contrary evidence,\u201d but persists for one simple reason: It behooves those in power for the rest of us to believe it. <\/p>\n

As far as the provisions that could theoretically be construed as \u201cfor normal people\u201d with a straight face, it\u2019s a matter of proportion. While the aforementioned tax cuts are permanent, the majority of the more targeted relief measures expire after 2028. As a result, they make up a relatively paltry portion of the overall legislation:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n

Take, for instance, the widely publicized and celebrated \u201cno tax on tips\u201d and \u201cno tax on overtime.\u201d Reading the fine print, you\u2019ll learn it\u2019s only the first $25,000 of tips and $12,500 of overtime that are deductible for certain occupations, as long as you earn less than $150,000<\/span><\/a> per year. Together, these two measures cost just $164 billion. For context: At least 15x as much money <\/em>is allocated to households earning more than $500,000. The promised soundbite of \u201cno tax on Social Security\u201d was diluted to a relatively inconsequential $6,000 bonus deduction for retirees over 65, which will\u2014you guessed it\u2014expire after just three years.<\/p>\n

When it comes to authentic fiscal conservatism, I\u2019m empathetic to the argument that the federal government has \u201ca spending problem, not an income problem.\u201d Many Americans don\u2019t feel as though they receive anything for their federal taxes. This is partially because our defense budget is more than four times as large as the next-largest military, and the government\u2019s relationship with defense contractors mirrors that of another high-spending area, our healthcare \u201csystem.\u201d The Medicaid and Medicare programs are critical, but Medicare especially tends to function like a backdoor subsidy racket for private equity-owned hospital chains and companies like UnitedHealth Group. This dynamic badly needs to be reformed. <\/p>\n

But reforming it, we aren\u2019t! On the contrary, much of the underlying private-public enmeshment that funnels public funds back to the shareholder class is being left untouched. Much like a private equity firm, we\u2019re simply borrowing<\/em> the money to turn around and channel it upward\u2014and removing health insurance for somewhere between 10\u201317 million Americans in the process, the economic costs of which will realistically be punted to employers, providers, and insured patients. <\/p>\n

The only difference between the suits at Cerberus and the raiders who passed this legislation is that the latter are elected representatives who should ostensibly know better than to dropkick the can down the road yet again. We are rapidly running out of things to plunder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n

When I woke up the next morning, I checked the Denver DSA Instagram\u2014the organization that supports local labor organizing, among other things\u2014and saw the union had reached an agreement with the company. The strike was over. Their healthcare and pensions were safe for another contract cycle, and the union president had even managed to negotiate a wage increase. <\/p>\n

Playing collective hardball was common during the periods of American history most associated with a strong, prosperous middle class<\/span><\/a>, times when both union membership and marginal tax rates were high. In another recent analysis<\/span><\/a>, Krugman spun through the most popular narratives for increasing inequality: globalization, technology, and financialization, to name a few, each of which played a role. Ultimately, he stuck the landing on the thin edge of Occam\u2019s razor: Wages are \u201cless determined by the invisible hand of the market and more by the visible hands of workers and employers bargaining hard,\u201d he wrote. Put another way, economic outcomes are determined by the distribution of power. In the mid-1970s, a quarter of the population negotiated their pay and working conditions as a bloc that could threaten to withhold their labor en masse. (This environment caused wages to rise for non-union workers, too.) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n

As the government became friendlier to corporations and tacitly endorsed more aggressive labor-busting practices over the following 50 years, union membership steadily declined and the 1%\u2019s share of total income nearly doubled. As of 2024, fewer than 10% of workers bargain collectively. <\/p>\n

There is no single person or institution capable of steering the ship away from the iceberg\u2014no brilliant billionaire, no strongman president fighting for the red or blue team. Prosperous eras of American history were not the result of a benevolent demagogue or a more egalitarian cultural spirit, but a realistic understanding of how leverage works in a market economy. Scrolling through the comments on the union\u2019s announcement that an agreement had been reached, one phrase appeared over and over again: \u201cWhen we fight, we win.\u201d <\/p>\n

As the quantitative reality of \u201cthe 1%\u201d reveals, there are many more of the metaphoric \u201cus\u201d than the metaphoric \u201cthem.\u201d While rhetorically powerful, I fear this undersells the situation: There is, ultimately, only \u201cus.\u201d Because whether the economic, fiscal, or climate bill comes due first, one thing is for sure: We will all be forced to pay it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a few hours on the Fourth of July, I did the most patriotic thing I could imagine: joining local Safeway workers on the picket line as they continued a sweaty, weeks-long strike to protest unfair labor practices. 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