President Donald J. Trump lauded Union Pacific’s plans to layoff 3,000 workers this year, calling job destruction “a tonic” for both economic growth and overpopulation on Saturday.
Instead of trying to create more jobs, like his predecessors, Trump said he plans to encourage more job destruction in the final year of his first term in office.
“I’m tired of people acting like layoffs are a bad thing,” Trump tweeted. “Job destruction is great for America. It’s actually a tonic for economic growth because lower labor costs mean higher corporate profits. Corporations are the alter egos of rich people, and those are the only Americans I really care about.”
The 45th president questioned the patriotism of those who object to losing their jobs to offshoring and automation in this period of unprecedented corporate job destruction. “Offshoring” is the business term for relocating American jobs to low-wage economies like China and India, which often pay as little as 10 cents on the dollar for the same work formerly performed in the United States.
The U.S. has averaged about 15 million layoffs a year since 2008 and now has just 131 million full-time jobs for a population of 327 million. The $19 trillion U.S. economy has expanded an average of just 1.7 percent a year during that time.
“It’s a tough time to be a worker, I get that, but we have more people than we need right now,” Trump said, noting that he prays daily for mass shootings. “We don’t need all these saucy commoners. We’ve got too many mouths to feed. Can’t feed ’em all.”
The president went on to praise the epidemic of so-called “deaths of despair,” among idled and underpaid workers created by layoffs and low wages. The national suicide rate surged 33 percent from 2000 to 2017, accounting for a record 47,173 deaths in 2017.
“These suicides reduce both the pool of excess labor and the pool of future retirees who will one day be eligible for Social Security payouts,” he said. “It’s a win-win situation for everyone but the workers and their families.”
Trump said 20 million layoffs and 60,000 suicides should be enough to lift economic growth to 3.5 percent in 2020. That compares with an annual growth rate of 2.9 percent in 2018.
Corporate Democrats recoiled from the president’s remarks, while discreetly counting their investment portfolio gains from the resulting stock market rally.
The S&P 500 ended Saturday 1.1 percent higher, with firearms manufacturers leading the gains; the Dow rose 210 points; the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.3 percent; and the New York Stock Exchange surged 2.3 percent.
“President Trump has reached a new low with these callous and blatantly unAmerican remarks,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has built a $200 million family fortune during her 44 years in politics. Her reputation for political corruption and insider trading is rivaled only by the Clintons and Bushes.
Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders shook his head in disgust when informed of Pelosi’s remarks.
“The funny thing about the blatant class warfare remarks the president made today is that all rich people agree with them,” Sanders said. “Regardless of whether they call themselves Corporate Democrats or Conservative Republicans. They hate saucy workers and paying a fair wage, almost as much as they hate working themselves, cleaning their own homes and walking their own dogs.”
Union Pacific CEO Lance Fritz praised the president’s “courageous remarks and vowed to explore further headcount reductions at the railroad. Shares of Union Pacific gained $1.03 Saturday to finish at $186.70 each.
“We’ll do our part,” Fritz vowed.
The 3,000 planned layoffs are expected to reduce the railroad’s remaining workforce by 8 percent. Union Pacific laid off 11 percent of its 42,000 workers last year and rival CSX Corp. cut 1,600 of its 22,500 workers.
One in 10 idled workers generally kill themselves or undergo a divorce within 12 months of a layoff. That’s the silver lining for predatory corporate elites, who need fewer U.S. workers and have embarked upon the mass culling now underway.
It’s being driven by record overdose rates; divisive political rhetoric and the mass shootings they precipitate; and the highest suicide levels since The Great Recession.
“This culling is great news for the super rich,” Fritz said. “These are golden times for us. Truly golden.”
Longtime Trump support Kyle Jameson, 51, of Omaha, also vowed to do his part. The Union Pacific engineer has been with the company for 27 years.
“I volunteered to be laid off,” Jameson said. “And I’m fully prepared to commit suicide afterward if that’s what President Trump needs me to do.”
