As President Biden and both parties in Congress moved to unilaterally impose a contract on 120,000 railroaders, the constant refrain from all quarters of Washington was that this was necessary to protect “working families.” The impact of a national rail strike to the economy, they warned, would be $2 billion per day and lead to major shortages of necessities.

Though it found no reflection in the corporate media, which was busy creating a synthetic public opinion against the railroaders, the working class treated these warnings with contempt. Workers supported a rail strike and wanted to join them in a fight for a decent standard of living. The struggle on the railroads itself is part of the biggest upsurge of the working class in generations.

The cost of a strike to “working families” is a variation of a larger big lie repeated over the last two years that blames the push for higher wages by workers for the rising cost of living. Runaway inflation, according to this theory, is caused by a “wage price spiral,” in which wage hikes to compensate for inflation only drives inflation up even more. The only way to stop this vicious cycle is by curbing wage growth, politicians and major economists stressed.

But quietly, amongst themselves, they admit this is a lie that turns reality on its head. This was demonstrated by a recent notice to investors by Swiss bank UBS, first reported by The Hill, which acknowledged that “margin expansion”—i.e., profiteering by major corporations—is...

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