Tag: wage growth

Burying the Shorties

Hey folks. Post server update, things are starting to get back to normal around here. BlogHer ads are running again. No luck setting up an appropriate header image that doesn’t obliterate text. Blogroll will be updated relatively soon, as it did not survive the transition. Posting as been light here because of a school blog project (which I will probably repost over here). In the meantime, please enjoy some delicious Shorties.

Shut them all down!: The resignation of Boehner might make a government shutdown more likely (because there’s not a grown-up to reign in the crazies), unless it doesn’t. Here’s somebody who knows more about economics than I do talking about what will happen if they actually do shut it all down.

On Poverty: It’s hard to consider the future when today is a pressing issue.

On Jobs and Wages: So here’s some information on job creation during various Presidential administrations. Also, it looks like Seattle’s $15 minimum wage has been a success… unless of course there isn’t actually enough data yet to tell. And let’s add some wisdom on tax cuts and jobs and wages.

Student Loans: Defaults are just a symptom of the real problems.

A brief guide to vaccinations: Written by a real doctor.

As if I don’t have enough to worry about: the FCC can can operating systems they don’t like?

Uber making up more of their own rules: National Labor Relation Board (you remember, which some Republicans want to scrap?) vs Fine Print.

The NSA: Oh no, I haven’t forgotten about them and neither should you.

So much for biometric security: 56,000,000 fingerprint records “lost” and potentially in the hands of Bad Guys? You know, unlike a credit card number, you can’t just apply for a new fingerprint! Mr. Cringely puts it best: Game Over.

Gee, imagine that: Fruits and vegetables are good for your mind as well as your body. Remember, the Government’s MyPlate recommendations can be briefly summarized as “half your plate should be fruits and veggies.” (The Food Pyramid? That old thing was torn down years ago!)

I’m not Catholic Either: But I pretty much agree. I will never agree with Pope Francis about everything, but in my opinion he’s still the best Pope we’ve had in my lifetime.

Something Every Person Needs to Know: Be on the lookout for people who are trying to manipulate you. Especially when it comes to intimate relationships. And salesmen.

Wacky Democrats

So today I received a “One question poll” on which Democratic accomplishments make me the most proud. Let’s examine these a little more closely.

Health Care Reform: You mean Romneycare 2.0? I concede that Obamacare is an improvement over what we had. However, it still “fixes” the problem by forcing us to do business with the very profitable corporations that got us into this mess. I’d feel better if there were a public option. I’d feel a lot better if there were some concession that kids can’t control coverage: they don’t have employers to provide it and they don’t have a way to make their parents able to afford coverage. Don’t tell me this can’t be fixed, because Howard Dean DID. By the way, it’s not in any way health care reform, but rather health care insurance reform.

60 Straight Months of Private Job Sector Growth: Tell that to JP. If the there’s so much job growth, how come there’s no wage growth? How come Forbes has to promise it will start any minute now? How come underemployment is such a huge problem?

Rescuing the Auto Industry: Yeah, I guess they did that. Of course the corner that used to have a HUUUUGE Chevy dealer in town is now a vacant lot.

Reforming Wall Street: Big reform. Now the bankers have to be more careful how they screw you. Too Big To Fail still exists, banks still only follow their own rules, very few corporate criminals have ever even been charged let alone convicted, and the attempts to water down an already watered down law continue.

Historic Action on Climate Change: Really? Activists had to work too hard to kill Keystone XL, the gas industry still markets itself as “clean,” and we’re all excited about a “target“?

Expanding Equality: I have not the faintest idea what they’re talking about.

So six items, all but one done at best halfway. I am not proud at all.

In closing: my mom would have liked that manager; still an awful idea; not all ideas are equal.

The truth is, None of Us Can Breathe

So, please mark December 5, 2014 in your calendars. It is the day that I agreed with George W. Bush, when he said the Eric Garner grand jury results were “hard to understand.” Sure, we look at the video and say “how the heck can a cop get away with choking out a man on a sidewalk for a non-violent offense?” If anybody other than a police officer had killed Eric Garner, this case would be a slam dunk.

Instead, the system worked to protect cops at the expense of those they are supposed “to protect and serve,” just as it did in Ferguson. And really, any of us could have been Eric Garner. Any of us could have been the person breaking a minor law and ending up  — more or less — publicly executed. And let’s just face the truth: the odds of that happening are simply higher if you are a person of color. Then, you might get a public execution for picking up a toy gun or some other stupid pretext, or you might end up being kidnapped by cops in your own yard. Furthermore, it would be stupid for me to pretend any longer that the same rules apply equally to both blacks and whites.

One thing that gives me hope is that many people are feeling like they can’t breathe. Like they’d better stand up and do something. And even though a full 1% of our population is either in prison or on probation — think about it, one out of every hundred kids you went to school with, one of every hundred people you ever knew from work, one out of a hundred of everybody who was ever your neighbor, now a criminal — even though that’s true, it’s not the only thing that makes it hard to breathe.

A lot of us understand that freedom is more than not being executed in public, is more than not actually being in prison. It’s not much good to be free if you can’t afford the trappings of liberty: food, a roof over your head, medical care when you need it, little picky things like that. And sure, we had some very good employment data yesterday! There are more jobs, more jobs in more different industries, fewer unemployed people. All those are good things. However, median weekly wage is still within a few bucks of where it was in 2007, a shade under $800. Have your expenses gone up since 2007? Mine have. Take a look at the rest of those charts. Somehow, long term unemployment is down, but labor force participation is also down. Isn’t that interesting.

So yeah, the middle class can’t get ahead. People below the middle class aren’t even doing that well. And even though there is evidence that higher wages wouldn’t cause corporate profits to collapse, there are people who consider wage growth to be a problem. Yeah. It’s a real problem when people can work their way out of poverty instead of deeper into it; you might have to treat them like human beings.

In a very large nutshell, there’s laundry list of reasons why “I can’t breathe” resonates more than “Hands up, don’t shoot” ever could.

 

Uber Alles: I’ve given up trying to write something about that not-cab company that thinks it is above the law (maybe that’s how they came up with the name?). They didn’t bother to actually suspend operations until a couple days after the judge said stop it, and then they whined about how this cost Nevada 1000 [part time, contractor, no benefits, oh yeah and provide your own car] jobs.  I’ve already been shouted down about how I don’t know what I’m talking about, and yet a Nevada judge used many thoughts similar to mine in his ruling: there’s no promise that Uber drivers can be held to the same public safety standards as cab drivers (commercial level insurance, DOT physicals, ongoing vehicle maintenance/condition).

In Closing: alert the media, give a kid a job and he’s less likely to become a crook; literary words; a car, a car, my kingdom for a car; which big cat are you?; diet; circumcision; Democrats.

You can’t breathe either? Here’s some music for you.

But the CEO might not be able to afford a second Bentley!

You’re going to have a hard time convincing me that raising wages a few dollars an hour is going to result in massive inflation in an environment where every fast food joint I can think of is highly profitable and introducing new low-price options on a regular basis. On the other hand, I can see where raising wages a few dollars an hour might relieve strain on the safety net and result in increased spending in general, which will in turn raise GDP without the government having to perform voodoo rituals on the actual economic data or gasp spend money.

That is all.

In Closing: There’s always more room for NSA, spying, privacy, and general stupidity links (go on and sign that ACLU petition like I did this morning); I hope nobody thinks this is good for the flying public; if only the anti-vax morons were the ones reaping the folly of their actions instead of their children and communities; kill it; interesting notion; not buying it; stupid breeder tricks; right on, Dave; and pet tigers turn out to be a bad idea.

I’d Bet a Dimon It

Oh Jamie, Jamie, Jamie. Me thinks thou dost protest too much.

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was actually able to say with a straight face that the reason the economy has stalled is too much banking regulation. Somebody pass the man a fire extinguisher; his pants are surely ablaze. Fed officials “dispute” it. Heck, when Jim Cramer says you’ve gone too far, that’s a big hint.

We already — still — have a problem where banks think the rules don’t apply to them. That’s even more true at the “too big to fail” institutions. The Feds can’t make banks follow the law. The states don’t even have authority to make them follow the law. And yet Jamie thinks he has too many regulations?

Just ignore those pesky regulations, Jamie. Keep ignoring the law. And especially, ignore those angry consumers who are tired of getting screwed.

 

In closing: on health care; Jesus wouldn’t approve of Ayn Rand; national debt; local news; spam; band-aids on a bullet wound; I hope it never happens to his wife; the elements; food prices going up; wage “growth“; Hooverites; fossil sea turtle; and the continuing saga of Whitney Elementary.

Oh Noes, BE AFRAID!!!1!

So as I was in the midst of my morning newscrawl, I came across the headline “Report: Terrorists may poison US food supply.” Well, it turns out that the DHS knew about “a possible credible terrorism plot that targets food products in the restaurant and hotel industry, though the threat is non-specific about time and location for the plot.” And truth be told the Jerusalem Post reports that “Al Qaida planned to poison US hotel buffets, salad bars.”

Nevertheless, be afraid! The Evil Terrorists are wanting to poison your food!!

Of course it seems obvious to me that if we gave a damn about food security and really thought terrorism from foreign terrorist organizations was a risk, the first thing we would do is make sure that illegal immigrants are not harvesting and processing our food! But no, even many latte liberals think we somehow need underpaid, undocumented workers to get food from the farm to our plates.

In Closing: Amen; maps; food stamps; 308.7M; student loan debt; Dave Johnson is on a roll; CEOs; temps; and WTF.