Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
10/10/11
You Need To Spend More Time On Job Creation? Bullshit. You Need To Spend More $$$
I've been listening to the oligarchs and politicians telling us that there has been a lack of focus on jobs, and not focusing on jobs and not spending time thinking about job creation has been our problem.
I beg to differ.
I am not an economist. I am not a billionaire CEO, or even a millionaire CEO. But I am tired of the lies and obfuscation that are easily identifiable even by a know-nothing like me.
Not too long ago, like a few months or weeks back maybe, there was lots of talk about a lack of certainty in the markets. This lack of certainty caused the "job creators" to want to wait until they could be more certain. Certain of what, you ask? Certain their crimes would go unpunished and that they would be able to continue the rape and pillaging of the world's economy. It was pure bullshit, and they got called on it (and the Wall Street occupation is proof) but that's it. Nothing happened. Sure, a protest happened, but that's because nothing happened. We the people have decided to fix this shit.
Now that the certainty nonsense has been seen through, the oligarchs have latched on to a new meme--lack of time spent dealing with job creation.
I call bullshit, again.
It's not a lack of time being spent on job creation, it's a lack of money being spent, you greedy bastards.
When the wealthy are holding a trillion dollars in the bank and not investing it due to uncertainty or because they haven't spent any time thinking about how to use their money (job creation), it is pretty clear their focus is on keeping their money, not reinvesting in the country that helped them get rich.
When a rich dude tells you he is uncertain or admits he hasn't spent enough time on something, he's full of shit. It doesn't take much time to realize the wealthy have hoarded the dollars, shipped the jobs overseas, are investing in land in Argentina, and have no interest in helping the American economy. They got theirs, and their focus is on keeping it, no matter who it kills, starves, renders homeless, or whose life it ruins.
Don't let Immelt and Obama trick you into thinking they just need to spend some more time thinking about job creation--they don't. They need to fucking do something, and it will cost money, and that's the problem.
Greedy bastards go great with a red wine reduction.
8/4/10
Bob Reich For President
Forty of America’s richest families or individuals – almost all billionaires – have pledged to donate at least half their fortunes to charity. The total is a whopping $125 billion. Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates reached out to some 80 members of the Forbes billionaires list, seeking their pledges.
I think it’s admirable that Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett give so much to charity and have corralled other billionaires to do the same.
But I’m also appalled at what this reveals about how much money is now concentrated in so few hands. It’s more evidence we’re back in the late nineteenth century when robber barons lorded over the economy and almost everyone else lost ground. The Vanderbilts, Carnegies, Rockefellers made so much money they too could give away large chunks to charity and still maintain their outsized fortunes and their power and influence.
Most telling is how much wealthier the richest have become over the past year. Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s billionaires (40 percent of them Americans), show them with an average net worth of $3.5 billion – and an average increase of $500 million in the last 12 months.
America’s median hourly wage, meanwhile, dropped last year, and it continues to drop. That’s not even counting the 15 million Americans still out of work.
Most Americans don’t need charity. They need good jobs.
5/17/10
Central Falls Teachers Rehired Updated
Sorry, Arne, Bill, Eli, Barack and the rest:
Update: Arne Duncan's response (remember he was all for the firing when it happened):
CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. (AP) — A school district that gained the support of President Barack Obama for promoting accountability after it fired all its teachers from a struggling school announced on Sunday it had reached an agreement with the union to return the current staffers to their jobs.h/t GFB
The two sides said a transformation plan for Central Falls High School for the coming school year would allow the roughly 87 teachers, guidance counselors, librarians and other staffers who were to lose their jobs at the end of this year to return without having to reapply. More than 700 people had already applied for the positions.
The agreement calls for a longer school day, more after-school tutoring and other changes.
Update: Arne Duncan's response (remember he was all for the firing when it happened):
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today issued the following statement on the Central Falls agreement.Put your outrage in comments.
"On behalf of the Obama administration, I salute the administrators, union leadership and teachers in Central Falls and Rhode Island for working through what has been a very difficult period and coming to agreement on a plan to improve their school. Turning around a high school is very tough work that asks more of everyone -- students, parents, staff, administrators and the community. It is clear from this agreement that everyone is willing to give more in terms of time, training and tutoring. It provides for more engagement among students and teachers, more support and collaboration among the staff, more meaningful evaluation for teachers, and a greater voice for teachers in managing the school and driving reform. Now the hard work begins, but we can look forward to a day soon when the students in Central Falls High School will be getting an education that truly prepares them for college and a career."
3/8/10
Unemployed America: Headed For Bereavement
At least the bankers got their bonuses.
Andrew Oswald, an economist at the University of Warwick, in the U.K., and a pioneer in the field of happiness studies, says no other circumstance produces a larger decline in mental health and well-being than being involuntarily out of work for six months or more. It is the worst thing that can happen, he says, equivalent to the death of a spouse, and “a kind of bereavement” in its own right. Only a small fraction of the decline can be tied directly to losing a paycheck, Oswald says; most of it appears to be the result of a tarnished identity and a loss of self-worth. Unemployment leaves psychological scars that remain even after work is found again, and, because the happiness of husbands and the happiness of wives are usually closely related, the misery spreads throughout the home.
Especially in middle-aged men, long accustomed to the routine of the office or factory, unemployment seems to produce a crippling disorientation. At a series of workshops for the unemployed that I attended around Philadelphia last fall, the participants were overwhelmingly male, and the men in particular described the erosion of their identities, the isolation of being jobless, and the indignities of downward mobility. (link)
11/6/09
Robert Reich: We Need A 21st Century WPA (Updated)
Update: Paul Krugman agrees.
Update II: I gave a response to an email a reader sent me about the military being our version of WPA, as was mentioned in a comment on the Krugman post:
I think we need a CCC or WPA right now. Young kids have no idea what hard work is, how to use a hammer or plumb. The CCC was run by the military, and lots of members claim they became "men" under the guidance of the CCC and all the work they did and were proud of. They also sent most of their money home, as was required, creating stimulus. And they got fat. Literally put on weight. It was nothing but good.Update III: Watch the American Experience-The Civilian Conservation Corps. It will cause you to realize the need is now for a similar program, for many, many reasons.
There is nothing like that anymore, and there should be. That is partly my motivation for the draft; either the draft or making some kind of service mandatory would go a long way toward creating a sense of ownership of our country and reduce the perceived separation between the governed and the government.
10/23/09
Expletive Laced Brilliance
The new pedagogy includes printers hanging from a string and baseball bats and a well informed teacher:
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