Neoliberalism means mass unemployment. This is a deliberate feature which is a part of hijacking political power by financial
oligarchy. Neoliberals also demonize poor and unemployed. They are excluded and marginalized. You need to fight this even
neoliberals try to convince you that this is your fault. They deliberately put people over 50 in the situation: "without work, without
possibilities, without any means of escape."
Remember "No man is a failure who has friends". Like with Arctic
"isolated person is a doomed person": in this situation you are in better position to overcome huge odds if you can rely on your social network.
"Don't tell people you're unemployed. Tell them you're semiretired.
It changed my self-identity. I still look for jobs, but I feel better about myself."
Age discrimination has been standard operating procedure in IT at least since 2000. And there are no significant consequences, if
any consequences at all, for doing it in the USA under "neoliberal occupation", so to speak. Outsourcing, offshoring and abuse
of H1B visas were increasing annually since year 1990.
That's why many IT professionals, who are over 50, recently found themselves excluded and marginalized: "without work,
without possibilities, without any means of escape." (Pope
Francis on danger of neoliberalism). For example, IBM has laid off hundreds of thousands in the last few decades.
Essentially this categogy of unemployed is heavily discriminated against and pushed into low paid jobs, such as truck drivers,
and McJobs -- Lowes floor save staff, flipping hamburgers, warehouse jobs etc. That's a reality of the neoliberalism in the USA. And it is
difficult to fight, regaining employment for previous specialty is possible. But it can take several years while time is
running out due to aging and dwindling retirement funds, if any.
Neoliberals like to talk bout freedom. But they understand freedom as freedom for
financial oligarchy to ignore social norms. and they are interested in maintaining high unemployment as it increases their
power and "flexibility". And they create social stigma for unemployed: unemployed means outcast under neoliberalism.
Neoliberals like to talk bout freedom. But they understand freedom as freedom for financial
oligarchy to ignore social norms. In reality,
as
Franklin D. Roosevelt stated (Four
Freedoms speech (technically the 1941 State of the Union address), there are not one, but our fundamental freedoms (which
BTW does not include the impunity for financial oligarchy to ignore social norms) that people should have:
Neoliberalism demonizes poor and unemployed. Typical feelings experienced after loss of employment included emptiness, inadequacy, humiliation,
rage, shame, envy, and worthlessness. Additional aspects include grief over the additional losses that followed the job loss,
such as loss of social connectedness, professional status, and hardships for the family. For some people, unresolved conflicts
vis-à-vis former employers produce strong revengeful feelings. For others, self-loathing, contempt, self-criticism, and insecurity
or fear of trying new things are more prominent.
That might affect common activities such as attending children's graduations, weddings, getting through
major holidays, sustaining interest in former leisure activities or hobbies. As the period of unemployment exceeds one year most
males usually experienced increased and sometimes overwhelming sadness and grief at what had been lost. Paradoxically, reentering workforce
now led to comparisons of "there and then" with "here and now". Reactions including rage and feelings of unfairness are not uncommon.
The toxic mixture of shame and anger is especially notable.
As the period of unemployment exceeds one year most males usually experienced increased and sometimes overwhelming sadness
and grief at what had been lost. Please continue to fight. Those who fight preserve human dignity, no matter what. Such
feeling of sadness and grief, replaying actual of imaginable mistakes, are "new normal" and just yet another obstacle to overcome.
The key question here is how to survive this prolonged slump, which is very similar to the situations that often happened in Arctic
expeditions at the beginning of XX century: the ship squeezed by ice goes down and survivors face life in tents in Arctic weather.
With limited supplies and a long time before the rescuers can reach them. Often forced to survive in those tents the whole Arctic winter.
Dr. Sidney Blair, the Navy psychiatrist who coordinated personnel selection for the Operation Deep Freeze voiced the following opinion
(BOLD
ENDEAVORS. p. 260):
When I am asked, "If you want to be 100% sure that a person will adjust [ to Antarctic duty], what do you look for?"
My usual answer is that I look for somebody who loves their work. This is probably the most important thing on the list of
positive factors, they have to love their work. It is almost all right, if they love their work to the exclusion of everyone else.
Another important factor is ability to survive isolation and confinement inherent in long unemployment.
Neoliberalism tried to atomizes employees, destroy social bonds
between them, propagating " under the disguise of competition old "Man Is Wolf to Man " mentality( from Latin "Homo
homini lupus est" . Which, in essence, is an old style "divide and conquer" strategy, applied to labor force.
Moreover, there was never a trade union of IT administrators of programmers so they are by definition pretty isolated specialty,
without much inter-employee solidarity. But as Mark Twain aptly said "No man is a failure who has friends".
As Mark Twain aptly said "No man is a failure who has friends". Like with Arctic, in the situation
of unemployment an isolated person is a doomed person. You need to rely of support of other people and you better start cultivating
them (as well a funds) before the blow strikes.
Like is the case with Arctic, in the situation of unemployment an isolated person is a doomed person. You need to rely of support
of other people and you better start cultivating them (as well a funds) before the blow strikes.
Again this is a very similar to situations that occur in Arctic expeditions; in case of loss of power in older types of ships, etc.
IT specialists over 50 who succeed after long unemployment belong to the same type people who would survive in case of crash of the
ship in Arctic expedition. This is a real life experiment on what we do in moments of great challenge. Do we rise to the occasion or
fail? Are we heroes or cowards? Are we loyal to the people we love most or do we betray them? Are the most close people remain loyal
to you in such a challenging circumstances, or they are ready to betray? What is the right thing to do in such difficult circumstances?
Like Arctic explorers in the past you need to face the danger and difficult decisions. It is easy to say that one had to be brave
and strong and keep moving forward despite hardships. It is quite difficult to do. It's about ordinary people drawn into circumstances
beyond their control and the choices they must make to take back some of that control... avoiding impulsive choices, dangerous choices,
heart wrenching and even catastrophic choices that can't be undone. It's more complex that just bravery vs. cowardice.
People who are rated low in impatience and irritability and low in the characteristics associated with creation interpersonal conflicts
(e.g. egotistic, boastful, hostile, arrogant) have better chances in this situation. People who are more concerted with well-being of
other paradoxically typically fared better in situation of Arctic expedition crisis. Other-directiveness helps to survive is such
harsh environment. Traits like social compatibility or likability, emotional control, patience, tolerance to others, self-confidence
without egotism, ability to subordinate your own interests to the interests of the team, a sense of humor, and are extremely valuable
and are now checked for potential members of long duration expeditions that involve severe hardships. To those scientifically
established traits for selection of people into Arctic expeditions one can add
People who are more concerted with well-being of other paradoxically typically fared better in situation of Arctic expedition
crisis. Other-directiveness helps to survive is such harsh environment. The ability to take job loss "cool" without
excessive negative emotions (as in "sh*t happens" attitude) is also very important. Use Stoicism and
The level of self-control. There are powerful "animal" mechanisms that are still active within us and due to them we tend
to display some behaviors typical for "cornered animal" in the situation of long unemployment and unsuccessful search for a job.
Emotionally the hit of losing job is comparable with the hit of losing close relative.The ability to take those behaviors
under control are critical. See also Avoiding Anger Trap. The ability to
take job loss "cool" without excessive negative emotions (as in "sh*t happens" attitude) is very important.OtherwiseJob loss can cause heart issues, and the stress as well as bad habits that frequently come with unemployment and can build up
over time. There is even danger to your mental health with long unemployment as depression is more common among long term
unemployed:.
Michael McKee, a psychologist and stress expert at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, agreed
that attention needs to paid to the body blow that job loss can inflict on any individual’s sense of identity and self-respect.
“If you keep trying to find a job and don’t,” he noted, “or if you find a job and then lose it, and that pattern repeats and repeats,
you not only lose identity, you lose income, the structure to your day, your sense of achievement, your friends from work, your
other friends because you are embarrassed to be around them, your self-confidence, your self-respect. Then you start to lose hope
and meaning and purpose, [and] feel alienated and hopeless and helpless.”
So, McKee added, “Well-meaning programs, public and private, which help people find jobs, need to add caution to eagerness.
Caution that they not set people up for repeated failure, for long times between jobs, which is likely to accelerate the ride
to depression. Always finding another job quickly lets you keep your hope up, but struggling [can] often lead to increased fear
and anxiety.”
Related to that is the ability to use physical exercise to control your emotional state. Consider it as an effective medication
for excessive aggressiveness and anger. See also Avoiding Anger Trap.
The ability to maintain your physical and emotional tonus, which now is especially important. Stretch exercises are known to
help is such situation for many people. So called 4 x 4 running/walking (fast running for 4 minute then walking 4 minutes;
and so one 4 times -- 32 min total ) also is very helpful exercise to reduce the level of aggressiveness and anger. Swimming is another
highly recommended exercise. Generally spending some time near the water tend to help many people.
Tactfulness in interpersonal relations (see Tactful communication,
Diplomatic Communication,
Negative Politeness). This trait can't be overestimated. For married couples,
tact can avoid one of the main problem in long unemployment - stress and possible dissolution of the marriage. No matter how hard
your try to compensate this is a huge hit for your self-esteem and the truth is such a hit encourages some maladjusted compensation
mechanisms and first of all excessive aggression toward family members. You need to resist this tendency. The single best prediction
of marital longevity is that both partners are kind and emotionally generous to each other. But this is easier said that done is
such situation as long unemployment. Those who feel appreciated and valued by their spouse may feel more committed to their marriage
and have more positive outlook on overcoming existing difficulties.
Effective conflict resolution skills, especially in marriage, as
marriage comes under stress during period of long unemployment.
See
Conflict Couple A Dialectical Behavior Therapy Guide to Finding Peace. It is better to assume part of household hours to
help the other partner. Nothing destructs a person so much and so quickly as prolong period of idleness and even routine tasks related
to home that you can take from your spouse are beneficial in adaptation. Consider it to be a new part time job. Expect and
prepare to problems in your marital life (Marriage and unemployment).
In fact, unemployment stimulates transition of a pre-existing marital conflict into the state when spouses are separated emotionally
but not physically, or became “upstairs/downstairs” couples who are estranged, but share the same house. This is a real danger
during long unemployment.
Stoicism, ability to withstand hardships with honor, without betrayal of yourself and those who
are close to you. The key idea if stoicism is that "virtue is sufficient for happiness". Such an attitude stresses
the value an inner freedom in the face of the external, often hostile world. Stoicism teaches the development of self-control and
fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions such lust and greed; the philosophy holds that becoming a clear and unbiased
thinker allows one to better understand yourself and thus overcome hardships without betrayal of yourself and those who are close
to you. As Seneca said "The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live."
Admiral James Stockdale, who was shot down over North Vietnam, held as a prisoner and repeatedly tortured was deeply influenced by
Epictetus after being introduced to his works while at Stanford University. As he parachuted down from his plane, he reportedly
said to himself "I'm leaving the world of technology and entering the world of Epictetus!"
The same phrase can be repeated by IT specialist who are over 50 and became unemployed. Practicing Stoicism is an
active process of preparation to overcome negative influence of hardships with honor (and viewing hardships as a test that
God send to evaluate a person) and acquiring deeper self-knowledge in the process (see
below)
The sense of humor. The sense of humor is really important for survival in such circumstances. Sense of humor
serves as an important safety valve, helping to prevent the slide into depression. The future can be scary, but people
with the sense of humor adapt easer to harsh conditions. We often cannot predict how we will be feeling – our level of
emotional stability. And sense of humor serves as a safety valve in this cases, channeling emotion into the safe path.
Even reading humor stories can help in such cases.
The ability to be easily entertained and fight the sense of boredom. This is an interesting observation:
the easier one can fight the sense of boredom, the better are chances he/she has to survive long unemployment without emotional scars.
As Nansen frequently wrote in his journal, to survive isolation and confinement, one must learn to be idle without feeling guilty
(BOLD
ENDEAVORS, p.261) See below You will survive: Fight the sense of isolation and related higher
level of aggression I remember the story of one prisoner whom only entertainment in solitary confinement to observe a female
rat in his cell. He observed how she behaved, gave birth, etc and noted that he probably would not survived without this strange
companion of his confinement. And this situation with excessive boredom is not limited to people with the long term unemployment
problem. It is pretty common for example for actors too.
Linda Fiorentino who played the famous
female sociopath character in The Last Seduction
once observed "As actors, the thing we have to fight, more than even the business part of making movies, is boredom."
Temporary work, or even volunteering are important for the same reason. You can't wait for your best chance forever. This is also
very similar to the situation actors find themselves. As
Linda Fiorentino noted "Sometimes
I have to work because I need the money. You weigh the issues and ask yourself, "Can I wake up every morning and do this?"
Interest in keeping a regular log of events. That can be done either on computer on or by writing it in the form of lab
journal (writing a regular journal make it easier to keep it private; in case of computer you need to use encrypted USB drive which
is unlocked, for example, using fingerprint or code combination). That helps to view that situation as pretty cruel experiment that
neoliberal society staged upon you, and gives you an ability see a bigger picture. The picture on the level above your personal problems.
See Start a log book
Maintaining proper (or may be even slight upscale) attire and useful work habits. Well dressed people have higher
self-esteem. As simple as that. That's an important fact that dictates that you need to be dressed up. For the same reason regular
visits to the library revive your work routines. That also forces you to dress properly and helps with self-confidence Public
library can serve as a substitute for working place just for few hours a day and along with positive influence on self-confidence
helps to fight the sense of isolation. The same role can play a course in your local community college (if you enroll in one course
in it is tax deductable; highly recommended). People are social animals in many respects (see
Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are Amy Cuddy TED Talks -
YouTube :-) See also The importance
of keeping yourself occupied
Learning to cope with chronic stress caused by long-term unemployment. The most dangerous factor here is
chronic stress caused by long-term unemployment. It really endanger your
health and create multitude of additional problems starting from insomnia.
The ability to regulate and maintain healthy sleep. Sleep is one thing that people over 50 can't take for grunted.
Problems with sleep due to "toxic worry" further aggravate the level of aggressiveness, especially in men and are pretty common
in such situations. Switching wake up hours to suit you natural internal clock might help. Now you have such a possibility.
Valerian root tablets (over the counter) can help. Not working on the computer for three hours before going to bed might help.
Ability to withstand sliding into depression which is typically associated with long-term unemployment. There several
healthy way to code with the depression and several unhealthy one. The latter typically quickly destroy the person. Unhealthy
way of coping with depression is substance abuse and we have an epidemic of opioids abuse in the USA, especially in areas
with outsourced manufacturing (the rust belt).
Like Arctic explorers with ship squeezed by ice which went down, you need to became an expect in survival in hostile environment
and keeping the friendship of a few people you can rely upon. Isolated people die in Arctic really quick. The value of the ability to
manage conflicts and to communicate tactfully in your current relationships increase tenfold in such situations:
It takes more skill, effort and commitment--and, at least in the short run, more stress--to face the challenge together
with the other person involved in the dispute. Certainly it seems as if it would be easier to fight, withdraw, or give in. Yet
in the long run, working through difficulties together will help us live a less stressful and more fulfilling life.
Fighting it out. A man sat in his train compartment looking out into the serene Russian countryside. Two women
entered to join him. One held a lap dog. The women looked at this man with contempt, for he was smoking. In desperation, one of
the women got up, lifted up the window, took the cigar off the man’s lips, and threw it out. The man sat there for a while, and
then proceeded to re-open the window, grab the woman’s dog from off her lap, and throw it out the window. No, this is not a story
from today’s Russian newspaper, instead it is from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 19th century novel, The Idiot. The number and seriousness
of workplace violence cases seems to be on the rise, and employers can respond with effective policies and increased education.
Yielding.While most can readily see the negative consequences and ugliness of escalating contention, we often
do not consider how unproductive and harmful withdrawing or giving in can be. Naturally, there are occasions when doing so is
not only wise, but honorable (as there are times to stand firm). If a person feels obligated to continually give in and let another
have his way, such yielding individual may stop caring and withdraw psychologically from the situation.
Avoidance. When we engage in avoidance, it only weakens already fragile relationships. These "others" (e.g.,
sympathetic co-workers) usually tend to agree with us. They do so not just because they are our friends, but mostly because they
see the conflict and possible solutions from our perspective. After all, they heard the story from us. Once a person has
the support of a friend, she may feel justified in her behavior and not try to put as much energy into solving the conflict.
Admiral James Stockdale, who was shot down over North Vietnam, held as a prisoner and repeatedly tortured was deeply influenced by
Epictetus after being introduced to his works while at Stanford University. As he parachuted down from his plane, he reportedly
said to himself "I'm leaving the world of technology and entering the world of Epictetus!" The same words can be repeated by
IT specialist who are over 50 and became unemployed: it is the ability to fight adversity that distinguishes real men from fakes.
Stoics teach us that not everything is under our control, not it should be. There are some things we have control over (our judgments,
our own mental state) but for a lot of things we do not exercise much control -- this is what the concept of destiny is about
(external processes and objects, transformations of the society, like the USA conversion to neoliberalism in 1980th with banks running
amok for quick profits, resulting from this social cataclysms like Great Recession or, worse, civil war in some countries (all
wars are bankers wars)). Part of our unhappiness can be traced to confusing these two categories: thinking we have control over something
that ultimately we do not.
The wisdom can be viewed as the ability to distinguish things that we can control and those that we can not. This stoic attitude
was aptly captured by American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr[
(1892–1971) in his famous Serenity Prayer:
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Loss of job is a severe hit for a person no matter young or old. A hit comparable in its effects with the dissolution of the marriage
or a death or a jail term of a close relative. In other words it is a traumatic event with negative long term consequences. Among
them:
Lack of confidence. That is especially typical for those who are not
in a meaningful relationship. We fear abandonment and unemployment increases the sense
of isolation. While financial issues are easer to deal with as you need to take care
of a single person, emotional issues are not. On emotional side the entire situation looks
messy and, quite frankly, terribly sad, especially if a person a workaholic. Which is a
pretty common condition for IT specialists.
Fear of disclosing your situation. This is somewhat similar to having
mental disease. It is something we want to hide. Of course we do not tell everyone. You
don’t shake a person’s hand and openly state: “Hi! I’m Nick and I am unemployed for
two years now” .
Fear of the future. Everyone grapples with the future: we wonder what
it will look like, if we’ll be happy, if we'll be healthy. It’s different when you
are over 50, is unemployed and have 2 kids, a dog and a nice house. And a mortgage
not paid off. In this situation, the future can be scary. In those circumstances,
we often cannot predict how even our own future level of stability and functioning. Add
to this another person(s), and things became even more difficult. Add to this children,
and things tend to be quite painful.
But you have the ability to minimize them. Stoicism is a philosophy of life that might help, at least
for some people, is those circumstances. It tried to address the problem of loss of self-esteem but reformulating it from the
"dimension" of possession to the dimension of personal courage. After all if everything if gone a man can quit the life voluntarily.
That means that he should be able to fight to last breath against even uneven adds. The key idea of stoicism is that "personal
virtue and courage in adversity, courage in fight against uneven odds is sufficient for maintaining high self-esteem".
In other words stoicism reasserts human dignity as the ability to fight the external, often hostile world. Stoicism teaches
the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions such desperation, lust and greed; the philosophy
holds that the ability to see clearly your circumstances and fight them to the extent you can is an achievement in itself, toward
which we all should strive. No matter what is the outcome of this fight. The Stoics taught that we fail far more often than we
succeed, that to be human is to be fearful, selfish, and angry far more often than we’d like. But they also taught a realistic way to
be less fearful, less selfish, and less angry. It also teaches to prepare for adversity and do not expect that your life with
be smooth sailing to the very end.
In addition to this "glorification of human courage in fighting adversity" stoics also strive "to be free from anger, envy,
and jealousy" (The Stoic ideal of dispassion is accepted to
this day as the perfect moral state by the Eastern Orthodox
Church). AS value of a person is in his inner properties , stoics teach to accept everybody as "equals, because all men alike are
products of nature." In ancient world this was an innovative, rebellious postulates. Related to social status of unemployment is remains
to be so even now. In their view the external differences which are considered of such primary importance in Western civilization,
such as rank and wealth should not be primary criteria of judging others, not they should the primary goals in your life, or of primary
importance in social relationships.
After all it is the idea of capitalism to deprive part of the population from meaning full employment to increase obedience of theirs.
Neoliberalism requires that employees sell their labor as a condition of survival. Nothing more, nothing less. The "entrepreneur" can
exert power by denying access to work, hence income, hence survival. Watch "Office
space" which provides a pretty realistic picture how fear of loss of employment paralyzes even young, rebellious people, making
the easy prey to any corporate sociopath. The state has the ability to enforce this social order by "brute force” and in modern
times, when social safety nets are weak routinely destroys efforts of the remnants of organized labor to defend employees rights. And
neoliberalism is certainly remains the preferred order among Western elites. All in all "it is not your fault". Seriously.
In the words of Epictetus (note that the word happiness here has slightly different meaning then in regular English language), you
can be "sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy..." If we assume
that "happiness" means here the ability to maintain high self-esteem this quote might be more understandable. Stoic ethics stressed
the rule: "Follow where reason leads." One must therefore strive to be free of the distortions caused by "passions", bearing in mind
that the ancient meaning of "passion" was more close to contemporary words "emotions", "anguish" or "suffering", that is, "passive
reaction to external events, which is different from the modern use of the word. In other words you need the ability to dispassionately
and persistently "stay the course" after you had chosen it with all the wisdom you are capable of; it is about "who controls whom.":
either you control your emotions, or your emotions control you.
The four cardinal virtues of the Stoic philosophy are: wisdom (Sophia), courage (Andreia), justice (Dikaiosyne),
and temperance (Sophrosyne). The ability to fight in adversarial conditions considered to be a virtue. This stoical
sentiment with more stress on desire to fight the adversity to the bitter end despite uneven odds was expressed in old Russian song
Varyag (the cruiser that became famous for her crew's stoicism at the Battle of Chemulpo Bay when she alone tried to break the blockade of the port by the whole Japanese
fleet)
All to the upper deck and man your battle posts,
The last battle for our ship is coming
Our proud "Varyag" will not surrender to the enemy,
And none of us want their mercy.
But this situation needs a different type of courage, then military courage required to face overwhelming enemy force and fight to
the bitter end despite low or even non-existent odds of the victory and survival. Unlike military battles, unemployment can last for
years. So endurance comes to the front. This is more like prolonged war, then a single battle.
Unemployment also press people to get into compromises they would never get otherwise. Stoics teach that a person should strive to
be just and moral in an unjust and immoral world (see also
Reinhold Niebuhr's book
Moral Man and Immoral Society) despite all odds:
"Moral Man and Immoral Society", by Reinhold Neibhur, was published during the years of the Great Depression. In this work, Reinhold
asserts the requirement of politics in the fight for social justice because of the depravity of human nature, that is, the arrogance
of human beings. Neibur sees the flaws of the mind when it comes to solving social injustice by moral and wise means, "since reason
is always the servant of interest in a social situation". This is his judgment of liberal Christian doctrine, which fully believes
in the intellectual ability of humans to make themselves be good, and he admits this vulnerability as our existence. In other words,
Neibhur accurately saw the evil of systems in society and its empty endeavors to better individuals and their insufficiencies.
Neibhur warns us about adopting "herd mentalities." According to him, individuals are morally able to think of the interests
of others above themselves. That is, human beings can be kind. Societies, however, find it essentially impossible to manage intelligently
the competing interests of subgroups. Societies, he contends, effectively gather up only individuals' selfish impulses, not
their abilities for charitable thoughtfulness toward others.
According to Niebuhr, this group egocentricity of individuals-in-groups is immensely powerful. "In every human group there
is less reason to guide and to check impulse, less capacity for self-transcendence, less ability to comprehend the needs of others,
therefore more unrestrained egoism than the individuals, who compose the group, reveal in their personal relationships".
Avoidance of fight for justice is viewed by stoics a rejection of one's social duty. Stoic philosophical and spiritual practices
included contemplation of hardship, training to value the life as it is (similar to some forms of
Eastern meditation), and daily reflection on everyday
problems and possible solutions (by keeping a diary). Practicing Stoicism is an active process of preparation to overcome
hardships that your destiny could send upon you with honor and courage (and viewing hardships as a test that God send to evaluate
a person). As well as acquiring deeper self-knowledge and the knowledge of the society in the process.
In his Meditations (which were not written for print,
but as a personal diary) Marcus Aurelius defines several such practices. For example, in Book II.I:
Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men.
All of the ignorance of real good and ill... I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can
I be angry with my kinsman, or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together...
It was stoicism that gave mankind the idea if equality of all men. In this situation it applies to those who suffer from the
long term unemployment. Below are some quotations from major Stoic philosophers, selected to illustrate common Stoic beliefs:
"Get rid of the judgment, get rid of the 'I am hurt,' you are rid of the hurt itself." (viii.40)
"Everything is right for me that is right for you, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late that comes in due time
for you. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, O Nature. From you are all things, in you are all things, to you all
things return." (iv.23)
"If you work at that which is before you, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else
to distract you, but keeping your divine part pure, as if you were bound to give it back immediately; if you hold to this, expecting
nothing, but satisfied to live now according to nature, speaking heroic truth in every word that you utter, you will live happy.
And there is no man able to prevent this." (iii.12)
"How ridiculous and how strange is to be surprised at anything that happens in life!" (xii.13)
"Outward things cannot touch the soul, not in the least degree; nor have they admission to the soul, nor can they turn or move
the soul; but the soul turns and moves itself alone." (v.19)
"Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within
the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also" (vi.19)
"Or is it your reputation that's bothering you? But look at how soon we're all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows
it all. The emptiness of all those applauding hands. The people who praise us — how capricious they are, how arbitrary. And the tiny
region in which it all takes place. The whole earth a point in space—and most of it uninhabited. How many people there will be to
admire you, and who they are." (iv.3)
"The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live." (Ep.
101.15)
"That which Fortune has not given, she cannot take away." (Ep.
59.18)
"Let Nature deal with matter, which is her own, as she pleases; let us be cheerful and brave in the face of everything, reflecting
that it is nothing of our own that perishes." (De
Provid. v.8)
"Virtue is nothing else than right reason." (Ep.
66.32)
A good introduction to Stoicism can be found in A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine. Here are some Amazon reviews
of the book:
...Readers learn how to minimize worry, how to let go of the past and focus our efforts on the things we can control, and
how to deal with insults, grief, old age, and the distracting temptations of fame and fortune.
We learn from Marcus Aurelius the importance of prizing only things of true value, and from Epictetus we learn how
to be more content with what we have.
Finally, A Guide to the Good Life shows readers how to become thoughtful observers of their own life. If we watch ourselves
as we go about our daily business and later reflect on what we saw, we can better identify the sources of distress and eventually
avoid that pain in our life...
David B Richman (Mesilla Park, NM USA)
The Best Introduction to an Ancient Philosophy, December 23, 2008 See all my reviews
I first read Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations" while flying to the eastern United States for a scientific meeting. It was during
a rather difficult period in my life and I had picked up on "Meditations" because of a mention of this work by Edwin Way Teale
in "Near Horizons" as a book he turned to in times of trouble.
I was not disappointed by these insightful notes written for his own use nearly 2000 years ago by the Roman Emperor and Stoic
philosopher. It was thus that I was primed to read William B. Irvine's "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy."
This is one of those books that can be really life changing, if the reader is ready for it.
Irvine briefly discusses the history of Stoic philosophy and its relationship to other philosophies in ancient Greece and Rome.
He concentrates most of the book, however, on the Stoics of the Roman Empire, namely Seneca, Gaius Musonius Rufus, Epictetus and,
of course, Marcus Aurelius. After his historical review Irvine spends some time on the practical aspects of Stoicism, including
negative visualization (visualizing how your life could be worse),
dichotomy of control (what we can and cannot control),
fatalism (about the past and present, not the future),
self-denial (putting off pleasure so as to appreciate it more when you have it),
duty (what we owe to others),
social relations (how we relate to others),
insults (how to react to them),
grief (how to deal with loss),
anger (how to turn it to humor),
personal values (how to deal with fame and fortune, or the lack thereof),
old age (how to deal with the aging process),
and dying (how to prepare for this certainty).
The last part of the book is devoted to the practice of Stoicism in the modern world, with both its pluses and minuses.
Although I would have to practice a modified Stoicism (I doubt that most of us would like to sleep even occasionally on a board
or give up sex except for procreation), there is much of Stoicism that we can use in the modern world.
Unlike the Cynics who slept on boards all the time and generally followed ascetic practices, Stoics wanted to enjoy life and
followed something akin to the Middle Way of Buddhism.
This attitude could certainly be of use to counter the worst of this "me first" society of rampant consumerism. In truth
you really cannot take it with you when you die and to act like you can is the height of folly.
This book is a fascinating exposition of Stoic philosophy and its possible uses in the present day. The current economic
collapse and other disasters of modern living could be a fertile ground for a revival of Stoic ideas. I also recommend it as a
refreshing antidote for the hectic modern world in general. Take what is useful, and leave the rest, but read it if you would
live deliberately and thus be free!
The world entered a period of economic stagnation. American middle class families now earn less and have a lower net worth
than before the Great Recession. For individuals, this translates into less savings at the age of 50. Both in 401K and in accounts
outside 401K, such as Roth or regular investment account, such as Vanguard. That means that "downsizing" in case of chronic unemployment
need to go deeper and be more painful. To raise funds you not only need to change your house for apartment (a good move when you children
are grown up in any case) but take other measures, like getting rid off of extra car, boat, etc.
Rising unemployment level of IT professional over 50 is just a tip of the iceberg of multiple problems caused by secular stagnation.
Here is a short description:
Secular Stagnation is a term proposed by Keynesian economist
Alvin Hansen back in the 1930s to explain America’s dismal economic performance — in which sluggish growth and output, and employment
levels well below potential, coincide with a problematically low (even negative) real interest rates even in the face of extraordinarily
easy monetary policy. This is stagnation that lasts longer period then the business cycle (also called Japanification of economy).
It looks like a suppression of economic performance for long (aka secular) period of time.
The global stagnation we are experiencing is the logical result of dominance of neoliberalism and a sign of its crisis
an a ideology, somewhat similar to the crisis of Bolshevik's ideology in the USSR in 60th when everybody realized that the existing
society cannot fulfill the key promise of higher living standards and that over centralization of economic life naturally lead to
stagnation. Analogy does
not ends here, but this point is the most important.
Neoliberalism replaced over-centralization (with iron fist one party rule) with over-financialization (with iron fist rule of
financial oligarchy), with generally the same result as for the economy ( In other words neoliberalism like bolshevism is equal
to economic stagnation; extremes meet). End of cheap oil did not help either. In a sense neoliberalism might be viewed
as the elite reaction to the end of cheap oil, when it became clear that there are no enough cookies for everyone.
This growth in the financial sector's profits has not been an accident; it is the result of engineered shift in the elite
thinking, which changed government policies. The central question of politics is, in my view, "Who has a right to live and who does
not". In the answer to this question, neoliberal subscribes to Social Darwinism: citizens should be given much less rather
than more social protection. Such policies would have been impossible in 50th and 60th (A
Short History of Neo-liberalism)
In 1945 or 1950, if you had seriously proposed any of the ideas and policies in today's standard neo-liberal toolkit, you would
have been laughed off the stage at or sent off to the insane asylum. At least in the Western countries, at that time, everyone
was a Keynesian, a social democrat or a social-Christian democrat or some shade of Marxist.
The idea that the market should be allowed to make major social and political decisions; the idea that the State should voluntarily
reduce its role in the economy, or that corporations should be given total freedom, that trade unions should be curbed and
citizens given much less rather than more social protection--such ideas were utterly foreign to the spirit of the time. Even
if someone actually agreed with these ideas, he or she would have hesitated to take such a position in public and would have had
a hard time finding an audience.
And this change in government polices was achieved in classic Bolsheviks coup d'état way via forming first the Party of "professional
neoliberal revolutionaries" who pushed for this change. The crisis of "New Deal capitalism" helped, but without network of think
tanks and rich donors, the triumph of neoliberalism in the USA would have been impossible:
...one explanation for this triumph of neo-liberalism and the economic, political, social and ecological disasters that go
with it is that neo-liberals have bought and paid for their own vicious and regressive "Great Transformation". They have understood,
as progressives have not, that ideas have consequences. Starting from a tiny embryo at the University of Chicago with the
philosopher-economist Friedrich von Hayek and his students like Milton Friedman at its nucleus, the neo-liberals and their funders
have created a huge international network of foundations, institutes, research centers, publications, scholars, writers and public
relations hacks to develop, package and push their ideas and doctrine relentlessly.
Most economists are acutely aware of the increasing role in economic life of financial markets, institutions and operations
and the pursuit of profits via exotic instruments such as derivatives (all this constituted financialization). This dominant
feature of neoliberalism has huge the re-distributional implications, huge effects on the US economy, international dimensions
and monetary system, depth and longevity of financial crises and unapt policy responses to them.
They have built this highly efficient ideological cadre because they understand what the Italian Marxist thinker Antonio
Gramsci was talking about when he developed the concept of cultural hegemony. If you can occupy peoples' heads, their hearts and
their hands will follow.
I do not have time to give you details here, but believe me, the ideological and promotional work of the right has been
absolutely brilliant. They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars, but the result has been worth every penny to them because
they have made neo-liberalism seem as if it were the natural and normal condition of humankind. No matter how many disasters
of all kinds the neo-liberal system has visibly created, no matter what financial crises it may engender, no matter how many losers
and outcasts it may create, it is still made to seem inevitable, like an act of God, the only possible economic and social order
available to us.
Neoliberalism naturally leads to secular stagnation due to redistribution of wealth up. which undermines purchasing power of the
99%, or more correctly 99.9 of the population. In the USA this topic became hotly debated theme in establishment circles after
Summers speech
in 2013. Unfortunately it was suppressed in Presidential campaign of 2016. Please note that Sanders speaks about Wall Street
shenanigans, but not about ideology of neoliberalism. No candidates tried to address this problem of "self-colonization" of
the USA, which is probably crucial to "making America great again" instead of continued slide into what is called "banana republic"
coined by American writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter 1862–1910).
Here is how Wikipedia described the term:
Banana republic or banana state is a pejorative political science term for politically unstable countries in Latin America
whose economies are largely dependent on exporting a limited-resource product, e.g. bananas. It typically has stratified social
classes, including a large, impoverished working class and a ruling plutocracy of business, political, and military elites.[1]
This politico-economic oligarchy controls the primary-sector productions to exploit the country's economy.[2]
... ... ...
In economics, a banana republic is a country operated as a commercial enterprise for private profit, effected by a collusion
between the State and favoured monopolies, in which the profit derived from the private exploitation of public lands is private
property, while the debts incurred thereby are a public responsibility.
This topic is of great importance to the US elite because the USA is the citadel of Neoliberalism. It also suggest that
the natural way neoliberal economic system based on increasing of the level of inequality (redistribution of wealth up) should behave:
after the initial economic boom (like in case of steroids use) caused by financialization of economy (as well as dissolution
of the USSR), helped by off-shoring of manufacturing, the destructive effects of this temporary boost come into foreground. Redistribution
of wealth up increases inequality which after a certain delay starts to undercuts domestic demand. It also tilts the demand more
toward conspicuous consumption (note the boom of luxury cars sales in the USA).
But after inequality reaches certain critical threshold the economy faces extended period of low growth reflecting
persistently weak private demand (purchasing power of lower 90% of population). People who mostly have low level service economy
jobs (aka MC-jobs) can't buy that much. Earlier giants of American capitalism like Ford understood that, but Wall Street sharks
do not and does not want. They operate under principle "Après nous le déluge" ("After
us, the deluge").
An economic cycle enters recession when total spending falls below expected by producers and they realize that production level
is too high relative to demand. What we have under Neoliberalism is Marx's crisis of overproduction on a new level. At this level
it is intrinsically connected with the parasitic nature of complete financialization of the economy. The focus on monetary policy
and the failure to enact fiscal policy options is the key structural defect of Neoliberalism ideology and can't be changed unless
neoliberal ideology is abandoned. Which probably will not happen unless another huge crisis hits the USA. That might not happen soon.
Bolshevism lasted more then 70 years. If we assume that the "age of Neoliberalism" started at 1973 with Pinochet coup d'état
in Chile, Neoliberalism as a social system is just 43 years old (as of 2016). It still has some "time to live"(TTL) in zombies
state due to the principle first formulated by Margaret Thatcher as TINA ("There Is No Alternative") -- the main competitor, bolshevism,
was discredited by the collapse of the USSR and China leadership adoption of neoliberalism. While Soviet leadership simply abandoned
the sinking ship and became Nouveau riche in a neoliberal
society that followed, Chinese elite managed to preserved at least outer framework of the Marxist state and the political control
of the Communist party (not clear for how long). But there was a neoliberal transformation of Chinese economy, initiated, paradoxically,
by the Chinese Communist Party.
Currently, no other ideology, including old "New Deal" ideology can compete with neoliberal ideology, although things started
to change with Sanders campaign in the USA on the left and Trump campaign on the right. Most of what we see as a negative reaction
to neoliberalism in Europe generally falls into the domain of cultural nationalism.
The 2008 financial crisis, while discrediting Neoliberalism as an ideology (in the same way as WWII discredited Bolshevism), was
clearly not enough for the abandonment of this ideology. Actually Neoliberalism proved to be remarkably resilient after this crisis.
Some researchers claim that it entered "zombie state" and became more bloodthirsty and ruthless.
There is also religious overtones of Neoliberalism which increase its longevity (similar to Trotskyism, and neoliberalism can
be called "Trotskyism for rich"). So, from a small, unpopular sect with virtually no influence, neo-liberalism has become the major
world religion with its dogmatic doctrine, its priesthood, its law-giving institutions and perhaps most important of all, its hell
for heathen and sinners who dare to contest the revealed truth. Like in most cults adherents became more fanatical believers
after the prophecy did not materialized. The USA elite tried partially alleviate this problem by resorting to military Keynesianism
as a supplementary strategy. But while military budget was raised to unprecedented levels, it can't reverse the tendency. Persistent
high output gap is now a feature of the US economy, not a transitory state.
But there is another factor in play here: combination of peak (aka "plato" ;-) oil and established correlation of the speed
of economic growth and prices on fossil fuels and first of all on oil. Oil provides more than a third of the energy we use on the
planet every day, more than any other energy source (How
High Oil Prices Will Permanently Cap Economic Growth - Bloomberg). It is dominant fuel for transport and in this role it is very
difficult to replace.
That means that a substantial increase of price of oil acts as a fundamental limiting factor for economic growth. And "end of
cheap oil" simply means that any increase of supply of oil to support growing population on the planet and economic growth now requires
higher prices. Which naturally undermine economic growth, unless massive injection of currency are instituted. that probably was
the factor that prevented slide of the US economy into the recession in 2009-2012. Such a Catch-22.
Growth dampening potential of over $100-a-barrel oil is now a well established factor. Unfortunately, the reverse is not true.
Drop of oil price to below $50 as happened in late 2014 and first half of 2015 did not increase growth rate of the USA economy. It
might simply prevented it from sliding it into another phase of Great Recession. Moreover when economies activity drops, less
oil is needed. Enter permanent stagnation.
Also there is not much oil left that can be profitably extracted at prices below $80. So the current oil price slump is a temporary
phenomenon, whether it was engineered, or is a mixture of factors including temporary overcapacity . Sooner or later oil prices should
return to level "above $80", as only at this level of oil price capital expenditures in new production make sense. That des not mean
that oil prices can't be suppressed for another year or even two, but as
Herbert Stein aptly noted "If something cannot
go on forever, it will stop,"
Currently the "conversion to the cloud" in the latest IT fashion. and under this sauce a lot of salaried jobs in IT are eliminated.
Technically speaking this just a new flavor of outsourcing. While such a move have some technical merits:
This one of the few chances (similar to relocation of the datacenter) that gives a chance to get rid of old barely used servers.
Paradoxically most savings occur before you move everything to the cloud, just due to this effect.
It can improve availability and usability for several services such as email and corporate web portal.
But for everything else this is not "one size fit all" type of solution. As soon as the service requires considerable bandwidth (such
as backup) it became really brittle after move into the cloud. Also large provider which enjoy economy of scale (such a Google
with Gmail or Amazon cloud, Microsoft or Web hosting companies) typically often experience periodic catastrophic outages just became
of their huge scale: at such scale even minor mistake can has unpredictable consequences. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing
that you can change in such a situation, if your services are outsourced. You is just one of many customers and as such there
is no special loyalty toward you from the cloud provider staff. Unless you regular employees they do not care much about your company.
See "Everything in the Cloud" Utopia
But it does not matter for IT brass. In reality this conversion is used as an opening salvo in an attack of "traditional", salaried
IT workforce. Which are first transferred to the "cloud provider" and them partially eliminated when datacenter change hands due to
"move to the cloud". Many of the older folds choose to retire (and that doubles the value of sound handling of
your 401K -- think about it not so much as retirement
fund, but more as a private unemployment insurance). Combining some income stream from 401K and a low paying job helps
to survive this adversity
The trend under Neoliberalism is unmistakable: temps and contractors gradually displace permanent (salaried) employees, top
brass gets richer and richer. Less qualified and lower paid personnel with less benefits gradually is replacing old workforce,
whenever such change is even marginally possible. Management gets outsized bonuses. That's why large companies now are hunting
for the opportunity to "convert datacenter to the cloud".
In reality the conversion to the cloud is used as an opening salvo in an attack of "traditional", salaried
IT workforce. Which are first transferred to the "cloud outsourcer" and them partially eliminated when datacenter change
hands. Many older folds choose to retire (and that double the value of sound handling of
your 401K -- think about it not so much as retirement
fund, but more as a private unemployment insurance). Combining some income stream from 401K and a low paying job
helps to survive this adversity.
The trend toward less qualification in IT (aka "lumpenization of IT") as also connected with the fact that as university graduates
get into mature stage of development of major technologies and did not experience the emerging of all those technologies as old-timers
did, unless they were amateur enthusiasts who tried to build their own computers and experimented with such OSes as
MS DOS and Linux in school. That often means that they have less unique, "in-depth" knowledge
of technologies and processes that old-timers, which they acquired by being the first hand witnesses of the evolution of
IT to the present level. As such they are more predisposed to use "packaged" solutions.
But of course there are old-timers and old-timers. Large swat of IT old-times are accidental people which moved to the field during
boom years of IT (say, 1990-1998). Many of them have neither native talent which drove "real" old-timers into IT from other specialties
(often physics, or electrical engineering), nor computer science university degree which allow to see a bigger picture. Such people
are just barely competent despite all the advantages cited above that their entrance at the field at the early stage of development
of many important technologies (and first of all web-based technologies) provides.
At the same time the concerns about reliability and downtime are not as simple as having old seasoned workforce on the payroll. A
new generation of IT workers (mostly part-time and lower paid guys from outsourcers) is not greatly affecting network or server reliability
in a negative way. May be something does happen on the margins. But major business disruptions caused by the ground floor incompetence
looks completely remote to me. More often such cases are caused by gross incompetence of the top brass.
Paradoxically with the current level of hardware and software technology this new temp workers and contractors might be adequate
to maintaining status quo. Its completely other game with the development of something new, but just maintaining existing services much
like maining electrical network does not requires much talent and dedication. Business can survive with completely outsourced IT, if
all they need are basic services. And many businesses unfortunately belongs to this type. Of cause, everything became slow like
running in the dense mud, but services somehow function and the enterprise does not collapse. Also both hardware and software architecture
itself became more resilient for reasons external to the datacenter technologies used. For example, if company mail and phone network
are down, people still can communicate using their cell phones SMS messages and web based personal accounts (which is bad but those
are extraordinary circumstances which require extraordinary measures are better then nothing)
Another trend is that due to commodization of the technology the IT support on the level of the firm now matters less. Actually much
less: any complex issues are delegated and solved by vendor support, or professional consultants. Enterprise software also became more
or less standardized. Of course this is not applicable to research labs and such, but regular corporate office now runs predictable
mixture of standard software suits and components including Microsoft Office, some database (Oracle or Microsoft SQL of both), backup
software and storage area network, helpdesk software, datacenter monitoring software, videoconferencing software, and so on. Operating
systems re also pretty much standardized: only a half dozen of operating systems such as VMware, Windows, RHEL, and SLES (with some
remands of Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and remnants of mainframes OSes). Mail, DNS, proxy, firewall, NFS servers now are often implemented as
appliances.
Where huge, damaging to the company, blunders are now made is at senior level, where the IT brass became completely detached
from technology (and often from reality). In large companies, now there are way too many technically illiterate bean counters who were
promoted to senior IT positions. What is important to understand is that they rely mainly on fashion (and vendor hype as well as good
old bribing) in adopting new technologies for the firm. Recently misguided security efforts became a major threat to stability of the
enterprise IT. In soma cases causing almost paralyses. And security for some reason attract the most incompetent careerists and "good-for-nothing"
type of specialists. One typical "corporate excess" is preoccupation with firewalls.
But contrary to the speculation about the demise of IT from the IT brass incompetence, the net result of that looks stupid and highly
questionable from the ground floor are just modest cost overruns almost unnoticeable for the firm. Nothing to be exited about.
Something that should probably cost $100K is bought for $200K or, in rare cases (if you buy from IBM ;-) $300K. Plus additional
10-20% in annual maintenance fees. That's about it. So the level of inefficiency is not that great. Nothing in comparison with DoD.
Please remember the cost of IT is generally around 1% of the total cost of the operation of a large company. Most often slightly
less then 1%. So at the scale of the firm all those cost overruns is just a rounding error.
You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed
a man of everything, he's no longer in your power - he's free again.
-- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world
where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go
and see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says, "But doctor...I am Pagliacci."
You should view your situation is as a fight against unjust and cruel
neoliberal society which put you into neoliberal Gulag.
In which human beings are considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. And the guards is no less cruel and much better equipped
then under Stalinism. Like prisoners in Gulag "masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without
possibilities, without any means of escape." (Pope
Francis on danger of neoliberalism)
The social forces working toward shrinking of middle class have been building up for a while with the growth of neoliberalism. Among
the first and foremost factor here was the complete financialization
of the economy (casino capitalism) and the steady rise in
health costs and cost of university education. Due to this neoliberal transformation which meant redistribution of profits in favor
of for the top 1% (much like in Gilded Age), not on the larger society, outsourcing pressures are now huge. All those factors
have hastened the demise of the safe, secure white-collar jobs, especially in IT.
Under neoliberalism the wealthy and their academic servants,
see inequality as a noble outcome. They want to further enrich top 1%,
shrink middle class making it less secure, and completely impoverish poor limiting payment to them to what is needed for bare survival
(actually for some category of worker Wal-Mart and other retailers already pay less then that). In other words they promote under the
disguise of "free market" Newspeak a type of economy which can be called a plantation economy. Or XIX century economy if you
want. In this type of the economy all the resources and power are in the hands of a wealthy planter class who then gives preference
for easy jobs and the easy life to their loyal toadies.
The wealthy elites like cheap labor. And it's much easier to dictate their conditions of employment
when unemployment is high. Keynesian economics values the middle class
and does not value unemployment or cheap labor. Neoliberals like a system that rewards them for their loyalty to the top 1% with an
easier life than they otherwise merit (look at academic economists as a good example of this trend ;-). In a meritocracy where
individuals receive public goods and services that allow them to compete on a level playing field, many neoliberal toadies would be
losers who cannot compete.
Despite the neoliberal obsession with wage suppression via outsourcing, history suggests that such a policy is self-destructive,
especially in high-tech industries. High wages promote both loyalty and rapid technological change that the US Information technology
industry was famous for. Now smell of "socialist enterprise" with its slogan "they pretend that they pay us, we pretend that we
work" is distinctly felt in many large corporation with outsourced/offshored IT. Helpdesk tickets travel for several days, instead of
resolution problems are swiped under the carpet, employees are unable to get qualified help and resort to creation of "shadow
IT". And so on.
There are two major trends in job market under neoliberalism that hit especially hard older IT professionals:
Crapification of jobs. That means that if equal results can be achieved with less qualified labor that road will be
automatically taken even if it does not bring immediate financial benefits or those benefits are illusionary in a long run (but
bonuses for the top executives are real). That's alone dooms qualified older IT folks, as there is a distinct trend of commodization
of IT. Fight for profit margins that ensure bonuses are paid to the top brass is ruthless and nobody cares if they can
be accused of lack of vision is a couple of years or so. They already got most of their loot at this time.
Outsourcing and offshoring. Use of outsourcers in IT is not
only a way to get rid of qualified (and typically older, better paid and less malleable ) personnel, but also to ensure that in the
future there will be nobody to understand that really is needed for the enterprise and what happened. Which opens a range of
interesting possibilities for top layer of executives. So despite this often is a dead-end road it is also automatically taken as
it provide immediate and easily calculable financial benefits and delayed the more difficult to qualify financial losses ("after
me, deluge" type of thinking) for several years.
One of the most important measures of the health of an economy is the following criteria: how many fulfilling, living-wage jobs are
created or destroyed (most other economic factors can be distilled to this.). For example, widely used measure of economic growth, GDP
is too influenced by financial masturbation and does not distinguish useful activity from harmful or irrelevant. From this point
of view we could describe the current economic system as Crapitalism, which treats ordinary people and lower level professionals
as crap.
One of the most important measures of the health of an economy is the following criteria: how many fulfilling,
living-wage jobs are created or destroyed (most other economic factors can be distilled to this.).
We live in a society where it's hard to maintain self-respect if you don't have a job. If you've been unemployed and are over 50
you already know this, but if you haven't, here's a news flash: Coping with prolonged joblessness is a very challenging and personally
difficult task. Being unemployed is a stigma in the US neoliberal society, and being unemployed and over 50 is a double stigma. Those
who are over 50 need to face subtle -- and not so subtle -- biases including hidden caveats on job ads for positions.
Being unemployed is a stigma in the US neoliberal society, and being unemployed and over 50 is a double stigma
(being young is a virtue under neoliberalism). Those who are over 50 need to face subtle -- and not so subtle -- biases including
hidden caveats in job ads for relevant positions.
And BTW the current laws don't prohibit discrimination against the jobless. As was aptly observed in
Even Harvard couldn't protect
me
Strikingly, no other circumstance triggers a larger decline in well-being and mental health than involuntary joblessness.
Only the death of a spouse compares.
The quest for ever higher degree of efficiency and dominance of neoliberalism as an ideology makes such a society (and by extension
the economy) extraordinarily brittle. And IT is on the forefront of this process. They essentially are destroying IT as we know it.
Good, long lasting, full time jobs IT start to disappear, while percentage of IT temp jobs and low paid entry level jobs increased dramatically.
Often the attitude toward older It professionals is highly negative:
"...older people are too much trouble.” When pressed on that statement, she continued, “You older folks know too much. You call
us out on the BS — that every big outfit uses to keep the kids in line. Face it, you’re a threat to the system.” Evidently, overqualified
also means having a social conscience today. I do pity the young folks today though. They’re growing up in a new Dickensian Age.
It does not help that white collar and professional jobs in general and IT jobs in particular are now being lost in the USA due to
outsourcing. In a very deep sense many things in IT become either based on external support (and sometimes external infrastructure like
in overhyped "cloud computing") or project-based with people hired at the beginning and said good by at the end. In this environment,
losing a full time IT position for a person over 50 means significant hardship, as he is essentially forced by the new employment
situation into temp labor pool. As a result older IT specialist suffer a double hit -- a dramatic decline of earnings and
effects of adverse selection of unemployed professionals over 50 making finding any new job a real challenge.
A person over 50 is essentially forced by the new employment situation into temp labor pool.
As a result older IT specialist suffer a double hit -- a dramatic decline of earnings and effects of adverse selection of unemployed
professionals over 50 making finding any new job a real challenge.
The term adverse selection refers to a market process in which "bad" results occur when buyers and sellers have asymmetric information
(i.e. access to different information). In this case the "inferior" products or services are more likely to be selected. As
AARP noted:
One report citing September figures noted, “Good
News for Older Jobseekers Remains Elusive.” That’s one way to put it. Depressing might be another—especially if you’ve been out
of work for more than a year.
Perma-temp is now a new perm for those who no longer can find full time job. You can't change the society in which you live. At least
by yourself (that does not mean that you should vote for those who promote
neoliberalism, which is the root case of this situation). And
while you can and probably should make your voice and frustration heard via voting, on the individual day-to-day level the best philosophy
to deal with this situation is Stoicism.
The fact on the ground is that IT environment as a whole seems to be thumped by "ageism" in a higher proportion than even
racism or sexism. Age discrimination in the private sector IT is growing as range of candidates is vast when unemployment is high and
younger employees are more malleable and controllable. Look at composition of staff of Google and, previously, at Microsoft. It's
all young people...
So situation when you are over 50 and unemployed is now pretty typical. In other word there is mass unemployment among IT professionals
over 50 years old. If, despite all efforts, you got into this situation, you should try to take it easy. You are not the first and not
the last who was thrown under the bus...
Neoliberalism as a social system came as a replacement of New Deal and is about lowering standard of living of the middle class
and dramatic raising the standard of living of the top 1%. This is what is happening now and It is just a part of bigger picture.
You can change the society you live in. so don't take it to the heart. Other have been in this situation and survived, you will too.
This is the key point. You was thrown under the bus by neoliberal financial institutions of the country. Highly paid full time job
in general and in IT especially, are disappearing. Looks like the
top 1% does not need middle class anymore and is content with Latin-American social structure of the society. So
the process of Latin-americanization started
we situation in It is a part of more general process of shrinking middle class. The process which actually started decade or more
ago. In other words, there is a profound, age-neutral economic transformation of the US economy: shredding large chunk of middle class
jobs. For IT there are several additional powerful factors in play: commodization of IT, automation, which also affect IT jobs and,
of course, outsourcing.
So people who are 50 now had the bad luck to reach their peak earning years during an economic perfect storm. Which was the recent
"Great Recession" and its aftermath.
Also IT itself changes and despite the fact that most of the "cloud hype" is just hype, new technologies are gradually displacing
older as hardware (especially Intel hardware) becomes more and more powerful and cheaper. Look at consolidation of OSes in Unix world
into Linux as a telling example. "It's a true paradigm shift," says Karen Hochman, chair of the New York City chapter of MENG, all of
whose 550 members have held top corporate jobs and half of whom are out of work.
"You've got hundreds of thousands of obsolete professionals who can't find employment in positions where they've been successful.
These are people living off retirement savings 15 years before they were supposed to retire.They don't know what they're
going to do."
Such understanding and mentality of a fighter for just cause can give one some additional moral strength which helps overcome the
adverse situation. Mentality of a fighter for just cause, for human dignity, greatly helps to maintain self-discipline, morale
and physical condition. It gives another dimension to your physical exercises, attempt to maintain dignity and preserve a healthy lifestyle.
And you should consider other is the same situation as allies that can help you, not as adversaries fighting like animals for few spots
on the job market. Although you can't inflict even minor damage to
neoliberals in Congress
by your voting in two party system, when
both candidates competing for the job were already vetted by financial oligarchy via party "nomenklatura" (apparatchiks) mechanisms
borrowed by neoliberalism from bolshevism (As George Carlin explained in his famous monologue the two party system
protects interests of oligarchy extremely well and you are
f*cked no matter how you vote), it is your duty to explain to your friends and family that the situation in which you found yourself
and help to navigate their choice unless others, more radical, political actions can be taken (which sometimes is possible although
such movements are either quickly "institualized" like Tea Party or suppressed like Occupy movement).
You need to be aware that deindustrialization of the country and related job cuts often lead to long periods of unemployment, intermittent
employment and/or underemployment, and the effects transcend simply the loss of pay, medical benefits and purchasing power. Financial
strain creates stress, depression and family tensions, which can manifest in a variety of ways, from increased use of drugs and alcohol
to suicide and domestic violence (The
Social Costs of Deindustrialization):
...unemployment correlates with increased physical health problems. Reduced access to health care makes it less likely that displaced
workers and their families will receive appropriate care. The mental and physical health costs of deindustrialization do not harm
only patients; increased demand for health care combined with decreased economic resources leads to health care workers and systems
that are overburdened and ultimately unable to meet the community's needs.
Displaced workers, especially primary breadwinners, are likely to feel significant pressure and anxiety about providing for their
families. But job loss causes more than just financial distress; work plays a key role in shaping individual identity and social
relations. The loss of work can disrupt an individual's sense of self and his or her value and competence. As Al Gini writes,
"To work is to be and not to work is not to be."42
... "anxiety, depression, and other forms of anguish may be the normal result of rational calculation of these life
chances," according to Hamilton.47 Finding a new job does not entirely alleviate these fears, because the experience of
being laid off can generate persistent fear about losing the next job. The security that workers once felt, especially those who
worked for local companies that seemed to be dependable employers, disappears.
Neoliberalism -- the ideological doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human
action -- has become dominant in both political thought and practice throughout much of the world since 1970 or so. It helped to crush
communism in the USSR and largely displaced Marxism.
These problems are exacerbated by the loss of social networks under neoliberalism which openly process the law of jungle, the survival
of the fittest for everybody except financial oligarchy ("masters of the universe" under neoliberalism). In other words they instill
real "Homo homini lupus est" (a Latin saying meaning "man is a wolf to [his fellow] man.") ideology. And are
pretty effective in that.
Pope Francis recently took issue with neoliberalism and related pseudo theory called "trickle-down economics", which is designed
to mask abject inequality usually created by neoliberal regimes (and resulting National Security State, where under the disguise of
protecting citizens from terrorism protects top 1% financial gains). He stressed that so-called
supply side economics is
a smoke screen for redistribution of wealth up by the financial oligarchy. As Eugene Patrick Devany noted in his comment to Paul Krugman's
post The Case for Techno-optimism
(Nov 27, 2013. NYT):
It seems that, "a persistent shortfall on the demand side" is a euphemism for the fact that half the population will remain
near bankruptcy for quite sometime.
Pope Francis said two days ago
"To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others ... a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware
of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion ..."
One may consider the Pope less qualified to "pontificate" about technology than Prof. Krugman who "tracks technology" and sees
that "smart machines are getting much better at interacting with the natural environment in all its complexity ... [and concluding]
that a real transformative leap is somewhere over the horizon" Pope Francis said,
"This epochal change has been set in motion by the enormous qualitative, quantitative, rapid and cumulative advances occurring
in the sciences and in technology, and by their instant application in different areas of nature and of life. We are in an age
of knowledge and information, which has led to new and often anonymous kinds of power."
"This epochal change" seems to be a reference to "fear and desperation, even in the so-called rich countries" and to people
forced to live "with precious little dignity".
The best description of supply side or “trickle down” economics I ever heard was by JK Galbraith:
“trickle down economics is the idea that if you feed the horse enough oats eventually some will pass through to the road for the
sparrows.”
Here are several more relevant Pope Francis quotes:
... Such an [neoliberal] economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies
of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when
food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition
and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves
excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.
Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “disposable” culture which
is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with
what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its
disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.
54. In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free
market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been
confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized
workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes
others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being
aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling
a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens
us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack
of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.
The shift toward neoliberalism occurred in the 1970s because businesses and the super-rich began a process of political self-organization
in the early 1970s that enabled them to pool their wealth and influence to achieve dominant political power and to capture administration.
As David Swan noted in his review (E.
David Swan's review of A Brief History of Neoliberalism)
From its founding America's wealthy have feared democracy recognizing that the majority, being poor and middle class, could
vote to redistribute wealth and reduce the control held by the elites. After World War II, the middle class in the United States
grew dramatically somewhat flattening the countries power base. As a reaction to this dispersal of power the early 1970's saw the
formation of groups like The Business Roundtable, an organization of CEO's who were `committed to an aggressive pursuit of political
power for the corporation'. As the author writes, `neoliberalization was from the very beginning a project to achieve the restoration
of class power'. T
The neoliberal plan was to dissolve all forms of social solidarity in favor of individualism, private property, personal responsibility
and family values. It fell on well funded think tanks like The Heritage Foundation to sell neoliberalism to the general public
using political-philosophical arguments.
Money pouring into lobbying firms, political campaigns, and ideological think tanks created the organizational muscle which mimics
the Bolsheviks organizational muscle. And a bunch of Trotskyite turncoats such as James Burnham, who knew the political technology
of bolshevism from the first hands, were probably helpful in polishing this edifice. Carter and Clinton sold Democratic Party
to the same forces.
This rise of special interests politics has been at the expense of the middle class including IT professionals. And the neoliberal
plan was "to dissolve all forms of social solidarity in favor of individualism, private property, personal responsibility and family
values" proved to be a huge success. The whole generation is now completely poised/brainwashed by those ideas. No longer the USA
can be viewed as a Christian county by any objective observer. Neoliberalism became a new dominant enforced by the state religions which
displaced Christianity. Now we have what we have.
Consider yourself in war zone now. In a sense it is true as your survival is at risk and you can lose you "living space". That means
that you need to access all resources you have and try to make the best of them. In more then one way a way you view yourselves to be
in a war zone now. This is a civil war for the destruction of New Deal capitalism (Neoliberal
Capitalism destroying Society)
It is a form of terrorism because it abstracts economics from ethics and social costs, makes a mockery of democracy, works to
dismantle the welfare state, thrives on militarization, undermines any public sphere not governed by market values, and transforms
people into commodities. Neoliberalism’s rigid emphasis on unfettered individualism, competitiveness and flexibility displaces compassion,
sharing and a concern for the welfare of others. In doing so, it dissolves crucial social bonds and undermines the profound nature
of social responsibility and its ensuing concern for others. In removing individuals from broader social obligations, it not only
tears up social solidarities, it also promotes a kind of individualism that is almost pathological in its disdain for public goods,
community, social provisions, and public values. Given its tendency to instrumentalize knowledge, it exhibits mistrust for thoughtfulness,
complexity, and critical dialogue and in doing so contributes to a culture of stupidity and cruelty in which the dominant ethic is
organized around the discourse of war and a survival of the fittest mentality. Neoliberalism is the antithesis of democracy. – Henry
A. Giroux
Like in any war, for civilian to survive one need to rely on resources you managed to accumulate in "peace time" and first of all
your savings. Nothing is sacred in this situation: neither you401K not your house. They are just source of funds to survive. They should
not be viewed via the usual prism "Keeping up with Jones" anymore. forget about it. Move might be necessary, and not necessary
to the place with more jobs -- move to place with much loser expenses also makes perfect sense
The "buck up and get over it" is useless advice. It's silly to assume most people aren't doing the best they can. For people who
are over 50 it's not about trying or not trying. This is about premature switch to part employment., Possibly for the rest of
your working life (that means before you can get Social Security which is around 67 years old now). There's just so little available
IT jobs out there, that your chances of getting one are not that great. That does not mean that you should not try your best. You should
do you best and continue trying despite disappointment. Never give up. But some modest attempt to create income stream should
proceed outside your specialty after your unemployment benefits expire. Even reselling something like used books, cellphones or
computers on eBay beats feeling hopeless. That actually allow you to write one room of your house as business expense. Think about it.
Most fold at 50 have some equity in the house and some sizable 401K. This is now two sources of supplementary income that can tremendously
help if all you can get is a low paid job.
Create spreadsheet with your current expenses (see Insufficient
Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime). Cutting your current expenses to bare bones is a necessary step
and the earlier you can do it, the better. It is important to not to go too far here and determine what percentage you can save without
dramatically lowering your standard of living. Much depends what "emergency fund" you currently have. Please not that you can also "borrow"
from 401K without penalty based of "hardship" provisions of US tax code. It is a much better move that accumulation of credit
card debt.
You usually can sell some unused staff that you accumulated over the years on eBay. While it's not much money, there are some benefits
for this as small business activity which can improve the level of your psychological comfort as you are feel engaged in some systematic
activity.
Create a spreadsheet of your monthly expenses and analyze each item. Some steps that help to cut your expenses are easy.
Cable TV costs are often excessive and can be cut. Number of channels cut to the basic plan or just Internet. Amazon Prime
provides tremendous number of video content for less then $100 a year. Often switching to other provider get you one year promotional
price that is almost 50% lower then you current. For example switching from Optonline of Verizon in the past was close to this difference.
Homeline phone can be switched to Skype.
Cell phones can be switched to prepaid.TracFone is actually a
very good provider of prepaid plans. If you phone provider allows use of WI-FI for calling switch to it while at home, library
or other place where you have free WI-FI. One such provide is TMobile.
Learn to cook simple food and avoid going out: that's actually more healthy lifestyle. Consider it as a valuable education
in healthy living.
You can replace gym membership fees with working out in your backyard or running. Shout intern running walking (4 x 4 -- four
minute run -- four minute walk) is an excellent medication against anger and stress that can overwhelm you is such a situation..
No less effective then punching a punch bug :-)
Use hours without traffic for your commute or use train for part of the commute to save on gas.
There are several other ways to make your balance sheet more healthy depending on your situation and whether you rent or own the
house or apartment. For example, if community library is nearby, using it in can slightly cuts your air conditioning or heating
costs. Adding a thin film on your windows is another good step in the same direction. Now you have time to do this, at last.
Amazon has a lot of low cost offering under such titles as "Heat control Residential Windows Film", "Sun control Window
Firm". For example
Gila LES361
For the examples table below shows monthly expenses obtained by downsizing your life style:
Item
Monthly
Annual
Total expenses
2470
29640
Rent
800
9600
Food
800
9600
Electricity and heating (if not in rent)
100
1200
Books and once course at community colledge
50
600
Medical Insurance (hospital only)
150
1800
Car amortization/repairs/etc (one car)
100
1200
Car insurance (one car)
100
1200
Gas/transportation
60
720
Other expenses (meals, washing cloth, dry cleaning, etc)
80
960
Drugs, Doctor visits and dental costs
100
1200
Job search expenses
50
600
Cable internet
40
480
Cell phone or tablet with cell connection plus 1GB traffic a month
Volunteering is must for people who lost job and are over 50, as it helps to fight social isolation. For many people job was the
main social setting. Especially for those who are divorced or with little or no extended family. That's a real danger. Slide into opiod
abuse, alcoholism, etc are real danger in such circumstances
Volunteering is must for people who lost job and are over 50, as it helps to fight social isolation. The
latter along with suppressed anger are real dangers. Volunteering a couple of day a month for a local politician who is critical
about neoliberal is one way to channel your anger in a constructive way.
Unemployment means boredom and it destroys the person morale and self-worth assessment. That means that it is important to keep yourself
occupied. It does not really matter with what activity: Creation of personal website, carving some wood, teaching free classes in the
library, helping relative and neighbors. Fred Glogower, the Navy psychologist who was responsible for screening all the US Antarctic
personal in 90th, stated this point in a very clear way: "The key to successful winter-over at a station is to keep the people busy."
Fred Glogower, the Navy psychologist who was responsible for screening all the US Antarctic personal in 90th, stated this
point in a very clear way: "The key to successful winter-over at a station is to keep the people busy."
Experienced Antarctic managers strive to identify and assign worthwhile projects to crew members that can be completed within the
period of isolation and confinement. Working towards an established goal, such as writing a new program or participating if creation
of documentation for some open source project provides sense of accomplishment when the goal is achieved.
Clearly defined interim goals help to maintain the focus. Self-checks of your knowledge of Unix and scripting languages, rehearsing
interview with family members, passing certification exam for RHEL or their Linux distribution, etc also can help to create that sense
of mission. For this reason one need to be aware of danger of low workloads and prepare countermeasures.
Among other things this new situation means that you might benefit from getting some new skills or improving an old one to be more
viable on the marketplace to get back to work. But please do not bite nonsense about everyone needing to reinvent themselves.
The last think you need is $40K in student debt.
In no way you need to reinvent themselves. Especially via expensive collage program. The last thing you need is $40K in
student debt. Your problem are mostly connected with neoliberalism not you. Be critical about all those rosy promises: colleges,
especially private colleges, now are an educational shark and they will devour you without mercy. See
Slightly Skeptical View on Neoliberal Transformation of University Education
In this case taking a minimum wage position is out of the question for me since all my salary would actually go to pay my debt
and I would not have money even for transportation back and forth to work.
EconomistNC, May 5, 2015
As a former public servant teaching University Level Econometrics for nearly 15 years and possessing numerous 'Excellence'
awards, this development is nothing short of shameful. I have had dozens of recruiters and HR 'specialists' debase my public service
as not being 'Real World' experience despite the fact that without my commitment to 'Real World Applications' education, many
of those with whom I apply for employment would not hold a college degree. Indeed, I find many of the hiring managers with whom
I speak regarding positions for which I have both technical and applications experience, there is impenetrable discrimination
once they meet me in person.
The point made in several articles of this nature revolve around lack of knowledge and experience with newer technologies.
In an effort to address this issue, I went back to school (again) to obtain expertise in IT Networking and Security, PMP Path
Project Management and ITIL. Now I am being told that my education is of no value since I do not have the requisite 'Real World'
experience using these newly acquired skills.
Indeed, to meet the criteria for many positions I find open requires that I be a 'recent college graduate.' When I point out
that I have been continually retraining and taking online courses to keep my IT skills current, I am once again met with the lack
of 'Real World' experience requirement. For a society that purports itself to value education and hard work, for those among us
that have worked very hard for substandard pay and benefits to be so casually cast aside is absolutely inexcusable.
Sill some, modern steps to adapt can and should be taken. For example, fashion rules in programming and system administration and
getting a course or two for the latest fad can improve your prospects getting back to work. In community college it does not cost much
money and expense is tax deductible. It is also interesting opportunity professionally as often in the corporate environment longtimers
are pushed to the niche which is far from being interesting and sometimes represents a dead end for their former skills.
There are several programs which might provide some minor financial assistance, but don't count on them too much. In any case
tax deduction for one course in the community college is yours to get.
Please understand that colleges also changed and "neoliberalized" with money becoming primary driver of their activities. That
means that many of them now are greedy money extracting machines which can capitalize of your distressed situation. Don't believe hype
of magical retraining courses that charge $10K or more for a summer and teach almost nothing. This is a popular brand of educational
scams, nothing more, nothing less. And those "courses" are typically run by really ruthless education sharks. Time when in films college
professor was a positive hero are long gone. Now they can well be just another variety of white color criminals. Please read the notes
at Slightly Skeptical View on University Education.
In other words, if you are over 50 accumulation of education debt is gambling -- it does not really improve your chances of getting
back to workforce due to age discrimination issues. Making a sizable investment in re-training with an uncertain outcome, without understanding
full consequences and chances to get an entry level position in newly acquired field (and forget about any other level), might make
your situation dramatically worse. See comment from hen3ry below. You are warned...
Still there are several ways of getting positive return from educational institutions without spending much money:
With the current complexity of the environment memory is no longer reliable store of your experience. So create a log book
and write down each evening the steps you have taken. Once a week write the review of the week and once a month write the review for
the month. You will be surprised at the amount of times you step on the same rake and repeated unnecessary mistakes ;-).
Also that helps you to remember key things from one encounter from another. Logbook helps you to organize your memory and avoid repeating
the same mistakes again and again.
You use regular logbook put is somewhere were nobody else can read it. If you use computer put it on electronic USB drive with
built-in encryption and iether fingerprint authentication or numeric code authentication. Log should remain private and never shared
with anyone. That extremely essential.
Use library as your new "temporary working place". It can be a community library or nearby college library but you need
to get out of house at least for the first half of the day. This will help you in a way you don't anticipate. First
of all you can meet people, the second you preserve a resemblance of your usual schedule which positively affected your general psychological
state and prevent depression which often accompany long tome unemployment. People need community just of preserving psychic health.
Just the fact you still need to get up in the morning, take a bath, have breakfast and your morning coffee, dress up and go has a
strong positive influence. People are creatures of routine; don't break your current routine. You can also save on air-conditioning
going to the library at summer.
Pay attention to your attire when you are going to the library. Try to dress the way you used to dress going to work or slightly
better. That keeps you in tonus as being well dressed provide strong implicit feedback to you and improve your self-confidence. Like
people used to say "form liberates".
Electronic libraries as
Oreily Safari
is also a possibility but cost money. O'Reilly provides a short trial period that you can use as additional source of books. But nothing
can substitute a real library when you are unemployed.
This is a tax deductable expense. And for $400-$800 this is another opportunity to meet people and learn new skills. That also a
very helpful for your psychological condition and greatly helps you stay mentally sharp. If you worked in IT for a long time,
you usually lost a lot of your knowledge due to limitations of your regular corporate job.
Now there is a chance to get some of those losses back. Programming course such as Unix shell course or C++ course while not necessary
for you employment actually is a great way to relearn many useful thing and feel much better about yourself as you can compare yourself
with other students. In other words attending a college course increases your self-esteem, which is an important thing in your
situation.
What is also extremely important is that your status as a student gives you access to the community college computer lab and community
college library. This is a pretty powerful learning environment in itself.
Skilled became rusty if not used on a regular basis. You can recreate part of your former environment (and actually learn few new
things is the process) by creating a home lab. Used tower computers from Dell such as Optiplex and workstations. They are very inexpensive
and quite reliable. They can be bought for less then $150 each on eBay (with shipping). 4GB of RAM is more then enough to have
very complex Linux setups including virtual machine setup. You can also buy used CISCO router or switch if this is part of your skills.
It is more difficult to accommodate your needs if in-addition to linux you managed Solaris o, AIX or HP-UX. But still it is possible,
especially with Solaris on UltraSparc (and you can use Solaris on Intel instead). Still even if you limit yourself to Linux
it is better then nothing.
In any case creating home linux infrastructure is no-brainer. You can have two or three linux boxes and one Solaris box. Install
local DNS, DHCP, sendmail and other services. Create a "lab website". Install helpdesk or ticket tracking software. And you can enroll
the help of your former colleagues for thing that you currently do not understand.
Now you are ready to run some small development project or at least tinker with the boxes to prevent losing your skills.
It took all the strength I had not to fall apart
Kept trying hard to mend the peaces of my broken heart
I spent so many nights just feeling sorry for myself
I used to cry
But now I hold my head up high
Gloria Gaynor
Sense of isolation and desperation in finding a new job increase the level of aggressiveness in people. It's much like an animal
which is being cornered. And this is strongly felt by family members, if any. Obeying simple guidelines might help
Avoid controversial subjects
Consider possible consequences before you say or do something. See
Humans can endure almost anything, but you need to be aware of typical pitfalls that develop in your situation. Material below is
based on the book
BOLD ENDEAVORS, Chapter 18)
Unplanned problems can occur. Financial stress can at times became unbearable.
Pre-existing behavioral problems tend to became worse. Individuals resort to cumulative stress in very individual way. Some develop
constructive coping mechanisms for dealing with stress and the adversity they face. They might engage in physical exercise, seek
a friend with which communicate of focus entirely on these personal projects. Other became too aggressive, might even slip
into depression and/or exhibit other inappropriate behaviors. most people still are able to adjust and endure this situation well.
We all get angry. It is what we to do about it that matters. Duration of unemployment is another cofactor that compounds those problems.
The realization that one might not escape without major hit from this situation is very depressing (see
BOLD ENDEAVORS, p. 307).
Trivial issues tend to be exaggerated. Relations with "significant others" might became strained.
Most people like to be informed, so hiding information about your current status is probably a wrong policy.
The longer the duration on unemployment, the more important became the "imitation of office work" via library and periodic tests
of your knowledge, such as certification exams.
Most people who are involved in personal projects with tangible results manage to preserve the same sense of self-respect as
before.
The primary lesson that can be learned form studying cases of long term unemployment is that humans are capable of enduring conditions
far more austere financially and more challenging morally that initially planned. Your self-worse does not depend on the size of your
salary. This is an important point.
People can adjust from change to living in a comfortable cabins on the ship to living in tent in Arctic. Their diaries reveal that
members can remain cheerful and even had to remind themselves about their desperate situation. Arctic expeditions prove that humans
can endure unimaginable hardships when the survival is in stake. Humans also exhibited a remarkable capacity to adaptation to living
on greatly reduced standard, incomparably lower that any unemployed face. Description o of the life in Nancen't hat on Frans Josef Land
illustrate the extremes of human mental and physical endurance and should be a required reading.
the polar whaling industry during nineteen and early twentieth century is another example of people surviving under extremely austere
and dangerous conditions,, The crews of sealing and wailing ships endure crowed and anti-sanitary conditions, bad food, harsh treatment
and long period of boredom punctuated by now and then by hard work and danger. Midshipman William Reynolds of the Wilkes Expedition
described adaptability of sailors on one of his letters home in 1839 (BOLD
ENDEAVORS, p 305):
As for bodily inconveniences, they are easily endured, and as long as extremes of endurance are not called for, all are disposed
to make light of the present and trust to better luck in the future. Sailors are your true philosophers in these cases and never
employ themselves in fancying their situation worse that it is,.
When you thing about such austere and difficult conditions as described in
BOLD ENDEAVORS, long term unemployment does not look too bad of a situation anymore.
If you are a church goer, you can utilize this institution too. Church is one of the few place when your current situation does not
have any stigma attached to it: religion is was created as an antipode to the
Homo homini lupus est attitude of the marketplace.
Moreover you can use it to create a group of people in similar situation which can a little bit help each other. Just communication
with people in similar situation helps.
It is a trivial advice, but important nuance is that you should not do it as the first step without talking to recruiter and understanding
your situation better. You need to prepare for each such talk, as if you go to the interview, despite the fact that this is your friend.
If position in his/her company does exist, those are usually more reliable and valuable lids, that those from recruiter. Create
the list and call starting from the most promising, not in alphabet order. Those who will take your calls and at least formally try
to help can be left on the list. Purge others. Inform those who responded about your the new plans and situation as you understand it
now.
Often people do not do anything unless they are more informed about the roadblocks you face, your next steps and plans. This way
they become more involved. Expect that some of your friends will do nothing. Those who will try are kind of virtual team that
you can use. Look for opportunities based of your LinkedIn account and you address book; some companies might be looking for consultants,
if not permanent staff.
In current environment the best chances are for IT consultant position. From Slashdot (see below):
Rather than applying for a full-time position, have you considered forming your own independent consulting business? You
would have to leverage your contacts in the industry, but there is a massive difference in the culture between hiring a 60-year-old
technical lead and hiring a 60-year-old's consulting business.
Vendor management contacts just won't care, in my opinion, if you're professional and can get results.
Get into contracting. If you've not done it before...look around and get with a contracting company....preferably one that
does Federal Govt Contracting.
Can you survive a clearance check?
If so, you should have no problem getting on with a company doing DoD contracting....they OFTEN look for years of experience.
If you're good, have a decent resume, they will submit you in....they want you to get the jobs so they can get $$ off you.
The market is often dying to hire people with lots of resume experience.
You definitely have a leg up on younger programmers.
Volunteering for some community work is an important source of keeping you skills in shape. Try to help some small business near
you for free. Your church, your municipality, and small business around you are suitable targets if they have the infrastructure you
know about and can improve.
This can greatly help to stay you sharp and even improve the skill valuable in the marketplace.
Unemployment excsabates midlife crisis in individuals. For approximately 10% of individuals the condition is most common from the ages
of 41 through 60 (a large study in the 1990s found that the average age at onset of a self-described midlife crisis was 45). Mid-life crises last about 3–10 years
in men and 2–5 years in women. If a mid-life crisis coincides with losing your job it can form potentially toxic combination.
Mid-life is the time from years 45 to 60 where a person is often evaluating his or her own life. Loss of employment creates an "overload"
of stressors and exacerbate mdlife crisis. Especiallly in women who often experience additional multiple stressors because of their
simultaneous roles as wives, mothers, and daughters,. Personality type and a history of psychological crisis are believed to predispose
some people to a variety of negative symptoms and behaviors. by aging itself, or aging in combination with changes, problems,
or regrets over:
Ruined carrier.
Problems in spousal relationships (or lack thereof)
Maturation and withdrawal of children (or lack of children)
Aging and serious problems with health or death of parents
Physical changes associated with aging
An American cultural stereotype of a man going through a midlife crisis may include the purchase of a luxury item such as an exotic
car, or seeking affairs with a younger woman. A woman's crisis is more related to re-evaluations of their roles. In both cases
the emotions can be intense.
One of the main characteristics of a mid-life crisis is the reavulation of self-worth. Moreover, the age period, between 50
and 60 if often the time when some chronic illness such as diabetes can come to the forefront. Individuals experiencing a mid-life crisis
may feel:
nnui, confusion, resentment or anger due to their discontent
with their marital, work, health, economic, or social status
A deep sense of remorse for goals not accomplished, bad bahaviour earlier in life. Guilt and ambitions to right the missteps
they feel they have taken early in life.
A fear of humiliation among more successful colleagues
Longing to get back the feeling of youthfulness
Need to spend more time alone or with certain peers
A heightened sense of their sexuality or lack thereof
If individual lacks introspection capabilities they often exhibit a non-healthy response to such a crisis including:
Increased consumption, up to abuse of drugs or
alcohol
Acquisition of status items such as luxury or sports cars, motorbikes, boats, expensive jewelry, clothing, gadgets. Getting
tattoos,
piercings, etc.
Thought about and having deep remorse for one's wrongs, committed at younger age.
paying special attention to physical appearance such as covering
baldness, wearing youthful designer clothes, etc.
Entering into sexual relationships with younger people (more typical for males). That might partially subconscious reaction
to the imminent menopause and end of reproductive career of their spouses. There might be mechanisms, including genetic, influencing
men to be more attracted to reproductive women, and less attached to their non-reproductive spouses.
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)Starring: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine Director: John Ford U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1940: 14.6%
The epic tale of the Joad family's search for jobs in Depression America. Tom (Fonda) returns from prison just in time to see
his family kicked off their farm. They strike out for California, where it's rumored there are plenty of jobs. Instead they wind
up in an itinerant camp with other desperate families. Tom finds more trouble than work and delivers an immortal speech against injustice.
On the Waterfront (1954)Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb Director: Elia Kazan U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1954: 5.6%
Terry Malloy (Brando) is the ex-prizefighter who has to choose between a cushy, no-show job and the hard work of doing the right
thing. Terry provides muscle for Johnny Friendly's mobbed-up union thugs, but he falls for the sister of one of Johnny's victims.
When he decides to testify about waterfront corruption, he is cast out of the gang. Kazan directs heavyweights who include Rod Steiger
and a real-life fighter, "Two Ton" Tony Galento.
On the Waterfront (1954)Starring: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb Director: Elia Kazan U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1954: 5.6%
Terry Malloy (Brando) is the ex-prizefighter who has to choose between a cushy, no-show job and the hard work of doing the right
thing. Terry provides muscle for Johnny Friendly's mobbed-up union thugs, but he falls for the sister of one of Johnny's victims.
When he decides to testify about waterfront corruption, he is cast out of the gang. Kazan directs heavyweights who include Rod Steiger
and a real-life fighter, "Two Ton" Tony Galento.
The Godfather Part II (1974)Starring: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro Director: Francis Ford Coppola U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1974: 5.6%
It all began with a layoff in turn-of-the-century New York City. In Coppola's strong sequel to The Godfather, young Vito
Corleone (De Niro) steals away to America and takes a job in a grocery store. He is fired when a local mob boss forces the store
owner to hire his nephew. Thwarted by nepotism, Vito takes up a life of crime with pals Peter Clemenza and Sal Tessio. And the rest
is cinema history.
Gung Ho (1986)Starring: Michael Keaton, Gedde Watanabe Director: Ron Howard U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1986: 7.0%
Hunt Stevenson (Keaton) is foreman of a Pennsylvania car factory that's been shut down; he has to convince Japanese auto executives
to reopen it. They agree, but only if they can subject the American workers to lower pay and new work rules. Conflict and cultural
confusion ensue. Worth watching if only to confirm that there once was a time when Japan seemed unstoppable and unions had power.
\
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)Starring: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin Director: James Foley U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1992: 7.5%
Just imagine how cutthroat this crew would be in today's housing market. Blake (Baldwin) has been sent to light a fire under the
salesmen at a tough Chicago real estate office. His pitch: a sales contest in which only the top two sellers will keep their jobs.
The salesmen in this film version of David Mamet's play are matched in desperation only by their would-be clients. To quote Blake:
"Only one thing counts in this life: Get them to sign on the line which is dotted."
Everything Must Go (2010)Starring: Will Ferrell, Rebecca Hall, Christopher Jordan Wallace Director: Dan Rush U.S. Unemployment Rate, 2010: 9.6%
No hiding the indignity of a layoff in this one. It's all out in the open—literally—for Nick Halsey (Ferrell). Nick has hit the
misery trifecta: A relapsed alcoholic, he's been fired and his wife has left him. His solution? Live in his front yard with his "stuff,"
or at least hold a yard sale as long as he can legally pull it off. The tale is adapted from a Raymond Carver short story published
in the late 1970s, yet the theme of a man's struggle for dignity seems very much of these times.
It is often referenced in the media that a country is progressing by leaps and bounds in the matter of economy, but at the same
time there is always a sharp increase in the number of unemployed. Growing population, inflation, corruption, despotism and various
other factors might play a role in spawning unemployment. But, let’s forget the causes of unemployment and how it affects society
on the whole. What does unemployment does to an individual and to his immediate family? In this recession era, the psychological
effects of involuntary unemployment look daunting. Our societies have buried a thought that only our job defines our worthiness.
For many of us job isn’t what we do to pay our bills — it defines who we are. And when that socioeconomic identity is taken away,
the emotional consequences can be severe. The movies mentioned below in the list explore the various emotional stresses a person
faces due to joblessness. If I have missed out any great movie, dealing this subject, please mention it in the comments section.
Up in the Air (2009)
Jason Reitman’s part funny,
part serious work is about the corporate layoffs. Its protagonist Ryan Bingham, played charmingly by George Clooney, makes his living
by ending the careers of others. His baritone voice and authoritative manner makes him to fly around US to downsize employees for
companies whose HR departments are too cowardly to do the task themselves. It has got a bit touchy storyline and a script that loses
some fire, but captures contemporary angst of the economic fallout with wit and humanity.
Tokyo Sonata (2008)
Famous J-horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s bleakest indictment of modern Japan looks at the ripple effects caused within a family
by corporate downsizing. The protagonist Ryuhei is cast out when his administrative job is outsourced to China. The humiliated breadwinner
hides his unemployed state from his wife, Megumi and two sons. He suits up as usual and wanders around the city like a zombie and
learns the routine of maintaining face over downsizing. The recession-era shows how out dignity is stripped away by a job and how
the corporations turns our mind into vegetative state, devoid of basic human connections.
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
This unsentimental Chris Gardner biopic
takes an honest, intense look at the day-to-day survival that too many Americans must contend with. Every one of us could at least
see some portion of the film and remember being faced with similar obstacles in their lives. Will Smith played Gardner and scored
some great emotional points through his portrayal of an African-American male who turns out to be an extraordinary single-parent.
The film convincingly asks us to never give up on our dreams, even when we are staying financially afloat.
Time Out (2001)
Laurent Cantet’s French psychological drama tells the story of an executive who conceals, from his family that he has been fired
from his job. He later invents a phony investing scheme, calling up old friends to invest in it. The film seriously conveys absurdity
behind a white-collar corporate life and showcases how words like ‘emerging markets’ can draw in even smart guys to invest
huge load of money. Unlike a Hollywood protagonist, the central character here avoids over-the-top performance giving way to subtle
emotions. The strain and scenarios exhibited can be understood by anyone who has held a job.
Starring: Aurélien Recoing, Karin Viard, Serge Livrozet
Director: Laurent Cantet
French Unemployment Rate, 2001: 7.8%
Vincent (Recoing) has lost his job—he's just not telling anyone. Also unclear is what he's up to now: a new consulting job with
the U.N.? An investment scam? As his fantasy life ropes in a widening circle of friends and family members, the pressure builds and
Vincent's calm facade begins to crumble. Vincent drives from dreary office to bland apartment complex, watching family and former
colleagues through windows in the dark, having lost his identity when he was shown the door.
Office Space (1999)
Mike Judge’s satirical comedy must be
dedicated to everyone, whose life and soul is stomped out by an uncaring corporate entity. The story revolves around a frustrated
corporate employee Peter Gibbons, who through an accidental session of hypnotherapy is freed from chronic anxieties and fears of
unemployment. Stephen Root playing the fat, mumbling employee, Milton and three workers bashing a fax machine with a baseball bat
are some of the memorable situation in the movie. Even though the movie offers enough fun, you can’t miss out the bitter truths beneath
those gags.
The key here is to understand the your current situation is not the end of the life. You need to survive the current slump. Even
if you are forced to take job at much lower salary, if this is a job that corresponds to your qualification and allow to improve them,
you might be able to find something better later on. You can also learn a few new things on a new job and such knowledge is money.
You can also work less hours. Often much less hours. Time is money after all. Here is one relevant comment:
I have to ask what your expectations are and be realistic.
As an employer actively recruiting IT staff at the moment, rare in the current job market I know, and I have a choice between
a recent uni-graduate and someone with 15 yrs experience who I can hire for almost the same wages because so many skilled IT staff
have been laid off and need to pay their mortgage. For me the choice is obvious, I don't care about the age factor.
However I also interview many many people who think they deserve to get the same remuneration they got from their high-flying
finance job and wonder why they are still jobless after two years.
In worst case you will find itself in "semi-retirement" situation when the only type of jobs that are available as McJobs and entry
level temporary jobs. If you put enough efforts to adjust your cost of living with the new nasty reality you will survive even
this situation.
Here are tips for getting back on your feet and into the IT job market from someone who's been there and back By Ron Nutter , Network
World , 08/25/2008
Editor's note: On Feb. 20, IT manager and Network World columnist Ron Nutter was called into his boss's office and told
he was being let go — that day. Once the initial shock wore off, Nutter launched an aggressive search for new employment in the Kansas
City area. Over the next 76 days, Nutter applied for 85 jobs, and had 16 interviews before landing a new position. He chronicled
the job search in a daily blog. Now that he has had
some time to reflect on the experience, Nutter offers these 20 tips for surviving a layoff.
1. As you're getting laid off, be sure to take notes
This can be difficult to do, since losing a job can be a very emotional experience. But while everything is still fresh in your
mind, write down all the details that you can remember.
For example, I was told that I would be paid for the full two-week pay period, plus my remaining vacation and sick time. When
my last check arrived, there were discrepancies. Having written notes helped me when I went back and reminded my former boss and
the HR folks of their commitment.
2. Take some time for yourself
Take a few days for yourself. A traumatic event has just happened to you and you need to get over the initial shock before jumping
into the fray to search for a new job.
3. Review the papers from the company that laid you off
Several important things need to be attended to rather quickly. One is how to file for unemployment. Another is how
long your company-paid health insurance will be in force before you have to consider paying for COBRA.
4. Update your resume
This is something that we should all do, but it doesn't always get the attention that it should. I was told a long time ago that
your resume should be more than two pages with a max of three bullet points per employer. That may work in some cases but not all.
I have found that some recruiters/employers use software that does a "word count" to look for how many times a particular word,
such as Cisco, or a word describing a certain type of experience
is listed. I can attest that this is happening to a degree. When I was looking for a prior job, a recruiter had me just about totally
rewrite my resume to specifically list all the different Cisco hardware that I had worked with. It was interesting to note how the
callbacks increased after I did that.
You may find that it may be necessary to keep more than one type of resume depending on the type(s) of jobs you are looking for,
so that the resume is specifically tailored to the type of job you are pursuing.
5. Get a handle on monthly bills
Even though I had a little money put back for a "rainy" day, I went through all my recurring bills to see if there was any room
for saving money. One area I looked at was car and home insurance. I found that by shopping around, I was able to keep the same level
of auto and homeowners coverage while reducing the amount of both bills. I had been thinking about doing it for a variety of reasons,
but being unemployed helped push it to the top of the list.
6. Cut food costs
If you live by yourself, this will be easier to do. If you have a family, everyone will need to sit down and understand that they
will all have to help out until you can get another job. ... ...
7. Look at health insurance options
Your company supplied health insurance will come to an end. If it was like my former employer, the health insurance ended a few
days after I was separated from the company. Worse yet, I wasn't "due" to receive the COBRA information until after my company health
insurance had lapsed. Because my previous employer had also been doing the claims processing for my health insurance, I wasn't comfortable
with them having any further access to my medical records. Doing a little research on the Internet, I found a single health
insurance policy from Blue Cross/Blue Shield for half the price and better coverage than the COBRA policy my former employer was
going to offer me.
... ... ...
10. File for unemployment compensation
This is something that I delayed a little bit. Partially because of pride and partially because I didn't anticipate the job hunting
process to take more than three months. As someone pointed out to me, you earned this money and you should take advantage of
it. In my case, filing was complicated by the fact that I had moved from another state in the past 18 months. The unemployment
folks go back that far in figuring out where you need to file for unemployment. That potentially had me talking with three different
state unemployment departments.
I spent several days on the phone with two states that would be involved in my situation. As painful as it may be to deal with
this part of your unemployment process, the sooner you start, the sooner the money will start coming in to help pay the bills until
you get another job.
11. Check the job boards
During my job search, I looked at CareerBuilder,
Craigslist, Dice and
Monster. I found no job leads from Monster in my career area. Several of the
HR folks that I talked to during the process told me that they used Monster very little due in part to the higher fees that Monster
charged for a job posting compared with other job boards, and the generally poorer quality of applications they received. I found
some new job postings on Dice, but with a significant number of jobs cross-posted on different boards, I didn't find Dice to be a
significant source of potential job leads. One source I wouldn't have thought to check for jobs was Craigslist. More than one recruiter
told me that he had good results from posting new jobs on Craigslist. Set aside time each day to do this.
12. Make the job boards work for you
Dice has a feature where you can make your resume searchable by recruiters/companies looking to fill a position. I did get some
calls from that. CareerBuilder recently followed suit by offering that feature as well. While Dice allows companies/recruiters to
repost the same job each day so that it looks new, this makes the process of truly identifying the new jobs a little harder in some
cases. Turn the tables in your favor by making periodic changes to your resume, so that when it is being searched it will show up
as being new/changed and possibly get you looked at by a company or recruiter that might have passed you by the day before.
13. Prepare for the interview
One thing that I have done when preparing for an interview with a company is to do research on the company, the companies/sectors/industries
that they serve. If it is a publicly listed company, do a little reading on the past quarter or two of press releases to see what
changes have occurred at the company and what new directions they are heading in. From the response I have received from several
companies, it seems to make a good impression that you show interest in finding out about the company when going to interview with
them. It may seem like a small thing or something that you should do anyway but there seems to be quite a few people looking for
a job that don't do this.
Also, have several copies of your resume printed out and with you when at an interview. This becomes even more important once
you see your resume as the client/recruiter sees it, when they have downloaded it or printed it out from the job board that you applied
for the position through. The formatting is pretty much gone. To make matters worse, the paragraphs or bullet points that you had
in the resume will look like a series of poorly written run-on sentences that may cause distinctive or unique information about you
to be overlooked.
14. Deal with recruiters
I encountered a couple of recruiters that would give used car salesmen a bad name, but as a general rule I found the recruiters
pretty decent to work with. Several positions that I was approached for were not on the job boards and sometimes were only from a
single recruiter. The trick I had to learn to develop was to identify the same end job when it coming from different recruiters.
One situation that you want to avoid is to not have more than one recruiter pitching you to the same client. Most recruiters will
usually tell you early on who the actual end client is.
15. Accept help from family
While your pride may make it hard for you to accept help, keep in mind that the unemployment situation you are dealing with is
affecting them to a degree as well. Depending on the age of the family, this is something that may be new to them and that they may
have never had the need to deal with. There was a time, unfortunately long gone now, when the company you first went to work for
was the only company you would work for your entire career. How much help you accept from family is something that you will have
to decide. Look at it this way, whatever help they do give you is that much less you will have to spend for food.
16. Keep good records
This suggestion came from a letter I received from the Department of Unemployment telling me that I would need to provide some
basic information. I set up a spreadsheet in OpenOffice with three tabs. The first tab was where I kept track of the jobs I had applied
for. I tracked the date, source of the job, how the job was applied for, company name (if known), job name, contact name and job
number if provided. The next tab was where I kept track of the recruiters I talked to, HR folks that I had contact with for the jobs
I had applied directly on, and anything else such as job fairs that I attended. This information was helpful when I got audited by
the Department of Unemployment folks to make sure I was looking for another job. The last tab was where I recorded when I filed my
unemployment claim each week, when I received the check, the check number, when it was deposited.
17. Get your personal records in order
When you do get an offer and accept it, one of the things that you will have to deal with is the lovely I-9 form that says you
are allowed to work in this country. You will need a variety of things. If you can't find your Social Security card, now would be
an excellent time to order a replacement card. This will take several weeks to get processed and get it to you. The sooner you get
it, the sooner you will have it ready to produce when starting that new job. If you haven't seen a copy of the I-9 form lately, get
a copy of one so you can see what documents will be needed. Another document that you want to make sure that you have a copy of,
even if you don't need it for the I-9, is your birth certificate. This is one that might take a little while to get a copy of. I
didn't know until recently that, depending on when and/or where you were born, there are two types of birth certificates – one that
the hospital does and one done when the birth is registered with the local authorities. You will want to get one that is a copy of
what is on file with the local authorities.
18. Don't wait for the phone to ring
This may be one of the harder things to do. Keep in mind that recruiters and HR types move at their own pace. That pace
can be slow, very slow. When you first apply for a job, it could be several days or more before you get the first contact.
Waiting for the phone to ring will have you climbing the walls in short order. Sometime you will get a call within hours of applying
for a job, but expect that to be the exception. There are always things that you can do while waiting for movement on the job front
and some of them may be done at little to no cost – doing that little bit of touch-up painting you have never gotten around to, do
that trimming around the yard that always needs to be done. The point I am trying to make here is that you need to stay active, don't
just sit around and watch the clock move forward.
19. Get out the house at least once a day
At some point you will run out of things to do around the house or just simply need to get out. There will be the occasional job
fair, but that won't take a large amount of your time. While you can knock on some doors at some companies that you would like to
work at, with the price of gas hovering around $4 a gallon, depending on where you live, that can be an expensive trip to make for
an unknown return. Do some things that you like to do, such as going to a museum or sports game. The main thing is to get out to
keep from getting cabin fever.
20. Never give up
Don't leave any stone unturned. You may just find that a company that passed you by today for another applicant may come back
to you when that person leaves to move onto greener pastures. I would have never thought that could happen but I have seen it happen
twice in the past year.
Neoliberalism is the key reason fro the drop in life expectancy
Notable quotes:
"... Declines or stagnation in longevity can signal catastrophic events or deep problems in a society, researchers say. ..."
"... More deaths from homicide, diabetes and chronic liver disease -- which is related to heavy alcohol use -- also contributed to last year's life expectancy drop, the CDC said ..."
"... The declines were largest for Hispanic and Black people, who as population groups were disproportionately affected by the pandemic . The largest drop for any cohort was 3.7 years, for Hispanic men, bringing their life expectancy to 75.3 years of age. ..."
Life expectancy in the U.S. fell by 1.5 years in 2020, the biggest decline since at least
World War II, as the Covid-19 pandemic killed hundreds of thousands and exacerbated crises in
drug overdoses , homicides and some chronic diseases.
... ... ...
The full toll of the pandemic has yet to be seen, doctors and public-health officials said.
Many people skipped or delayed treatment last year for conditions such as diabetes or high
blood pressure and endured isolation, stress and interruptions in normal diet and exercise
routines.
"That has led to intermediate and longer-term effects we will have to deal with for years to
come," said Donald Lloyd-Jones, chair of the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern
University Feinberg School of Medicine and president of the American Heart Association.
Life expectancy is a measure of a nation's well-being and prosperity, based on mortality in
a given year. Declines or stagnation in longevity can signal catastrophic events or deep
problems in a society, researchers say. Life expectancy fell in the U.S. by 11.8 years in
1918, during a world-wide flu pandemic. Many victims were young.
... ... ...
More deaths from homicide, diabetes and chronic liver disease -- which is related to
heavy alcohol use -- also contributed to last year's life expectancy drop, the CDC said...
Life expectancy would have fallen even more, the CDC said, if not for decreases in mortality
due to cancer, chronic lower-respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, emphysema and asthma, and
other factors.
The declines were largest for Hispanic and Black people, who as population groups were
disproportionately affected by the pandemic . The largest drop for any cohort was 3.7
years, for Hispanic men, bringing their life expectancy to 75.3 years of age.
U.S. longevity had been largely stagnant since 2010, even declining in three of those years,
due in part to an increase in
deaths from drug overdoses , rising death rates
from heart disease for middle-aged Americans and other public health crises. "Getting back
to where we were before the pandemic is a very bad place," said Steven Woolf, director emeritus
of the Center on Society and Health at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
and author of a recent study comparing the effects of the pandemic on life expectancy in the
U.S. and other high-income countries. "We've got a larger problem here."
... ... ...
Drug-overdose deaths rose nearly 30% last year, driven by a proliferation of the deadly
synthetic opioid fentanyl as well as stress, isolation and reduced access to treatment during
the pandemic, public-health experts said. One study published this month found a 28.3%
decline in initiation of addiction treatment in California from March through October
2020..... ...
Life expectancy for white people dropped 1.2 years to 77.6 years in 2020, the lowest level
since 2002.
What is missing from this article is a comparison of the US with other advanced economies in
Europe and Asia. What is disturbing is how the US spends the most and achieves less than our
economic peers starting with expected average longevity. We had the lowest longevity averages
pre-pandemic and now we have dropped further. This is happening despite the fact that our
health care spending is twice the per capita of other advanced economies (Approx. $11K in the
US vs. $6K based on 2019 data). Contributing to our dismal longevity statistics, with respect
to other wealthy economies, are the highest rates of drug overdose deaths and suicides by
gun. This is just the tip of a long list of sad statistics where we are unfortunately number
1 or close to it. The usual (partisan) response is to claim its government's fault or the
fault of a greedy healthcare system or just say the data is wrong. So far, none of these
strategies is working very well.
Dave Berg SUBSCRIBER 1 hour ago
Life expectancy is the wrong phrase. It's current average life duration. COVID will have no
impact on the life expectancy of babies being born right now. I have two new grandchildren,
their life expectancy will be impacted by things we don't even know about yet.
when the tax rates increase even more, it just encourages automation or DIY (bring your own sheets to avoid paying the cleaning
fee), which just grinds down growth rather than accelerates it.
Notable quotes:
"... Applebee's is now using tablets to allow customers to pay at their tables without summoning a waiter. ..."
Companies see automation and other labor-saving steps as a way to emerge from the health crisis with a permanently smaller
workforce
PHOTO:
JIM THOMPSON/ZUMA PRESS
... ... ...
Economic data show that companies have learned to do more with less over the last 16 months or so. Output nearly
recovered to pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2021 -- down just 0.5% from the end of 2019 -- even though U.S.
workers put in 4.3% fewer hours than they did before the health crisis.
... ... ...
Raytheon Technologies
Corp.
RTX
0.08%
,
the biggest U.S. aerospace supplier by sales, laid off 21,000 employees and contractors in 2020 amid a drastic
decline in air travel. Raytheon said in January that efforts to modernize its factories and back-office operations
would boost profit margins and reduce the need to bring back all those jobs. The company said that most if not all
of the 4,500 contract workers who were let go in 2020 wouldn't be called back.
... ... ..
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. HLT -0.78% said last week that most of its U.S. properties are adopting "a
flexible housekeeping policy," with daily service available upon request. "Full deep cleanings will be conducted
prior to check-in and on every fifth day for extended stays," it said.
Daily housekeeping will still be free for those who request it...
Unite Here, a union that represents hotel workers, published a report in June estimating that the end of daily
room cleaning could result in an industrywide loss of up to 180,000 jobs...
... ... ...
Restaurants have become rapid adopters of technology during the pandemic as two forces -- labor shortages that are
pushing wages higher and a desire to reduce close contact between customers and employees -- raise the return on such
investments.
...
Applebee's is now using tablets to allow customers to pay at their tables without summoning a
waiter.
The hand-held screens provide a hedge against labor inflation, said John Peyton, CEO of Applebee's
parent
Dine
Brands Global
Inc.
... ... ...
The U.S. tax code encourages investments in automation, particularly after the Trump administration's tax cuts,
said Daron Acemoglu, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies the impact of
automation on workers. Firms pay around 25 cents in taxes for every dollar they pay workers, compared with 5 cents
for every dollar spent on machines because companies can write off capital investments, he said.
A lot of employers were given Covid-aid to keep employees employed and paid in 2020. I
assume somebody has addressed that obligation since it wasn't mentioned.
But, what happens to the unskilled workers whose jobs have been eliminated? Do Raytheon
and Hilton just say "have a nice life on the streets"?
No, they will become our collective burdens.
I am all for technology and progress and better QA/QC and general performance. But the
employers that benefit from this should use part of their gains in stock valuation to keep
"our collective burdens" off our collective backs, rather than pay dividends and bonuses
first.
Maybe reinvest in updated training for those laid off.
No great outcome comes free. BUT, as the article implies, the luxury of having already
laid off the unskilled, likely leaves the employer holding all the cards.
And the wheel keeps turning...
Jeffery Allen
Question! Isn't this antithetical (reduction of employees) to the spirit and purpose of
both monetary and fiscal programs, e.g., PPP loans (fiscal), capital markets funding
facilities (monetary) established last year and current year? Employers are to retain
employees. Gee, what a farce. Does anyone really care?
Philip Hilmes
Some of this makes sense and some would happen anyway without the pandemic. I don't need my room
cleaned every day, but sometimes I want it. The wait staff in restaurants is another matter. Losing
wait staff makes for a pretty bad experience. I hate having to order on my phone. I feel like I might
as well be home ordering food through Grubhub or something. It's impersonal, more painful than telling
someone, doesn't allow for you to be checked on if you need anything, doesn't provide information you
don't get from a menu, etc. It really diminishes the value of going out to eat without wait staff.
al snow
OK I been reading all the comments I only have a WSJ access as the rate was a great deal.
Hotel/Motel started making the bed but not changing the sheets every day for many years I am fine as
long as they offer trash take out and towel/paper every day
and do not forget to tip .
clive boulton
Recruiters re-post hard to fill job listings onto multiple job boards. I don't believe the reported
job openings resemble are real. Divide by 3 at least.
The number of U.S. truck drivers sidelined due to substance abuse violations has surpassed
60,000 and continues to climb by roughly 2,000-3,000 per month, according to federal data. The
latest monthly
report by the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, administered by the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration since January 2020, revealed that 60,299 CDL holders have a drug or
alcohol violation recorded in the clearinghouse as of June 1, up from 57,510 as of May 1 and up
from 18,860 recorded in the clearinghouse as of May 1, 2020.
Drivers with at least one substance abuse violation are barred from operating a commercial
truck until they complete a return-to-duty process, which includes providing a negative
follow-up test result. The percentage of drivers who are completing the RTD process has
steadily increased over the past year, however, from 5.2% as of May 1, 2020, to 22.1% as of May
1, 2021.
Marijuana consistently tops the list of substances identified in positive drug tests, far
outpacing cocaine and methamphetamine, the second- and third-highest drug violations,
respectively, among CDL holders.
The number of violations now recorded in the clearinghouse stands out for another reason:
It's coincidentally just a few hundred shy of an estimated number of drivers needed to fill a
shortfall of commercial drivers to keep pace with freight demand.
"According to a recent estimate, the trucking industry needs an additional 60,800 truck
drivers immediately -- a deficit that is expected to grow to more than 160,000 by 2028,"
testified American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear at a Capitol Hill
hearing on freight mobility in May.
"In fact, when anticipated driver retirement numbers are combined with the expected growth
in capacity, the trucking industry will need to hire roughly 1.1 million new drivers over the
next decade, or an average of nearly 110,000 per year."
Scopelitis Consulting Co-Director Sean Garney pointed out that the growing number of
prohibited drivers is not a bad thing from a safety standpoint.
"The database is doing what it's supposed to do, which is identify those who should not be
driving," Garney told FreightWaves. "Losing drivers due to positive drug tests may not
necessarily be a good thing for truck capacity, but I think what many others in this industry
also care about is safety."
The problem is that many people face long term unemployment without substantial emergency funds, which further complicates
already difficult situation.
Notable quotes:
"... More than 2K adults to were interviewed to try and ascertain how long they could survive without income. It turns out that approximately 72.4MM employed Americans - 28.4% of the population - believe they wouldn't be able to last for more than a month without a payday. ..."
Imagine you lost your job tomorrow. How long would you be able to sustain your current
lifestyle? A week? A month? A year?
As we await Friday's labor market update, Finder has just published the results of a recent
survey attempting to gauge the financial stability of the average American in the post-pandemic
era.
More than 2K adults to were interviewed to try and ascertain how long they could survive
without income. It turns out that approximately 72.4MM employed Americans - 28.4% of the
population - believe they wouldn't be able to last for more than a month without a payday.
Another 24% said they expected to be able to live comfortably between two months and six
months. That means an estimated 133.6MM working Americans (52.3% of the population) can live
off their savings for six months or less before going broke.
On the other end of the spectrum, roughly 8.7MM employed Americans (or 3.4% of the
population) say they don't need to rely on a rainy day fund since they have employment
insurance which will compensate them should they lose their job.
Amusingly, men appear to be less effective savers than women. Some 32.4MM women (26.7% of
American women) say their savings would stretch at most a month, compared to 40MM men (29.9% of
American men) who admit to the same. Of those people, 9.7MM women (8% of American women) say
their savings wouldn't even stretch a week, compared to 15.5MM men (11.6% of American men) who
admit to the same.
A majority of employed Americans over the age of 18 say their savings would last six months
at most. About 70.7MM men (52.8% of American men) and 62.8MM women (51.8% of American women)
fear they'd be in dire straits within six months of losing their livelihood.
Unsurprisingly, younger people tend to have less of a savings buffer - but the gap between
the generations isn't as wide as it probably should be.
While increasing one's income is perhaps the best route to building a more robust nest egg,
Finder offered some suggestions for people looking to maximize their savings.
1. Create a budget and stick to it
Look at your monthly income against all of your monthly expenses. Add to them expenses you
pay once or twice a year to avoid a surprise when they creep up. After you know where your
money is going, you can allot specific amounts to different categories and effectively track
your spending.
"... Indeed, economists and analysts have gotten used to presenting facts from the perspective of private employers and their lobbyists. The American public is expected to sympathize more with the plight of wealthy business owners who can't find workers to fill their low-paid positions, instead of with unemployed workers who might be struggling to make ends meet. ..."
"... West Virginia's Republican Governor Jim Justice justified ending federal jobless benefits early in his state by lecturing his residents on how, "America is all about work. That's what has made this great country." Interestingly, Justice owns a resort that couldn't find enough low-wage workers to fill jobs. Notwithstanding a clear conflict of interest in cutting jobless benefits, the Republican politician is now enjoying the fruits of his own political actions as his resort reports greater ease in filling positions with desperate workers whose lifeline he cut off. ..."
For the past few months, Republicans have been waging a ferocious political battle to end
federal unemployment benefits, based upon stated desires of saving the U.S. economy from a
serious labor shortage. The logic, in the words
of Republican politicians like Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, goes like this: "the government pays
folks more to stay home than to go to work," and therefore, "[p]aying people not to work is not
helpful." The conservative Wall Street Journal has been beating the drum for the same argument,
saying recently that it was a " terrible
blunder " to pay jobless benefits to unemployed workers.
If the hyperbolic claims are to be believed, one might imagine American workers are
luxuriating in the largesse of taxpayer-funded payments, thumbing their noses at the earnest
"job creators" who are taking far more seriously the importance of a post-pandemic economic
growth spurt.
It is true that there are currently millions of jobs going unfilled. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics just
released statistics showing that there were 9.3 million job openings in April and that the
percentage of layoffs decreased while resignations increased. Taking these statistics at face
value, one could conclude this means there is a labor shortage.
But, as economist Heidi Shierholz explained in a New York
Times op-ed , there is only a labor shortage if employers raise wages to match worker
demands and subsequently still face a shortage of workers. Shierholz wrote, "When those
measures [of raising wages] don't result in a substantial increase in workers, that's a labor
shortage. Absent that dynamic, you can rest easy."
Remember the subprime mortgage housing crisis of 2008 when
economists and pundits blamed low-income homeowners for wanting to purchase homes they
could not afford? Perhaps this is the labor market's way of saying, if you can't afford higher
salaries, you shouldn't expect to fill jobs.
Or, to use the logic of another accepted capitalist argument, employers could liken the job
market to the surge pricing practices of ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft. After
consumers complained about hiked-up prices for rides during rush hour,
Uber explained , "With surge pricing, Uber rates increase to get more cars on the road and
ensure reliability during the busiest times. When enough cars are on the road, prices go back
down to normal levels." Applying this logic to the labor market, workers might be saying to
employers: "When enough dollars are being offered in wages, the number of job openings will go
back down to normal levels." In other words, workers are surge-pricing the cost of their
labor.
But corporate elites are loudly complaining that the sky is falling -- not because of a real
labor shortage, but because workers are less likely now to accept low-wage jobs. The U.S.
Chamber of Commerce
insists that "[t]he worker shortage is real," and that it has risen to the level of a
"national economic emergency" that "poses an imminent threat to our fragile recovery and
America's great resurgence." In the Chamber's worldview, workers, not corporate employers who
refuse to pay better, are the main obstacle to the U.S.'s economic recovery.
Longtime labor organizer and senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies Bill Fletcher Jr. explained to me in an email
interview that claims of a labor shortage are an exaggeration and that, actually, "we suffered
a minor depression and not another great recession," as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
In Fletcher's view, "The so-called labor shortage needs to be understood as the result of
tremendous employment reorganization, including the collapse of industries and companies."
Furthermore, according to Fletcher, the purveyors of the "labor shortage" myth are not
accounting for "the collapse of daycare and the impact on women and families, and a continued
fear associated with the pandemic."
He's right. As one analyst
put it, "The rotten seed of America's disinvestment in child care has finally sprouted." Such
factors have received little attention by the purveyors of the labor shortage myth -- perhaps
because acknowledging real obstacles like care work requires thinking of workers as real human
beings rather than cogs in a capitalist machine.
Indeed, economists and analysts have gotten used to presenting facts from the perspective of
private employers and their lobbyists. The American public is expected to sympathize more with
the plight of wealthy business owners who can't find workers to fill their low-paid positions,
instead of with unemployed workers who might be struggling to make ends meet.
Already, jobless benefits were slashed to appallingly low levels after Republicans reduced a
$600-a-week payment authorized by the CARES Act to a mere
$300 a week , which works out to $7.50 an hour for full-time work. If companies cannot
compete with this exceedingly paltry sum, their position is akin to a customer demanding to a
car salesperson that they have the right to buy a vehicle for a below-market-value sticker
price (again, capitalist logic is a worthwhile exercise to showcase the ludicrousness of how
lawmakers and their corporate beneficiaries are responding to the state of the labor
market).
Remarkably, although federal jobless benefits are funded through September 2021,
more than two dozen Republican-run states are choosing to end them earlier. Not only will
this impact the bottom line for
millions of people struggling to make ends meet, but it will also undermine the stimulus
impact that this federal aid has on the economies of states when jobless workers spend their
federal dollars on necessities. Conservatives are essentially engaged in an ideological battle
over government benefits, which, in their view, are always wrong unless they are going to the
already privileged (remember the GOP's 2017
tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy?).
The GOP has thumbed its nose at federal benefits for residents before. In order to
underscore their ideological opposition to the Affordable Care Act, recall how Republican
governors
eschewed billions of federal dollars to fund Medicaid expansion. These conservative
ideologues chose to let their own
voters suffer the consequences of turning down federal aid in service of their political
opposition to Obamacare. And they're doing the same thing now.
At the same time as headlines are screaming about a catastrophic worker shortage that could
undermine the economy, stories abound of how American billionaires paid
peanuts in income taxes according to newly released documents, even as their wealth
multiplied to extraordinary levels. The obscenely wealthy are spending their mountains of cash on luxury
goods and fulfilling
childish fantasies of space travel . The juxtaposition of such a phenomenon alongside the
conservative claim that jobless benefits are too generous is evidence that we are indeed in a
"national economic emergency" -- just not of the sort that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants
us to believe.
West
Virginia's Republican Governor Jim Justice justified ending federal jobless benefits early
in his state by lecturing his residents on how, "America is all about work. That's what has
made this great country." Interestingly, Justice owns a resort that couldn't find enough
low-wage workers to fill jobs. Notwithstanding a clear conflict of interest in cutting jobless
benefits, the Republican politician is now enjoying the fruits of his own political actions as
his resort reports greater ease in filling positions with desperate workers whose lifeline he
cut off.
When lawmakers earlier this year
debated the Raise the Wage Act , which would have increased the federal minimum wage,
Republicans wagged their fingers in warning, saying higher wages would put companies out of
business. Opponents of that failed bill claimed that if forced to pay $15 an hour, employers
would hire fewer people, close branches, or perhaps shut down altogether, which we were told
would ultimately hurt workers.
Now, we are being told another story: that companies actually do need workers and won't
simply reduce jobs, close branches, or shut down and that the government therefore needs to
stop competing with their ultra-low wages to save the economy. The claim that businesses would
no longer be profitable if they are forced to increase wages is undermined by one
multibillion-dollar fact: corporations are raking in record-high profits and doling them out to
shareholders and executives. They can indeed afford to offer greater pay, and when
they do, it turns out there is no labor shortage .
American workers are at a critically important juncture at this moment. Corporate employers
seem to be approaching a limit of how far they can push workers to accept poverty-level jobs.
According to Fletcher, "This moment provides opportunities to raise wage demands, but it must
be a moment where workers organize in order to sustain and pursue demands for improvements in
their living and working conditions."
Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of "Rising Up With Sonali,"
a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. She is a writing
fellow for the Economy for All project at the Independent Media Institute. This article was
produced by Economy for All , a project of the
Independent Media Institute.
In IT corporate honchos shamelessly put more then a dozen of very specific skills into the
position rescription and want a cog that hit that exactly. they are not interested in IQ, ability
to learn and such things. that want already train person for the position to fill, so that have
zero need to train this persn and they expect that he will work productively from the day
one.
But corporate elites are loudly complaining that the sky is falling -- not because of a
real labor shortage, but because workers are less likely now to accept low-wage jobs.
Duh. This is so blindingly obvious, but NC is the only place that seems to mention this
fact.
Here in the UK, the outmigration of marginally paid workers from Eastern Europe and the
resultant "labour shortage" triggered by Brexit has made it abundantly clear that Blair's
change to open borders was not from any idealistic considerations but as a way of importing
easily exploited labor.
Business leaders quoted in the the tsunami of hand-wringing MSM articles about the current
catastrophe are offering such helpful solutions as allowing housekeepers to use pools and
gyms in off hours, free meals to waiters, etc. Anything but a living wage.
" I don't actually see any untruths to the GOP talking points. "
"" Workers are less likely to accept a job while receiving Gov't benefits" and "workers are
less likely to accept low wage crappy jobs ".
Well,if u can survive on a $300/week program that ends after several weeks pass,bless u.
No one else in America can. That's a $7.50 hr full time "summer job" with no pension or
medical benefits that teenagers with no dependents,few bills n maintenance issues might be
interested in; adults with adult responsibilities,no way. That so called RepubliCons, the
"economics experts", can make such a fraudulent claim n anyone out of elementary school
believes it has a quantum particle of reality or value is . well I'll just say a sad n
unbelievable situation.
They get 300 dollars plus regular UI. They can also get Medicaid and CHIP, or if they are
still making too much they are eligible for Obamacare exchange. Plus they're eligible for
SNAP and housing vouchers
There is one significant fallacy in this article: The author conflates Republican
opposition to enhanced benefits with opposition to unemployment benefits overall.
I very much stand with labour over business on most (probably all) points, but the
Republican argument is to end the enhanced benefits in most cases – Not to abolish
unemployment assistance. They believe the role of government is to step in to help pay basic
bills in the event of unemployment, but oppose the current higher level of benefit due to the
market distortions it causes (Hence the appearance of the term 'labour shortage'.)
I agree that it basically forces mcdonalds et al to up their wages if they want to do
business, which should be a positive for society, but I find it unlikely that the author
could have unintentionally mistunderstood the argument on such a fundamental level, and all
it does is try to drive a wedge further between each side of the argument.
Anyone that believes that workers supported their jobs being sent overseas is either
demented or delusional or suffers from a mental hernia. The same goes for the common working
stiffs supporting massive immigration to help drive down their ability to demand a livable
wage.
American labor has been sold down the river by the International Labor Leaders,
politicians and the oligarchy of US corporate CEO's.
======
Got a new hip recently. Do your P.T., take it easy, follow the warnings of what not to do
until you heal and you should discover that decades feel like they are lifted off your
shoulders.
Sierra,
You've made a very interesting point that actually never occurred to me and one in which I
never seen fully examined.
Exploiting labour and outsourcing it are two sides of the same coin with the same goal in
mind, diverting revenue streams into the C-suite and rentier class.
Obviously you cannot outsource most of the workers in the hospitality industry or the
non-virtual aspects of world's oldest profession, but a lot of the tech industry and the
virtual aspects of the latter are very amenable to being shipped overseas.
Immigrants are extremely visible and an easy target, while outsourcing is essentially an
impossible to contain concept that creates real world hardship.
Dear NC readers, do you know of any studies comparing and contrasting the economic impact of
immigration and/or limiting it and outsourcing?
Indeed, economists and analysts have gotten used to presenting facts from the
perspective of private employers and their lobbyists.
You are acting if economists and lobbyists are separate groups, as opposed to largely a
subset thereof. Funny how a field entirely based on the study of incentives claims incentives
don't distort their policy prescriptions, isn't it?
As for low-paid jobs, they are traditionally the last resort of immigrants and other
marginalized populations, but the anti-immigration push that began under Obama, and
enthusiastically continued by Trump and Biden, has perfectly predictable consequences.
One factor not mentioned is many free-riding businesses refuse to pay for training, then
wonder why there are no trained workers to hire.
Now, there are definitely fields where there is a genuine and deliberate labor shortage.
Usually white-collar credentialed professions like medical doctors and the AMA cartel.
Economics is not based on incentives. That's behavioral economics. I hate to quote Larry
Summers, but this is Summers on financial economics:
Ketchup economists reject out of hand much of this research on the ketchup market. They
believe that the data used is based on almost meaningless accounting information and are
quick to point out that concepts such as costs of production vary across firms and are not
accurately measurable in any event. they believe that ketchup transactions prices are the
only hard data worth studying. Nonetheless ketchup economists have an impressive research
program, focusing on the scope for excess opportunities in the ketchup market. They have
shown that two quart bottles of ketchup invariably sell for twice as much as one quart
bottles of ketchup except for deviations traceable to transaction costs, and that one
cannot get a bargain on ketchup by buying and combining ingredients once one takes account
of transaction costs. Nor are there gains to be had from storing ketchup, or mixing
together different quality ketchups and selling the resulting product. Indeed, most ketchup
economists regard the efficiency of the ketchup market as the best established fact in
empirical economics.
Happy to see you back at a keyboard, and hoping your recovery is progressing well. I had
the misfortune of spending two days in the hospitals while they got my blood chemistry
strightened out. Here's the kicker; the hospitalist, who I saw 3 times, submitted a bill for
a whopping $17,000. Just yesterday, the practice she works for submitted a bill that was
one-tenth her charges for the work she did, yet her bill is still sitting waiting to be
processed.
OMG, how horrible. HSS is a small hospital for a big city like NYC, only 205 beds and 25
operating rooms. No emergency room. They are not owned by PE and so I don't think play
outsourcing/markup games (they are very big on controlling quality, which you can't do if you
have to go through middlemen for staffing). Some of the MDs do that their own practices
within HSS but they are solo practitioners or small teams, which is not a model that you see
much of anywhere outside NYC
The last time I was hospitalized, all the hospitalists were in the employ of the hospital,
now they are in the employ of a nationwide hospitalist practice, which has all the smell of
private equity around it. I'm really beginning to think that a third party focusted on
healthcare might have a real shot at upsetting the political order – maybe it's time to
drag out your skunk party for 2024.
As for low-paid jobs, they are traditionally the last resort of immigrants and other
marginalized populations, but the anti-immigration push that began under Obama, and
enthusiastically continued by Trump and Biden, has perfectly predictable
consequences.
Well I'm sorry you can't find easily exploitable labor, except I'm not immigrants face the
same ridiculous costs, and weren't hispanic workers more heavily impacted by covid due
to those marginal jobs (I'll switch your dynamic to low wage workers , and
marginal jobs, thanks), so by your logic more should have been let in to die from
these marginal jobs? but yeah we need more PMC except we don't Now, there are definitely fields where there is a genuine and deliberate labor shortage.
Usually white-collar credentialed professions like medical doctors and the AMA
cartel."
Last I checked it was private equity, wall st and pharmaceutical companies and their
lobbyists that drive up costs so labor needs to charge more.
Wake up and smell the coffee.
How much of this is over specification on the part of employers in the ad for the job? We
want the perfect candidate who can do the job better than we can with no training .
OMG this is such a long-standing pet peeve! We've commented on this nonsense regularly.
Companies took the position that they don't have to train and now they are eating their
cooking.
The mismatch between job openings and job applicants is not just about wages.
In fact, if companies were willing to take a chance on people who didn't exactly match the
job requirements, the likely effect would be to raise the wages some of those that did not
qualify under the over exacting job requirements. [And likely paying these new employees less
than they had contemplated paying the perfect candidate.]
But that seems like someone making the hiring decision might, just possibly, be seen as
taking a risk.
At my empolyer we know we can't find any colleges that teach mainframe skills, so we bring
in graduates who are willing to learn those skills – we submit them to a 3-month
bootcamp and then there's a long period of mentorship under a senior person to their group
that has an opening. Since everybody and their dog are now moving headfirst into DevOps,
where all the tooling is in somewhat less ancient software, they get exposed using those
Eclipse/VScode-based tools and are able to come up to speed somewhat quicker. Still, no one
in corporate America dares to bite the bullet and re-platform their core systems with few
exceptions (SABRE) for fear of losing all the institutional knowledge that's in software,
rather than wetware (humans).
Just think what is happening right now with everyone holding an Indian outsourcing
contract. You don't have individual's cellphone numbers over in India, which would cost you
an arm and a leg to call, never mind what's going on in their facilities.
On the other hand, there's something to be said for employers not training their staffs.
In the SF Bay Area computer industry, employees and independent contractors alike continually
race to train themselves in the new technologies that seem to crop up like mushrooms after a
rain. Many companies train their customers–and charge them for it–before they'll
train their staffs. This is a principal reason there's a market for contractors. Training
oneself in new technologies lays a base for opportunities that don't appear if you spend a
decade in the same job (unless, like mainframe programming, your job is so old it's new). I
suppose this is a beneficial side of capitalism?
I get that you want experience for mid to senior level jobs but the experience
requirements for what are ostsensibly entry-level jobs have gotten absurd. The education
requirements have also gotten out of hand in some cases.
That being said, a lot of the shortages are in low-wage, part-time jobs so the issue isn't
necessarily ridiculous requirements, like you sometimes see for entry level white collar
jobs, but wages that are too low and awful working conditions.
How many people want to be treated like dirt–be it by customers, management, or
both–for not much more than minimum wage if they have other options?
A wage increase will help fill these jobs but there also needs to be a paradigm shift in
how employees are treated–the customer is not always right and allowing them to treat
employees in ways that would not be tolerated in other businesses, and certainly not in many
white-collar workplaces is a huge part of the problem and why these jobs have long had
high-turnover.
It never ends – when it was about immigrant labor under George B junior – I
think – the call was
-- - They do jobs that Americans won't -- or something to that effect.
It always bothered me that the sentence was never, in my mind, completed. It should have been
said
-- They do jobs that Americans won't do at that pay level. --
The tax system, economic system and higher education departments have been perverted by the
continuous bribery and endowments by the rentier class to our elected law makers and dept
heads for decades –
The creditor, debtor relationships distorted for eons.
The toll takers have never, in history, been in any higher level of mastery than they are
now.
It is not to throw out the constitution but, to throw out those who have perverted it.
The construction industry knows how to exploit immigrant labor, documented as well as
undocumented. I'm sure most peole born here refuse to work for the same wages.
The exploitation occurs on many levels. For small residential jobs, a lot of wage theft
occurs. For larger jobs, a lot of safety regs get ignored. When you have a population that
won't use the legal avenues available to other citizens to push back against abuse you can
get a lot done :/
When I go looking for a job if a degree isn't required I am very unlikely to pursue it
further. Same if the list of 'required' is overly detailed. I'm making assumptions in both of
these cases (that might not be correct) about pay, benefits, work environment, etc. and what
is actually going on with a job listing. Why? Chiefly my likelihood of actually getting a
reasonable offer. I expect either being seen as overqualified in the first case or the job
only being listed because of some requirement in the second.
I have to wonder if many places know how to hire. This is made much more difficult by
years of poorly written (maybe deceptive) job postings. You probably know many of the
phrases; flexible schedule, family ___, reliable transportation required, and so on. Its no
surprise if puffery doesn't bring back the drones.
If we're playing with statistics. How many of these posted job openings, how many
interviews did the companies offer v. how many offers were made until the position was
filled? If position remains open, has the company increased the base pay offer? guaranteed an
increased min. number of weekly hours? offered bonuses or increased benefits? How many times
has this same job opening using the original posting criteria been re-posted? Is this a real
single job opening that the company plans to fill in real time or just a posting that they
keep opening because they have high turnover? etc., etc., etc.
The real problem with this workers are lazy meme is that it is repeated and repeated all
year long on the local news from the viewpoint of business. It has filtered down to local
people. I hear them repeating what the local news said without giving it any critical
thought. Even those who say that we need unions and believe themselves to be on the side of
workers.
Ear wigs are good for businesses. Insidious for workers.
In the UK, in the days of Labor Strive, before Neo-liberalism , there was always newspaper
reports about "Labor Strife" and "bolshy workers." Never once did the press examine
Management had behaved and caused the workers to become "bolshy" – a direct reaction to
Management's attitudes and behavior, probably based on the worst attributes of the UK's class
system.
Definition: A bolshy person often argues and makes difficulties.
Management get the workers (Their Attitudes) it deserves.
I recommend reading "The Toyota Way" to explore a very successful management style.
This song is getting a probably getting more hits these days
Take this job and Shove It https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIjEauGiRLo
But I hear lots of businesses will close to to no labor, so when they close they can go work
for 7.25 an hour for one of their competitors who also needs laborors Solidarinosc!
If businesses are suffering, it's restaurants and small scale enterprise. The Covid
response was tailored to the needs of economy of scale mega biz. They likely knew multitides
of mom-n-pops would go away- and they have. But that's fine.
So if state governments can turn down federal unemployment supplements because they want
labor to go back to work for unlivable wages this means the federal government can do nothing
about it. When push comes to shove the question that must be settled is, Is it a human right
to receive employment assistance until a job is found that pays a livable wage? (Not even a
republican will actually say No). So then that puts all the stingy states on notice that
there is a human rights issue here. States will have the choice to either let businesses shut
down for lack of workers, or states can subsidize minimum wages and benefits. If states
choose, in desperation, to subsidize minimum wages, then the states can apply to the feds to
be compensated. The thing that is needed in the interim, between when the real standoff
starts and ends, is a safety net for workers who are being blocked by the state from
receiving unemployment benefits. I say call in the national guard. This is a human rights
issue.
The real exploitation happened when we allowed companies to delocalize, manufacture
product in China and sell it here with no strings attached.
James Goldsmith seems like a prophet now, he was so absolutely right.
Wow. The Clinton flack was insufferable. AND WRONG about pretty much everything. Goldsmith
was brilliant. I wasn't paying enough attention at he time, but how many high profile people
were making the arguments he was making?
I'm surprised that nobody has taken the opportunity to comment on how this discussion
shows how hypocritical Biden and the democrats were not to press for raising the minimum
wage.
The pretense (which they must have coached the "Senate scholar" on) was that raising the
minimum wage was not related to revenue (i.e., a revenue bill). But of course it is! Right
now, paying below-poverty wages enabled Walmart and other employers to make the government
pay part of their wage bill. Higher minimum wages would raise these government aid recipients
out of the poverty range, saving public revenue.
That is so obvious that the failure of the Democrats to make the point shows that they really
didn't want to raise wages after all.
I didn't expect much from Biden but he's even worse than I thought. Along with those
bought senators hiding behind Joe Manchin. Depressing to think how much worse everything will
become for working people here.
When I think about how they're complaining about Manchin now when there was a serious
primary challenge against him last year, and how the Democrat organization rallied around
Manchin and not his challenger, it is disgusting to see Slate/The Guardian/NYT/other "Blue no
matter who" mouth breathers write articles asking what can be done to salvage a progressive
agenda from the curse of bipartisanship.
I had given up on national politics long before the 2020 election circus but this latest
has confirmed my resolve. The destruction of the Democrat party can't come soon enough.
If I call them Hypocritics, when I never believed them in the first place, will they feel
any shame at all? Or must I be part of their class for them to feel even the tiniest of
niggles?
Perhaps they'll feel ashamed once they cut the check for the $600 they shorted us this
winter. Or maybe that they are reneging on the extended unemployment benefits early or
One side makes you sleep on a bed of nails and swear allegiance.The other side generously
offers to help you out, no strings attached, but you might bleed out from the thousands of
tiny means-testing cuts. Each side want the lower tiers to face the gauntlet and prove one's
worthiness, hoping to convince us that a black box algorithm is the same thing as a jury of
peers.
Exactly right! And keep in mind deluge of op-eds telling us that Biden is a
transformational president! The same authors presented a deluge of op-eds telling us how
Senator Sanders was to radical for the American people after he did well in early primaries.
That the reforms he supported like Medicare for all, raising the minimum wage, lowering drug
costs, help with daycare, doing something about climate change etc. were reforms that the
people would never accept because the people value their freedom and don't want to live in a
socialistic country.
It looks like none of the promises Biden made during the campaign will be implemented by
President Biden. That why he is in the White House.
Would a lot of these positions be filled if the US had single payer healthcare or similar?
Would workers accept low paying positions if they didn't have to lose so much of their pay to
crappy health insurance?
At our local Petsmart they cut staff during the pandemic. They laid off all full time
workers
And are only hiring back part time. I knew several of the laid off people and they are not
coming back. Two of the people that worked full time have found other jobs one with slightly
better pay the other with slightly better benefits. We are in California where rent is very
high so another person we know decided to use this as a chance to relocate to another state
where housing is less expensive. Our older neighbor retired, although vaccinated now, he
decided it just wasn't safe and after the CDC told everyone to take off their mask off. He is
glad he just decided to live on a little less money. I suspect there are a lot of reasons as
Yves stated above for a lack of workers, but this "they are lazy" trope is capitalistic
nonsense.
Some highlights:
>> everyone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will
never be industrious.
-- Arthur Young; 1771
>>Even David Hume, that great humanist, hailed poverty and hunger as positive
experiences for the lower classes, and even blamed the "poverty" of France on its good
weather and fertile soil:
'Tis always observed, in years of scarcity, if it be not extreme, that the poor labour more,
and really live better.
>>Poverty is therefore a most necessary and indispensable ingredient in society It
is the source of wealth, since without poverty, there could be no labour; there could be no
riches, no refinement, no comfort, and no benefit to those who may be possessed of
wealth.
I'll just point out, per the Old Testament, that wage, debt and rent slavery were the
exception, not the norm (as they are in the US) for citizens (Hebrews) in ancient
Israel/Judah.
That's because the assets in ancient Israel/Judah were roughly equally owned by all
citizens with provisions in the OT Law (eg. Leviticus 25, eg. Deuteronomy 15, eg. Deuteronomy
23:19-20) to keep it that way in the long run (but less than 50 years).
Contrast that to US where we have privileges for a private credit cartel, aka "the banks",
and no limits to the concentration of land ownership and the roots of our problems are
evident.
So begging for better jobs for citizens is, in the Biblical context, pathetically weak tea
indeed.
On a personal note I had a great job interview Thursday at the local food co-op. This is
my first in person interview since I was terminated without cause by IBM (after almost 24
years there in a server development job) almost a year ago. Despite applying for over 100
positions. I'm over 60 and haven't worked in a year so I admit I'm grateful to even get the
chance.
I have another interview with them next week and hoping to start soon as a produce clerk
making $13.50 an hour. If I can get on full time they offer a decent insurance plan including
dental. The HR person acknowledged that I was "wildly overqualified" but encouraging. The
possibility of getting health care is key; my IBM Cobra benefits will start costing me almost
$1400/monthly for myself and my husband in September after the ARA subsidy expires.
I've adjusted my expectations to reinvent myself as a manual laborer after decades in
fairly cushy corporate life. I've managed to keep my health and physical capacity so somewhat
optimistic I can meet the job requirements that include lifting 50 lb boxes of produce. But
we'll see.
You mean you haven't had a job in a year since it's highly doubtful that you have not done
any work in a year; eg. cooking, cleaning, shopping, car maintenance, gardening,
chauffeuring, mowing the lawn, home maintenance and caring for others count as work.
We need to stop conflating work (good) with wage slavery as if the former necessarily
requires the latter.
Okay sure. I haven't earned in a year. But it's still a problem I'm trying to sort
out best as I can.
Since I still live in the US where earning is highly correlated with insurance
coverage, and I still have about 5 years until we're both qualified for Medicare this may
turn out to be a great thing that has happened.
And since I don't see a path out of wage slavery today I'll be happy to accept almost any
offer from the food co-op. It's a union job with decent pay and benefits and may offer other
opportunities in the future. They mostly buy and sell products that are locally made so that
makes it easier too. The money we are all enslaving each other over is staying around here as
much as possible. Okay.
Good luck! Fyi i strongly suggest u look into taking your IBM pension asap as 1. It will
minimally impact your taxes as u r now earning less n 2. How many more years do u think it
will be there? ( I usually recommend most people take their social security at 62 for similar
reasons but in your case I'd do your research b4 making any move like that. ) Take a blank
state n Fed tax form n pencil in the new income n see what the results are.
Btw truly wonderful people are involved in food co-ops,enjoy!
No one really questions the idea of maximising profit.
How do you maximise profit?
You minimise costs, including labour costs, i.e. wages.
Where did the idea of maximising profit comes from?
It certainly wasn't from Adam Smith.
"But the rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with the prosperity and
fall with the declension of the society. On the contrary, it is naturally low in rich and
high in poor countries, and it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to
ruin." Adam Smith
Exactly the opposite of today's thinking, what does he mean?
When rates of profit are high, capitalism is cannibalising itself by:
1) Not engaging in long term investment for the future
2) Paying insufficient wages to maintain demand for its products and services
Today's problems with growth and demand.
Amazon didn't suck its profits out as dividends and look how big it's grown (not so good on
the wages).
The benefits of the system can be passed upwards in dividends or downwards in wages.
Both actually detract from the money available for re-investment as Jeff Bezos knows only too
well.
He didn't pay dividends, and paid really low wages, to maximise the amount that he could
re-invest in Amazon and look how big it's grown.
The shareholders gains are made through the value of the shares.
Jeff Bezos hopes other people are paying high enough wages to buy lots of stuff from Amazon;
his own workers don't have much purchasing power.
Where do the benefits of the system go?
Today, we pass as much as possible upwards in dividends.
In the Keynesian era they passed a lot more down in wages.
> Jeff Bezos hopes other people are paying high enough wages to buy lots of stuff from
Amazon; his own workers don't have much purchasing power.
You are missing the tree in the forest. Jeff hopes other people will pay a high enough
price for Amazon stawk. We already know Jeff doesn't give a shit about the stuff he sells, or
the inhumane working conditions that go along with the low pay and short "career". I mean,
not even the nastiest farmer would treat his mules like that, even if mules were easy and
cheap to come by.
We don't think people should get money when they are not working.
Are you sure?
What's the point in working?
Why bother?
It's just not worth all the effort when you can make money doing nothing.
In 1984, for the first time in American history, "unearned" income exceeded "earned"
income.
They love easy money.
With a BTL portfolio, I can get the capital gains on a number of properties and extract
the hard earned income of generation rent at the same time.
That sounds good.
What is there not to like?
We love easy money.
You've just got to sniff out the easy money.
All that hard work involved in setting up a company yourself, and building it up.
Why bother?
Asset strip firms other people have built up, that's easy money.
"West Virginia's Republican Governor Jim Justice justified ending federal jobless
benefits early in his state by lecturing his residents on how, "America is all about work.
That's what has made this great country."
Have you had a look around recently?
In 1984, for the first time in American history, "unearned" income exceeded "earned"
income.
America is not about work at all.
The US is largely about exploiting or being exploited with most of US doing both.
We should resent an economic system that requires we exploit others or be a pure victim
ourselves.
That said and to face some truths we'd rather not, the Bible offers some comfort, eg:
Ecclesiastes 7:16 Do not be excessively righteous, and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin
yourself?
Ecclesiastes 5:8-9 If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province,
do not be shocked at the sight; for one official watches over another official, and there are
higher officials over them. After all, a king who cultivates the field is beneficial to the
land.
Nonetheless, we should support economic justice and recognize that most of us are net
losers to an unjust economic system even though it offers some corrupt compensation* to
divide and confuse us.
*eg positive yields and interest on the inherently risk-free debt of a monetary
sovereign.
Jim Justice made his money the old fashioned way, he inherited it:
From Wiki: James Conley Justice II (born April 27, 1951) is an American businessman and
politician who has been serving as the 36th governor of West Virginia since 2017. With a net
worth of around $1.2 billion, he is the wealthiest person in West Virginia. He inherited a
coal mining business from his father and built a business empire with over 94 companies,
including the Greenbrier, a luxury resort.
I wonder how much of this is also related to a change in the churn we assume existed
pre-pandemic? For example, the most recent JOLTS survey results from April
2021 show the total number of separations hasn't really changed but the number of quits
has increased.
So, one possible interpretation of that would be employers are less likely to fire people
and those who think they have skills in demand are more interested in leaving for better
opportunities now. That makes intuitive sense given what we've been through. If you had a
good gig and it was stable through 2020 you had very little reason to leave it even if an
offer was better with another company. That goes double if you were a caregiver or had
children. Which of course is why many women who were affected by the challenges of balancing
daycare and a career gave up.
This is also my experience lately. While it's only anecdotal evidence, we're having a hard
time hiring mid career engineers. Doesn't seem like pay is the issue. We offer a ton of
vacation, a separate pool of sick time, decent benefits, and wages in the six figures with a
good bonus program. We're looking to hire 3 engineers. We can't even get people to apply. In
2019 we could be sure to see a steady supply of experienced candidates looking for new
opportunities. Now? If you have an engineering position and your company is letting you work
from home it seems you don't have a good reason to jump.
Look no further than Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. They had only half the
staff they normally need at $10 an hour. So they double the wage to $20 an hour and filled
every job in less than a week. The Conservaturds will never admit they are lying.
As a small business owner providing professional services I am grateful for the comment
section here.
I have called professional peers to get a behind the corporate PR perspective of their
businesses. Although anecdotal, the overall trend in our industry is to accept the labor
shortage and downsize. Most firms have a reliable backlog of work and will benefit from an
infrastructure bill. Our firm has chosen to downsize and close vacant positions.
Remote work, although feasible, has employees thinking they are LeBron James, regardless
of their skill set. Desperate employers are feeding their belief. Two years from now it will
be interesting to see if these employees they fail forward. Company culture minimized
employee turnover pre-covid. This culture has little meaning to an employee working in his
daughter's playroom.
For context, in California, I believe the median income for licensees is approximately
$110,000 with lower level technicians easily at $75k in the urban areas.
Lastly, the "paltry" $300 per week is in additional to the state unemployment checks and
is not subject to taxes. As stated previously, $300 is equal to $7.50 per hour. Federal
minimum wage is $7.25 and is adopted by many states minimum, for what it's worth.
With respect, I do not see any there there in the comment. Adjusted for inflation the
minimum wage at its height in 1968 at 1.60, would be just under $13 per hour today. However,
even at $15 in California, it is inadequate.
Anyone making anything like the minimum wage would not be working from home, but would be
working in some kind of customer service job, and would find paying for adequate food,
clothing, and shelter very difficult. Not in getting any extras, but only in getting enough
to survive. People, and their families, do need to eat.
If the response of not paying enough, and therefore not getting new hires, is to downsize,
perhaps that is good. After all no business deserves to remain in business, especially if the
business model depends on its workers being unable to survive.
I am also fed up with the "lazy worker" meme. Or rather, propaganda. People are literally
exhausted working 2 or 3 lousy jobs and no real healthcare. Equally irritating to me is a
misguided notion that we have some magically accessible generous safety net in the US. As
though there aren't thousands and thousands on waiting lists for government subsidized
housing. Section 8 vouchers? Good luck.
We've ended "welfare as we [knew] it" (AFDC) thanks to Bill Clinton and then the screw was
turned tightly by Junior Bush (no child care, but go to work.) The upshot was bad news for
kids.
Seems to me one of the few things left is the food stamp program, and I can't imagine how
that's been reconfigured. Whomever gave that fantastic list of goodies people can get in the
US with a mere snap of the fingers isn't in the real world, imho.
Ok! Yves, lovely to see you again, my friend! (Cue the Moody Blues ) Get well!
Here is my story.
I am 56 years old, on dialysis and I was collecting SSI of 529 a month.
I was living with and taking care of my mother in her home because she had dementia.
She died in December and I had to start paying the bills. In March I inherited her IRA which
I reported to SS. I was able to roll it over into my own IRA because I am disabled, due to
the Trump tax law changes.
I reported the changes in a timely manner and because I couldn't afford to live here without
a job, I took a part time job for 9 an hour.
So now, because I inherited my mother's IRA and have too much resources I no longer qualify
for SSI and have been overpaid to the tune of almost 2 grand, which I am assuming I will have
to pay back. I have no idea how that works either. Do they just grab money out of your
account? Anyone who knows please tell me.
I would run, run, run to the nearest public assistance counselor or lawyer. In the San
Francisco Bay Area, it is should not be too hard to find one. They saved me. There are also
in California several state websites. There was a useful to me benefits planning site (It only covers nine states though).
The rules for SSI (Supplemental Security Income), SSDI (Social Security Disability
Insurance), Social Security, Medi-Cal or Medicaid, and Medicare are each different. Each
state has its own modifications as well, so that is fifty additional sets of modified rules
especially for the medical benefits. If they are determined to claw back the money, how it is
done might depend on the individual state. It is truly a maze of flycatchers and trapdoors
out for you and your money.
The overworked benefits clerks often do not have the knowledge to deal with anything even
slightly unusual and are not encourage or at least discouraged from finding out due to
the never shrinking pile, not from anyone's malice. This means you could lose benefits
because they did not know what they were doing or just by mistake. So, it is up to you to
find those nonprofit counselors or the for profit lawyer to help you through the laws, rules,
and whatever local regulations there are. Hopefully, you will not have to read through some
of the official printed regulations like I did. If wasn't an experience paper pusher.. The
average person would have been lost. Intelligence and competence has nothing to do with.
Hell, neither does logic, I think.
In my case, when I inherited a retirement account, SSDI was not affected, because of how
the original account was set up. However, SSDI is different from SSI although both have
interesting and Byzantine requirements. I guess to make sure we are all "deserving" of any
help.
So don't ask anonymous bozos like me on the internet and find those local counselors. If
it is nonprofit, they will probably do it completely free. If needed, many lawyers, including
tax lawyers, and CPAs will offer discounted help or will know where you can go.
What is the floor on wages?
Disposable income = wages – (taxes + the cost of living)
Set disposable income to zero.
Minimum wages = taxes + the cost of living
So, as we increase housing costs, we drive up wages.
The neoliberal solution.
Try and paper over the cracks with Payday loans.
This what we call a short term solution.
Someone has been tinkering with the economics and that's why we can't see the problem.
The early neoclassical economists hid the problems of rentier activity in the economy by
removing the difference between "earned" and "unearned" income and they conflated "land" with
"capital".
They took the focus off the cost of living that had been so important to the Classical
Economists as this is where rentier activity in the economy shows up.
It's so well hidden no one even knows it's there and everyone trips up over the cost of
living, even the Chinese.
Angus Deaton rediscovers the wheel that was lost by the early neoclassical economists. "Income inequality is not killing capitalism in the United States, but rent-seekers like
the banking and the health-care sectors just might" Angus Deaton, Nobel prize winner.
Employees get their money from wages and the employers pay the cost of living through wages,
reducing profit.
This raises the costs of doing anything in the US, and drives off-shoring.
The Chinese learn the hard way.
Davos 2019 – The Chinese have now realised high housing costs eat into consumer
spending and they wanted to increase internal consumption. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNBcIFu-_V0
They let real estate rip and have now realised why that wasn't a good idea.
The equation makes it so easy.
Disposable income = wages – (taxes + the cost of living)
The cost of living term goes up with increased housing costs.
The disposable income term goes down.
They didn't have the equation, they used neoclassical economics.
The Chinese had to learn the hard way and it took years, but they got there in the end.
They have let the cost of living rise and they want to increase internal consumption.
Disposable income = wages – (taxes + the cost of living)
It's a double whammy on wages.
China isn't as competitive as it used to be.
China has become more expensive and developed Eastern economies are off-shoring to places
like Vietnam, Bangladesh and the Philippines.
"The bots' mission: To deliver restaurant meals cheaply and efficiently, another leap in
the way food comes to our doors and our tables." The semiautonomous vehicles were
engineered by Kiwibot, a company started in 2017 to game-change the food delivery
landscape...
In May, Kiwibot sent a 10-robot fleet to Miami as part of a nationwide pilot program
funded by the Knight Foundation. The program is driven to understand how residents and
consumers will interact with this type of technology, especially as the trend of robot
servers grows around the country.
And though Broward County is of interest to Kiwibot, Miami-Dade County officials jumped
on board, agreeing to launch robots around neighborhoods such as Brickell, downtown Miami and
several others, in the next couple of weeks...
"Our program is completely focused on the residents of Miami-Dade County and the way
they interact with this new technology. Whether it's interacting directly or just sharing
the space with the delivery bots,"
said Carlos Cruz-Casas, with the county's Department of Transportation...
Remote supervisors use real-time GPS tracking to monitor the robots. Four cameras are
placed on the front, back and sides of the vehicle, which the supervisors can view on a
computer screen. [A spokesperson says later in the article "there is always a remote and
in-field team looking for the robot."] If crossing the street is necessary, the robot
will need a person nearby to ensure there is no harm to cars or pedestrians. The plan is to
allow deliveries up to a mile and a half away so robots can make it to their destinations in
30 minutes or less.
Earlier Kiwi tested its sidewalk-travelling robots around the University of California at
Berkeley, where
at least one of its robots burst into flames . But the Sun-Sentinel reports that "In
about six months, at least 16 restaurants came on board making nearly 70,000
deliveries...
"Kiwibot now offers their robotic delivery services in other markets such as Los Angeles
and Santa Monica by working with the Shopify app to connect businesses that want to employ
their robots." But while delivery fees are normally $3, this new Knight Foundation grant "is
making it possible for Miami-Dade County restaurants to sign on for free."
A video
shows the reactions the sidewalk robots are getting from pedestrians on a sidewalk, a dog
on a leash, and at least one potential restaurant customer looking forward to no longer
having to tip human food-delivery workers.
Job gains in May were led by leisure and hospitality, with the sector adding 292,000 jobs.
Payrolls grew by
559,000 last month, the Labor Department reported Friday, up from a revised 278,000 in
April, which marked a sharp drop from March's figure.
The labor recovery has slowed from earlier in the year -- in March, the economy added
785,000 jobs
... The labor-force participation rate, the share of adults working or looking for work,
edged slightly lower in May to 61.6%, down from 63.3% in February 2020.
Republicans, always eager to snatch the bread from the mouths of the poor, are blaming
unemployment benefits for the reluctance of workers to return to jobs. In some red states,
they already are snatching it.
But more men are returning to work than are women. Doesn't that prove that unemployment
benefits are not holding back former workers?
I'll bet more women will return to work in September, after schools start up in-person
classes.
William Lamb
Republican turn a blind on helping people, except themselves. They would rather have one
being a slave and get pay less then nothing with little perks in making less then high
quality item that will still have defects, even if we pride our workmanship that is suppose
to equal to none. It would like being in 1950s, when there was not much world competition,
when world economy was still recovering from WW2.
I guessed Republican want American to continue working by low paying wages so they can
enrich themselves, and show that America can still produce things with slave wages.
johm moore
Most of the jobs are insufficient to support a reasonable quality of life. A job today is
about like a half a job pre-NAFTA and the job export process in terms of the quality of life
that it supports.
Bryson Marsh
If UI was holding back employment, then why are we adding so many low wage jobs? The missing
jobs are in *middle income* sectors.
David Chait
I wouldn't call people returning to work "new" jobs, that just seems disingenuous.
rich ullsmith
Asset prices rise when the jobs report is lukewarm. Thank you, Federal Reserve. May I have
another.
Sam Trotter
It should be made mandatory to publish the offered wage/rate. I see so many fake jobs posted
on LinkedIn with no description of bill rate for contract positions or Base+Bonus for
Full-Time roles. Too many mass scam messages.
The percentage of people quitting their jobs, meanwhile, also rose to a record 2.8% among
private-sector workers. That's a full percentage point higher than a year ago, when the
so-called quits rate fell to a seven-year low.
...A recent study by Bank of America, for example, found that job switchers earned an extra
13% in wages from their new positions. That's a big chunk of money.
...Normally people who quit their jobs are ineligible for unemployment benefits, but they
can get an exemption in many states for health, safety or child-care reasons.
About half of the states, all led by Republican governors, plan to stop giving out the
federal benefit by early July to push people back into the labor force. Economists will be
watching closely to see how many people go back to work.
Just to stay at the oil field – Meth addiction and overtime work goes hand in
hand.
Meth and it's derivates was the drug of the 50s in Germany during rebuilding from the war
(Pervitin, Weckamin). They have been legal until the 70s.
It's the easy way first – just take it and you can work longer. Want to drive a truck
16 hours? Just throw a few Pervitins. Side effects and addiction come later. And the unclean
stuff from the black market kills people faster.
"The bots' mission: To deliver restaurant meals cheaply and efficiently, another leap in
the way food comes to our doors and our tables." The semiautonomous vehicles were
engineered by Kiwibot, a company started in 2017 to game-change the food delivery
landscape...
In May, Kiwibot sent a 10-robot fleet to Miami as part of a nationwide pilot program
funded by the Knight Foundation. The program is driven to understand how residents and
consumers will interact with this type of technology, especially as the trend of robot
servers grows around the country.
And though Broward County is of interest to Kiwibot, Miami-Dade County officials jumped
on board, agreeing to launch robots around neighborhoods such as Brickell, downtown Miami and
several others, in the next couple of weeks...
"Our program is completely focused on the residents of Miami-Dade County and the way
they interact with this new technology. Whether it's interacting directly or just sharing
the space with the delivery bots,"
said Carlos Cruz-Casas, with the county's Department of Transportation...
Remote supervisors use real-time GPS tracking to monitor the robots. Four cameras are
placed on the front, back and sides of the vehicle, which the supervisors can view on a
computer screen. [A spokesperson says later in the article "there is always a remote and
in-field team looking for the robot."] If crossing the street is necessary, the robot
will need a person nearby to ensure there is no harm to cars or pedestrians. The plan is to
allow deliveries up to a mile and a half away so robots can make it to their destinations in
30 minutes or less.
Earlier Kiwi tested its sidewalk-travelling robots around the University of California at
Berkeley, where
at least one of its robots burst into flames . But the Sun-Sentinel reports that "In
about six months, at least 16 restaurants came on board making nearly 70,000
deliveries...
"Kiwibot now offers their robotic delivery services in other markets such as Los Angeles
and Santa Monica by working with the Shopify app to connect businesses that want to employ
their robots." But while delivery fees are normally $3, this new Knight Foundation grant "is
making it possible for Miami-Dade County restaurants to sign on for free."
A video
shows the reactions the sidewalk robots are getting from pedestrians on a sidewalk, a dog
on a leash, and at least one potential restaurant customer looking forward to no longer
having to tip human food-delivery workers.
Canadian economist Mario Seccareccia, recipient of this year's John Kenneth Galbraith
Prize in Economics, says it's time to reconsider the idea of full employment. He spoke to Lynn
Parramore of the Institute for New
Economic Thinking about why 2021 offers a rare opportunity to rebalance the economy in
favor of Main Street.
Once upon a time – not so long ago, really – unemployment was not a thing.
In agricultural societies, even capitalistic ones, most people worked on the land. A smaller
number worked in villages and towns – shoemakers and carpenters and so on. Some might go
back and forth from the countryside to the town, depending on the availability of work. If your
work in town building houses dried up, you might come back to the country for the harvest.
Economist Mario Seccareccia, who loves history, notes that before the Industrial Revolution,
it was unthinkable that someone ready and able to work had no job to do.
Questions: If unemployment was once unknown, why do we accept it now?
Where did unemployment come from?
In those pre-Industrial Revolution times, there were paupers, mostly people who could not
work for some reason such as a disability. These were deemed deserving of charity. A small
number of paupers were considered deviants and treated harshly, perhaps made to labor in public
work-houses under vile conditions.
Seccareccia notes that early classical economists like Adam Smith and David Ricardo
recognized that able-bodied people could experience temporary joblessness, but not the
long-term variety. The word "unemployment" only became widely used in the nineteenth century.
As cities grew and manufacturing took off, people living in cities and towns grew apart.
Movement between the two places grew less fluid. The agricultural sector of the economy was
shrinking.
At first, if you lost your factory job, you could still probably pick up something in the
countryside to tide you over. But if you had grown up in the city, as more and more people did,
you might not know how to do rural work. By the late nineteenth century, most city dwellers
could no longer count on falling back on agricultural work during hard times.
Karl Marx noted that England's enclosure movement, which gained momentum as early as the
seventeenth century, had made things hard for agricultural workers as wealthy landowners
grabbed up the rights to common lands that workers had traditionally been allowed to use and
were a vital part of their sustenance. Uprooting peasants from the land and traditional ways of
life, Marx observed, created an "industrial reserve army" – basically a whole bunch of
people wanting to work but unable to find a job during times when industrialists held back
investment or when machines took over certain jobs.
Marx saw that this new kind of unemployment was a feature of capitalism, not a bug. Still, a
lot of mainstream bourgeois economists thought that the market would somehow sort things out
and eventually provide enough job openings to prevent mass unemployment.
It didn't turn out that way. Exhibit A: The Great Depression.
Especially after World War I, many later economists, most notably John Maynard Keynes,
warned that high rates of unemployment were getting to be the norm in the twentieth century.
Keynes predicted that a lot of people would go on being jobless unless the government did
something. This was very bad for society.
Keynes emphasized that full employment was never going to just happen on its own. Mainstream
economists thought that if wages fell enough, full employment would eventually prevail. Keynes
disputed that. As wages fell, demand contracted even further, leading to even less business
investment and so forth in a never-ending cycle. No, capitalism, with its business cycles led
to involuntary unemployment, according to Keynes.
Seccareccia observes that economist Michał Kalecki agreed that the government could
make policies to help more people stay employed at a decent wage, but there was just one
problem: wealthy capitalists weren't going to have it. They would oppose state-supported
systems to hold demand up so that fear of unemployment checked workers' demands for better pay
and improved work conditions.
For a while, after World War II, the capitalists were on the defense. The Great Depression
and the Communist threat got western countries spooked enough to go along with Keynes's
argument that governments should try to encourage employment by doing things like creating big
projects for people to work on. Safety nets were created to keep folks from falling into
poverty. The goal of full employment gained popularity and many more workers joined unions.
Capitalists v. Full Employment
Economists have bandied about various definitions of what full employment ought to look
like, explains Seccareccia: "A well-known definition came from William Beveridge, who said that
what you wanted was as many jobs open as people looking for them – or even more jobs
because every person can't take every type of job."
In the mid-twentieth century, with the economy doing well, neoclassical economists like
Milton Friedman started to push back against the idea of full employment. He discouraged the
use of fiscal and monetary policy to support employment, arguing that attempts to push down
unemployment beyond what he insisted was its "natural" rate in the economy would simply lead to
inflation.
In the 1960s, some of what Friedman warned about did actually happen. Employment was low and
prices started to go up mildly, particularly during the Vietnam War era. However, the biggest
boost to the credibility of Milton Friedman came with the OPEC cartel oil-price hikes of the
1970s that pushed the inflation rate to double-digit levels while simultaneously pushing up
unemployment. So, in the '70s, western countries started backing off from encouraging full
employment and maintaining strong safety nets. Proponents of the new neoliberal framework were
in favor of cutting safety nets, shedding government jobs, and leaving it to the market to
decide how much unemployment there would be. They said that it had to be this way to keep
inflation from rising, even though the cause of that high inflation of the '70s had nothing to
do with high public spending and excessive money creation that Friedman and his friends talked
about.
Seccareccia points to proof that the neoclassical logic didn't hold up. In the two decades
before the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-8, the rate of unemployment went down, but inflation
didn't go up. That proved that the neoclassical economists were wrong. But unfortunately,
policymakers didn't really digest this before the Great Recession hit. So, they bungled the
response badly by putting the brake on public spending too quickly because of fears of
excessive budget deficits and potentially higher future inflation that never materialized. They
kept insisting that the employment level would return to that "natural" state Friedman had
talked about if they just left things to the market.
"But it didn't work out that way," says Seccareccia. "Unemployment skyrocketed and it took a
decade to return to pre-crisis levels.
Which brings us to the COVID-19 crisis.
A Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Seccareccia says that we have to understand the difference between the current situation and
the Global Financial Crisis. This time, it really is different.
"The earlier crisis started in the financial sector and spread to the real economy," he
explains. "But in 2020, when the Coronavirus emerged, the financial and industrial sectors got
hammered at the same time." This meant that people in both sectors stopped spending. Households
couldn't spend even if they wanted to because traveling, dining out, and other activities were
off-limits. Businesses cut investment as uncertainty loomed and exports declined due to
restrictions at borders. Unless you were Home Depot or an e-commerce company, you couldn't sell
anything.
The COVID-19 crisis also saw workers pulled out of activities thought to be too high risk
for spreading the virus. Across the country, non-essential workers were sent home and told to
stay there. Most, especially in sectors like leisure and hospitality,
can't do their work from home . A lot of these people lost their wages, and because most of
them were low-wage to begin with, they could least afford the hit. Many were only able to
maintain their incomes through government unemployment insurance. Businesses, meanwhile, were
kept afloat with subsidies.
Seccareccia notes that unemployment had an interesting twist in the pandemic because it was
both the problem and the initial cure for the health crisis. Unemployment kept the virus from
circulating. It saved lives.
Fast-forward to late spring, 2021. As America and other western countries seek to put the
pandemic behind them, the economy is opening back up. Employers are wanting to hire, and they
are even competing with each other for workers. But many job seekers are waiting to go back to
work. There are a lot of reasons why: caregiving for kids is still a huge burden, and people
are still worried about getting sick. Transit routes have been disrupted making it harder for
people to get to work. It's also possible that some workers may be resisting jobs on offer
which come with low pay and inadequate benefits.
Employers have started complaining they can't find workers and blame the social safety net
as the problem. Some employers, like those in the hospitality industry, are offering higher pay
to lure workers back.
Just as Kalecki predicted, the wealthy capitalists are getting uneasy. The Chamber of
Commerce, for example, has pushed the U.S. to stop expanded unemployment insurance benefits so
that people will be forced to return to low-wage jobs. Some Republican-dominated states have
jumped on board with this idea. Economist Larry Summers, for his part, is warning about
inflation and telling the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates so that wages don't go up. He
complains that when he walks outside,
all he sees are people eager to fill job vacancies . It's unclear where he was living when
he said that, or which people he is talking about.
Others argue that expanded unemployment insurance isn't the problem, but the crappy jobs on
offer. Seccareccia believes that it's a good thing if employers raise their wages, even if that
means a little bit of inflation.
Rising inequality, he emphasizes, is unsustainable in a healthy society, and it's about time
ordinary people had a little power to improve their lot. "When employers are worried about
people quitting," he says, "that's when you know you're getting close to full employment. And
in a capitalist society, it's an extremely rare situation when the number of quits begins to
exceed the number of new hires as an economy nears the peak of a business cycle."
In Seccareccia's view, "there's a balancing act between workers 'fearing the sack' and
employers 'fearing the quit.'" He observes that capitalists are very good at making sure that
the former situation is more common, and they've been spectacularly successful in the last 40
years. "This is why you have flat wages and runaway inequality," says Seccareccia.
"Productivity goes up but the workers don't share in it." Profits pile up at the top.
Right now, inflation has been creeping up in some areas. In a couple of sectors, like used
cars, it's rising a lot. The question is, beyond a couple of unique cases, what will happen to
inflation overall? And will be temporary? A lot of economists think that inflation will be
short-lived and will not get very high, so it's nothing to get excited about. Some economists,
like Antonella Palumbo, think the
worry about inflation is overdone . She notes that with unemployment still high and vast
numbers of people who formerly worked but are still out of the labor force, the ranks of the
famous reserve army of unemployed are still huge. As the economy restarts, all kinds of
short-run bottlenecks are cropping up, but that reserve army is not going anywhere fast and
will continue to limit wage increases.
Seccareccia points out that wealthy capitalists trying to stop workers from getting paid
better and conservatives complaining about laziness fail to mention that meanwhile, the stock
market is soaring, making the rich richer. Plus, the housing market is booming because the more
affluent people lucky enough to have kept their jobs over the pandemic now have extra money
saved to spend on big-ticket items. "Is it really fair," he asks, "to complain about a few
hundred dollars a week received by those at the bottom of the economic ladder? Especially how
much the economy is already titled in favor of the haves?"
So, what exactly should the government do about unemployment? Should it do anything at all?
For Seccareccia's part, he thinks this is a perfect time to reconsider the idea of full
employment, which has been so long abandoned by policymakers in favor of some "natural"
unemployment rate. "Policymakers need to understand why COVID may offer a chance not seen since
the end of WWII," he says. "We could actually make the economy fairer for ordinary people."
> So, what exactly should the government do about unemployment?
My favoured solution, and that of other readers of this blog, I suspect, is the Job
Guarantee as promoted by MMT.
Because a well designed job guarantee would provide a floor on wages and benefits, the
private sector would be forced to match it at the very least. But as has been pointed out on
this blog many times before, Kalecki's point that full employment would remove employers
ability to effectively threaten workers with the sack, means that it will be very difficult
politically to see it implemented.
Next week I start my 2nd year of pandemic triggered unemployment after I was terminated
without cause. On June 26th my extended UI benefits will be halted by TX Governor Greg Abbot.
Okay.
In a year of applying for new positions I have managed to get exactly 1 phone interview
after a 40 year career in technology development, ending up with almost 24 years at IBM. In
my last year with them I received both a performance bonus and a salary hike. But I'm now
over 60 and have been unemployed longer than 3 months so that's probably fairly typical
experience. Okay.
The path to full employment is probably going to require the creation of new opportunities
in a still contracting economic system. It's not impossible if you're focused on the goal.
Here's my shortlist of policy initiatives that could dramatically and quickly grow the number
of available jobs, particularly for the under employed younger people who are paying off
student loans.
Dramatically increase social security and medicare eligibility/benefits to convince older
workers to leave the workforce.
Expand paid family leave and vacation policies to align with other industrialized nations in
order to require businesses to hire to cover needed absences.
Drop the number of hours that define full time work to allow more workers to get full
benefits.
Yeah, I'd like to be considered for another good paying job in a still viable industry. I
spent decades developing skills that are still relevant and valuable. But I'm old and I'm
expensive because I have expectations based on my own employment history that 40 years of
neoliberal policies have rendered obsolete. Okay.
I'm close enough to retirement and lucky enough in my ability to save and plan that this
won't wreck us. I try to imagine my pandemic inspired involuntary retirement as an
opportunity to become a labor rights activist. It helps.
My situation is virtually the same, although in academia as research scientist at major US
university, with last 6 years as invited scientist at German research institute. Returned to
US to the nightmare of Trump at 63, but fully (and naively) intending to continue working.
I've lost count of how many job applications I've tendered, with only one interview in two
years, then COVID. Now resigned to the fact that work for me from here on out will be
different. I continue to write papers with colleagues at university to maintain a reputation
in my field. Now recognize that people take one look at my CV, and think: "Old! Expensive!"
-- but the truth is I would be willing to work for little just to stay active in a field
applying expertise I've spent decades acquiring. I've since met many, many seniors in the
same boat: trained professionals with lots of experience who still want to work (and, in my
case, need at least some income).
But at least I had a career. I can't imagine the hopelessness of people 35-40 years my
junior, with huge debt from college, grad school, and unable to find a decent job.
Something must change. The situation as it exists is unsustainable. One bright light seems
to be increasing recognition of the way the economy actually functions, the role of public
spending, and the real limits to growth, prosperity.
Appreciate your commiseration Rolf. I expect there is an army of people like us who are in
this situation or about to be.
Fwiw (maybe not much), I'm actively trying to get hired full time at the food coop near my
house. The workers there are represented by a union and get full insurance benefits including
dental with a 40 hour work week. The Vt minimum wage of $11.75/hr doesn't matter as much as
those insurance benefits do; we're still in that 5 year gap between age 60 and age 65 where
you are on your own if you need healthcare.
And I've pretty much decided to laugh off Beaux Jivin's campaign promise to drop the
medicare eligibility age to 60 etc. It's abandoned along with many other campaign promises.
Okay.
Thanks, A/S, for your kind words. Yes, benefits are key. I really am increasingly worried
that Biden, and the Democratic Party in general, don't seem the grasp the fact that the GOP
is absolutely committed to recovering control of Congress and the White House by *any* means
necessary. Biden in particular seems to entertain the notion that he can bring the right wing
to his way of thinking by conciliation, negotiation, compromise, and good performance. But
the GOP is not interested in Dem's performance or compromise -- McConnell has made this quite
clear. So Dems have an opportunity to make significant history, a true course correction, but
only this once. To pursue "bipartisanship" with a party that has no interest in compromise is
hugely naïve -- I can't imagine Biden is that foolish, except that he did begin his
campaign with the promise that "nothing would fundamentally change".
The food coop gig sounds like a good, sound shot -- all the best to you.
Fellow army member, age 61. Lucky to have health care via spouse but definitely not enough
wealth to retire. Two interviews in last two years, both in retrospect clearly designed to
fill out an interview field when preferred (much younger) hire had already been identified.
The canard about atrophied skills might apply in the occasional instance but IMO is just more
bullsh1t in defense of existing social order.
Dem obliviousness to the reality all around us is truly horrifying. I used to argue that
the big sort would result in fenced "progressive" enclaves in which all parties – those
inside and those outside – would be thrilled to not have to interact with each other.
But it's clear to me now that progressives don't need physical separation to avoid seeing
what they don't want to; they are completely able to not see the world right in front of
them.
I guess I should include this post script regarding my IBM termination:
After I'd been unemployed for about 90 days I was contacted by a recruiter working on
behalf of IBM and my former managers. They were looking for people with exactly my skills and
experience to come back to work at IBM as temporary contractors. I agreed to a short phone
interview to learn more about the opportunity.
Once the recruiter verified my experience and contacts at IBM, I managed to confirm that
they expected to bring me back on at about 80% of my former salary. With no benefits and zero
job security. I laughed out loud at this acknowledgment of their duplicity but agreed to let
myself be considered and provided a resume. Never heard back which is probably okay.
Amateur Socialist, Rolf and Left in Wisconsin -- I take my hat off to all of you. Work
left both my partner and me a number of years ago, and we quickly learned that we had aged
out of the market and were useless to society as we thought of it. Fortunately, we relatively
quickly became eligible for Medicare, which even in its steadily diminishing state was (and
is) a significant help.
Good luck to all of you, and A/S, please let us know the outcome of your pursuit of the
job with benefits at your local Food Co-op.
I think your experience demonstrates the problem with defining full Employment as, "anyone
who wants a job has one". Using this definition, the simple way to get the economy to FE then
is to just make all the jobs so terrible and low paying that no one wants them. You dont need
a job, and you dont want just any old crappy job. You want one similiar to your old one, If
that doesnt exist anymore, one would reasonably say you dont want a job, since what you want
doesn't exist, hence we're at full employment
All of this is to say, we shouldnt necessarily just encourage the government to get us to
FE. Capitalists by themselves are quite capable of getting us there, as I'd argue they did in
the 19th century. Its government interventions like minimum wage and basic safety protocols
that keep us from reaching FE since that's what makes people actually want a job
it was unthinkable that someone ready and able to work had no job to do.
I think there is a conflation of the language terms bandied
about–work-v-jobs-v-employment are all couched in the concept of a Consumption Based
Economy. I am tired of this.
weeding the garden is work–unless I'm paying you then it becomes a job. In both
instances, however, you are employed in the endeavor. This is grooming behavior using
language, imo, and needs to stop.
I think this muddle is a componant of the current 'Jobs Discussion".
Covid has rattled generations coming out of Displacements following the very unequal GFC,
and an undefined(maybe) examination of Meaning and Place within the current state of the
world and the Economy that has been chosen to fulfill the needs of that Economy (Societal and
Personal). More Intuitive than cognitive to many.
Selling Plastic bric-a-brac for the Man, to make the rent in an endless cycle, may have
lost its cache' subconsciously, to the 'common man' in this time of apparent Climate Crises
et al.
There is still plenty to do, and little time for Idleness( itself a "reward' promoted as a
'something' by the Consumptive Economy).
"Proponents of the new neoliberal framework were in favor of cutting safety nets, shedding
government jobs, and leaving it to the market to decide how much unemployment there would be.
They said that it had to be this way to keep inflation from rising,"
"The market" – that's the first con people have to get over. There is.no "the
market" like there it is something like nature.
It's system of intentional, changeable human decisions backed by beliefs and emotions of all
kinds now matter how many theories or quantifications occur. And a corporate beuracracy is
still a beuracracy.
And actually this neoliberal thinking of letting some imaginary entity "the market"
"decide" (we should be lughing at this silliness!) to keep people unemployed to avoid
"inflation" only makes sense if it actually meant to signify "avoid inflation of the
population."
The modern police force is a consequence of idle and unemployed city dwellers. Idled
workers don't just sit down and die from malnutrition. Instead, they roam around looking for
food, or opportunities that would lead to procuring food. Hungry, impoverished mobs are never
a good idea: Ask Czar Nicholas, Kaiser Wilhelm, or the French aristocrats of the 1780's
(rather, interrogate their ghosts) how idle, hungry crowds furthered their reigns. For all
that, look to the unrest of the 1930's in the US.
Given this reality–that unemployed and starving people refuse to sit down and die
peacefully–what will happen as automation starts to rob routine jobs? Already we are
seeing robots prowling the Walmart aisles, driverless vehicles delivering pizzas, and
self-checkout lines in big box stores. We who work are losing the war on unemployment, which
leads to a question: Who is the winner?
Almost as an afterthought, one wonders how much in contributions to Social Security and
Medicare have been lost because of automation. Robots don't pay taxes.
After the achievement of the 40-hour workweek, paid vacations, and other labor
concessions, many influential figures believed that egalitarian access to leisure would
only increase in the 20th century. Among them was economist John Maynard Keynes, who
forecast in 1930 that labor-saving technologies might lead to a 15-hour workweek when his
grandchildren came of age. Indeed, he titles his essay, "Economic Possibility for our
Grandchildren."
The benefits of labour-saving technologies have mostly been taken as money instead of time
and by doing so the capitalist class kept power thereby leading to them getting the
lions-share of the benefits of the labour-saving techologies.
The political class could, and still can, side with people and decide that labour-saving
technologies is to be taken out as reduced amount of hours spent working for someone else. As
is the politcal class have bought the 'lump of labour'-fallacy-fallcy hook, line and sinker
so what we see is increased pension-age etc
I tried out retirement for a few months. I'm 62 and got SS and a very small pension. It's
not enough so I went back – temping. The jobs I can get as a paralegal/admin person
don't pay a lot but there seem to be quite a few of them based on companies that are merging
or have merged and have a huge mess to clean up. So they hire you for a few months to slog
through chaos and fix it. Then on to the next one. I'll keep doing this until I can move to a
cheaper part of the U.S. Remote helps in that if I don't have a Zoom interview they can't
tell how old I am. I feel for everyone who can't even get tedious work. If my SS was higher I
would stop working. If my salary had matched that of the male co-workers that had the exact
same job as me, my pension would be higher. Retiring in America for many people is part
nomadic as you have to move out of your area to survive after you leave your regular job, or
it gets rid of you and the other part is being extremely frugal. Woohoo what a life after
over 40 years of helping companies make money.
Yes a totally true statement. For it to be higher I would have had to wait until almost 67
to take it. It will go up a tad from my additional employment – maybe. Anyway it's a
mostly a set amount. I make as a temp in 2 weeks (take home) what I get in SS once per month.
If I make over about $19k annually while taking the SS, the US gov will begin to reduce the
SS payment.
Social Security takes the highest 40 quarters (10 years) of your earnings to calculate
your benefit. If your current work results in higher numbers than are being used currently,
the higher numbers will be used and your benefit will increase.
I tried to reply to your question – yes it is a true statement. What I wrote
additionally may have been moderated out for some reason so I won't repeat it. It only
mentioned dollar amounts and the US gov so maybe that was bad – not sure!
Victoria H
and I thank you for that.
But I think you, and I will 'work' until we die–
What does work mean?
noun. exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil. productive
or operative activity. employment, as in some form of industry, especially as a means of
earning one's livelihood: to look for work. the result of exertion, labor, or activity; a
deed or performance.
Work | Definition of Work at Dictionary.comhttps://www.dictionary.com › browse
› work
I am personally familiar with what you are going through and My wife is there right
now.
I waited till full retirement at 66 to collect–not being able to leave 2k on the
table(diff btwn 62 and 66 for me). I cannot describe the amount of effort and gyration I
needed to extend to achieve that– which may explain why I am the only one in my
'Friend Circle' to actually accomplish it.
Trigger Warning
I thought the coup de grace was when I had to sign up for–and Pay For, with cash,
Quarterly–Medicare without a SS check to have it automatically deducted from. Because
of my birthday I needed to pony up about 5 months worth of premiums(but i had 3 months to
save up for the next Q pymt). I doubt you've ever been curbed at the end of a physical
altercation, but that is what it felt like to me. Best think about all that.
Good news–do your own taxes for your enlightenment and you will see that the SS Income
Worksheet provides a path to structuring your Income to counter-balance additional
Income.
Discalimer–I am in no way an Acc'tant or Tax Man or even giving Advice. I am a
Carpenter–but Written Instructions are Written Instructions and Numbers are Numbers and
I made a paid living following both–so it's understandable enough to give you some
options to ponder.
And to Rolf/AmSoc and all the others -- IMNSHO(the first ever time I have used this
phrase) the most dispiriting element about 'Retirement' in America is the Stranding of So
Many Valuable Assets embodied in the Retired when the world desperatly needs "All Hands On
Deck" to resist the Man Made Extinction looming.
the most dispiriting element about 'Retirement' in America is the Stranding of So Many
Valuable Assets embodied in the Retired when the world desperately needs "All Hands On
Deck" to resist the Man Made Extinction looming.
These are true words, Rod. I think catastrophic changes (no hyperbole) lie ahead, for
which there is little precedent. Many make absurdly blithe assumptions, thinking they
won't be affected, or that wealth will insulate them. This is arrogant folly, and we will
need everyone to row in the same direction.
The man who owns the Heating and Air Conditioning company I have been using for the last
decade lives in the neighborhood and is 88 years old. After his brother had health problems,
and the young nephew he employed left for greener pastures,he now does pretty much all the
work himself, and let me tell you, he knows his stuff. I know I should have a back-up in
mind, just in case, but so far, haven't found anyone else I can trust.
Well said. I took retirement at 62 for several reasons,number 1 being i didn't believe it
would be around long enough to pay me back.
"All hands on deck" is imo exactly what is needed,but the mostly planned divisiveness
(fake right vs fake left aka RepubliCons vs Dumbocrats) will help ensure that never occurs,to
someone's benefit.
Just think how many people would quit working, or enter self-employment, if they weren't
dependent on employer providedmedical insurance. I don't know the answer/estimate; it would
have to be a large number, enough to significantly raise wages across the board.
Retiring in America for many people is part nomadic
This observation made me remember a critical scene from the excellent oscar winner last
year, Nomadland . Frances McDormand's character meets a friend who explains why she
took to the road: "Five hundred forty dollars a month from Social Security. After working non
stop for over 40 years. How am I supposed to live on that".
I'm paraphrasing possibly badly from memory; it's a very short scene that isn't really
pursued farther in the script. But I do remember thinking "Aha! This is the root cause of all
this misery and despair "
We moved to southern Vermont from Texas just prior to the pandemic believing we had
relocated to a cheaper part of the US as you also mentioned. But Vermont's strong public
health track record during the pandemic has unleashed a huge real estate boom here so who
knows We may end up priced out of Vermont eventually too.
Real estate is still relatively cheap in Texas (at least around Houston), with the caveat
that Republicans don't always keep the power on or the water pressure up in the middle of
winter.
Unfortunately our place was in the Austin exurb of Bastrop. Which is now part of the
Austin insane real estate boom. And yes Houston can be cheap but only if you don't mind
living near a refinery. Or in the path of many future hurricanes. Hard pass.
I keep seeing references to "flat wages." While it's technically true, I suspect it's
enormously deceptive.
Yes, we have flat wages. But the cost of necessities that add little or no value to
people's lives but which they're FORCED to pay for have shot up far, far beyond the pace of
inflation. Think medical care, housing and education, to name just three, all of which are
somehow ignored or slighted in official inflation stats.
Right now the best transition is for the government to regulate capitalism in the
direction the future (sustainability) dictates. The problem with regulating capitalism is
that most capitalists think it is already too regulated; taxes are too high, etc. They are on
the edge of revolution themselves. And regulated capitalism is almost an oxymoron to most
Americans. It's just business as usual to a European because they have better social spending
and blablablah. The statistic I remember is that the EU spends about 45% of its revenue on
social stuff; the US spends a little less than 35%. The problem, as I see it, is this: If we
in the US do not achieve adequate social spending we create the perfect breeding ground for
exploitation of the environment. People will be desperate for a job – any job. Which
will not only cause worse CO2 problems, it will poison off, or starve off, many many species
now living on the edge. We will further pollute the oceans and waterways. And we will not
only stick with our sick and poisonous agricultural practices, we will exponentiate them
– precluding all efforts to fix these unsustainable things. Capitalism as we have known
it must change. So, even the great idea of capitalism must adapt to reality. Somebody please
tell Larry. At this point "inflation" is an absolutely meaningless word. It would be a very
good thing if we followed Eisenhower's advice to LBJ and began to create social structures
that are fair to all of society – to the capitalists whose current mandate of voracious
profiteering is clearly unsustainable, as well as to "labor" – as we see it evolving
– and now, most importantly, we must include the rights of the planet itself and all of
our fellow travelers. We won't last very long if we kill them all off and trash the Earth.
The race to the bottom that all privateering capitalism eventually creates is the most absurd
thing in the history of civilization.
A good start would be breaking up all of the ubiquitous monopolies/monopsonies/cartels,
that have taken over every sector of the economy, from food processing to entertainment to
banking to manufacturing to politics to (ad infinitum/nauseum).
I went to Firehouse Subs yesterday there was a whiteboard inside on a table, facing into
the restaurant, that said they were hiring and offered starting pay of $9.00 for crew members
and $12.00 for shift managers.
Just inside the door, facing out, was a whiteboard offering starting pay of $11.00 for
crew members and $14.00 for shift managers. Seems like they're getting the message.
As an aside, I'd like to give props to Firehouse Subs for using pressed paper clam boxes
and paper bags.
Looks like this guys somewhat understands the problems with neoliberalism, but still is captured by neoliberal ideology.
Notable quotes:
"... That all seems awfully quaint today. Pensions disappeared for private-sector employees years ago. Most community banks were gobbled up by one of the mega-banks in the 1990s -- today five banks control 50 percent of the commercial banking industry, which itself mushroomed to the point where finance enjoys about 25 percent of all corporate profits. Union membership fell by 50 percent. ..."
"... Ninety-four percent of the jobs created between 2005 and 2015 were temp or contractor jobs without benefits; people working multiple gigs to make ends meet is increasingly the norm. Real wages have been flat or even declining. The chances that an American born in 1990 will earn more than their parents are down to 50 percent; for Americans born in 1940 the same figure was 92 percent. ..."
"... Thanks to Milton Friedman, Jack Welch, and other corporate titans, the goals of large companies began to change in the 1970s and early 1980s. The notion they espoused -- that a company exists only to maximize its share price -- became gospel in business schools and boardrooms around the country. Companies were pushed to adopt shareholder value as their sole measuring stick. ..."
"... Simultaneously, the major banks grew and evolved as Depression-era regulations separating consumer lending and investment banking were abolished. Financial deregulation started under Ronald Reagan in 1980 and culminated in the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 under Bill Clinton that really set the banks loose. The securities industry grew 500 percent as a share of GDP between 1980 and the 2000s while ordinary bank deposits shrank from 70 percent to 50 percent. Financial products multiplied as even Main Street companies were driven to pursue financial engineering to manage their affairs. GE, my dad's old company and once a beacon of manufacturing, became the fifth biggest financial institution in the country by 2007. ..."
The logic of the meritocracy is leading us to ruin, because we arc collectively primed to ignore the voices of the millions getting
pushed into economic distress by the grinding wheels of automation and innovation. We figure they're complaining or suffering because
they're losers.
We need to break free of this logic of the marketplace before it's too late.
[Neoliberalism] had decimated the economies and cultures of these regions and were set to do the same to many others.
In response, American lives and families are falling apart. Ram- pant financial stress is the new normal. We are in the third
or fourth inning of the greatest economic shift in the history of mankind, and no one seems to be talking about it or doing anything
in response.
The Great Displacement didn't arrive overnight. It has been building for decades as the economy and labor market changed in response
to improving technology, financialization, changing corporate norms, and globalization. In the 1970s, when my parents worked at GE
and Blue Cross Blue Shield in upstate New York, their companies provided generous pensions and expected them to stay for decades.
Community banks were boring businesses that lent money to local companies for a modest return. Over 20 percent of workers were unionized.
Some economic problems existed -- growth was uneven and infla- tion periodically high. But income inequality was low, jobs provided
benefits, and Main Street businesses were the drivers of the economy. There were only three television networks, and in my house
we watched them on a TV with an antenna that we fiddled with to make the picture clearer.
That all seems awfully quaint today. Pensions disappeared for private-sector employees years ago. Most community banks were
gobbled up by one of the mega-banks in the 1990s -- today five banks control 50 percent of the commercial banking industry, which
itself mushroomed to the point where finance enjoys about 25 percent of all corporate profits. Union membership fell by 50 percent.
Ninety-four percent of the jobs created between 2005 and 2015 were temp or contractor jobs without benefits; people working
multiple gigs to make ends meet is increasingly the norm. Real wages have been flat or even declining. The chances that an American
born in 1990 will earn more than their parents are down to 50 percent; for Americans born in 1940 the same figure was 92 percent.
Thanks to Milton Friedman, Jack Welch, and other corporate titans, the goals of large companies began to change in the 1970s
and early 1980s. The notion they espoused -- that a company exists only to maximize its share price -- became gospel in business
schools and boardrooms around the country. Companies were pushed to adopt shareholder value as their sole measuring stick.
Hostile takeovers, shareholder lawsuits, and later activist hedge funds served as prompts to ensure that managers were committed
to profitability at all costs. On the flip side, CF.Os were granted stock options for the first time that wedded their individual
gain to the company's share price. The ratio of CF.O to worker pay rose from 20 to 1 in 1965 to 271 to 1 in 2016. Benefits were streamlined
and reduced and the relationship between company and employee weakened to become more transactional.
Simultaneously, the major banks grew and evolved as Depression-era regulations separating consumer lending and investment
banking were abolished. Financial deregulation started under Ronald Reagan in 1980 and culminated in the Financial Services Modernization
Act of 1999 under Bill Clinton that really set the banks loose. The securities industry grew 500 percent as a share of GDP between
1980 and the 2000s while ordinary bank deposits shrank from 70 percent to 50 percent. Financial products multiplied as even Main
Street companies were driven to pursue financial engineering to manage their affairs. GE, my dad's old company and once a beacon
of manufacturing, became the fifth biggest financial institution in the country by 2007.
It's hard to be in the year 2018 and not hear about the endless studies alarming the general public about coming labor automation.
But what Yang provides in this book is two key things: automation has already been ravaging the country which has led to the great
political polarization of today, and second, an actual vision into what happens when people lose jobs, and it definitely is a
lightning strike of "oh crap"
I found this book relatively impressive and frightening. Yang, a former lawyer, entrepreneur, and non-profit leader, writes
showing with inarguable data that when companies automate work and use new software, communities die, drug use increases, suicide
increases, and crime skyrockets. The new jobs created go to big cities, the surviving talent leaves, and the remaining people
lose hope and descend into madness. (as a student of psychology, this is not surprising)
He starts by painting the picture of the average American and how fragile they are economically. He deconstructs the labor
predictions and how technology is going to ravage it. He discusses the future of work. He explains what has happened in technology
and why it's suddenly a huge threat. He shows what this means: economic inequality rises, the people have less power, the voice
of democracy is diminished, no one owns stocks, people get poorer etc. He shows that talent is leaving small towns, money is concentrating
to big cities faster. He shows what happens when those other cities die (bad things), and then how the people react when they
have no income (really bad things). He shows how retraining doesn't work and college is failing us. We don't invest in vocational
skills, and our youth is underemployed pushed into freelance work making minimal pay. He shows how no one trusts the institutions
anymore.
Then he discusses solutions with a focus on Universal Basic Income. I was a skeptic of the idea until I read this book. You
literally walk away with this burning desire to prevent a Mad Max esque civil war, and its hard to argue with him. We don't have
much time and our bloated micromanaged welfare programs cannot sustain.
For April 2021 the official Current Unadjusted U-6 unemployment rate was 9.9% down from 10.9%
in March, and 11.6% in February, January was 12.0%. It was also 11.6% October "" December 2020.
But It was 18.3% in June, 20.7% in May, and 22.4% in April. It is still well above the 8.9% of
March 2020 when unemployment rates started jumping drastically due to massive shutdowns due to
the Coronavirus.
Initial Jobless Claims tumbled (positively) to their lowest since the pandemic lockdowns
began, adding just 406k Americans last week (well below the 425k expected). This is still
double the pre-pandemic norms
y_arrow 1
Truthtellers 11 hours ago (Edited) remove link
Companies laid off an additional 400K people last week and they actually think we are
dumb enough to believe there is a labor shortage? That line of crap is obviously just a
ploy to get employee's to accept lower salaries.
I'll believe there is a labor shortage after 16 million jobs have been added and the
weekly initial claims number is zero.
Until then, I guess if you have a "labor shortage" you better get that pay up.
AJAX-2 13 hours ago (Edited)
Another 400K+ applying for 1st time unemployment benefits and yet they piss on my leg,
tell me it's raining, while proclaiming there is a labor shortage. Bu!!****.
PerilouseTimes 9 hours ago
Close to a million people a week were signing up for unemployment for a year and
unemployment has been extended. Wouldn't that mean at least 40 million Americans are on
unemployment not to mention all the people on welfare and disability? I think the number is
closer to 100 million Americans on the government dole and that doesn't count all the
worthless government jobs out there.
Normal 12 hours ago remove link
I'm on unemployment except California seems to have quit paying people on unemployment.
I tried every-which-way to contact them but there is no way in hell to get through to a
live person. I went and typed in how to speak with a real person at the EDD, and hundreds
of people have posted that they haven't been paid in 12 weeks. I spoke with their Cal-Jobs
representative and she said that many people haven't been paid since March of last year. I
think they are forcing the so-called unemployed to their Cal-Jobs site by not paying
them.
ay_arrow
NEOSERF 13 hours ago
Worst month during the GFC appears to be about 650K...we are only 50% below that....with
21 states preparing to end the extension, things will be fantastic in these numbers shortly
if not the real world...waiting for all the cold/flu season coughing and cold weather in
November...
History repeats and the repetition is coming with some minor variations.
Notable quotes:
"... "Corporate bond rates have been rising steadily since May. Yellen is not doing what Greenspan did in 2004." ..."
"... There isn't much of a difference between signaling tighter money to a market that is skeptical of Fed forecasts and actually tightening. ..."
"... While at 5.0 percent, the unemployment rate is not extraordinarily high, most other measures of the labor market are near recession levels. The percentage of the workforce that is involuntarily working part-time is near the highs reached following the 2001 recession. The average and median duration of unemployment spells are also near recession highs. And the percentage of workers who feel confident enough to quit their jobs without another job lined up remains near the low points reached in 2002. ..."
"... While wage growth has edged up somewhat in recent months by some measures, it is still well below a rate that is consistent with the Fed's inflation target. Hourly wages have risen at a 2.7 percent rate over the last year. If there is just 1.5 percent productivity growth, this would be consistent with a rate of inflation of 1.2 percent. ..."
"... One positive point in today's action is the Fed's commitment in its statement to allow future rate hikes to be guided by the data, rather than locking in a path towards "normalization" as was effectively done in 2004. ..."
Washington, D.C.- Dean Baker, economist and a co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) issued the
following statement in response to the Federal Reserve's decision regarding interest rates:
"The Fed's decision to raise interest rates today is an unfortunate move in the wrong direction. In setting interest rate policy
the Fed must decide whether the economy is at risk of having too few or too many jobs, with the latter being determined by the
extent to which its current rate of job creation may lead to inflation. It is difficult to see how the evidence would lead the
Fed to conclude that the greater risk at the moment is too many jobs.
"While at 5.0 percent, the unemployment rate is not extraordinarily high, most other measures of the labor market are near
recession levels. The percentage of the workforce that is involuntarily working part-time is near the highs reached following
the 2001 recession. The average and median duration of unemployment spells are also near recession highs. And the percentage of
workers who feel confident enough to quit their jobs without another job lined up remains near the low points reached in 2002.
"If we look at employment rates rather than unemployment, the percentage of prime-age workers (ages 25-54) with jobs is still
down by almost three full percentage points from the pre-recession peak and by more than four full percentage points from the
peak hit in 2000. This does not look like a strong labor market.
"On the other side, there is virtually no basis for concerns about the risk of inflation in the current data. The most recent
data show that the core personal consumption expenditure deflator targeted by the Fed increased at just a 1.2 percent annual rate
over the last three months, down slightly from the 1.3 percent rate over the last year. This means that the Fed should be concerned
about being below its inflation target, not above it.
"While wage growth has edged up somewhat in recent months by some measures, it is still well below a rate that is consistent
with the Fed's inflation target. Hourly wages have risen at a 2.7 percent rate over the last year. If there is just 1.5 percent
productivity growth, this would be consistent with a rate of inflation of 1.2 percent.
"Furthermore, it is important to recognize that workers took a large hit to their wages in the downturn, with a shift of more
than four percentage points of national income from wages to profits. In principle, workers can restore their share of national
income (the equivalent of an 8 percent wage gain), but the Fed would have to be prepared to allow wage growth to substantially
outpace prices for a period of time. If the Fed acts to prevent workers from getting this bargaining power, it will effectively
lock in place this upward redistribution. Needless to say, workers at the middle and bottom of the wage distribution can expect
to see the biggest hit in this scenario.
"One positive point in today's action is the Fed's commitment in its statement to allow future rate hikes to be guided
by the data, rather than locking in a path towards "normalization" as was effectively done in 2004. If it is the case that
the economy is not strong enough to justify rate hikes, then the hike today may be the last one for some period of time. It will
be important for the Fed to carefully assess the data as it makes its decision on interest rates at future meetings.
"Recent economic data suggest that today's move was a mistake. Hopefully the Fed will not compound this mistake with more unwarranted
rate hikes in the future."
RC AKA Darryl, Ron said in reply to Peter K....
I like Dean Baker. Unlike the Fed, Dean Baker is a class warrior on the side of the wage class. He makes the point about the
path to normalization being critical that I have been discussing for quite a while. Let's hope this Fed knows better than Greenspan/Bernanke
in 2004-2006. THANKS!
likbez said in reply to RC AKA Darryl, Ron...
Very true !
pgl said in reply to RC AKA Darryl, Ron...
"Longer-term bond rates barely moved, showing that there was very little news." This interest rate rose from 4.45% to 5.46%
already. So the damage was already done:
"... This interest rate rose from 4.45% to 5.46% already..."
Exactly! Corporate bond rates have been rising steadily since May. Yellen is not doing what Greenspan did in 2004. Yellen's
Fed waited until the bond rate lifted off on its own (and maybe with some help from policy communications) before they raised
the FFR.
So far, there is no sign of their making a fatal error. They are not fighting class warfare for wage class either, but they
seem intent on not screwing the pooch in the way that Greenspan and Bernanke did. No double dip thank you and hold the nuts.
One of the biggest risks to U.S. recovery is the difficulty aroun...
U.S. job growth significantly undershot forecasts in April, suggesting that difficulty
attracting workers is slowing momentum in the labor market and challenging the economic
recovery.
Payrolls rose 266,000 from a month earlier, according to a Labor Department report Friday
that represented one of the largest downside misses on record. Economists in a Bloomberg survey
projected a 1 million hiring surge in April.
The unemployment rate edged up to 6.1 per cent, though the labor-force participation rate
also increased.
... The disappointing payrolls print leaves overall employment more than 8 million short of
its pre-pandemic level and is consistent with recent comments from company officials
highlighting challenges in filling open positions.
... While job gains accelerated in leisure and hospitality, employment at temporary-help
agencies and transportation and warehousing declined sharply.
...
Labor force participation, a measure of the percentage of Americans either working or
looking for work, rose to 61.7 per cent in April from 61.5 per cent, likely supported by
increased vaccinations that helped fuel the reopenings of many retail establishments,
restaurants and leisure-facing businesses.
Average weekly hours increased to match the highest in records dating back to 2006. The gain
in the workweek, increased pay and the improvement in hiring helped boost aggregate weekly
payrolls 1.2 per cent in April after a 1.3 per cent gain a month earlier.
Workforce participation for men age 25 to 54 increased last month, while edging lower for
women.
Neoliberals policies for minority students in education can be called “the soft bigotry
of low expectations.”
Racists want discrimination based on race; wokesters want discrimination based on race too.
One in the name of bigotry, one in the name of “tolerance.” Does the motive really
matter if the outcome is the same?
Notable quotes:
"... the ONS dataset is A09, Labour Market status by ethnic group, is testament to white folks ingenuity to overcome such discrimination ..."
My uncle did admissions at Cambridge and he actively discriminated against Public School
boys, despite being one himself. He was actually involved in hiring that black woman to be
the Master at Christ's College.
Similarly at Citi it was very obvious any remotely competent black was promoted way beyond
there competency, although that was largely limited to back and middle office roles.
Still the ONS dataset is A09, Labour Market status by ethnic group, is
testament to white folks ingenuity to overcome such discrimination and the free market
at work.
"... Hiring is a lot more complex and constrained, than this writeup suggests. In stacks of resumes that I used to review, I found almost all applicants exaggerate or lie. ..."
"... Employers (or the ones the future worker will work directly "" like local manager) are in the majority of cases DO NOT hire directly. ..."
"... There is either a staffing firm/ recruitment firm between, often also a different websites (for job seekers) which only redirects towards those. ..."
"... The problem with the HR/ recruitment firms/ jobseeker websites themselves. They dictate who will work somewhere. ..."
"... It's a new world of fraud, total fraud. Biden is an absurd fraud. They are all frauds, because actual accomplishments, real work, are so very much more difficult than lies. ..."
"... There's nothing new under the sun. It's always been fraud, flimflam and bamboozle. Somebody once said, you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. But, then again, he could have just been fooling around. ..."
Hiring is a lot more complex and constrained, than this writeup suggests. In stacks of resumes that I used to review, I found almost all applicants exaggerate or lie. That was very problematic,
because once you hire a person, it's hard to get rid of them, even with "at-will" employment.
There is a major problem with the article/ whole employment process:
Employers (or the ones the future worker will work directly "" like local manager) are in the majority of cases DO NOT
hire directly.(Respect for the ones, who do.)
There is either a staffing firm/ recruitment firm between, often also a different websites (for job seekers) which only
redirects towards those.
Also many company have a HR department, etc... The problem with the HR/ recruitment firms/ jobseeker websites themselves.
They dictate who will work somewhere.
Wish to be workers should meet directly with the ones they supposed to work for.
To see whether racial discrimination exists, researchers send the same CV to employers with the same level of qualifications
but different names attached, to see if the foreign-sounding names lead to a greater degree of rejection. They often find that
to be the case.
Given that British blacks most often bear British sounding names and that foreign whites too bear foreign sounding names, I
don't see how the difference in treatment can be put down to racial bias. Moreover, I don't see anything wrong in giving precedence
to compatriots over foreigners. It is the opposite that is unsound.
As a French national with a foreign sounding name, I never expected to be given precedence over native French candidates and
always counted solely on my competence to get a position. If the world we live in were still normal, that would be the normal
attitude because in a normal world people are allowed to prefer their kin vs folks they don't know from Adam. It is the opposite
that isn't normal.
Discard national preference and you get foreign tribes' nepotism.
researchers send the same CV to employers with the same level of qualifications but different names attached, to see if
the foreign-sounding names lead to a greater degree of rejection. They often find that to be the case.
Because it's a lose-lose to hire a Tyrone or Abdul. Even if they're the most qualified, they're "high-maintenance," arriving
with extra-legal protections and considerations. Down the road they can always hide behind the specter of racism if their performance
is found lacking.
It's a new world of fraud, total fraud. Biden is an absurd fraud. They are all frauds, because actual accomplishments,
real work, are so very much more difficult than lies.
Indians are fantastic fraudsters. Africans are fraud specialists. Many Asians are not so much CV fraudsters as they are test
cheaters.
Agreed as they do it in Swiss. They prefer to employ their folk, if find a suitable person and wait up to 6 months before consider
an outlander. Only then ready to employ someone else.
BUT: Will not employ a dullard just because they share a citizenship/ ancestors. About 20% are foreigners among the employed,
in Geneva probably most of the employed.
And this is strictly the opposite what is common in many place (and self-appointed "nationalists" demand): No matter how incompetent
but employ the dullard native, while send home the competent/ hardworking.
Against meritism/ competition and bad for business.
There are plenty of dishonest Europeans, but honesty as a high value seems Western. Subcons caught in a lie will grin and do
a head waggle something between a nod and a shake. Blacks will insist the lie is true. East Asians will lie until you demonstrate
they cannot get away with it. Latin Americans only lie when they speak.
There's nothing new under the sun. It's always been fraud, flimflam and bamboozle. Somebody once said, you can fool all
of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. But, then again,
he could have just been fooling around.
Probably $25 an hour or $50K a year is more realistic. Part time jobs are even better to hem to avoid money crunch and at the
same time continue to look for an IT job. Might be a viable option for younger healthy IT specialists. CDL course from a
reputable truck driving school is around $3500 and they
provide you a truck for the DMV exam, but you can try self-study and might pass written exam from a second try as there is nothing
complex in the test, saving half of those money.
Notable quotes:
"... What's happening, he said, is that drivers are looking at the fact that they can make $70,000 'and stay home a little more.' ..."
"... To put the numbers in perspective, Todd Amen, the president of ATBS, which prepares taxes for mostly independent owner-operators, said in a recent interview with the FreightWaves Drilling Deep podcast that the average tax return his company prepared for drivers' 2020 pay was $67,500. He also said his company prepared numerous 2020 returns with pay in excess of $100,000. ..."
David Parker is the CEO of Covenant Logistics and he was blunt with analysts who follow the
company on its earnings call Tuesday.
'How do we get enough drivers? ' he said in response to a question from Stephens analyst Jack Atkins. 'I don't know.'
Parker then gave an overview of the situation facing Covenant, and by extension other
companies, in trying to recruit drivers. One problem: With rates so high, companies are
encountering the fact that a driver doesn't need to work a full schedule to
pull in a decent salary.
'We're finding out that just to get a driver, let's say the numbers are $85,000 (per year) ,' Parker said,
according to a transcript of the earnings call supplied by SeekingAlpha. '
But a lot of these drivers are happy at $70,000. Now they're not coming to
work for me, unless it's in the ($80,000s), because they're happy making $70,000.'
What's happening, he said, is that drivers are looking at the fact that they can make $70,000 'and stay home a little
more.'
The result is a tightening of capacity. Parker said utilization in the first quarter at Covenant was three or four percentage
points less than it would have as a result of that development. ' It's an interesting dynamic that none of
us have calculated,' he said.
To put the numbers in perspective, Todd Amen, the president of ATBS, which prepares taxes
for mostly independent owner-operators, said in a
recent interview with the FreightWaves Drilling Deep podcast that the average tax return
his company prepared for drivers' 2020 pay was $67,500. He also said his
company prepared numerous 2020 returns with pay in excess of $100,000.
Parker was firm that this was not a situation likely to change soon. 'There's nothing out there that tells me that drivers are
going to readily be available over the medium [term in] one to two years,' he said. 'And that's where I'm at.'
Paul Bunn, the company's COO and senior executive vice president, echoed
what other executives have said recently:
Additional stimulus benefits are making the situation tighter. He said that while offering some hope that as the benefits roll
off, 'that might help a bit.'
But what the government giveth the government can sometimes taketh away. Bunn expressed another familiar sentiment in the
industry today, that an infrastructure bill adding to demand for workers would create more difficulty to put drivers behind the
wheel. Construction, Bunn said, is 'a monster competitor of our industry' and if the bill is approved, 'that's going to be a big
pull.'
Labor is going to be a 'capacity constraint' through the
economy, Bunn said, while conceding that trucking is not unique in that. And because of that
labor squeeze, capacity in many fields is going to be limited. ' The OEMs,
the manufacturers are limited capacity ,' Bunn said. 'They're not ramping up in a major, major way because of labor, because of
commodity pricing, because of the costs.'
All that means is that capacity growth is going to be
'reasonable,' Bunn said. 'It's not going to be crazy, people growing fleets [by] significant amounts.'
'It's all you can do just to hold serve, '
he added.
After thirteen months, the BLS still cannot count the Unemployed. Headline U.3
Unemployment also remained deep in non-recovery territory. The BLS acknowledged continuing
misclassification of some "unemployed" persons as "employed," in the Household Survey. Where
the count of the understated unemployed had an "upside limit" of 636,000 persons in March 2021,
the February 2021 upside estimate of understated unemployed was 756,000. The difference would
be a potential headline U.3 of 6.44% instead of today's headline 6.05%, which was down from a
headline 6.22% in February. Fully adjusted for COVID-19 disruptions, based on BLS side-surveys
of Pandemic impact, and with more than six million people missing from the headline U.S. labor
force, actual headline U.3 unemployment still should be well above 10%, the highest
unemployment rate since before World War II, outside of the Pandemic and possibly at the trough
of the 1982-1983 recession. Broader March 2021 headline U.6 unemployment [including some
decline in short-term discouraged workers and those employed part-time for economic reasons]
eased to 10.71% from 11.07% in February. Including long-term discouraged/ displaced workers,
the March 2021 ShadowStats Alternate Measure –- moving on top of the decline in U.6
–- notched minimally lower to 25.7%, from 25.8% in February 2021, reflecting some modeled
transition of "short-term" to "long-term" discouraged workers, with the Pandemic having passed
its 12-month anniversary. The latest Unemployment Rates are posted on the ALTERNATE DATA
tab (above).
Whether "working from home" is a temporary fad or a permanent "new normal" remains to be seen; what becomes more evident is
the mounting supply glut of corporate space in Manhattan, according to
Bloomberg
,
citing a new report from real estate firm Savills.
Savills said the amount of office space available in Manhattan is at a three-decade high. The report, released on Thursday,
said the availability rate soared to 17.2% in the first quarter. The rise in the rate was primarily due to a massive surge
in sublease space, which now stands at 22 million square feet, or 62% higher than 2019 levels.
"Abundant short- and long-term options are driving price reductions," Savills noted. "Many owners are proposing
historically aggressive rates, concessions, and flexibility to secure tenants amid so much competition."
Savills said rents fell for the fifth consecutive quarter to around $76.27 a square foot, down 9% from a year earlier.
These cheaper rents are creating a massive opportunity for companies who want to enter the city.
Desperate landlords were offering generous concessions for long-term leases at newly constructed buildings: "Average tenant
improvement allowances jumped 16% and free rent surged 17% to an average of 13.5 months. The tenant-friendly market is
expected to last for at least the next 12 to 18 months," Savills said.
The Manhattan office market continues to struggle more than one year after the pandemic hit, which has emptied Manhattan's
skyscrapers. And since most employees are still working from home, just around 24.21% of workers in the New York
metropolitan area were back at their desks as of this week.
Even with the vaccine rollout now reaching 100 million Americans, companies are still opting for "hybrid" work as remote
working
dominates
.
In a past report, Jim Wenk, a vice chairman at Savills North America, said commercial real estate in the borough will have
a "very choppy period for the foreseeable future."
A
recent
survey
from the Partnership for New York City found 66% of Manhattan's most prominent employers would allow employees
to work under hybrid work arrangements, meaning they would Manhattan's most prominent employers.
As more proof the work environment is rapidly changing, major magazine publisher Conde Nast (who owns brands such as ARS
Technica, GQ, Teen Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired, among other popular magazines) is a major anchor
tenant in the new World Trade Center, recently
skipped
out
on rent as it asked for rent discounts and a reduction in square footage.
Last month, JP Morgan was
reportedly
looking
to sublet hundreds of thousands of square feet at 4 New York Plaza in the financial district and 5 Manhattan West in the
Hudson Yards area.
To make matters worse, Hudson Yards, a massive complex on Manhattan's Far West Side with condos, office space, and
retailers built over an enormous railroad yard had investors panic because the company
refuse
d to
open its books. The combination of work-at-home and folks moving to suburbs has left Hudson Yards and other places across
the borough a 'ghost town.'
This all suggests that the virus pandemic has brought years of technological change to the work model that has possibly
made companies more productive and cut costs as employees work from home or adopt a hybrid work model. Without office
workers returning to the borough, there can't be a robust recovery in the near term.
Not only was the March payrolls report a blockbuster, golidlocks number, much higher than expected but not
too
high
to spark immediate reflation/hike fears thanks to subdued wage inflation, job growth in March was also widespread unlike
February, where 75% of all new jobs
were
waiters and bartenders
. By contrast, in March the largest gains occurring across most industries with the bulk taking
place in leisure and hospitality, public and private education, and construction.
Here is a full breakdown:
Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 280,000 in March,
as
pandemic-related restrictions eased in many parts of the country. Nearly two-thirds of the increase was in food services
and drinking places (+176,000). Job gains also occurred in arts, entertainment, and recreation (+64,000) and in
accommodation (+40,000). Employment in leisure and hospitality is down by 3.1 million, or 18.5 percent, since February
2020.
In March, employment increased in both public and private education,
reflecting
the continued resumption of in-person learning and other school-related activities in many parts of the country. Employment
rose by 76,000 in local government education, by 50,000 in state government education, and by 64,000 in private education.
Employment is down from February 2020 in local government education (-594,000), state government education (-270,000), and
private education (-310,000).
Construction added 110,000 jobs in March,
following job losses in the
previous month (-56,000) that were likely weather-related. Employment growth in the industry was widespread in March, with
gains of 65,000 in specialty trade contractors, 27,000 in heavy and civil engineering construction, and 18,000 in
construction of buildings. Employment in construction is 182,000 below its February 2020 level.
Employment in professional and business services rose by 66,000 over the month.
In
March, employment in administrative and support services continued to trend up (+37,000), although employment in its
temporary help services component was essentially unchanged. Employment also continued on an upward trend in management and
technical consulting services (+8,000) and in computer systems design and related services (+6,000).
Manufacturing employment rose by 53,000 in March,
with job gains occurring
in both durable goods (+30,000) and nondurable goods (+23,000). Employment in manufacturing is down by 515,000 since
February 2020.
Transportation and warehousing added 48,000 jobs in March.
Employment
increased in couriers and messengers (+17,000), transit and ground passenger transportation (+13,000), support activities
for transportation (+6,000), and air transportation (+6,000). Since February 2020, employment in couriers and messengers is
up by 206,000 (or 23.3 percent), while employment is down by 112,000 (or 22.8 percent) in transit and ground passenger
transportation and by 104,000 (or 20.1 percent) in air transportation.
Employment in the other services industry increased by 42,000 over the month,
reflecting
job gains in personal and laundry services (+19,000) and in repair and maintenance (+18,000). Employment in other services
is down by 396,000 since February 2020.
Social assistance added 25,000 jobs in March,
mostly in individual and
family services (+20,000). Employment in social assistance is 306,000 lower than in February 2020.
Employment in wholesale trade increased by 24,000 in March,
with job gains
in both durable goods (+14,000) and nondurable goods (+10,000). Employment in wholesale trade is 234,000 lower than in
February 2020.
Retail trade added 23,000 jobs in March.
Job growth in clothing and
clothing accessories stores (+16,000), motor vehicle and parts dealers (+13,000), and furniture and home furnishing stores
(+6,000) was partially offset by losses in building material and garden supply stores (-9,000) and general merchandise
stores (-7,000). Employment in retail trade is 381,000 below its February 2020 level.
Employment in mining rose by 21,000 in March,
in support activities for
mining (+19,000). Mining employment is down by 130,000 since a peak in January 2019.
Financial activities added 16,000 jobs in March.
Job gains in insurance
carriers and related activities (+11,000) and real estate (+10,000) more than offset losses in credit intermediation and
related activities (-7,000). Financial activities has 87,000 fewer jobs than in February 2020.
It's hardly a surprise that with the US reopening, the one industry seeing the biggest hiring remains leisure and hospitality
where jobs rose by 280,000, as pandemic-related restrictions eased in many parts of the country, with nearly two-thirds of the
increase in "food services and drinking places", i.e., waiters and bartenders, which added +176,000 jobs in March.
And another notable change was in the total number of government workers, which surged by 136K in March, reversing the 90K
drop in February, as a result of 49.6K state education workers and 76K local government education workers added thanks to the
reopening of schools around the country.
Here is a visual breakdown of all the March job changes:
Finally,
courtesy
of Bloomberg
, below are the industries with the highest and lowest rates of employment growth for the most recent month.
7
play_arrow
Jack Offelday
1 hour ago
The "V" recovery. Where Food Service jobs are the new "Golden Age".
Creamaster
47 minutes ago
(Edited)
My wife is a nurse in an outpatient office under a large hospital umbrella here. Normally these outpatient
spots go within days to a week.
Currently they have 2 openings they have been trying to fill for a few months now. Combine that with the
fact my wife got 3 years worth of raises in a single shot, recently and out of the blue for no reason, tells
me the hospitla is really screwed trying to fill nursing spots.
After this pandemic crap, it has likely scared alot of people away from entering healthcare, and if a nurse
was on the fence about retirement , likely decided to call it quits after all this BS.
newworldorder
45 minutes ago
There are an estimated, 30 million illegals currently in the USA waiting legalization.
WHEN legalization happens, they will bring into the USA (by historical averages,) another 60 to 90 million
of their family members in 10 years.
And all of them US Minority workers, by current US Diversity Laws, - same as all Black Americans.
Medicaid
expansion enrollment grew nearly 30% year-over-year in 19-state sample, Andrew Sprung,
XPOSTFACTOID, March 17, 2021
An update on Medicaid expansion enrollment growth since the pandemic struck. Below is a
sampling of 19 expansion states through January of this year, and 14 states through
February.
Maintaining the assumption, explained here ,
"relatively slow growth in California would push the national total down by about 2.5
percentage points." These tallies still point to year-over-year enrollment growth of
approximately 30% from February 2020 to February 2021.
If that's right, then Medicaid enrollment among those rendered eligible by ACA expansion
criteria (adults with income up to 138% FPL) may exceed 19 million nationally and may be
pushing 20 million. Assuming the sampling of a bit more than a third of total expansion
enrollment represents all expansion states more or less and again accounting for slower growth
in California.
"... Last week was the 53rd straight week total initial claims were greater than the second-worst week of the Great Recession. (If that comparison is restricted to regular state claims -- because we didn't have PUA in the Great Recession -- initial claims are still greater than the 14th worst week of the Great Recession.) ..."
One year ago this week, when the first sky-high unemployment insurance (UI) claims data of the pandemic were released, I said
"
I
have been a labor economist for a very long time and have never seen anything like this
." But in the weeks that followed,
things got worse before they got better -- and we are not out of the woods yet.
Last
week -- the week ending March 20, 2021 -- another 926,000 people applied for UI. This included 684,000 people who applied for
regular state UI and 242,000 who applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), the federal program for workers who are
not eligible for regular unemployment insurance, like gig workers.
Last week was the 53rd straight week total initial claims were greater than the second-worst week of the Great Recession. (If
that comparison is restricted to regular state claims -- because we didn't have PUA in the Great Recession -- initial
claims are still greater than the 14th worst week of the Great Recession.)
Figure A
shows continuing claims in all programs over time (the latest data for this are for March 6). Continuing claims
are currently nearly 17 million above where they were a year ago, just before the virus hit.
FIGURE A
Continuing unemployment claims in all programs, March 23, 2019–March 6, 2021
*Use
caution interpreting trends over time because of reporting issues (see below)*
Date
Regular state UI
PEUC
PUA
Other programs (mostly EB and STC)
2019-03-23
1,905,627
31,510
2019-03-30
1,858,954
31,446
2019-04-06
1,727,261
30,454
2019-04-13
1,700,689
30,404
2019-04-20
1,645,387
28,281
2019-04-27
1,630,382
29,795
2019-05-04
1,536,652
27,937
2019-05-11
1,540,486
28,727
2019-05-18
1,506,501
27,949
2019-05-25
1,519,345
26,263
2019-06-01
1,535,572
26,905
2019-06-08
1,520,520
25,694
2019-06-15
1,556,252
26,057
2019-06-22
1,586,714
25,409
2019-06-29
1,608,769
23,926
2019-07-06
1,700,329
25,630
2019-07-13
1,694,876
27,169
2019-07-20
1,676,883
30,390
2019-07-27
1,662,427
28,319
2019-08-03
1,676,979
27,403
2019-08-10
1,616,985
27,330
2019-08-17
1,613,394
26,234
2019-08-24
1,564,203
27,253
2019-08-31
1,473,997
25,003
2019-09-07
1,462,776
25,909
2019-09-14
1,397,267
26,699
2019-09-21
1,380,668
26,641
2019-09-28
1,390,061
25,460
2019-10-05
1,366,978
26,977
2019-10-12
1,384,208
27,501
2019-10-19
1,416,816
28,088
2019-10-26
1,420,918
28,576
2019-11-02
1,447,411
29,080
2019-11-09
1,457,789
30,024
2019-11-16
1,541,860
31,593
2019-11-23
1,505,742
29,499
2019-11-30
1,752,141
30,315
2019-12-07
1,725,237
32,895
2019-12-14
1,796,247
31,893
2019-12-21
1,773,949
29,888
2019-12-28
2,143,802
32,517
2020-01-04
2,245,684
32,520
2020-01-11
2,137,910
33,882
2020-01-18
2,075,857
32,625
2020-01-25
2,148,764
35,828
2020-02-01
2,084,204
33,884
2020-02-08
2,095,001
35,605
2020-02-15
2,057,774
34,683
2020-02-22
2,101,301
35,440
2020-02-29
2,054,129
33,053
2020-03-07
1,973,560
32,803
2020-03-14
2,071,070
34,149
2020-03-21
3,410,969
36,758
2020-03-28
8,158,043
0
52,494
48,963
2020-04-04
12,444,309
3,802
69,537
64,201
2020-04-11
16,249,334
31,426
216,481
89,915
2020-04-18
17,756,054
63,720
1,172,238
116,162
2020-04-25
21,723,230
91,724
3,629,986
158,031
2020-05-02
20,823,294
173,760
6,361,532
175,289
2020-05-09
22,725,217
252,257
8,120,137
216,576
2020-05-16
18,791,926
252,952
11,281,930
226,164
2020-05-23
19,022,578
546,065
10,010,509
247,595
2020-05-30
18,548,442
1,121,306
9,597,884
259,499
2020-06-06
18,330,293
885,802
11,359,389
325,282
2020-06-13
17,552,371
783,999
13,093,382
336,537
2020-06-20
17,316,689
867,675
14,203,555
392,042
2020-06-27
16,410,059
956,849
12,308,450
373,841
2020-07-04
17,188,908
964,744
13,549,797
495,296
2020-07-11
16,221,070
1,016,882
13,326,206
513,141
2020-07-18
16,691,210
1,122,677
13,259,954
518,584
2020-07-25
15,700,971
1,193,198
10,984,864
609,328
2020-08-01
15,112,240
1,262,021
11,504,089
433,416
2020-08-08
14,098,536
1,376,738
11,221,790
549,603
2020-08-15
13,792,016
1,381,317
13,841,939
469,028
2020-08-22
13,067,660
1,434,638
15,164,498
523,430
2020-08-29
13,283,721
1,547,611
14,786,785
490,514
2020-09-05
12,373,201
1,630,711
11,808,368
529,220
2020-09-12
12,363,489
1,832,754
12,153,925
510,610
2020-09-19
11,561,158
1,989,499
10,686,922
589,652
2020-09-26
10,172,332
2,824,685
10,978,217
579,582
2020-10-03
8,952,580
3,334,878
10,450,384
668,691
2020-10-10
8,038,175
3,711,089
10,622,725
615,066
2020-10-17
7,436,321
3,983,613
9,332,610
778,746
2020-10-24
6,837,941
4,143,389
9,433,127
746,403
2020-10-31
6,452,002
4,376,847
8,681,647
806,430
2020-11-07
6,037,690
4,509,284
9,147,753
757,496
2020-11-14
5,890,220
4,569,016
8,869,502
834,740
2020-11-21
5,213,781
4,532,876
8,555,763
741,078
2020-11-28
5,766,130
4,801,408
9,244,556
834,685
2020-12-05
5,457,941
4,793,230
9,271,112
841,463
2020-12-12
5,393,839
4,810,334
8,453,940
937,972
2020-12-19
5,205,841
4,491,413
8,383,387
1,070,810
2020-12-26
5,347,440
4,166,261
7,442,888
1,450,438
2021-01-02
5,727,359
3,026,952
5,707,397
1,526,887
2021-01-09
5,446,993
3,863,008
7,334,682
1,638,247
2021-01-16
5,188,211
3,604,894
7,218,801
1,826,573
2021-01-23
5,156,985
4,779,341
7,943,448
1,785,954
2021-01-30
5,003,178
4,062,189
7,685,857
1,590,360
2021-02-06
4,934,269
5,067,523
7,520,114
1,523,394
2021-02-13
4,794,195
4,468,389
7,329,172
1,437,170
2021-02-20
4,808,623
5,456,080
8,387,696
1,465,769
2021-02-27
4,457,888
4,816,523
7,616,593
1,237,929
2021-03-06
4,458,888
5,551,215
7,735,491
1,207,201
Other programs (mostly EB and STC)
PUA
PEUC
Regular
state UI
Jul
2019
Jan
2020
Jul
2020
Jan
2021
0
10,000,000
20,000,000
30,000,000
40,000,000
Chart
Data
Caution:
Trends over time in PUA claims may be distorted because when an individual is owed retroactive
payments, some states report all retroactive PUA claims during the week the individual received their
payment.
The good news in all of this
is
Congress's passage of the sweeping $1.9 trillion relief and recovery package. It is both providing crucial support to millions
of working families and setting the stage for a robust recovery. One big concern, however, is that the bill's
UI
provisions
are
set to expire the first week in September, when, even in the best–case scenario, they will still be needed. By then, Congress
needs to have put in place long-run UI reforms that include automatic triggers based on economic conditions.
"... freedom is material: a human being must be free from material privation, here and now, in life (and not in the mythical afterlife of reincarnation) in order to be really free. In other words, freedom from need is true freedom. ..."
Marx's concept of freedom is completely different from the liberal or pre-liberal concepts
of freedom. For Marx, freedom is material: a human being must be free from material
privation, here and now, in life (and not in the mythical afterlife of reincarnation) in
order to be really free. In other words, freedom from need is true freedom.
Human beings can only be materially free. Don't fall for the moral victories of
liberalism, the snake oil salesmen's promise of a spot in Paradise from the Abrahamics or the
nihilist bullshittery from the Buddhists et al.
Excellent point by vk here. Despite sometimes pretending to myself that I am a Buddhist (I
am really good at meditating!), real freedom is being free from need. Abstract and
metaphysical "freedoms" are luxuries of the wealthy that few under the thumb of the
empire can afford.
I have been surprised by the explosion in the numbers of people locally living in cars and
vans lately. I guess from my Buddhist perspective they have been freed from the attachment to
a residence. Who could have guessed that capitalism would be such a good teacher of the path
to enlightenment?
It's freedom from Want. The Four Freedoms as articulated by FDR in 1941 were:
1.Freedom of speech
2.Freedom of worship
3.Freedom from want
4.Freedom from fear
Earlier this year on the 80th anniversary of FDR's speech, I wrote a series of comments on
the topic. They remain the four main tasks needing to be accomplished for the Common Man to
be genuinely free. At the time, they were to be the main goals of WW2; goals that were
further articulated by Henry Wallace in 1942 & '43 in his speeches and writings.
Currently, several nations have accomplished those four goals; none of them is a
NATO/Neoliberal nation however.
The jobs picture overall has been improving with
379,000 workers added in February , although the U.S. economy still has almost 10 million
fewer jobs than it did before the coronavirus pandemic took hold. Economists have been revising
their employment and GDP forecasts are higher.
Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius, for example, wrote in a report this week that
the jobless
rate would fall to 4.1% by the end of 2021, from 6.2% last month.
Hyams has been seeing similar encouraging signs on Indeed, with postings on the site already
lapping where they were pre-pandemic. "On Indeed, when we look at new job postings and our
benchmark pre-pandemic of February 1, 2020, at the end of this February we were up 5%
year-over-year. That's still with entire sectors completely shut down," he said.
As for where the hottest demand lies for new jobs, Hyams pointed to e-commerce-related
occupations including logistics, warehousing and delivery, as well as jobs in health care and
pharmacy.
While some of those openings may require showing up regularly in-person, many will not,
which again feeds into Hyams' thesis that interviews will remain virtual.
"If you're going to be a remote worker, interviewing over video actually makes a whole lot
more sense. It's more convenient. It will cut down on travel," he said.
That means many interviewees can continue to pull their blazers and ties out of the closet
-- along with their sweatpants.
Remember job interviews pre-pandemic? The jitters, the choosing of just the right suit, the
race to get there early, maybe even the drive across town or flight across the country for a
shot at a new opportunity?
Like most everything else, the pandemic changed that dynamic. The jitters may remain, but
in-person meetings are largely off the table, interviews among them. The CEO of one of the
most-trafficked jobs websites says it's likely to stay that way even after people get back to
the office.
"People being able to conduct an interview from the safety and convenience of their own
home is going to change hiring forever," said Chris Hyams, Indeed CEO, in an interview with
Yahoo Finance Live. "We believe this is the beginning of a massive secular shift."
"In April, we saw the number of requests for interviews to happen over video shoot up by
1,000%. Even as things have started to stabilize and the economy has opened up over the last 11
months, we've seen that continue to grow," Hyams said.
The jobs picture overall has been improving with
379,000 workers added in February , although the U.S. economy still has almost 10 million
fewer jobs than it did before the coronavirus pandemic took hold. Economists have been
revising their employment and GDP forecasts are higher. Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan
Hatzius, for example, wrote in a report this week that the
jobless rate would fall to 4.1% by the end of 2021, from 6.2% last month.
Hyams has been seeing similar encouraging signs on Indeed, with postings on the site
already lapping where they were pre-pandemic. "On Indeed, when we look at new job postings
and our benchmark pre-pandemic of February 1, 2020, at the end of this February we were up 5%
year-over-year. That's still with entire sectors completely shut down," he said.
As for where the hottest demand lies for new jobs, Hyams pointed to e-commerce-related
occupations including logistics, warehousing and delivery, as well as jobs in health care and
pharmacy.
While some of those openings may require showing up regularly in-person, many will not,
which again feeds into Hyams' thesis that interviews will remain virtual.
"If you're going to be a remote worker, interviewing over video actually makes a whole lot
more sense. It's more convenient. It will cut down on travel," he said.
That means many interviewees can continue to pull their blazers and ties out of the closet
-- along with their sweatpants.
Don't you know that whining about race, from the racist or the anti-racist side, doesn't
matter, is more important than billionaires fucking us over. It's more important than
anything. It doesn't matter if we die of freezer burn sleeping on cardboard after we've been
laid-off, evicted, and starved. It doesn't matter if we die in a nuclear war that the
billionaires started because they think it would be a good idea.
Nope. All that matters is whining about race. That's the most important thing. All else is
trivial.
Didn't American people suffer from the disease? Yes, the US government is "grotesquely
and manifestly incompetent" and they were likely to expect "a massive coronavirus outbreak
in China would never spread back to America".
The crucial factor here is that the US is not a nation per the most basic definition of
the word, "a group of people born of a common ancestry". Consequently, as illustrated by
job-killing "trade deals" and in countless other ways, there are plenty of "Americans" who
don't care a whit about the fate of Americans. That makes it entirely plausible that the Deep
State and/or one or more billionaires would release a virus in China in the full expectation
that it would hit the US and that once here it would disrupt, impoverish, and kill millions
of Americans. This was a win-win for them. The Deep State and the billionaires don't like
China, which is a non-liberal country and curtails their power by restricting the use of US
tech products. So if somehow the virus were contained in China it would be okay with them, as
it just would be a smaller win. However, what they really wanted was for the virus circle
back to the US. They knew that once here the disruption it would cause would further enrich
and empower them while giving them a pretext to dump it all on Donald Trump, whom they would
accuse of being incompetent and uncaring.
While full of good insights, the problem with this article as far as COVID is concerned is
that it misleads on the main point. COVID is not biowarfare, it is not a pandemic, it's just
the flu. The US recorded the same death rate in 2020 as in previous years and, as Dr. Colleen
Huber has documented, medical oxygen and supply sales were no different from previous
years.
All those COVID-19 deaths were simply deaths of a different name. Of course, we knew from
last March's Diamond Princess cruise–still by far the best controlled COVID
"experiment"–that the case-fatality rate of COVID-19 for the general public is in the
flu range.
But, it never was about COVID-19, which is just a glorified coronavirus of the type seen
even before the dawn of humans. Long before the virus even hit the streets, the media and
governments and medical establishments had secretly planned to to create a "panic-demic" to
scare people into a whole lot of strange and dangerous behaviors–like giving up their
liberties and economic futures. COVID-19 is just a medical nothing-burger that convinced a
lot of otherwise sane people to scare themselves into oblivion. Or did it? If the
post-election analyses are correct, Trump won in a major landslide and even those who voted
against him were already suffering from Trump derangement syndrome. So, maybe the people
weren't fooled by COVID so much as electorally raped by the vast elite cabal.
Whatever we say is a fact-based result of diligent research; whatever you say is a
conspiracy theory – both the US and China representatives subscribe to this
mantra.
Maye both Washington and Beijing are guilty -- of a perpetrating a hoax.
Putin surprised me. He flatly refused the offer of Schwab and his ilk. He condemned the
manner of recent pre-Covid growth, for all the growth went into a few deep pockets.
Moreover, he noted that digital tycoons are dangerous for the world.
The next strong man we elect must be an actual STRONG man. I salute Trump for his genius
in identifying the real majority in this country and for forcing the techno-oligarchs into
overdoing their election steal. Now we need someone who is willing to establish real
authority on behalf of the un-queer.
"... By Casey Mulligan, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago and former Chief Economist of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Originally published at VoxEU ..."
"... The spread of COVID-19 in the US has prompted extraordinary steps by individuals and institutions to limit infections. Some worry that 'the cure is worse than the disease' and these measures may lead to an increase in deaths of despair. Using data from the US, this column estimates how many non-COVID-19 excess deaths have occurred during the pandemic. Mortality in 2020 significantly exceeds the total of official COVID-19 deaths and a normal number of deaths from other causes. Certain characteristics suggest the excess are deaths of despair. Social isolation may be part of the mechanism that turns a pandemic into a wave of deaths of despair; further studies are needed to show if that is the case and how. ..."
Yves here. While this paper does a good job of compiling and analyzing data about Covid
deaths and excess mortality, and speculating about deaths of despair, I find one of its
assumptions to be odd. It sees Covid-related deaths of despair as mainly the result of
isolation. In the US, I would hazard that economic desperation is likely a significant factor.
Think of the people who had successful or at least viable service businesses: hair stylists,
personal trainers, caterers, conference organizers. One friend had a very successful business
training and rehabbing pro and Olympic athletes. They've gone from pretty to very well situated
to frantic about how they will get by.
While Mulligan does mention loss of income in passing in the end, it seems the more
devastating but harder to measure damage is loss of livelihood, thinking that your way of
earning a living might never come back to anything dimly approaching the old normal. Another
catastrophic loss would be the possibility of winding up homeless, particularly for those who'd
never faced that risk before.
By Casey Mulligan, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago and former Chief
Economist of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Originally published at VoxEU
The spread of COVID-19 in the US has prompted extraordinary steps by individuals and
institutions to limit infections. Some worry that 'the cure is worse than the disease' and
these measures may lead to an increase in deaths of despair. Using data from the US, this
column estimates how many non-COVID-19 excess deaths have occurred during the pandemic.
Mortality in 2020 significantly exceeds the total of official COVID-19 deaths and a normal
number of deaths from other causes. Certain characteristics suggest the excess are deaths of
despair. Social isolation may be part of the mechanism that turns a pandemic into a wave of
deaths of despair; further studies are needed to show if that is the case and how.
The spread of COVID-19 in the US has prompted extraordinary, although often untested, steps
by individuals and institutions to limit infections. Some have worried that 'the cure is worse
than the disease'. Economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton mocked such worries as a "pet theory
about the fatal dangers of quarantine". They concluded in the summer of 2020 that "a wave of
deaths of despair is highly unlikely" because, they said, the duration of a pandemic is
measured in months whereas the underlying causes of drug abuse and suicide take many years to
accumulate (Case and Deaton 2020). With the extraordinary social distancing continuing and
mortality data accumulating, now is a good time to estimate the number of deaths of despair and
their incidence.
As a theoretical matter, I am not confident that demand and supply conditions were even
approximately constant as the country went into a pandemic recession. Take the demand and
supply for non-medical opioid use, which before 2020 accounted for the majority of deaths of
despair. 1 I acknowledge that the correlation between opioid fatalities and the
unemployment rate has been only weakly positive (Council of Economic Advisers February 2020,
Ruhm 2019). However, in previous recessions, the income of the unemployed and the nation
generally fell.
In this recession, personal income increased record amounts while the majority of the
unemployed received more income than they did when they were working (Congressional Budget
Office 2020). 2 Whereas alcohol and drug abuse can occur in isolation, many normal,
non-lethal consumption opportunities disappeared as the population socially distanced. Patients
suffering pain may have less access to physical therapy during a pandemic.
On the supply side, social distancing may affect the production of safety. 3 A
person who overdoses on opioids has a better chance of survival if the overdose event is
observed contemporaneously by a person nearby who can administer treatment or call paramedics.
4 Socially distanced physicians may be more willing to grant opioid prescriptions
over the phone rather than insist on an office visit. Although supply interruptions on the
southern border may raise the price of heroin and fentanyl, the market may respond by mixing
heroin with more fentanyl and other additives that make each consumption episode more dangerous
(Mulligan 2020a, Wan and Long 2020).
Mortality is part of the full price of opioid consumption and therefore a breakdown in
safety production may by itself reduce the quantity consumed but nonetheless increase mortality
per capita as long as the demand for opioids is price inelastic. I emphasise that these
theoretical hypotheses about opioid markets in 2020 are not yet tested empirically. My point is
that mortality measurement is needed because the potential for extraordinary changes is
real.
The Multiple Cause of Death Files (National Center for Health Statistics 1999–2018)
contain information from all death certificates in the US and would be especially valuable for
measuring causes of mortality in 2020. However, the public 2020 edition of those files is not
expected until early 2022. For the time being, my recent study (Mulligan 2020b) used the
2015–2018 files to project the normal number of 2020 deaths, absent a pandemic.
'Excess deaths' are defined to be actual deaths minus projected deaths. Included in the
projections, and therefore excluded from excess deaths, are some year-over-year increases in
drug overdoses because they had been trending up in recent years, especially among working-age
men, as illicit fentanyl diffused across the country.
I measure actual COVID-19 deaths and deaths from all causes from a Centres for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) file for 2020 that begins in week five (the week beginning 26
January 2020) and aggregates to week, sex, and eleven age groups. To minimise underreporting, I
only use the data in this file through week 40 (the week ending 3 October). In separate
analyses, I also use medical examiner data from Cook County, Illinois, and San Diego County,
California, which indicate deaths handled by those offices through September (Cook) or June
2020 (San Diego) and whether opioids were involved, and 12-month moving sums of drug overdoses
reported by CDC (2020) through May 2020.
Mortality in 2020 significantly exceeds what would have occurred if official COVID-19 deaths
were combined with a normal number of deaths from other causes. The demographic and time
patterns of the non-COVID-19 excess deaths (NCEDs) point to deaths of despair rather than an
undercount of COVID-19 deaths. The flow of NCEDs increased steadily from March to June and then
plateaued. They were disproportionately experienced by working-age men, including men as young
as 15 to 24. The chart below, reproduced from Mulligan (2020b), shows these results for men
aged 15–54. To compare the weekly timing of their excess deaths to a weekly measure of
economic conditions, Figure 1 also includes continued state unemployment claims scaled by a
factor of 25,000, shown together with deaths.
Figure 1 2020 weekly excess deaths by cause (men aged 15–54)
NCEDs are negative for elderly people before March 2020, as they were during the same time
of 2019, due to mild flu seasons. Offsetting these negative NCEDs are about 30,000 positive
NCEDs for the rest of the year, after accounting for an estimated 17,000 undercount of COVID-19
deaths in March and April.
If deaths of despair were the only causes of death with significant net contributions to
NCEDs after February, 30,000 NCEDs would represent at least a 45% increase in deaths of despair
from 2018, which itself was high by historical standards. At the same time, I cannot rule out
the possibility that other non-COVID-19 causes of death or even a bit of COVID-19 undercounting
(beyond my estimates) are contributing to the NCED totals.
One federal and various local measures of mortality from opioid overdose also point to
mortality rates during the pandemic that exceed those of late 2019 and early 2020, which
themselves exceed the rates for 2017 and 2018. These sources are not precise enough to indicate
whether rates of fatal opioid overdose during the pandemic were 10% above the rates from
before, 60% above, or somewhere in between.
Presumably, social isolation is part of the mechanism that turns a pandemic into a wave of
deaths of despair. However, the results so far do not say how many, if any, come from
government stay-at-home orders versus various actions individual households and private
businesses have taken to encourage social distancing. The data in this paper do not reveal how
many deaths of despair are due to changes in 'demand' – such as changes in a person's
income, outlook, or employment situation – versus changes in 'supply' – such as the
production of safety and a changing composition of dangerous recreational substances.
I agree with Yves's counter-argument though I must declare an interest, having done work
on quality of life for 20 years and hope I'm not breaking site rules (given recent reminders
about what is and isn't ok).
The excess deaths (particularly among men) certainly to me seems more consistent with a
collapse in one's ability to do the "valued things in life" and prioritise (to SOME extent)
economic outcomes over relationships. After all, the old trope that men cope less well than
women with retirement is found in happiness, quality of life and other such data.
Whether or not one agrees with me, surely a test as to whether the authors or Yves has the
better explanation for the excess deaths would involve looking at well-being and mortality of
men who retire earlier than they'd like vs that of those whose spouse died earlier than
expected (including the proper control groups).
It would be interesting to find out the following:
1. Did the states with the most generous unemployment benefits (like MA or NJ) have fewer
deaths of despair that the states with much stingier benefits?
2. Did the states which imposed various shutdowns (mainly blue states) have more deaths of
despair than the states which stayed open, like SD or Florida?
My guess is that deaths of despair are too idiosyncratic to blame on Covid lockdowns, but
I am not an expert at all about this.
They could also look for the link with 0% interest on people's saved money and seeing no
f..ing end in sight as the beatings continue. Going down to zero does not make the people
jolly.
It used to be only men who would upon meeting another man, where the first question is
likely 'What do you do for a living?', but with the advent of as many women working, probably
appropriate there too.
Nobody ever asks firstly what your hobby is or what sports team you follow, as the job
query tells you everything about the person in one fell swoop.
There's a lot of people whose jobs were kind of everything in their lives, who had never
gone without work ever, that are now chronically unemployed.
Anybody who has studied suicide readily appreciates that the act is impulsive. Case &
Deaton are probably correct in the limited sense of economic despair derived from
transitioning away from fossil fuels and industrial production to jobs requiring education
unreachable to middle-aged coal miners. However, those deaths were likely derived from easy
access to opioids. Most of those job losses led workers to make disability claims (achy
backs) to extend income. The treatment for achy back is pain killers – oxy-something or
other back then. Those same pills killed the pain of failure. Over time, addiction set in
and, according to Koob & LeMoal's 2008 addiction model, increased consumption becomes
necessary to stay pain-free. Physicians would surely not up dosages indefinitely and that put
addicts on the street literally. All that took time to evolve. But times have changed. Using
your family doc to get you high is no longer an option. So, Mulligan makes sense.
As an internist with boots on the ground – I cannot express enough gratitude that
these kinds of reports are getting out.
As busy as I have been this past year with COVID, the actual patients struggling with
anxiety and depression have just dwarved the actual COVID numbers.
I cannot even begin to tell you the heartbreak of being a provider and having 20-40 year
old young men in your office crying their eyes out. Lots of job loss, lots of income issues,
lots of not being able to pay for things for your kids. All the while being completely unable
to find other work or extra work. It is truly a nightmare for these people. And the attitude
by so many of the lockdown Karens who seem to have no conception of how this is all going
down for these young people has been deeply worrisome to me.
It is really not getting better – if anything slowly getting worse.
I would agree with the article above that loneliness is a problem – this is for the
minority – mainly older people and should not be dismissed.
Loneliness is not the big problem however, in my experience. The big problem is the
economic despair for our young people and the complete loss of socialization for our
teenagers and kids.
A research team I'm part of just published data looking at the 'diseases of despair' crisis
over the last decade (full article is free and available online).
A brief summary of our findings below, and some thoughts....
Trends in the diagnosis of diseases of despair in the United States...
Background and objective Increasing mortality and decreasing life expectancy in the USA are
largely attributable to accidental...
AUDIO:
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN NEARLY 100 YEARS, LIFE
EXPECTANCY IS DECREASING IN THE UNITED STATES. IN THIS EPISODE, DR. LARRY SINOWAY DISCUSSES THE DECLINE AND HOW IT RELATES
TO...
view
more
CREDIT: PENN STATE CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE INSTITUTE
Medical diagnoses
involving alcohol-related disorders, substance-related disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors -- commonly referred to
as diseases of despair -- increased in Pennsylvania health insurance claims between the years 2007 and 2018, according to
researchers from Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute and Highmark Health Enterprise Analytics.
Princeton
economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton proposed the concept of deaths of despair in 2015. Case and Deaton's research observed a
decline in life expectancy of middle-aged white men and women between 1999 and 2015 -- the first such decline since the flu
pandemic of 1918. They theorized that this decline is associated with the social and economic downturn in rural communities
and small towns. These changes include loss of industry, falling wages, lower marriage rates, increasing barriers to higher
education, an increase in one-parent homes and a loss of social infrastructure.
"It is theorized
that these changes have fostered growing feelings of despair including disillusionment, precariousness and resignation in many
peoples' lives," Daniel George, associate professor of humanities and public health sciences, Penn State College of Medicine,
said. "Despair can trigger emotional, cognitive, behavioral and even biological changes, increasing the likelihood of diseases
that can progress and ultimately culminate in deaths of despair."
With the
commonwealth's considerable rural and small-town population, particularly around Penn State campuses, Penn State Clinical and
Translational Science Institute led a research study to understand the rate of diseases of despair in Pennsylvania. Institute
researchers collaborated with Highmark Health, one of the state's largest health insurance providers. Highmark provides
employer-sponsored, individual, Affordable Care Act and Medicare plans.
Highmark Health's
Enterprise Analytics team analyzed the claims of more than 12 million people on their plans from 2007 to 2018. Penn State did
not have access to Highmark member data or individual private health information. Although the insurance claims included
members from neighboring states, including West Virginia, Delaware, and Ohio, the majority of the claims were from
Pennsylvania residents. Researchers reported their results in
BMJ Open
.
The researchers
defined diseases of despair as diagnoses related to alcohol use, substance use and suicidal thoughts or behaviors. They
searched the claims data for the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes related to these diagnoses. ICD codes
form a standardized system maintained by the World Health Organization and are used in health records and for billing.
The researchers
found that the rate of diagnoses related to diseases of despair increased significantly in the Highmark claims in the past
decade. Nearly one in 20 people in the study sample was diagnosed with a disease of despair. Between 2009 and 2018, the rates
of alcohol-, substance-, and suicide-related diagnoses increased by 37%, 94% and 170%. Following Case and Deaton's findings,
the researchers saw the most substantial percentage increase in disease of despair diagnoses among men ages 35 to 74, followed
by women ages 55 to 74 and 18 to 34.
The rate of
alcohol-related diagnoses significantly increased among men and women ages 18 and over. The most dramatic increases were among
men and women ages 55 to 74. Rates increased for men in this age group by 50% and 80% for women.
The rate of
substance-related diagnoses roughly doubled for men and women ages 35 to 54 and increased by 170% in ages 55 to 74. In 2018,
the most recent year of claims included in the study, rates of substance-use diagnoses were highest in 18-to-34-year-olds.
The rate of
diagnoses related to suicidal thoughts and behaviors increased for all age groups. Among 18-to-34-year-olds, rates increased
by at least 200%. The rate for all other age groups increased by at least 60%.
The type of
insurance patients had also mattered. People with Medicare insurance had 1.5 times higher odds of having a disease of despair
diagnosis and those with Affordable Care Act insurance had 1.3 times higher odds.
One increase
stood out to researchers: among infants, substance-related diagnoses doubled.
"This increase
was entirely attributable to neonatal abstinence syndrome and corresponded closely with increases in substance-related
disorders among women of childbearing age," Emily Brignone, senior research scientist, Highmark Health Enterprise Analytics,
said.
Neonatal
abstinence syndrome occurs when a baby withdraws from substances, especially opioids, exposed to in the womb.
Future research
can concentrate on identifying "hot spots" of diseases of despair diagnoses in the commonwealth to then study the social and
economic conditions in these areas. With this data, researchers can potentially create predictive models to identify
communities at risk and develop interventions.
"We found a broad
view of who is impacted by increases in diseases of despair, which cross racial, ethnic and geographic groups," Jennifer
Kraschnewski, professor of medicine, public health sciences and pediatrics, said. "Although originally thought to mostly
affect rural communities, these increases in all middle-aged adults across the rural-urban continuum likely foreshadows future
premature deaths."
###
National Center
for Advancing Translational Science of the National Institutes of Health through Penn State Clinical and Translational Science
Institute funded this research.
A podcast about
this topic is available here.
Other researchers
on this project were Lawrence Sinoway, director, Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute; Curren Katz and
Robert Gladden, Highmark Health Enterprise Analytics; Charity Sauder, administrative director, Penn State Clinical and
Translational Science Institute; and Andrea Murray, project manager, Penn State College of Medicine.
Disclaimer:
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the
accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the
EurekAlert system.
I have come up with a partial solution to what is coming. Feel free to add.
1. Take care of your health. Exercise. Eat healthy even if it costs a little more.
2. Stay out of debt. Live beneath your means.
3. Keep learning. Learn new skills. Learn how to fix and build things yourself. Invest in
yourself.
4. Realize that government (at all levels) will lie to you. Government will not take care of
you. Government will take everything you have if it means they stay in power just one day
longer.
5. Buy a little gold and silver. Bitcoin if you must. But realize that this is just a little
insurance and not much else.
6. Stay far away from bubbles. Hard to do when friends and relatives are getting "rich" and
think you the fool.
7. Relationships are worth far more than "stuff." Families are worth way more than
"stuff."
8. Enjoy life. It doesn't take lots of money.
9. Learn how to shoot safely and have at least one gun. Even if you think you will never
touch it again.
10. Be part of "something" bigger than yourself such as a Church or a volunteer organization.
All the issues we see today are the same issues seen 2000 years ago.
"... You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end -- which you can never afford to lose -- with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. ..."
James C.
Collins related a conversation he had with Stockdale regarding his coping strategy during
his period in the Vietnamese POW camp. [21] [
non-primary source needed ] When Collins asked which prisoners didn't make it out
of Vietnam, Stockdale replied:
Oh, that's easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out
by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're
going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then
Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart. This
is a very important lesson.
You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end
-- which you can never afford to lose -- with the discipline to confront the most brutal
facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.[22]
The harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, one of the greatest adventure
stories of the modern age.
In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the
Endurance
and
set sail for Antarctica, where he planned to cross the last uncharted continent on foot. In January 1915, after battling its way
through a thousand miles of pack ice and only a day's sail short of its destination, the
Endurance
became
locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was
finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest
seas to the closest outpost of civilization.
In
Endurance
,
the definitive account of Ernest Shackleton's fateful trip, Alfred Lansing brilliantly narrates the harrowing and miraculous
voyage that has defined heroism for the modern age.
The
book gave me several adrenaline rushes...it's that well written.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The
book gave me several adrenaline rushes...it's that well written.
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2018
Verified Purchase
This is an amazing account of Shackleton's journey that went into
intricate details about the twists and turns every step of the way for this small group of brave explorers. It
reads like a thrilling fiction novel, but the fact that it is non-fiction makes it even more astounding. The
description really paints a true picture of the hellacious conditions that they continued to face time and time
again. This book really put into perspective what a challenge truly is. A simple headache that we might get now
is nowhere near getting your sleeping bag drenched and still having to sleep in it in temperatures near 0 when
you don't know how the weather or current is going to change while you try to sleep. Great read and really hard
to put down because even though you think you know what's going to happen, you still have to find out how.
Would highly recommend if you're looking for a good book that you will have trouble putting down.
38 people found this helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cold
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2018
Verified Purchase
Very cold. Always cold. This is a very detailed (true) story about men
trying to survive in a very hostile environment in c. 1915. Stark and full of detail, the reader almost gets to
feel the cold, hunger and pain the crew experienced while trying to survive Antarctica and return to
civilization. it's amazing that anyone survived this ordeal let alone all of them. Sadly, many creatures and
peaceful animals paid the price for mans survival. The details often are so descriptive and redundant due to
the scope of the story, that it sometimes becomes repetitive and familiar. This is because of the constant
distress and horrible conditions the crew experienced for such a long time. It's a well documented and exciting
story with a bit of a history lesson that really held my interest. It's a popular book that is deserving of its
high ratings.
21 people found this helpful
There is no doubt in my mind that I would not be able to endure even one, the best, day of the unimaginable
hardships that the men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Exposition (1914-17) -- under the leadership of Sir Ernest
Shackleton -- struggled with for more than 400 days. They endured and survived some of the most incredible,
unbelievable, conditions ever experienced; and Alfred Lansing captures the urgency, the deprivation, and the
desperation, with spellbinding storytelling.
Recommendation: Best adventure story, ever. Should be read by all, especially those of high school age.
"In all the world there is no desolation more complete than the polar night. It is a return to the Ice Age -- no
warmth, no life, no movement." (p. 46).
Basic Books. Kindle Edition, 268 pages.
16 people found this helpful
A
Riveting True Story of Adventure, Survival and Hope
5.0 out of 5 stars
A
Riveting True Story of Adventure, Survival and Hope
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2014
Verified Purchase
In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton set out on an expedition to make the first
land crossing of the barren Antarctic continent from the east to the west coast. The expedition failed to
accomplish its objective, but became recognized instead as an amazing feat of endurance. Shackleton and a crew
of 27 (plus one stowaway) first headed to the Weddell Sea on the ship Endurance. Their ship was trapped by pack
ice short of their destination and eventually crushed. Forced to abandon ship, the men were trapped on ice
floes for months while they drifted north. Once they were far enough north that the ice thinned somewhat, they
were forced to journey in lifeboats they'd dragged off the ship. After six terrible days, they made it to
uninhabited Elephant Island; from there Shackleton and five other men set off in an open 22-foot boat on an
incredible 800-mile voyage across the notoriously tempestuous Drake Passage to South Georgia Island, where they
hiked across the island's mountain range to reach a whaling camp. From there, they returned in a ship to rescue
the men left behind on Elephant Island.
That these men were able to survive in the harsh, barren conditions of Antarctica, where temperatures
frequently fell below zero is amazing. It's nearly unimaginable that these men could survive for almost two
years, their lives marked by a seemingly endless stretch of misery, suffering, and boredom, not to mention the
threat of starvation. At every turn, their situation seems to go from bad to worse. If this were a work of
fiction, one would be inclined to claim the story was simply too far-fetched. But Endurance isn't just a tale
of misery, it is a vivid description of their journey, the dangers they faced, and the obstacles they overcame.
Through all of this, Shackleton has never lost a man.
Alfred Lansing's book, written in 1958 from interviews and journals of the survivors, is now back in print.
It's a riveting tale of adventure, survival and hope. It is also a rare historical, non-fiction book that is as
exciting as any novel. I've read a number of stories of survival and would rate this as the best of all I have
read. This is one of the great adventure stories of our time. Don't miss it.
Read more
45 people found this helpful
I
recommend this book to add to the collection of those ...
5.0 out of 5 stars
I
recommend this book to add to the collection of those ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2015
Verified Purchase
What a page turner. Lansing is a master for the description of those
explorers hardships, desire to follow Shacketon' orders. I kept saying to myself that there are few humans
today that are as tough as those men. I recommend this book to add to the collection of those books that give
us the knowledge of what it takes to conquer a goal.
51 people found this helpful
By
far one of the best books I've ever read, & I've read many!
5.0 out of 5 stars
By
far one of the best books I've ever read, & I've read many!
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2019
Verified Purchase
I just finished reading 2 of Grann's books - Lost City of Z & The White
Darkness. The latter is the story of Henry Worsley, the grandson of Frank Worsley one of the "extraordinary"
men in Lansing's Endurance. Grann suggested Endurance as a worthy read. Sir Earnest Shackleton & Frank Worsley
were two of some 20 men who incredibly survived a journey to Antarctica that went awry from almost its onset.
Two years later all hands were rescued through the extraordinary will of the men who found themselves at the
mercy of the elements. Lansing's research & grasp of the situation in which these men found themselves in
conjunction with his writing style has put this book at the top of my all time favorites! Fabulous! Fabulous!
Anyone 12 or older will be blown away by this true story & this writer!
4 people found this helpful
ll eyes are on the declining number of unemployed. The May and June jobs reports chronicle
the reabsorption of 5.3 million who lost their jobs in the COVID-19 pandemic. Twelve million
jobs to go to reach pre-pandemic employment.
Yet prior to the pandemic, there were 18 million Americans missing from the economy. These
persons were neither employed nor seeking employment -- nor retirees, students or in-home
caregivers -- and therefore were excluded from the Bureau of Labor Statistics count of the
workforce. In order that America emerge from the pandemic stronger than before, a concerted
initiative by federal and state governments to move them back into the economy -- using
existing resources -- must begin now.
...
Research on the social determinants of health finds that employment has a
very strong correlation with positive health outcomes. To exist as a non-participant in
the economy is thus an invitation to dire health outcomes including premature death.
What's more, these individuals are needed as contributors to our national commonweal,
fueling increased economic and social progress. And people engaged in productive activities
are much less likely to engage in negative and destructive behaviors.
... The USDA's food stamp program has a robustly funded, though underutilized, employment
and training grant. States use the excuse of USDA's partial match requirement as a reason to
opt out.
"... This would be bad news for anyone with a serious health condition, but it would be especially bad news for the oldest pre-Medicare age group, people between the ages of 55 and 64. This group currently faces average premiums of close to $10,000 a year per person for insurance purchased through the ACA exchanges. Insurers could easily charge people with serious health conditions two or three times this amount if the Trump administration wins its case. ..."
"... The 55 to 64 age group will also be hard hit because they are far more likely to have serious health issues than younger people. Just 18 percent of the people in the youngest 18 to 34 age group have a serious health condition, compared to 44 percent of those in the 55 to 64 age group, as shown in the figure above. ..."
Older Workers Targeted in Trump's Lawsuit to End Obamacare
By DEAN BAKER
The Trump administration is supporting a lawsuit which seeks to overturn the Affordable
Care Act (ACA) in its entirety. The implication is that a large share of the older workers
now able to afford health insurance as a result of the ACA will no longer be able to afford
it if the Trump administration wins its lawsuit.
Furthermore, if the suit succeeds it will both end the expansion of Medicaid, which has
insured tens of millions of people, and again allow discrimination against people with
serious health conditions. Ending this discrimination was one of the major goals of the ACA.
The issue is that insurers don't want to insure people who are likely to have health issues
that cost them money. While they are happy to insure healthy people with few medical
expenses, people with heart disease, diabetes, or other health conditions are a bad deal for
insurers.
Before the ACA, insurers could charge outlandish fees to cover people with health
conditions, or simply refuse to insure them altogether. The ACA required insurers to cover
everyone within an age bracket at the same price, regardless of their health. If the Trump
administration has its way, we would go back to the world where insurers could charge people
with health issues whatever they wanted, or alternatively, just deny them coverage.
This would be bad news for anyone with a serious health condition, but it would be
especially bad news for the oldest pre-Medicare age group, people between the ages of 55 and
64. This group currently faces average premiums of close to $10,000 a year per person for
insurance purchased through the ACA exchanges. Insurers could easily charge people with
serious health conditions two or three times this amount if the Trump administration wins its
case.
And, since a Trump victory would eliminate the ACA subsidiaries, people in this age group
with health conditions could be looking to pay $20,000 to $30,000 a year for insurance, with
no help from the government. That will be especially hard since many people with serious
health conditions are unable to work full-time jobs, and some can't work at all.
[Graph]
The 55 to 64 age group will also be hard hit because they are far more likely to have
serious health issues than younger people. Just 18 percent of the people in the youngest 18
to 34 age group have a serious health condition, compared to 44 percent of those in the 55 to
64 age group, as shown in the figure above.
The ACA has many inadequacies, but it has allowed tens of millions to get insurance who
could not otherwise. Donald Trump wants to take this insurance away.
"... Old saying: A Recession is when your neighbor loses their Job. A Depression is when you lose your Job. ..."
"... A lot of mega wealthy people are cheats. They get insider info, they don't pay people and do all they can to provide the least amount of value possible while tricking suckers into buying their crap. Don't even get me started on trust fund brats who come out of the womb thinking they are Warren buffet level genius in business. ..."
"... There's a documentary about Wal-Mart that has the best title ever: The High Cost of Low Cost ..."
"... Globalism killed the American dream. We can buy cheap goods made somewhere else if we have a job here that pays us enough money. ..."
You can't just move to American cities to pursue opportunity; even the high wages paid in
New York are rendered unhelpful because the cost of housing is so high.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was vilified and ultimately murdered when he was helping organize
a Poor People's Campaign. Racial justice means economic justice.
A lot of mega wealthy people are cheats. They get insider info, they don't pay people and
do all they can to provide the least amount of value possible while tricking suckers into
buying their crap. Don't even get me started on trust fund brats who come out of the womb
thinking they are Warren buffet level genius in business.
Nailed it. As a millennial, I'm sick of being told to just "deal with it" when the cards
have always been stacked against me. Am I surviving? Yes. Am I thriving? No.
When the reserve status of the American dollar goes away, then it will become apparent how
poor the US really is. You cannot maintain a country without retention of the ability to
manufacture the articles you use on a daily basis. The military budget and all the jobs it
brings will have to shrink catastrophically.
...and sometimes you CAN'T afford to move. You can't find a decent job. You certainly
can't build a meaningful savings. You can't find an apartment. And if you have kids? That
makes it even harder. I've been trying to move for years, but the conditions have to be
perfect to do it responsibly. The American Dream died for me once I realized that no matter
the choices I made, my four years of college, my years of saving and working hard....I do NOT
have upward mobility. For me, the American Dream is dead. I've been finding a new dream. The
human dream.
This is a very truncated view. You need to expand your thinking. WHY has the system been
so overtly corrupted? It's globalism that has pushed all this economic pressure on the
millennials and the middle class. It was the elites, working with corrupt politicians, that
rigged the game so the law benefited them.
This is all reversible. History shows that capitalism can be properly regulated in a way
that benefits all. The answer to the problem is to bring back those rules, not implement
socialism.
Trump has:
- Ended the free trade deals
- Imposed Protective tarriffs to defend American jobs and workers
- Lowered corporate taxes to incentivize business to locate within us borders.
- Limited immigration to reduce the supply of low skilled labor within US borders.
The result? before COVID hit the average American worker saw the first inflation adjusted
wage increase in over 30 years!
This is why the fake news and hollywood continue to propagandize the masses into hating
Trump.
Trump is implementing economic policies good for the people and bad for the elites
Krystal Ball exposes the delusion of the American dream.
About Rising: Rising is a weekday morning show with bipartisan hosts that breaks the mold of
morning TV by taking viewers inside the halls of Washington power like never before. The show
leans into the day's political cycle with cutting edge analysis from DC insiders who can
predict what is going to happen.
It also sets the day's political agenda by breaking exclusive
news with a team of scoop-driven reporters and demanding answers during interviews with the
country's most important political newsmakers.
Got my degree just as the great recession hit. Couldn't find real work for 3 years, not
using my degree... But it was work. now after 8 years, im laid off. I did everything "right".
do good in school, go to college, get a job...
I've never been fired in my life. its always,
"Your contract is up" "Sorry we cant afford to keep you", "You can make more money collecting!
but we'll give a recommendation if you find anything."
Now I'm back where i started... only
now I have new house and a family to support... no pressure.
"The gig economy is just a way for corporations to cut the cost of employees, by turning them into subcontractors. They blur
the line between employee and subcontractors by having tight rules like an employer, and since most people have a employee
mentality, the company nurtures the idea that they somehow are more like employees, then they get mostly good workers, working
hard for very little compensation. The Gig economy is just another sign of our failing way of life."
Notable quotes:
"... The gig economy would be great if we lived in a society where health care is free, food is cheap, housing is common, and nobody suffers from economic Issues Which is not what we are living in ..."
"... Neo-liberals - we support freedom and stuff. Removes mask Is actually corporation lapdogs. ..."
Unlike most developments in the employment market, the Gig Economy has received a great deal
of press attention and established itself firmly as a point of reference in the popular
consciousness. In recent years, increasing numbers of people have turned to services such as
Uber, Lyft, Deliveroo, Just Eat, TaskRabbit and Fiverr as either a side hustle or their main
source of income.
Following on from my video on neoliberalism and neoliberal capitalism, in today's episode of
What the Theory?, we look deeper into how the gig economy (or sharing economy) works and what
differentiates it from the rest of the economy. We ask whether the gig economy is truly an
opportunity for those wanting a more flexible work arrangement or whether it is simply a means
for multinational corporations to circumvent hard-won workers rights and labour laws.
Finally, we also consider whether there might be some historical precedents to the sharing
economy in the early industrial period and look at some of the challenges facing those
attempting to organise Deliveroo riders, Uber drivers and other gig economy workers into trade
unions in order to negotiate for better rates of pay and conditions.
Unregulated capitalism? You mean like child labor and passing the hat when a worker dies
in an accident? They don't want workers. They want people who are desperate.
Well, how far it all goes is something that remains to be seen. I don't think we'll get as
far as child labour but the curation of dependence is something that's definitely in
progress.
Daxton Lyon except the majority of entrepreneurs and business owners didn't come Into
their business ownership via merit. You are forgetting that most of these people are born
into a situation where they have access to capital, access to legal services and education.
Sure there are a minority of people who make it from nothing but that number is diminishingly
small.
Daxton Lyon "You don't like the gig? Do something else." Too bad the economy is currently
setup to where around half of individuals are limited to gig and don't have the resources and
money to do anything else.
Daxton Lyon "If any of you did, your panzy responses regarding corporate greed would be
squashed!" No, they wouldn't, but keep performing those red herrings and hasty,
extremely-worshipping generalizations about entrepreneurship to distract from the point; I'm
sure they'll catch on.
The gig economy would be great if we lived in a society where health care is free, food is
cheap, housing is common, and nobody suffers from economic Issues Which is not what we are
living in
Don't understand the protests? What you're seeing is people pushed to the edge
By KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR – Los Angeles Times
What was your first reaction when you saw the video of the white cop kneeling on
George Floyd's neck while Floyd croaked, "I can't breathe"?
If you're white, you probably muttered a horrified, "Oh, my God" while shaking your
head at the cruel injustice. If you're black, you probably leapt to your feet, cursed,
maybe threw something (certainly wanted to throw something), while shouting, "Not @#$%!
again!" Then you remember the two white vigilantes accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery as
he jogged through their neighborhood in February, and how if it wasn't for that video
emerging a few weeks ago, they would have gotten away with it. And how those Minneapolis
cops claimed Floyd was resisting arrest but a store's video showed he wasn't. And how the
cop on Floyd's neck wasn't an enraged redneck stereotype, but a sworn officer who looked
calm and entitled and devoid of pity: the banality of evil incarnate.
Maybe you also are thinking about the Karen in Central Park who called 911 claiming
the black man who asked her to put a leash on her dog was threatening her. Or the black
Yale University grad student napping in the common room of her dorm who was reported by a
white student. Because you realize it's not just a supposed "black criminal" who is
targeted, it's the whole spectrum of black faces from Yonkers to Yale.
You start to wonder if it should be all black people who wear body cams, not the
cops.
What do you see when you see angry black protesters amassing outside police stations
with raised fists? If you're white, you may be thinking, "They certainly aren't social
distancing." Then you notice the black faces looting Target and you think, "Well, that
just hurts their cause." Then you see the police station on fire and you wag a finger
saying, "That's putting the cause backward."
You're not wrong -- but you're not right, either. The black community is used to the
institutional racism inherent in education, the justice system and jobs. And even though
we do all the conventional things to raise public and political awareness -- write
articulate and insightful pieces in the Atlantic, explain the continued devastation on
CNN, support candidates who promise change -- the needle hardly budges.
But COVID-19 has been slamming the consequences of all that home as we die at a
significantly higher rate than whites, are the first to lose our jobs, and watch
helplessly as Republicans try to keep us from voting .
Bert Schlitz , May 31, 2020 7:14 pm
The protests are self centered crap blacks do year after year. Considering 370 whites over
100 Latinos were killed by cops, many as bad as that guy in minnie. Blacks have a Trumptard
mentality. We have a ecological disaster, a economic disaster and pandemic(when th they are
spreading). Yet let's whine about one bad cop related homicide.
This may begin the breakup of the Democratic party and the blacks. The differences are just
to large.
Kaleberg , May 31, 2020 9:40 pm
It's rather sad that it takes a massive civil disturbance to get the authorities to arrest a
man videotaped killing another. You'd think that would just happen as a matter of course, but
that's how it works in this country.
THE WAY BACK -- THE ONLY WAY BACK -- BOTH ECONOMICALLY AND POLITICALLY (pardon me if I take
up a lot of space -- almost everyone else has said most of what they want to say)
The minimum wage itself should only mark the highest wage that we presume firms with highest
labor costs can pay* -- like fast food with 25% labor costs. Lower labor cost businesses --
e.g., retail like Walgreens and Target with 10-15% labor costs can potentially pay north of
$20/hr; Walmart with 7% labor costs, $25/hr!
That kind of income can only be squeezed out of the consumer market (meaning out of the
consumer) by labor union bargaining.
Raise fast food wages from $10/hr to $15/hr and prices go up only a doable 12.5%. Raise
Walgreens, Target from $10/hr to $20/hr and prices there only go up a piddling 6.25%. Keeping
the math easy here -- I know that Walgreens and Target pay more to start but that only
reinforces my argument about how much labor income is being left on the (missing) bargaining
table.
Hook up Walmart with 7% labor costs with the Teamsters Union and the wage and benefit sky
might be the limit! Don't forget (everybody seems to) that as more income shifts to lower wage
workers, more demand starts to come from lower wage workers -- reinforcing their job security
as they spend more proportionately at lower wage firms (does not work for low wage employees of
high end restaurants -- the exception that actually proves the rule).
Add in sector wide labor agreements and watch Germany appear on this side of the Atlantic
overnight.
* * * * * *
If Republicans held the House in the last (115th) Congress they would have passed
HR2723-Employee Rights Act -- mandating new union recertification/decertification paper ballots
in any bargaining unit that has had experienced "turnover, expansion, or alteration by merger
of unit represented employees exceeding 50 percent of the bargaining unit" by the date of the
enactment -- and for all time from thereafter. Trump would have signed it and virtually every
union in the country would have experienced mandated recert/decert votes in every bargaining
unit. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2723/text
Democrats can make the most obvious point about what was lacking in the Republican bill by
pretending to be for a cert/recert bill that mandates union ballots only at places where there
is no union now. Republicans jumping up and down can scream the point for us that there is no
reason to have ballots in non union places and not in unionized workplaces -- and vice
versa.
* * * * * *
Biggest problem advocating the vastly attractive and all healing proposal of federally
mandated cert/recert/decert elections seems to be that nobody will discuss it as long as nobody
else discusses it -- some kind of innate social behavior I think, from deep in our (pea sized)
midbrains. How else can you explain the perfect pitch's neglect. I suspect that if I waved a
$100 bill in front of a bunch of progressives and offered it to the first one would say the
words out loud: "Regularly scheduled union elections are the only way to restore shared
prosperity and political fairness to America", that I might not get one taker. FWIW.
Another big problem when I try to talk to workers about this on the street -- just to get a
reaction -- is that more than half have no idea in the world what unions are all about. Those
who do understand, think the idea so sensible they often think action must be pending.
econ101 should tell you that the eitc is a subsidy to the corporations that hire droves of
low-paid workers, with meagre spillover to the workers themselves. More effective and
persistent improvements to social justice would come from significant increases to the minimum
wage, societal support to unionization, and other efforts to increase the threshold of what is
considered by society to be the bare minimum of compensation for work.
The concomitant decline in the value of the dollar and the terms of trade would be small
compared to the reduction in inequality.
Bernard , June 1, 2020 5:21 pm
such a third world country as America , riots are the only way to get heard for some. the
Elite have been looting us blind for decades, the Covid bail outs to Corporations by the Elites
in DC as the latest installment of Capitalist theft know as Business as Usual.
it's all about the money.
sick,sick country praising capitalism over everything else.
the comfortable white people are afraid of losing what they have. Divide and Conquer is the
Republican and now Democratic way they run America.
to the rich go the spoils. the rest, well. screw them .
the Lee Atwater idea to use coded language when St. Reagan implemented the destruction of
America society, coincided with St. Thatcher's destruction of England.
the White elites post Civil War in the South knew how to divide the poor whites and the poor
blacks.
that is how we got to where we are now.
Did you see any of the bankers go to jail for the 2008 ripoff?
not one and they got bonuses for their "deeds."
America, such a nation of Grifters, Thieves and Scam artist. like Pelosi , McConnel and all
the people in DC and the Business men who sold out our country and the American people for
"small change".
God forbid Corporations should ever have to pay for the damage they have done to America and
its" people. My RIGHT to Greed trumps your right to clean air, water, safe neighborhoods, says
Capitalism!
the Rich get richer and the poor get poorer, Everybody Knows!!!
But let's not focus on things lest some uncomfortable truths.
The nightly news, when talking about the effect of the pandemic on the populace in, say, Southeast Asian, African,
South American, countries, invariably refer to the tenuous hold on life of their working poor; they don't really have
a job. Each day they rise and go forth looking for work that pays enough that they and their family can continue to
subsist. It is, in some countries, a long-standing problem.
Sound too familiar? Sometime in the late 80s (??) Americans began to see day labors line up at Home Depot and Lowe's
lots in numbers not seen since The Great Depression. Manufacturing Corporations began subbing out their work to
sub-contractors, otherwise known as employees without benefits; Construction Contractors subbed out construction work to
these employees without benefits; Engineering Firms subbed out engineering to these employees without benefits;
Landscapers' workers were now sub-contractors/independent contractors; Here, in the SF Bay Area, time and again, we
saw vans loads of undocumented Hispanics under a 'Labor Contractor' come in from the Central Valley to build condos; the
white Contractor for the project didn't have a single employee; none of the workers got a W-2. Recall watching, sometime
in the 90s (??), a familiar, well dressed, rotund guest from Wall Street, on the PBS News Hour, forcefully proclaiming
to the TV audience:
American workers are going to have to learn to compete with the Chinese; Civil Service employees, factory
employees, are all going to have to work for less
All this subcontracting, independent contractors, was a scam, a scam meant to circumvent paying going wages and
benefits, to enhance profit margins; a scam that transferred more wealth to the top.
Meanwhile back at The Ranch, after the H1B Immigration Act of 1990, Microsoft could hire programmers from India for
one-half the cost of a citizen programmer. Half of Bill Gates' fortune was resultant these labor savings; the other half
was made off those not US Citizens. Taking a cue, Banks, Bio-Techs, some City and State Governments began
subcontracting out their programming to H1Bs. Often, the subcontractors/labor contractors (often themselves immigrants)
providing the programmers, held the programmers' passports/visas for security.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,
friends of Bush/Cheney made fortunes on clean up contracts they subbed out for next to nothing; the
independent/subcontractor scam was now officially governmentally sanctioned.
By about 2000 we began to hear the term gig-workers applied to these employees without benefits. Uber appeared in
2007 to be followed by Lift. Both are scams based on paying less than prevailing wages, on not providing worker
benefits,
These days, the nightly news, when talking about the effect of the pandemic on the populace in America, shows footage
of Food Banks in California with lines 2! miles long. Many of those waiting in these lines didn't have a real job
before; they were gig-workers; they can't apply for Unemployment Benefits. It is estimated that 1.6 million American
workers (1% of the workforce) are gig-workers; they don't have a real job. That 1% is in addition to the 16 million
American workers (10% of the workforce) that are independent contractors. Of the more than 40 million currently
unemployed Americans, some 17 million are either gig-workers or subcontractors/independent contractors. All of these are
scams meant to transfer more wealth to the top. All of these are scams with American Workers the victims; scams, in a
race to the bottom.
Democrats in the so called battle ground states would clean up at the polls with this. Why do you think
those states strayed? It was because Obama and Hillary had no idea what they really needed. Voters had no
idea what they SPECIFICALLY needed either -- UNIONS! They had been deunionized so thoroughly for so long
that they THEMSELVES no long knew what they were missing (frogs in the slowly boiling pot).
In 1988 Jesse Jackson took the Democratic primary in Michigan with 54% against Dukakis and Gephardt.
Obama beat Wall Street Romney and red-white-and-blue McCain in Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan. But nobody
told these voters -- because nobody seems to remember -- what they really needed. These voter just knew by
2016 that Democrats had not what they needed and looked elsewhere -- anywhere else!
Strom presents an easy as can be, on-step-back treatment that should go down oh, so smoothly and
sweetly. What do you think?
Matthew young
,
May 31, 2020 10:51 am
Not overnight, but a few days in 1972 when Nixon fouled the defaults and none of us knew how badly at
the time.
Reseting prices takes a long time, it is not magic and Nixon had fouled the precious metals market,
overnight. That and all the commodities market needed a restructure to adapt to our new regime.
Our way out was to export price instability to Asia. My suggestion this time is to think through the
math a bit before we all suddenly freak and do another over nighter. Think about how one might spread the
partial default over a 15 year period.
All of us, stuck with 40 years of flat earth economic planning without a clue. Now we have a year at
best to nail down the Lucas criteria and get a default done with some science behind it.
I doubt it. I figure we will all go to monetary meetup with our insurance contracts ready to be
confirmed. That is impossible and Trump will be stuck doing a volatile, overnight partial default, like
Nixon.,
EMichael
,
May 31, 2020 12:02 pm
Dennis,
The states you mentioned have overwhelmingly voted Rep for the last 3 decades in their state races. One
of them has instituted right to work laws, and the other two have come very close to doing the same.
The white working class cares nothing about unions at all. They have been voting against them for
decades. It's why union rights and membership has deteriorated for 5 decades.
run75441
,
May 31, 2020 12:32 pm
EM:
Notably, I had posted the 2016 presidential election numbers numbers for MI, PA, and WI which
resulted in an "anyone but Trump or Clinton vote" and gave th election to Trump. The "anyone but Trump
or Clinton vote" resulted in a historical high for the "others" category and was anywhere from 3 to 6
times higher than previously experienced in other presidential elections. It also resulted in those
three states casting Electoral votes for a Republican presidential candidate since 1992 – MI, 1988 –
PA, and 1988 – WI. While this does defeat your comment above on those states voting Republican, it does
not take away from your other comment on Sarandon. People punished themselves with Trump in spite of
every obvious clue he demonstrated of being a loon. In this case the white working class voted against
themselves for Trump and those of Sarandon's ilk helped them along by voting for "others."
EMichael
,
May 31, 2020 12:45 pm
Run, I stated in "state elections".
Y'know one other thing I have seen in MI voting is that the amount of people who voted did not cast a
voted for President also was the highest ever. Thinking these are the same people like Sarandon. It was
close to 90,000 in MI.
"87,810: Number of voters this election who cast a ballot but did not cast a vote for president. That
compares to 49,840 undervotes for president in 2012.
5 percent: Proportion of voters who opted for a third-party candidate in this election, compared to 1
percent in 2012."
Thanks for your comment and the link. Wow! Where to start, huh?
SEIU was a player from the get go, but I don't want to go there just now.
Before Reagan, there was the first rust belt move to the non-union south. Why was the south so
anti-union? I think this stuff is engendered from infancy and most of us are incapable of thinking anew
when it comes to stuff our parents 'taught' us. MLK was the best thing that ever happened to the dirt-road
poor south, yet they hated him and they hated the very unions that might have lifted them up. They did
seem to take pleasure in the yanks' loss of jobs.
I think the Reagan era was prelude to what is going on now, i.e., going backward while yelling whee
look at me go. No doubt, Reagan turned union members against their own unions. But, the genesis of demise
probably lay with automation and the early offshoring to Mexico. By Reagan, the car plants were losing
jobs to Toyota and Honda and automation. By 1990, car plants that had previously employed 5,000, now
automated, produced more cars employing only 1200. At the time, much of the nation's wealth was still
derived from car production.
Skipping forward a bit, the democrats blew it for years with all their talk about the 'middle-class'
without realizing it was the 'disappearing middle-class'. They ignored the poor working-class vote and
lost election after election.
I've come to not like the term labor, think it affords capital an undeserved status, though much
diminished, I think thought all workers would be better off in a union. Otherwise, as we are witnessing,
there is no parity between workers and wealth; we are in a race to the bottom with the wealth increasingly
go to the top.
ken melvin
,
May 31, 2020 1:15 pm
Matthew – thanks for your comment
I think that we are into a transition (about 45 yrs into) as great as the industrial revolution. We, as
probably those poor souls of the 18th and 19th centuries did, are floundering, unable to come to terms
with what is going on.
I also think that those such as the Kochs have a good grasp of what is going on and are moving to
protect themselves and their class.
ken melvin
,
May 31, 2020 1:21 pm
EMichael, thanks for the comment
Are you implying that the politicians are way behind the curve? If so, I think that you are right.
Let me share what I was thinking last night about thinking:
Descartes' problem was that he desperately wanted to make philosophy work within the framework of his
religion, Catholicism. Paul Krugman desperately wants to make economics all work within the Holy Duality
of Capitalism and Free Markets. Even Joe Stiglitz can't step out of this text. All things being possible,
it is possible that either could come up with a solution to today's economic problems that would fit
within the Two; but the odds are not good. Better to think anew.
We see politicians try and try to find solutions for today's problems from within their own
dogmas/ideologies. Even if they can't, they persist, they still try to impose these dogmas/ideologies in
the desperate hope they might work if only applied to a greater degree. How else explain any belief that
markets could anticipate and respond to pandemics? That markets could best respond to housing demand?
Racism Is the Biggest Reason the U.S. Safety Net Is So Weak
Harvard economist Alberto Alesina, who died last week, found that ethnic divisions made the country less
effective at providing public goods.
7:50 AM · May 31, 2020
The Alesina/Glaeser/Sacerdote paper on why America doesn't have a European-style welfare state -- racism
-- had a big impact on my own thinking 2/
For a long time anyone who pointed out that the modern GOP is basically a party that serves plutocratic
ends by weaponizing white racism was treated as "shrill" and partisan. Can we now admit the obvious? 3/
EMichael
,
May 31, 2020 1:53 pm
Ken,
Half the politicians are behind the curve. When George Wallace showed the GOP how to win elections
(Don't ever get outniggerred) the Dem Party failed to see and react to it. Then the Kochs of the world
stepped in with the John Birch society (fromerly the KKK) and started playing race against class, which
resulted in the white working class supporting anti-labor pols and legislation.
The election of Obama caused the racists to go totally off the reservation with the Tea Party (formerly
the KKK and the John Birch Society) and lead us to where we are now.
Of course, the corporate world followed the blueprint.
Way past time for the Dem Party to start attacking on a constant basis the racist GOP. And also to
start appealing more to workers, though the 2016 platform certainly did that to a large degree, and the
2020 platform looks to be mush more supportive of labor than ever.
"It's a detailed and aggressive agenda that includes doubling the minimum wage and tripling funding for
schools with low-income students. He is proposing the most sweeping overhaul of immigration policy in a
generation, the biggest pro-union push in three generations, and the most ambitious environmental agenda
of all time.
If Democrats take back the Senate in the fall, Biden could make his agenda happen. A primary is about
airing disagreements, but legislating is about building consensus. The Democratic Party largely agrees on
a suite of big policy changes that would improve the lives of millions of Americans in meaningful ways.
Biden has detailed, considered plans to put much of this agenda in place. But getting these plans done
will be driven much more by the outcome of the congressional elections than his questioned ambition.
A big minimum wage increase
Biden's commitment to raising the federal minimum wage from its current $7.25 to $15 an hour is one of
the least talked-about plans at stake in the 2020 election.
In the 2016 cycle when Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders disagreed about raising the minimum wage to
$15 per hour, the debate was the subject of extensive coverage. By the 2020 cycle, all the major
Democratic candidates were on board, so it didn't come up much. But it's significant that this is no
longer controversial in Democratic Party circles. If the party is broadly comfortable with the wage hike
as a matter of both politics and substance, Democrats in Congress are likely to make it happen if it's at
all possible.
Noji Olaigbe, left, from the Fight for $15 minimum wage movement, speaks during a McDonald's workers'
strike in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on May 23, 2019. David Santiago/Miami Herald/Tribune News
Service/Getty Images
The $15-an-hour minimum wage increase is also a signature issue for Biden. He endorsed New York's
version of it in the fall of 2015, back when he was vice president and his boss Barack Obama was pushing a
smaller federal raise.
A big minimum wage hike polls well, it aligns with Biden's thematic emphasis on "the dignity of work,"
and it's a topic on which he's genuinely been a leader. It reflects his political sensibilities, which are
moderate but in a decidedly more populist mode than Obama's technocratic one.
Biden has a big Plan A to support organized labor, and a Plan B that's still consequential and
considerably more plausible politically.
Beyond a general disposition to be a good coalition partner to organized labor, the centerpiece of his
union agenda is support for the PRO Act, which passed the House of Representatives earlier this year.
That bill, were it to become law, would be the biggest victory for unions and collective bargaining
since the end of World War II -- overriding state "right to work" laws, barring mandatory anti-union
briefings from management during organizing campaigns, imposing much more meaningful financial penalties
on companies that illegally fire workers for pro-union activity, and allowing organizing through a
streamlined card check process. Separately, Biden and House Democrats have lined up behind a Public
Service Freedom to Negotiate Act that would bolster public sector workers' collective bargaining rights. "
One of the big issues here is Biden not committing to killing the filibuster, in addition to Dem
Senators not in agreement either. That would be a disaster for any legislation.
Makes sense not to run on ending the filibuster now, as there is a chance trump can win and teh GOP
keeps the Senate. But if the opposite happens and Biden wins and Dems take the Senate, they will have to
pivot quickly to getting rid of the filibuster. Apply any and all possible pressure to those Dem Senators
who do not agree with that. Threaten them with losing committee posts; primary opponents; the kitchen
sink.
Yes, it poses a risk in the event the Reps get a trifecta again, but it is time to flood progressive
legislation into law, and getting rid of the filibuster is the only way.
And if they can hit the trifecta and bring this platform to fruition, they won't have to worry about a
GOP trifecta for a long, long time. Possibly forever.
Why Doesn't the United States Have a European-Style Welfare State?
By Alberto Alesina, Edward Glaeser and Bruce Sacerdote
Abstract
European countries are much more generous to the poor relative to the US level of generosity. Economic
models suggest that redistribution is a function of the variance and skewness of the pre-tax income
distribution, the volatility of income (perhaps because of trade shocks), the social costs of taxation and
the expected income mobility of the median voter. None of these factors appear to explain the differences
between the US and Europe. Instead, the differences appear to be the result of racial heterogeneity in the
US and American political institutions. Racial animosity in the US makes redistribution to the poor, who
are disproportionately black, unappealing to many voters. American political institutions limited the
growth of a socialist party, and more generally limited the political power of the poor.
rick shapiro
,
May 31, 2020 2:07 pm
This dynamic is not limited to low-skill jobs. I have seen it at work in electronics engineering. When
I was a sprat, job shoppers got an hourly wage nearly twice that of their company peers, because they had
no benefits or long-term employment. Today, job shoppers are actually paid less than company engineers;
and the companies are outsourcing ever more of their staffing to the brokers.
Without labor market frictions, the iron law of wages drives wages to starvation levels. As sophisticated
uberization software eliminates the frictions that have protected middle class wages in the recent past,
we will all need to enlist unionization and government wage standards to protect us.
ken melvin
,
May 31, 2020 2:29 pm
Rick
The big engineering offices of the 70s were decimated and worse by the mid-90s; mostly by the advent of
computers w/ software. One engineer could now do the work of 10 and didn't need any draftsman.
rick shapiro
,
May 31, 2020 2:40 pm
I was speaking of engineers with equal skill in the same office. Many at GE Avionics were laid off, and
came back as lower paid contract empoyees.
ken melvin
,
May 31, 2020 2:46 pm
Rick
Die biden
ken melvin
,
May 31, 2020 2:52 pm
beiden
The both
ken melvin
,
May 31, 2020 3:05 pm
EMichael
Minimum wage, the row about the $600, all such things endanger the indentured servant economic model
so favored in the south. Keep them poor and hungry and they will work for next to nothing. 'Still they
persist.' On PBS, a black woman cooking for a restaurant said that she was being paid less than $4/hr.
Don't understand the protests? What you're seeing is people pushed to the edge
By KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR – Los Angeles Times
What was your first reaction when you saw the video of the white cop kneeling on George Floyd's neck
while Floyd croaked, "I can't breathe"?
If you're white, you probably muttered a horrified, "Oh, my God" while shaking your head at the cruel
injustice. If you're black, you probably leapt to your feet, cursed, maybe threw something (certainly
wanted to throw something), while shouting, "Not @#$%! again!" Then you remember the two white vigilantes
accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery as he jogged through their neighborhood in February, and how if it
wasn't for that video emerging a few weeks ago, they would have gotten away with it. And how those
Minneapolis cops claimed Floyd was resisting arrest but a store's video showed he wasn't. And how the cop
on Floyd's neck wasn't an enraged redneck stereotype, but a sworn officer who looked calm and entitled and
devoid of pity: the banality of evil incarnate.
Maybe you also are thinking about the Karen in Central Park who called 911 claiming the black man who
asked her to put a leash on her dog was threatening her. Or the black Yale University grad student napping
in the common room of her dorm who was reported by a white student. Because you realize it's not just a
supposed "black criminal" who is targeted, it's the whole spectrum of black faces from Yonkers to Yale.
You start to wonder if it should be all black people who wear body cams, not the cops.
What do you see when you see angry black protesters amassing outside police stations with raised fists?
If you're white, you may be thinking, "They certainly aren't social distancing." Then you notice the black
faces looting Target and you think, "Well, that just hurts their cause." Then you see the police station
on fire and you wag a finger saying, "That's putting the cause backward."
You're not wrong -- but you're not right, either. The black community is used to the institutional
racism inherent in education, the justice system and jobs. And even though we do all the conventional
things to raise public and political awareness -- write articulate and insightful pieces in the Atlantic,
explain the continued devastation on CNN, support candidates who promise change -- the needle hardly
budges.
But COVID-19 has been slamming the consequences of all that home as we die at a significantly higher
rate than whites, are the first to lose our jobs, and watch helplessly as Republicans try to keep us from
voting .
run75441
,
May 31, 2020 9:39 pm
anne:
If you rcomments are not appearing they are going to spam, Just let me know and I will fish them out
of spam. Just approved 4 of yours.
Bert Schlitz
,
May 31, 2020 7:14 pm
The protests are self centered crap blacks do year after year. Considering 370 whites over 100 Latinos
were killed by cops, many as bad as that guy in minnie. Blacks have a Trumptard mentality. We have a
ecological disaster, a economic disaster and pandemic(when th they are spreading). Yet let's whine about
one bad cop related homicide.
This may begin the breakup of the Democratic party and the blacks. The differences are just to large.
Kaleberg
,
May 31, 2020 9:40 pm
It's rather sad that it takes a massive civil disturbance to get the authorities to arrest a man
videotaped killing another. You'd think that would just happen as a matter of course, but that's how it
works in this country.
Post Comment
Leave a Reply
Cancel reply
Your email address will not be published.
Required
fields are marked
*
By Peter Dorman, professor of economics at The Evergreen State College. Originally
published at Econospeak
Donald Trump, cheering on
his "warriors" who demand that states lift their lockdown and distancing orders (where they
have them), would have you believe this is about bringing the economy back to life so ordinary
people can get their jobs and normal lives back. Elitist
liberals who work from home and have country estates to retreat to don't care, but "real"
people do.
The reality is different. The shuttering of stores, restaurants, hotels and workplaces
didn't begin with government orders and won't end with them. If the rate of new infection
and death is too high, a lot of people won't go along. Not everyone, but enough to make a huge
economic difference. Ask any small business owner what it would mean for demand to drop by
25-50%. Lifting government orders won't magically restore the economic conditions of
mid-winter. So what's it about? Even as it makes a big PR show of supporting state by state
"liberation" in America, the Trump administration is
advising state governments on how to remove workers from unemployment insurance once orders
are lifted. Without government directives, employers can demand workers show up, and if they
refuse they no longer qualify. And why might workers refuse? Perhaps because their workplaces
are still unsafe and they have vulnerable family members they want to keep from getting
infected? Not good enough -- once the state has been "liberated".
How should we respond to this travesty? First, of course, by telling the truth that an
anti-worker, anti-human campaign is being conducted under the guise of defending workers. If
the Democrats weren't themselves such a tool of business interests we might hear that narrative
from them, but the rest of us are free to speak out and should start doing it, loudly, wherever
we can.
Second, one of the laws of the land is the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which
gives workers the right to
refuse imminently hazardous work. This hasn't been used very often, nor is there much case
law around it, but the current pandemic is a good reason to pull it out of storage.
If there are public interest law firms looking for something useful to do during distancing,
they could advertise their willingness to defend workers who need to stay home until work is
safe -- while still getting their paycheck. If employers thought the choice was between public
support for workers sitting out the pandemic or their support for them we might hear less about
"liberation".
They want to throw people off of unemployment while using the virus threat to stop any
serious protests against that. It is literally biological warfare against working people.
Same class war as before, but now with CBW.
Taught it for years. This is the biggest net and is the # 1 Cited Violation for 1910/1926
and MSHA–ever.
OSHA 654 5(a)1 The General Duty Clause.
OSHA Laws & Regulations OSH Act of 1970
OSH Act of 1970
Table of Contents
General Duty Clause
Complete OSH Act Version ("All-in-One")
SEC.
5.
Duties
(a)
Each employer --
(1)
29 USC 654
shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free
from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical
harm to his employees;
(2)
shall comply with occupational safety and health standards promulgated under this Act.
(b)
Each employee shall comply with occupational safety and health standards and all rules,
regulations, and orders issued pursuant to this Act which are applicable to his own actions
and conduct.
Quick Take –Two way street.
Employers mus t mitigate hazards. Employees must comply with mitigation.
No Employer Mitigation=Breaking the Law=No Employee requirement to work in Unsafe
Conditions.
"Lifting all boats" was always a lie. It was simply a way to sell trickle down by claiming
that the objectively observable inequality it produced would somehow help everyone,
eventually, sort of. There was not and has never been a plan by the Conservative Movement to
lift all boats. Only a plan to feign interest in doing so.
I agree with most of your comment except the "smarter" part.
They don't seem smart to me, they openly plunder and loot and spit in the populace's
faces. They don't even pretend to believe in or work for a "common good" anymore, really.
That is the story of the 21st Century in the US, starting with Baby Bush II. (Okay, I get
that the Obama crew seemed "smart" or sophisticated to the PMC and comfortable liberals, but
how smart were they if they led to the open Kleptocratic Disruption of Trumpism and the God
Emperor?)
What the Elites have that the proles don't is in-group solidarity. (And a captured Media
establishment.) They protect their own, while the hoi polloi fight one another for
scraps.
What is the death rate among the working age population?
Seem like a tough hill to die on given the curve has flattened, hospitals are not
overflowing, and the economy is teetering on the edge of depression.
No one has a vaccine, this isn't going away any time soon. It's time to focus on
protecting the most vulnerable instead of pretending this effects everyone equally.
Allow states to cut benefits? Come on, UI benefits are taxed for pete's sake. 'Available
to work' basically means you have start at 8am the next day which is doesn't align with any
reality of hiring except in low end service sector jobs.
The other really significant thing is that 're-opening' doesn't necessarily mean returning
to business. For example, Musk insists on re-opening Tesla the assumption being that sales
are there to be had if they re-open. But if not no sales, no need for employees back down the
drain we go.
Same for restaurants. retail, hotels, transit and white collar jobs – attorneys,
architects, CPAs
The poorest and the most desperate actually. Some people still have not received any money
from the state or federal governments. The quarantine started about two months ago. So no
job, no income, no money, and no joke. No matter how shrewd or smart you are sometimes you
are not making the decisions. Reality makes them for you.
Well till the markets crashes again and they need to save the assets of the
wealthiest.
I just got a text from a buddy who is an electrician. His company just told him they are
not expecting to take any major work till second quarter of next year. They will only be
taking emergency calls. This is in Chicago.
Granted, it's a union site, but one point that they make is how union saturation raises
the wages for all workers within a given region.
In Appalachia, I was offered $15hr. to work as an electrician. In Chicagoland, starting
wages were close to or more than double that. Guess where I went in order to establish a
salary history? And no, the cost of living is really not too different between those two
places, but opportunities sure were.
(moderators: in response to an "Eat the Rich!" comment, I posted a link with recipes: I
apologize for this. Admittedly, it was in poor taste.)
apenultimate
on Thu, 05/14/2020 - 9:50am The past week's unemployment claims came out today, and add
another 2.98 million to the pile. This brings total unemployment claims for the past 8 weeks
(two months or so) to 36.5 million.
Determining unemployment percentages depends on what data you use. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) shows the employment numbers for the United States in August 2019 as ~157
million ( https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat08.htm ). Admittedly,
that's not March 2020 statistics, but employment numbers would not change all that much in half
of a year.
The St. Louis Federal Reserve has a different set of statistics that show 205.5 million
Americans employed in March 2020 ( https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LFWA64TTUSM647S
). (They show the August 2019 period with employment at 206 million.)
Why the huge difference? I have no idea. But going forward, I'll use both to determine
unemployment numbers. Remember that in early March 2020, unemployment was already around
3%.
Using the BLS statistics, we get an unemployment rate of 23.16% for the past 8 weeks. Add on
the previous 3% of people unemployed, and you reach 26.16% unemployment.
Using the St. Louis Fed statistics, we get an unemployment rate of 17.76% for the past 8
weeks. Add on the previous 3% of people unemployed, and you reach 20.76% unemployment.
The peak rate of unemployment during The Great Depression was 24.9%. The peak rate of
unemployment during the the Great Recession in 2008 was 10%.
According to BLS statistics, we are already greater than Great Depression unemployment
numbers.
According to the St. Louis Fed, we are already more than double Great Recession numbers and
only about 4 percentage points away from Great Depression peaks.
The Labor Department last week reported April unemployment for the United states at 14.7%,
but this according to their own admission was undercounting the real rates. Be careful of any
numbers coming out of the mainstream media or government sources.
Some jobs will definitely come back, but many will not. For example, JC Penny's reported
that they are permanently closing 200 of their 850 nationwide stores. Those jobs will not be
coming back. There are weekly reports of many cafes, restaurants, and small businesses
shuttering their doors for good. Those jobs will not be coming back.
Even for the companies that do not shut down, it may be a long haul before economic activity
has picked up enough to bring workers back. In most cases, it will not be a quick recovery.
Hang on for a very rough ride. 2 users have voted.
• Headline April 2020 Unemployment Really Was Around 20%, Not 15%
• Bureau of Labor Statistics Disclosed Erroneous Unemployment Surveying for a Second
Month
• About 7.5 Million People in the April Household Survey Were Misclassified as Employed
Instead of Unemployed, per the BLS
• Headline April U.3 Unemployment at 14.7%, Should Have Been 19.5%
• The BLS Had Disclosed the Same Surveying Error Last Month; Where Headline March 2020 U.3
Was 4.4%, It Should Have Been 5.3%
• Per the BLS, Headline Data Will Not Be Corrected: "To maintain data integrity, no ad hoc
actions are taken to reclassify survey responses."
• Nonetheless, Headline April Unemployment Soared to Historic Highs from March: U.3 from
4.4% to 14.7%, U.6 from 8.7% to 22.8% and ShadowStats from 22.9% to 35.4%
• More Realistic, Those Same Unemployment Numbers, Corrected: U.3 from 5.3 % to 19.5%, U.6
from 9.6% to 27.7% and ShadowStats from 23.7% to 39.6%
• April 2020 Payrolls Collapsed by an Unprecedented 20.5 Million Jobs
• Annual Growth in April 2020 Money Supply Measures Soared to Historic Highs
• U.S. Economic Activity Has Collapsed to Great Depression Levels, with the Federal
Reserve Creating Unlimited Money
stated in the very beginning of this video, that of people who were employed in February of
this year, nearly 40% of those earning $40,000 or less have become unemployed. This is an
unprecedented human tragedy that Congress in all their bailouts now totalling about $8 Trillion
have seen fit to throw a one time pittance of $1,200. With mountains of cash going to
corporations and lobbyists, Congress insultingly gave real suffering Americans a few pennies
and in effect told them that their lives do not matter to Washington DC.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned that
around half of the world's workforce, or 1.6 billion workers, are at imminent risk of losing
their livelihood because of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In its latest
report, the UN agency stated that those hardest hit by the financial effects of the Covid-19
outbreak have been 'informal economy' workers, including the self-employed and those on a
short-term contract.
"The first month of the crisis is estimated to have resulted in a drop of 60 percent in
the income of informal workers globally," the ILO said of the economic damage already
caused by the pandemic.
The deepening crisis in many parts of the world has left more than 436 million businesses
facing financial hardship and possible closure, the ILO stated, which will inevitably hurt
workers. The report listed the worst-hit sectors as manufacturing, accommodation and food
services, wholesale and retail trade, and real estate.
"For millions of workers, no income means no food, no security and no future," ILO
Director-General Guy Ryder said of the stark impact of an economic dip.
He added that, according to ILO data, there is expected to be a "massive" rise in
poverty levels worldwide, unless governments recognize the need to reconstruct their economies
around better working practices and "not a return to the pre-pandemic world of precarious
work for the majority."
Since the novel coronavirus emerged in China late last year, over 3.1 million cases have
been confirmed around the world, and more than 216,000 people have died. Drastic lockdowns to
limit its spread have taken a dire toll on the global economy, prompting market turmoil and
numerous projections of the heavy recession to strike this year.
"... Polls of life satisfaction taken since the outbreak began have reflected a rapid erosion as 33 million Americans have joined the unemployment rolls over the last months. NY Gov Andrew Cuomo said during a recent daily briefing that NY is seeing a spike in drug and alcohol abuse as people sit around all day with nothing to do and nowhere to go. ..."
"... But of course the tremendous levels of financial uncertainty coupled with the unique characteristics of this crisis make it pretty much impossible to model - any research is really an educated guess, at best. ..."
"... "Unemployment is going to have a very important impact on deaths of despair." ..."
"... His proposed strategies including investing more resources in helping unemployed people find meaningful work, and/or training the armies of contact tracers that de Blasio has now promised to hire to spot people at risk of self-harm. ..."
Doctors ,
scientists policymakers and even 'non-experts' posting on social media have argued that
shuttering the health-care system to all non-emergency care risks sparking other public health
crises from a spike in heart attacks and advanced cancer diagnoses, to so-called "deaths of
despair."
In some
areas, a spike in suicides has already been recorded since the start of the outbreak. And
now, a newly published paper released Friday has attempted to quantify deaths that might occur
because of the mental-health ramifications of widespread economic chaos caused by the crisis.
The research - which hasn't yet been peer-reviewed - found the isolation, grief and economic
hardship related to COVID-19 are conspiring to supercharge America's already-burgeoning
mental-health crisis, likely setting the stage for tens of thousands of suicides down the
line.
Specifically, the researchers tabulated that as many as 75k additional "deaths of despair"
could be caused by the outbreak and the economy-crushing measures implemented to stop the
spreads. "Deaths of despair" typically refer to suicides and substance-abuse-related deaths,
according to
Bloomberg .
The research was carried out by the Well Being Trust and researchers affiliated with the
American Academy of Family Physicians. One of the report's authors said he hopes the research
is eventually proven to be incorrect.
"I hope in 10 years people look back and say, 'Wow, they way overestimated it,'" said John
Westfall, director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and
Primary Care, who co-wrote the report.
But the sizable spike in suicides, overdoses etc since the last major crisis (the financial
crisis) is reason to be concerned.
Even as the American economy rebounded after the last recession, suicides and overdoses cut
into Americans' life expectancy. Mental health experts worry that the economic uncertainty and
social isolation of the pandemic will make things worse at a time when the health care system
is already overwhelmed. The suicide rate in the US has already been rising for two decades, and
in 2018 hit its highest level since 1941, Bloomberg reported, citing a piece published by JAMA
Psychiatry (a prestigious medical journal) back in April.
"There's a paradox," said Jeffrey Reynolds, president of a Long Island-based nonprofit
social services agency, the Family and Children's Association. " Social isolation protects us
from a contagious, life-threatening virus, but at the same time it puts people at risk for
things that are the biggest killers in the United States: suicide, overdose and diseases
related to alcohol abuse."
Polls of life satisfaction taken since the outbreak began have reflected a rapid erosion as
33 million Americans have joined the unemployment rolls over the last months. NY Gov Andrew
Cuomo said during a recent daily briefing that NY is seeing a spike in drug and alcohol abuse
as people sit around all day with nothing to do and nowhere to go.
"One of the main things people should take away from this paper is that employment
matters," said Benjamin Miller, chief strategy officer at the Well Being Trust and a clinical
psychologist who worked on the paper. "It matters for our economic livelihood, and for our
mental and emotional health."
But of course the tremendous levels of financial uncertainty coupled with the unique
characteristics of this crisis make it pretty much impossible to model - any research is really
an educated guess, at best.
Still, the researchers believe it's a useful warning, and something important for policy
makers to keep in mind.
"It's useful to have a wake-up call," said Ken Duckworth, chief medical officer at the
National Alliance on Mental Illness. "Unemployment is going to have a very important impact
on deaths of despair."
Benjamin Miller, chief strategy officer at the Well Being Trust and a clinical psychologist
who worked on the paper, proposed several solutions that could be enacted to, uh, depress the
number of suicides.
His proposed strategies including investing more resources in helping unemployed people find
meaningful work, and/or training the armies of contact tracers that de Blasio has now promised
to hire to spot people at risk of self-harm.
I'm sure this has been mentioned, but Angus Deaton talking about his "Deaths of Despair" work
Boston
review article
JC: In the book you focus on these deaths of despair: 158,000 in 2018, about 100,000 of
which are above and beyond what we would normally expect, an excess that is almost entirely
among white non-Hispanic men and women without a college degree. The category covers three
different causes of death: alcohol, opioids, and suicide. Could you talk about why you
group them together?
AD: Initially, "deaths of despair" was a label of convenience. It helped express the
sense that these deaths were sort of caused by your own hand -- unlike COVID-19, say.
...
these previous drug epidemics -- in the United States after the Civil War, or in China
when the empire was disintegrating -- tended to arise during periods of social
disintegration. The simplified story is that some bad Big Pharma manufacturers started
pushing opioids on all of us. But in reality, Purdue Pharmaceuticals and other companies
went to places where there was already lots of despair. They were looking for despair. They
were looking for regions where you could harass doctors into prescribing these drugs.
Our claim in the book is that without this underlying despair -- pain, morbidity, people
not going to church, people's lives coming apart -- there wouldn't have been this open
field for opioids. On the other hand, if the FDA had not been so much in the hands of the
industry, and if we were not operating a rent-seeking, capitalistic health care system,
then we wouldn't have got those efforts to capitalize on the despair. Other countries
didn't get them to anything like the same extent.
...
JC: One of the issues that you emphasize in the book is the generational aspect of
deaths of despair: how it keeps getting worse for younger generations. The idea that this
is a process that is worsening over time resonates strongly with Raj Chetty's account of
the fading American dream. I am thinking of the study by Chetty and colleagues about
absolute mobility, guided by the question: Are you going to do better than your parents?
When I was born in 1951, there was a 90 percent chance of doing better than your parents.
If you were born in 1980, chances had fallen to 50 percent.
...
The Democrats largely decided to abandon the working class and build a coalition of
educated elites and minorities (including working-class minorities), and the Republicans
basically followed business and religious organizations.
And the health care crises make things worse. Health care costs were 5 percent of GDP
back in 1970, and now they're 18 percent of GDP. Everything is heaping up on these
people.
...
The pillars that structured working-class life seem to have gone, or at least been
eroded. And we see the fundamental force of that in the labor market. Decent wages and jobs
help to bring respectability and meaning into life. We're not against some of the
explanations that focus more on social norms. I think the birth control pill was very
important, changing the norms about when and whether you could have children, whether you'd
live together without being married. We write about how the pill was very socially
divisive. For women who could get educated, it enormously enhanced opportunities to have
relationship fulfilment and children as well as really good jobs. But for many
working-class women for whom college was not an option, it did the opposite.
But declining wages were an incredibly important part of the loss.
...
But there's a much more negative scenario, too, which economic historian Robert Allen
writes about. In the early nineteenth century in Britain, real wages stagnated for fifty
years. Handloom weavers were being replaced by machines in factories in the Industrial
Revolution, and wages could only rise when they were all gone, and the way of life and
around handloom weaving had been destroyed.
[c1ue note: the putting out system was a major cause of the above]
...
A lot of evidence suggests that in recessions, mortality rates typically go down. The
Great Depression was a very good time for life expectancy. But suicides do go up. It's not
a simple story. They say in New York that what would normally be filling hospital beds
would normally be filling with traffic and construction accidents, and there aren't
any.
By
Richard D. Wolff,
Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, and Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School
University, NYC. Wolff's weekly show, Economic Update, is syndicated on over 100 radio stations and goes
to 55 million TV receivers via Free Speech TV and his two recent books with Democracy at Work are
Understanding Marxism and Understanding Socialism both available at
democracyatwork.info
.
We are entering an even Greater Depression than the 1930s, with hundreds of millions thrown out of work
across the world. Capitalism is a broken, unstable system that is beyond repair – but there are
alternatives.
Ninety-one years after the start of the Great Depression (capitalism's worst downturn until now), we are
entering an even Greater Depression. The 1930s were so awful that leaders of capitalist economies ever
since have said they had learned how to avoid any future depressions. All promised to take the steps
needed to avoid them. Those promises have all been broken. Capitalism remains intrinsically unstable.
Read more
Richard D. Wolff: Viruses like Covid-19 are a part of
nature we must accept. But Capitalism-2020 must be destroyed
That instability is revealed in its recurring cycles, recessions, downturns, depressions, crashes,
etc. They have plagued capitalism wherever it has settled in as the prevailing economic system. Now that
the whole world's prevailing economic system is capitalism, we suffer
global
instability. To date, capitalist instability has resisted every effort (monetary and fiscal policies,
Keynesian economics, privatization, deregulation, etc.) to overcome or stop it. And now it is here yet
again.
Across the world, hundreds of millions of workers are unemployed. The tools, equipment, and raw
materials in their factories, offices and stores sit idle, gathering dust and rust. The goods and
services they might have produced do not now emerge to help us through these awful times. Perishable
plants and animals that cannot now be processed are destroyed even as scarcities multiply.
Workers lose their jobs if and when employers – mostly private capitalists – fire them. Employers hire
workers when workers add more value to what the employer sells than the value of those workers' wages.
Hiring then adds to profits. Employers fire workers when they add less than the value of the wages paid
to them. Firing then reduces losses. Employers protect and reproduce their enterprises by maximizing
profits and minimizing losses.
Profit, not the full employment of workers nor of means of production, is "the bottom line" of
capitalists, and thus of capitalism. That is how the system works. Capitalists are rewarded when their
profits are high and punished when they are not.
No-one wants unemployment. Workers want their jobs back; employers want the workers back producing
profitable output; governments want the tax revenues that depend on workers and capitalist employers
actively collaborating to produce.
Yet the capitalist system has regularly produced economic downturns everywhere for three centuries –
on average, every four to seven years. We have had three crashes so far this century: 'dot.com' in 2000,
'sub-prime mortgage' in 2008, and now 'corona' in 2020. That averages out at one crash just under every
seven years – capitalism's 'norm'. Capitalists do not want unemployment, but they regularly generate it.
It is a basic contradiction of their system.
Today's massive US capitalist crisis – over 30 million unemployed and counting, a quarter of the
workforce – shows dramatically that maximizing profit is not maximizing society's well-being. First and
foremost, consider that the unemployed millions continue much of their consumption while ceasing much of
their production. A portion of the wealth produced by those still employed must be
redistributed
to sustain the unemployed. Society thus suffers the usually intense struggles
over the shares of profits versus wages that will be redistributed to the unemployed. These struggles,
both public – over tax structures, for example – and private – for instance, over household budgets – can
be profoundly destabilizing for societies.
Redistribution struggles could be alleviated if, for example, public employment replaced private
unemployment. If the state became the employer of last resort, those fired by private employers could
immediately be rehired by the state to do useful social work.
Then any government paying unemployment benefits would instead pay wages, obtain in return real goods
and services, and distribute them to the public. The 1930s New Deal did exactly that for millions fired
by private employers in the US. A similar alternative (not part of the New Deal) would be to organize the
unemployed into worker co-ops performing socially useful work under contract with the government.
This last alternative is the best, because it would develop a new worker co-op sector of the US
economy. That would provide the US public with direct experience in comparing the capitalist with the
worker co-op sector in terms of working conditions, product quality and price, civic responsibility, etc.
On that concrete, empirical basis, societies could offer people a real, democratic choice as to what
mix of capitalist and worker co-op sectors of the economy they prefer.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely
those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
"... First of all, because Stoics believe that our true good resides in our own character and actions, they would frequently remind themselves to distinguish between what's "up to us" and what isn't. Modern Stoics tend to call this "the dichotomy of control" and many people find this distinction alone helpful in alleviating stress. What happens to me is never directly under my control, never completely ..."
"... Marcus likes to ask himself, "What virtue has nature given me to deal with this situation?" That naturally leads to the question: "How do other people cope with similar challenges?" Stoics reflect on character strengths such as wisdom, patience and self-discipline, which potentially make them more resilient in the face of adversity. They try to exemplify these virtues and bring them to bear on the challenges they face in daily life, during a crisis like the pandemic. They learn from how other people cope. Even historical figures or fictional characters can serve as role models. ..."
"... fear does us more harm than the things of which we're afraid. ..."
"... Finally, during a pandemic, you may have to confront the risk, the possibility, of your own death. Since the day you were born, that's always been on the cards. Most of us find it easier to bury our heads in the sand. Avoidance is the No1 most popular coping strategy in the world. We live in denial of the self-evident fact that we all die eventually. ..."
"... "All that comes to pass", he tells himself, even illness and death, should be as "familiar as the rose in spring and the fruit in autumn". Marcus Aurelius, through decades of training in Stoicism, in other words, had taught himself to face death with the steady calm of someone who has done so countless times already in the past. ..."
T he Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was the last famous
Stoic philosopher of antiquity. During the last 14 years of his life he faced one of the worst
plagues in European history. The Antonine Plague, named after him, was probably caused by a
strain of the smallpox virus. It's estimated to have killed up to 5 million people, possibly
including Marcus himself.
="rich-link__link u-faux-block-link__overlay" aria-label="'What it means to be an American':
Abraham Lincoln and a nation divided"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/11/abraham-lincoln-verge-book-ted-widmer-interview">
From AD166 to around AD180, repeated outbreaks occurred throughout the known world. Roman
historians describe the legions being devastated, and entire towns and villages being
depopulated and going to ruin. Rome itself was particularly badly affected, carts leaving the
city each day piled high with dead bodies.
In the middle of this plague, Marcus wrote a book, known as The Meditations, which records
the moral and psychological advice he gave himself at this time. He frequently applies Stoic
philosophy to the challenges of coping with pain, illness, anxiety and loss. It's no stretch of
the imagination to view The Meditations as a manual for developing precisely the mental
resilience skills required to cope with a pandemic.
First of all, because Stoics believe that our true good resides in our own character and
actions, they would frequently remind themselves to distinguish between what's "up to us" and
what isn't. Modern Stoics tend to call this "the dichotomy of control" and many people find
this distinction alone helpful in alleviating stress. What happens to me is never directly
under my control, never completely up to me, but my own thoughts and actions are
– at least the voluntary ones. The pandemic isn't really under my control but
the way I behave in response to it is.
Much, if not all, of our thinking is also up to us. Hence, "It's not events that upset us
but rather our opinions about them." More specifically, our judgment that something is really
bad, awful or even catastrophic, causes our distress.
This is one of the basic psychological principles of Stoicism. It's also the basic
premise of modern cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the leading evidence-based form of
psychotherapy. The pioneers of CBT, Albert Ellis and Aaron T Beck, both describe Stoicism as
the philosophical inspiration for their approach. It's not the virus that makes us afraid but
rather our opinions about it. Nor is it the inconsiderate actions of others, those ignoring
social distancing recommendations, that make us angry so much as our opinions about them.
Many people are struck, on reading The Meditations, by the fact that it opens with a chapter
in which Marcus lists the qualities he most admires in other individuals, about 17 friends,
members of his family and teachers. This is an extended example of one of the central practices
of Stoicism.
Marcus likes to ask himself, "What virtue has nature given me to deal with this
situation?" That naturally leads to the question: "How do other people cope with similar
challenges?" Stoics reflect on character strengths such as wisdom, patience and
self-discipline, which potentially make them more resilient in the face of adversity. They try
to exemplify these virtues and bring them to bear on the challenges they face in daily life,
during a crisis like the pandemic. They learn from how other people cope. Even historical
figures or fictional characters can serve as role models.
With all of this in mind, it's easier to understand another common slogan of Stoicism:
fear does us more harm than the things of which we're afraid. This applies to
unhealthy emotions in general, which the Stoics term "passions" – from pathos ,
the source of our word "pathological". It's true, first of all, in a superficial sense. Even if
you have a 99% chance, or more, of surviving the pandemic, worry and anxiety may be ruining
your life and driving you crazy. In extreme cases some people may even take their own
lives.
In that respect, it's easy to see how fear can do us more harm than the things of which
we're afraid because it can impinge on our physical health and quality of life. However, this
saying also has a deeper meaning for Stoics. The virus can only harm your body – the
worst it can do is kill you. However, fear penetrates into the moral core of our being. It can
destroy your humanity if you let it. For the Stoics that's a fate worse than death.
Finally, during a pandemic, you may have to confront the risk, the possibility, of your
own death. Since the day you were born, that's always been on the cards. Most of us find it
easier to bury our heads in the sand. Avoidance is the No1 most popular coping strategy in the
world. We live in denial of the self-evident fact that we all die eventually. The
Stoics believed that when we're confronted with our own mortality, and grasp its implications,
that can change our perspective on life quite dramatically. Any one of us could die at any
moment. Life doesn't go on forever.
We're told this was what Marcus was thinking about on his deathbed. According to one
historian, his circle of friends were distraught. Marcus calmly asked why they were weeping for
him when, in fact, they should accept both sickness and death as inevitable, part of nature and
the common lot of mankind. He returns to this theme many times throughout The Meditations.
"All that comes to pass", he tells himself, even illness and death, should be as
"familiar as the rose in spring and the fruit in autumn". Marcus Aurelius, through decades of
training in Stoicism, in other words, had taught himself to face death with the steady calm of
someone who has done so countless times already in the past.
Donald Robertson is cognitive behavioural therapist and the author of several books on
philosophy and psychotherapy, including Stoicism and the Art of Happiness and How to Think Like
a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius
It goes without saying that the consequences to workers are damaging to catastrophic.
Normally, being unemployed for more than six months is a near-insurmountable barrier to getting
hired again. Perhaps coronavirus will create a better new normal on this front, of companies
taking a more understanding view of crisis-induced resume gaps.
By Cheryl Carleton,
Assistant Professor of Economics, Villanova University. Originally published at The
Conversation
The labor market is changing rapidly with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
When
the economy starts to open up again, employers will need to consider rehiring or replacing
workers, or hiring workers with a different mix of skills. The cost of replacing an employee is
high for employers, and being out of work is harmful for workers, who may be replaced with
artificial intelligence or contractors and risk losing their skills.
There is no denying that the U.S. was experiencing a tight
labor market and a low rate of unemployment before the coronavirus pandemic took hold. For
some fields, particularly health care and services deemed essential by local governments, the
labor market continues to be tight.
A sudden massive loss of demand for their goods and services is forcing companies to make
quick decisions, and some employers may underestimate the cost to replace good employees.
Knowing these costs may encourage them to keep more of their workers on the payroll.
Where Are the Costs?
There are costs involved in losing a worker and replacing them, such as completing paperwork
when they leave, advertising the open position, reviewing resumes, interviewing candidates and
training the new worker.
Once a new worker is hired, others must also spend time training them, and it will take some
time for the new worker to achieve the same level of productivity as the worker who left.
Another cost is the loss in social capital . Social capital is
the relationships between individuals at work that take time to build and add to the
productivity of the firm.
The Center for American Progress drilled in deeper. They found the costs of replacing
workers who earn less than US$30,000 per year to be 16% of annual salary, or $3,200 for an
individual earning $20,000 per year.
For those earning $30,000 to $50,000 per year, it is estimated to cost about 20% of annual
salary, or $8,000 for an individual earning $40,000. For highly educated executive positions,
replacement costs are estimated to be 213% of annual salary – $213,000 for a CEO earning
$100,000 per year.
The much
higher cost for replacing CEOs is partly due to the fact that they require higher levels of
education, greater training, and firms may lose clients and institutional knowledge with such
turnovers.
Employee Alternatives
This high cost of losing and replacing workers has important implications for organizations,
consumers and workers, especially now with
an estimated 15 million unemployed .
For those workers where the costs to replace them are high, firms will try to accommodate
them. Strategies may include maintaining pay, increasing benefits and retraining. These actions
are also costly, so firms will
weigh them against the cost of simply
hiring new workers .
This means businesses face high costs to replace workers in the future, and high costs to
retain current workers, leading to higher costs for consumers who buy the firms' goods and
services.
While the above consequences might sound great for workers that organizations choose to
keep, these are not the only ways in which firms can respond.
The high cost of replacing workers, along with the increased uncertainty about the economy
may cause businesses to use
more automation and robots . Though such switches may entail a significant upfront cost,
once they are made the firms then have more control over their production processes.
Another alternative for firms is to hire fewer permanent employees and turn instead
to contract workers . With
contract workers, employers are not responsible for benefits, and they can more simply increase
or decrease the number of workers as needed.
While this may increase employment for some workers, it will decrease it for others and it
has serious implications for the availability of health and pension benefits as well as
unemployment benefits, as the current crisis has revealed.
Businesses might also consider limiting the scope of what some workers do to limit the cost
of replacing them. If the scope of a worker's job is limited, then fewer areas will be impacted
by the individual leaving, and the costs to train a replacement will be lower. For workers,
however, it means fewer opportunities to gain experience.
For example, instead of training workers on several or all parts of the production process,
the business may limit them to one specific aspect. It will then be less costly for the firm to
replace them and the worker will have less experience to add to their resume. This also means
less bargaining power for employees.
Some Win, But Others Lose
The high cost of losing and then hiring new workers along with increased restrictions on
hiring nonresidents might mean higher wages and increased benefits for some workers.
However, the high degree of uncertainty in the current labor market, along with the
potential increase in contract
workers and
automation means that some workers will not realize these potential gains, and all of us as
consumers will most likely end up paying higher prices for the goods and services we buy.
. A firsthand account from a U.S. Naval officer is eye opening (emphasis mine).
He'd seen his ship, one of the Navy's fleet of 11 minesweepers, sidelined by repairs and
maintenance for more than 20 months. Once the ship, based in Japan, returned to action, its
crew was only able to conduct its most essential training -- how to identify and defuse
underwater mines -- for fewer than 10 days the entire next year . During those
training missions, the officer said, the crew found it hard to trust the ship's faulty
navigation system: It ran on Windows 2000.
Sonar which identifies dishwashers, crab traps and cars as possible mines, can hardly be
considered a rebuilt military. The Navy's eleven minesweepers built more than 25 years ago,
have had their decommissioning continually delayed because no replacement plan was implemented.
I'll await the deeper understanding of 'deterrence' from b, even as I consider willingness to
commit and brag about war crimes as beyond the point of no return.
Posted by: psychedelicatessen | Jan 19 2020 9:14 utc |
98
The Quiet Crisis: Deaths Caused By Alcoholism Have More Than Doubled by Tyler Durden Sat, 01/18/2020 -
21:15 0 SHARES
Opioid overdoses may have leveled off last year after soaring over the last ten, but
Americans are still dying in droves from another, far more popular substance: alcohol.
According to a series of studies
cited by MarketWatch , the number of Americans drinking themselves to death has more than
doubled over the last two decades, according to a sobering new report. That far outpaces the
rate of population growth during the same period.
Researchers from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism studied the cause of
death for Americans aged 16 and up between 1999 and 2017. They determined that while 35,914
deaths were tied to alcohol in 1999, it doubled to 72,558 in 2017. The rate of deaths per
100,000 soared by 50.9% from 16.9 to 25.5.
Over that 20-year period, the study determined that alcohol was involved in more than 1
million deaths. Half of these deaths resulted from liver disease, or a person drinking
themselves to death, or a drug overdose that involved alcohol.
For more context: In 2017 alone, 2.6% of roughly 2.8 million deaths in the US were
alcohol-related.
One doesn't need to be a chronic alcoholic to suffer from alcohol: Nine states - Maine,
Indiana, Idaho, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio and Virginia - saw a
"significant" increase in adults who binge drink, a dangerous activity that can lead to deadly
car crashes and other fatal accidents, according to a report released Thursday by the CDC.
And across the country, Americans who binge drink are consuming more drinks per person: That
number spiked from 472 in 2011 to 529 in 2017, a 12% increase.
Historically, men have been more predisposed to
"deaths of despair" than women: But a study published in "Alcoholism: Clinical and
Experimental Research" found that the largest increase in recent years in these types of deaths
occurred among non-hispanic white women.
Public health crises tied to substance abuse have been plaguing American for decades. So,
what is it about our contemporary society that's causing deaths to skyrocket?
This happens in poor economies. Happened in Russia from 1992 on. Not every area is
affected in The US. Just those with the functional equivalent of a 3rd world or developing
world economy.
I'm watching somebody kill themselves with alcohol as we speak. People have catered to her
alcaholism for 15 years. Her original ezcuse was a family death. Her husband has died now.
Alcaholics always have an excuse though. Alcaholism always seeks excuse.
I am a callous bitch and just cut right to the point. "All of us have to decide to live or
die. Life is a choice. If you decide to die, you will. I hope you havent already
aubconsciously made that decision (can tell by dreams). You should search for a reason to
live. Whatever you choose I will respect that."
Liver deaths? You mean Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease caused by sugary drinks laced
with HFCS has made a spike in liver disease death, so naturally the lazy investigator blames
it on alcohol.
adults who binge drink, a dangerous activity that can lead to deadly car crashes and other
fatal accidents, according to a report released Thursday by the CDC.
a dangerous activity CORRECTION STUPIDITY or CHEAP CHARLIE for not willing to take a UBER
or YELLOW CAB home
What are we talking here $50 at most
Any idea what a DWI will set you back cause I know for a fact in stupidity and 1980's USD
and it taught me
Don't do the crime if you can't spend the dime for a taxi
Some people have a hard time living in crazy town.
I mean, constant war, dollar value sinking, inflation sucking the life outta you, ****
food and a fake society. All the while everywhere you look people are pretending they're
killing it while up to their eyeballs in debt.
I'm actually pretty happy these numbers are this low.
"... a friend of mine, born in Venice and a long-time resident of Rome, pointed out to me that dogs are a sign of loneliness. ..."
"... And the cafes and restaurants on weekends in Chicago–chockfull of people, each on his or her own Powerbook, surfing the WWW all by themselves. ..."
"... The preaching of self-reliance by those who have never had to practice it is galling. ..."
"... Katherine: Agreed. It is also one of the reasons why I am skeptical of various evangelical / fundi pastors, who are living at the expense of their churches, preaching about individual salvation. ..."
"... So you have the upper crust (often with inheritances and trust funds) preaching economic self-reliances, and you have divines preaching individual salvation as they go back to the house provided by the members of the church. ..."
George Monbiot on human loneliness and its toll. I agree with his observations. I have been cataloguing them in my head for
years, especially after a friend of mine, born in Venice and a long-time resident of Rome, pointed out to me that dogs are
a sign of loneliness.
A couple of recent trips to Rome have made that point ever more obvious to me: Compared to my North Side neighborhood in Chicago,
where every other person seems to have a dog, and on weekends Clark Street is awash in dogs (on their way to the dog boutiques
and the dog food truck), Rome has few dogs. Rome is much more densely populated, and the Italians still have each other, for good
or for ill. And Americans use the dog as an odd means of making human contact, at least with other dog owners.
But Americanization advances: I was surprised to see people bring dogs into the dining room of a fairly upscale restaurant
in Turin. I haven't seen that before. (Most Italian cafes and restaurants are just too small to accommodate a dog, and the owners
don't have much patience for disruptions.) The dogs barked at each other for while–violating a cardinal rule in Italy that mealtime
is sacred and tranquil. Loneliness rules.
And the cafes and restaurants on weekends in Chicago–chockfull of people, each on his or her own Powerbook, surfing the
WWW all by themselves.
That's why the comments about March on Everywhere in Harper's, recommended by Lambert, fascinated me. Maybe, to be less lonely,
you just have to attend the occasional march, no matter how disorganized (and the Chicago Women's March organizers made a few
big logistical mistakes), no matter how incoherent. Safety in numbers? (And as Monbiot points out, overeating at home alone is
a sign of loneliness: Another argument for a walk with a placard.)
In Britain, men who have spent their entire lives in quadrangles – at school, at college, at the bar, in parliament – instruct
us to stand on our own two feet.
With different imagery, the same is true in this country. The preaching of self-reliance by those who have never had to
practice it is galling.
Katherine: Agreed. It is also one of the reasons why I am skeptical of various evangelical / fundi pastors, who are living
at the expense of their churches, preaching about individual salvation.
So you have the upper crust (often with inheritances and trust funds) preaching economic self-reliances, and you have divines
preaching individual salvation as they go back to the house provided by the members of the church.
We're told that getting ahead at work and reorienting our lives around our jobs will make us
happy. So why hasn't it? Many of those who work in the corporate world are constantly peppered
with questions about their " career progression ." The Internet is
saturated with
articles providing tips and tricks on how to develop a never-fail game plan for
professional development. Millions of Americans are engaged in a never-ending cycle of
résumé-padding that mimics the accumulation of Boy Scout merit badges or A's on
report cards except we never seem to get our Eagle Scout certificates or academic diplomas.
We're told to just keep going until we run out of gas or reach retirement, at which point we
fade into the peripheral oblivion of retirement communities, morning tee-times, and long
midweek lunches at beach restaurants.
The idealistic Chris McCandless in Jon Krakauer's bestselling book Into the Wild
defiantly declares, "I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one." Anyone
who has spent enough time in the career hamster wheel can relate to this sentiment. Is
21st-century careerism -- with its promotion cycles, yearly feedback, and little wooden plaques
commemorating our accomplishments -- really the summit of human existence, the paramount
paradigm of human flourishing?
Michael J. Noughton, director of the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St.
Thomas, Minnesota, and board chair for Reel Precision Manufacturing, doesn't think so. In his
Getting Work Right: Labor and Leisure in a Fragmented World , Noughton provides a
sobering statistic: approximately two thirds of employees in the United States are "either
indifferent or hostile to their work." That's not just an indicator of professional
dissatisfaction; it's economically disastrous. The same survey estimates that employee
disengagement is costing the U.S. economy "somewhere between 450-550 billion dollars
annually."
The origin of this problem, says Naughton, is an error in how Americans conceive of work and
leisure. We seem to err in one of two ways. One is to label our work as strictly a job, a
nine-to-five that pays the bills. In this paradigm, leisure is an amusement, an escape from the
drudgery of boring, purposeless labor. The other way is that we label our work as a career that
provides the essential fulfillment in our lives. Through this lens, leisure is a utility,
simply another means to serve our work. Outside of work, we exercise to maintain our health in
order to work harder and longer. We read books that help maximize our utility at work and get
ahead of our competitors. We "continue our education" largely to further our careers.
Whichever error we fall into, we inevitably end up dissatisfied. The more we view work as a
painful, boring chore, the less effective we are at it, and the more complacent and
discouraged. Our leisure activities, in turn, no matter how distracting, only compound our
sadness, because no amount of games can ever satisfy our souls. Or, if we see our meaning in
our work and leisure as only another means of increasing productivity, we inevitably burn out,
wondering, perhaps too late in life, what exactly we were working for . As Augustine
of Hippo noted, our hearts are restless for God. More recently, C.S. Lewis noted that we yearn
to be fulfilled by something that nothing in this world can satisfy. We need both our work and
our leisure to be oriented to the transcendent in order to give our lives meaning and
purpose.
The problem is further compounded by the fact that much of the labor Americans perform
isn't actually good . There are "bad goods" that are detrimental to society and human
flourishing. Naughton suggests some examples: violent video games, pornography, adultery dating
sites, cigarettes, high-octane alcohol, abortifacients, gambling, usury, certain types of
weapons, cheat sheet websites, "gentlemen's clubs," and so on. Though not as clear-cut as the
above, one might also add working for the kinds of businesses that contribute to the
impoverishment or destruction of our communities,
as Tucker Carlson has recently argued .
Why does this matter for professional satisfaction? Because if our work doesn't offer goods
and services that contribute to our communities and the common good -- and especially if we are
unable to perceive how our labor plays into that common good -- then it will fundamentally
undermine our happiness. We will perceive our work primarily in a utilitarian sense, shrugging
our shoulders and saying, "it's just a paycheck," ignoring or disregarding the fact that as
rational animals we need to feel like our efforts matter.
Economic liberalism -- at least in its purest free-market expression -- is based on a
paradigm with nominalist and utilitarian origins that promote "freedom of indifference." In
rudimentary terms, this means that we need not be interested in the moral quality of our
economic output. If we produce goods that satisfy people's wants, increasing their "utils," as
my Econ 101 professor used to say, then we are achieving business success. In this paradigm, we
desire an economy that maximizes access to free choice regardless of the content of that
choice, because the more choices we have, the more we can maximize our utils, or sensory
satisfaction.
The freedom of indifference paradigm is in contrast to a more ancient understanding of
economic and civic engagement: a freedom for excellence. In this worldview, "we are made
for something," and participation in public acts of virtue is essential both to our
own well-being and that of our society. By creating goods and services that objectively benefit
others and contributing to an order beyond the maximization of profit, we bless both ourselves
and the polis . Alternatively, goods that increase "utils" but undermine the common
good are rejected.
Returning to Naughton's distinction between work and leisure, we need to perceive the latter
not as an escape from work or a means of enhancing our work, but as a true time of rest. This
means uniting ourselves with the transcendent reality from which we originate and to which we
will return, through prayer, meditation, and worship. By practicing this kind of true leisure,
well
treated in a book by Josef Pieper , we find ourselves refreshed, and discover renewed
motivation and inspiration to contribute to the common good.
Americans are increasingly aware of the problems with Wall Street conservatism and globalist
economics. We perceive that our post-Cold War policies are hurting our nation. Naughton's
treatise on work and leisure offers the beginnings of a game plan for what might replace
them.
Casey Chalk covers religion and other issues for The American Conservative and is a
senior writer for Crisis Magazine. He has degrees in history and teaching from the University
of Virginia, and a masters in theology from Christendom College.
"... "The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well." ..."
"... Recently I read Not Fade Away by Laurence Shames and Peter Barton. It's about Peter Barton, the founder of Liberty Media, who shares his thoughts about dying from cancer. ..."
For the longest time, I believed that there's only one purpose of life: And that is to be happy. Right? Why else go through all
the pain and hardship? It's to achieve happiness in some way. And I'm not the only person who believed that. In fact, if you look
around you, most people are pursuing happiness in their lives.
That's why we collectively buy shit we don't need, go to bed with people we don't love, and try to work hard to get approval of
people we don't like.
Why do we do these things? To be honest, I don't care what the exact reason is. I'm not a scientist. All I know is that it has
something to do with history, culture, media, economy, psychology, politics, the information era, and you name it. The list is endless.
Just a few short years ago, I did everything to chase happiness.
You buy something, and you think that makes you happy.
You hook up with people, and think that makes you happy.
You get a well-paying job you don't like, and think that makes you happy.
You go on holiday, and you think that makes you happy.
But at the end of the day, you're lying in your bed (alone or next to your spouse), and you think: "What's next in this endless
pursuit of happiness?"
Well, I can tell you what's next: You, chasing something random that you believe makes you happy.
It's all a façade. A hoax. A story that's been made up.
Did Aristotle lie to us when he said:
"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence."
I think we have to look at that quote from a different angle. Because when you read it, you think that happiness is the main goal.
And that's kind of what the quote says as well.
But here's the thing: How do you achieve happiness?
Happiness can't be a goal in itself. Therefore, it's not something that's achievable. I believe that happiness is merely a byproduct
of usefulness. When I talk about this concept with friends, family, and colleagues, I always find it difficult to put this into words.
But I'll give it a try here. Most things we do in life are just activities and experiences.
You go on holiday.
You go to work.
You go shopping.
You have drinks.
You have dinner.
You buy a car.
Those things should make you happy, right? But they are not useful. You're not creating anything. You're just consuming or doing
something. And that's great.
Don't get me wrong. I love to go on holiday, or go shopping sometimes. But to be honest, it's not what gives meaning to life.
What really makes me happy is when I'm useful. When I create something that others can use. Or even when I create something I
can use.
For the longest time I foud it difficult to explain the concept of usefulness and happiness. But when I recently ran into a quote
by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the dots connected.
Emerson says:
"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some
difference that you have lived and lived well."
And I didn't get that before I became more conscious of what I'm doing with my life. And that always sounds heavy and all. But
it's actually really simple.
It comes down to this: What are you DOING that's making a difference?
Did you do useful things in your lifetime? You don't have to change the world or anything. Just make it a little bit better than
you were born.
If you don't know how, here are some ideas.
Help your boss with something that's not your responsibility.
Take your mother to a spa.
Create a collage with pictures (not a digital one) for your spouse.
Write an article about the stuff you learned in life.
Help the pregnant lady who also has a 2-year old with her stroller.
Call your friend and ask if you can help with something.
Build a standing desk.
Start a business and hire an employee and treat them well.
That's just some stuff I like to do. You can make up your own useful activities.
You see? It's not anything big. But when you do little useful things every day, it adds up to a life that is well lived. A life
that mattered.
The last thing I want is to be on my deathbed and realize there's zero evidence that I ever existed.
Recently I read
Not Fade Away by Laurence Shames and Peter Barton. It's about Peter Barton, the founder of Liberty Media, who shares his
thoughts about dying from cancer.
It's a very powerful book and it will definitely bring tears to your eyes. In the book, he writes about how he lived his life
and how he found his calling. He also went to business school, and this is what he thought of his fellow MBA candidates:
"Bottom line: they were extremely bright people who would never really anything, would never add much to society, would leave
no legacy behind. I found this terribly sad, in the way that wasted potential is always sad."
You can say that about all of us. And after he realized that in his thirties, he founded a company that turned him into a multi-millionaire.
Another person who always makes himself useful is Casey Neistat
. I've been following him for a year and a half now, and every time I watch his
YouTube show , he's doing something.
He also talks about how he always wants to do and create something. He even has a tattoo on his forearm that says "Do More."
Most people would say, "why would you work more?" And then they turn on Netflix and watch back to back episodes of Daredevil.
A different mindset.
Being useful is a mindset. And like with any mindset, it starts with a decision. One day I woke up and thought to myself: What
am I doing for this world? The answer was nothing.
And that same day I started writing. For you it can be painting, creating a product, helping elderly, or anything you feel like
doing.
Don't take it too seriously. Don't overthink it. Just DO something that's useful. Anything.
Darius Foroux writes about productivity, habits, decision making, and personal finance. His ideas and work have been featured
in TIME, NBC, Fast Company, Inc., Observer, and many more publications. Join
his free weekly newsletter.
This article was originally published on October 3, 2016, by Darius Foroux, and is republished here with permission. Darius Foroux
writes about productivity, habits, decision making, and personal finance.
Workers aged 65 and older will be responsible for more than half of all UK employment
growth over the next 10 years and almost two-thirds of employment growth by 2060, according
to new figures.
Since 2008, we've been witnessing a "reverse stagflation", i.e. low unemployment with low
wages (a phenomenon which is impossible according to modern bourgeois economic theory).
The reason for this is what I mentioned earlier: no more technological progress and
negative birth rates. The USA is still benefitting from mass immigration from Central
America, but this demographic bonus won't last for much: now even the Third World countries
are barely above the minimum 2 children per woman (including most of Latin American nations).
Only a bunch of African nations (which have high mortality rates either way, so it doesn't
matter) and India still have the "demographic bonus" in a level such as to be
capitalistically viable.
This problem is not new in cotemporary history. It happened once: in the USSR.
In the 1970s, only 6% of the Soviet population was necessary to produce everything the
USSR needed, so the only solution available was to expand the economy extensively, i.e. by
reproducing the same infrastructure more times over.
The problem with that is that the USSR had reached its limits demographically. Its
population growth entered into stagnant to negative territory. Decades passed until the point
where it didn't even matter if they came up with a revolutionary technology, since there were
simply not enough children to teach and train to such new tech. Add to that the pressure from
the Cold War (which drained its R&D to the military sector), and it begun to wither
away.
Now we can predict the same thing is happening to capitalism. Contrary to the USSR, the
capitalist nations had the advantage of having available the demographic bonuses of the Third
World - specially China - to maintain their dynamism even when some countries like Japan and
Germany reached negative birth rates. Now China's demographic bonus is over and also much of
Latin America. To make things even worse for the capitalists, China managed to scape the
"middle income trap" and go to the route of becoming a superpower, thus adding to the
demographic strains of the capitalist center.
The solution, it seems, is to do pension reforms and force the old people back to work.
France is going to destroy its pension system; Brazil already did that; the USA was a pioneer
in forcing its old population to work to the death; Italy destroyed its pension system after
2008; the UK is preparing the terrain now that its social-democracy is definitely
destroyed.
As always I find your application of Marxist critique succinct and correct. This coming
decade, with its unravelling of the financialization phase of our current phase of capitalism
(i.e the US consolidation phase following British imperialism, c.1914-2020s), will be its
terminal decade. The signal that we had entered the financialization phase were the shocks of
1970-73, and the replacement of industrial manufacture (i.e. money>commodity>money+x,
or M-C-M') with finance/speculation (i.e. money>money+x, M-M') has unfolded more or less
according to Marx's analysis in Capital vol.3. This is as much a crisis of value
creation as anything else. In Australia (where I am) the process is particularly transparent:
we have almost no manufacturing sector left and so we exchange labour-value created in China
for mineral resources and engage in the ponzi-scheme of banking and property speculation,
which produces no value whatsoever. Either way the M-C-M' phase in Australia has vanished and
government dedicates itself to full-spectrum protection of the finance economy and mining.
All the while a veneer of productivity is created by immigration, which destroys cities
(because there's no infrastructure to accomodate them), inflates prices and creates the
illusion of 'growth'. This is propped up by a media who perpetuate xenophobia by creating
panic about refugees (5%) while saying zip about the fact that Australia only has economic
growth at all because we bring in 250K new consumers every year. This collapsing
financialization phase will only accelerate this decade and we will wake to find we don't
make anything and have crumbling 1980s-era infrastructure: Australia will suffer badly as the
phase plays out, not least because of a colonial-settler looting mentality around the
'economy' that persists at every level of government.
What I like about the point you're making in your post (#32) is the wider expansive
question of productivity -- or, how do we continue to produce value? It is often overlooked
that Marx sought to liberate human beings from expropriative labour of every kind (which
occurred as much under the Soviets as it does today); this means that capital's aorta
connecting labour to value via money must be severed (rather than the endless attempts to
reform capitalism to make it 'fairer' etc, a sell-out for which Gramsci savaged the union
movement). The relation between work and value must be critiqued relentlessly. To salvage any
kind of optimism about the future we need to invest all our intellectual energy in this
critique and find a radically new way of construing the link between time, labour and value
that does not include social domination.
In the meantime the scenario to which you have drawn our attention -- the parasitic
vampirism now attacking the elderly and the retired -- is an inevitable consequence of our
particular moment in late capitalism, hurtling at speed toward a social catastrophe of debt,
wealth inequality, neo-feudalism and biopolitical police state, all characterized by an image
of 70-year-olds trudging to work in an agony of physical suffering and mental meaninglessness
which will end in a forgotten grave.
I had hoped to welcome 2020 with a optimistic post.
Alas, the current news cycle has thrown up little cause for optimism.
Instead, what has caught my eye today: 2019 closes with release of a new study showing the FDA's failure to police opioids manufacturers
fueled the opioids crisis.
This is yet another example of a familiar theme: inadequate regulation kills people: e.g. think Boeing. Or, on a longer term,
less immediate scale, consider the failure of the Environmental Protection Agency, in so many realms, including the failure to curb
emissions so as to slow the pace of climate change.
In the opioids case, we're talking about thousands and thousands of people.
On Monday, Jama
Internal Medicine published research concerning the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) program to reduce opioids abuse.
The FDA launched its risk evaluation and mitigation strategy – REMS – in 2012. Researchers examined nearly 10,000 documents, released
in response to a Freedom of Information ACT (FOA) request, to generate the conclusions published by JAMA.
In 2011, the F.D.A. began asking the makers of OxyContin and other addictive long-acting opioids to pay for safety training
for more than half the physicians prescribing the drugs, and to track the effectiveness of the training and other measures in
reducing addiction, overdoses and deaths.
But the F.D.A. was never able to determine whether the program worked, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health found in a new review, because the manufacturers did not gather the right kind of data. Although the agency's approval
of OxyContin in 1995 has long come under fire, its efforts to ensure the safe use of opioids since then have not been scrutinized
nearly as much.
The documents show that even when deficiencies in these efforts became obvious through the F.D.A.'s own review process, the
agency never insisted on improvements to the program, [called a REMS]. . .
The FDA's regulatory failure had serious public health consequences, according to critics of US opioids policy, as reported by
the NYT:
Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the co-director of opioid policy research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis,
said the safety program was a missed opportunity. He is a leader of
a group of physicians who had encouraged the F.D.A.
to adopt stronger controls, and a frequent critic of the government's response to the epidemic.
Dr. Kolodny, who was not involved in the study, called the program "a really good example of the way F.D.A. has failed to regulate
opioid manufacturers. If F.D.A. had really been doing its job properly, I don't believe we'd have an opioid crisis today."
Now, as readers frequently emphasize in comments: pain management is a considerable problem – one I am all too well aware of,
as I watched my father succumb to cancer. He ultimately passed away at my parents' home.
Although these drugs "can be clinically useful among appropriately selected patients, they have also been widely oversupplied,
are commonly used nonmedically, and account for a disproportionate number of fatal overdoses," the authors write.
The FDA was unable, more than 5 years after it had instituted its study of the opioids program's effectiveness, to determine whether
it had met its objectives, and this may have been because prior assessments were not objective, according to CNN:
Prior analyses had largely been funded by drug companies, and a 2016 FDA advisory committee "noted methodological concerns
regarding these studies," according to the authors. An inspector general report also concluded in 2013 that the agency "lacks
comprehensive data to determine whether risk evaluation and mitigation strategies improve drug safety."
In addition to failing to evaluate the effective of the limited steps it had taken, the FDA neglected to take more aggressive
steps that were within the ambit of its regulatory authority. According to CNN:
"FDA has tools that could mitigate opioid risks more effectively if the agency would be more assertive in using its power to
control opioid prescribing, manufacturing, and distribution," said retired FDA senior executive William K. Hubbard in an
editorial that accompanied the study. "Instead of bold, effective action, the FDA has implemented the Risk Evaluation and
Mitigation Strategy programs that do not even meet the limited criteria set out by the FDA."
One measure the FDA could have taken, according to Hubbard: putting restrictions on opioid distribution.
"Restricting opioid distribution would be a major decision for the FDA, but it is also likely to be the most effective policy
for reducing the harm of opioids," said Hubbard, who spent more than three decades at the agency and oversaw initiatives in areas
such as regulation, policy and economic evaluation.
Perhaps the Johns Hopkins study will spark moves to reform the broken FDA, so that it can once again serve as an effective regulator.
This could perhaps be something we can look forward to achieving in 2020 (although I won't hold my breath).
Or, perhaps if enacting comprehensive reform is too overwhelming, especially with a divided government, as a starting point: can
we agree to stop allowing self-interested industries to finance studies meant to assess the effectiveness of programs to regulate
that very same industry? Please?
Gig workers getting screwed. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it - the
modern gig economy is nothing more than the "putting out" system redux from the early days of
the industrial revolution.
And much like the looms and thread from the putting out system, the owners control pricing
for gig workers as well as cut off any possibility of upward advancement. Vice article on
gig workers
Note this isn't one company - it is all of them. When Uber first started, they were paying
over $1/mile for drivers - it is now down to $0.60. Equally, the various other gig startups
pay more to lure workers in, then cut when they need/want to.
When she initially joined Instacart a year ago, Dorton says she could earn up to $800
during a 40 hour workweek picking up groceries at Costco and Sam's Club and dropping them
off at customers' homes. But in recent months, her weekly income has fallen to $400 for 60
hours of grocery shopping. "I made more delivering pizza and waiting tables," Dorton told
Motherboard.
Yes, but with the delivery services contributing to the everlasting restaurant crunch, there
are fewer jobs delivering pizza and waiting tables. That's a feature.
The most depressing feature of the current explosion in robot-apocalypse literature is that
it rarely transcends the world of work. Almost every day, news articles appear detailing some
new round of layoffs. In the broader debate, there are apparently only two camps: those who
believe that automation will usher in a world of enriched jobs for all, and those who fear it
will make most of the workforce redundant.
This bifurcation reflects the fact that "working for a living" has been the main occupation
of humankind throughout history. The thought of a cessation of work fills people with dread,
for which the only antidote seems to be the promise of better work. Few have been willing to
take the cheerful view of Bertrand Russell's provocative 1932 essay In Praise of
Idleness . Why is it so difficult for people to accept that the end of necessary labor
could mean barely imaginable opportunities to live, in John Maynard Keynes's words, "wisely,
agreeably, and well"?
The fear of labor-saving technology dates back to the start of the Industrial Revolution,
but two factors in our own time have heightened it. The first is that the new generation of
machines seems poised to replace not only human muscles but also human brains. Owing to
advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence, we are said to be entering an era of
thinking robots; and those robots will soon be able to think even better than we do. The worry
is that teaching machines to perform most of the tasks previously carried out by humans will
make most human labor redundant. In that scenario, what will humans do?
The other fear factor is the increasing precariousness of wage labor – though this
concern is seemingly belied by headline statistics suggesting that unemployment is at a
historic low. The problem is that an economy at "full employment" now contains a large penumbra
of what economist Guy Standing calls the "precariat":
under-employed people who work less and for lower pay than they would like. A growing number of
workers, seeming to lack any kind of job (and pay) security, are thus forced to work well below
their ability.
It is natural that one would interpret the onset of precariousness as the first stage in a
broader trend toward workforce redundancy, especially if one pays attention to alarmist
predictions of the next category of "jobs at risk." But this conclusion is premature. The
penetration of robotics into the world of work has not yet been sufficient to explain the rise
of the precariat. So far, "cost cutting" in the West has largely taken the form of offshoring
to the East, where labor is cheaper, rather than replacing humans with machines. But
"onshoring" work that was previously offshored will offer cold comfort to workers if machines
get most of the jobs.
ROBO-RAPTURE
According to the first view – let us call it "job enrichment" – technology will
eventually create more, better human jobs than it destroys, as has always been the case in the
past. Simple, mundane tasks may increasingly be automated, but human labor will then be freed
up for more "interesting" and "creative" cognitive work.
In late 2017, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) published
Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained , which claimed that as much as 50% of working hours in the
global economy could theoretically be automated; the authors suggested, however, that not more
than 30% actually would be. Further, they estimated that less than 5% of occupations could be
fully automated; but that in 60% of occupations, at least 30% of the required tasks
could be.
In line with the usual mainstream assessment, MGI believes that while there will be no net
loss of jobs in the long run, the "transition may include a period of higher unemployment and
wage adjustments." It all depends, the authors say, on the rate at which displaced workers are
re-employed: a low re-employment rate will lead to a higher medium-term unemployment rate, and
vice versa .
MGI's proposal for massive investment in education to lower the unemployment cost of the
transition is also conventional. The faster the labor reabsorption, the higher the wage growth.
Lower re-employment levels will cause wages to fall, with a greater share of the gains from
automation accruing to capital, not labor. But the authors hasten to add:
"Even if the particulars of historical experience turn out to differ from conditions today,
one lesson seems pertinent: although economies adjust to technological shocks, the transition
period is measured in decades, not years, and the rising prosperity may not be shared by
all."
This assessment is typical, and it has led many to call on governments to invest heavily in
so-called "upskilling" programs. In a
commentary for Project Syndicate , Zia Qureshi of the Brookings
Institution argues that, "with smart, forward-looking policies, we can ensure that the future
of work is a better job." In this view, automation is simply the continuation of the move
toward more, higher-quality jobs that has characterized capitalist growth since the Industrial
Revolution.
History is on the optimists' side. Mechanization has been the durable engine of productivity
and wage growth as well as reductions in working hours, albeit usually with a considerable lag.
Although the Roberts loom cost hundreds of thousands of handloom weavers their jobs in the
nineteenth century, the broader wave of new industrial technologies enabled a much larger
population to be maintained at a higher standard of living.
ROBO-REDUNDANCY
But, according to the second view – call it "job destruction" – this time is
different. The programming of machines to perform ever more complex tasks with ever-increasing
speed, accuracy, precision, and reliability will result in mass unemployment. In Rise of the
Robots , author and entrepreneur Martin Ford addresses the techno-optimists head-on.
"There is a widely held belief – based on historical evidence stretching back at least as
far as the industrial revolution – that while technology may certainly destroy jobs,
businesses, and even entire industries, it will also create entirely new occupations often in
areas that we can't yet imagine." The problem, Ford argues, is that information technology has
now reached the point where it can be considered a true utility, much like electricity.
It stands to reason that the successful new industries that will emerge in the years ahead
will have taken full advantage of this powerful new utility and the distributed machine
intelligence that accompanies it. That means they will rarely – if ever – be highly
labor-intensive. The threat is that as creative destruction unfolds, the "destruction" will
fall primarily on labor-intensive businesses in traditional areas like retail and food
preparation, whereas the "creation" will generate new industries that simply don't employ many
people.
On this view, the economy is heading for a tipping point where job creation will begin to
fall consistently short of what is required to employ the workforce fully. We will soon reach
the stage where the machine-driven destruction of existing human jobs far outpaces the creation
of new human jobs, resulting in inexorably rising mass "technological unemployment."
THE
UPSKILLING MIRAGE
Optimists' response to such concerns is that the workforce simply needs to be trained or
upskilled in order to "race with the machines." Typical of this outlook is the following
headline on a
commentary published by the World Economic Forum: "How new technologies can create huge
numbers of meaningful jobs." According to the author, concerns about "the looming devastation
that self-driving technology will have on the 3.5 million truck drivers in the US" are
"misdirected." Augmented-reality technology, we are told, can create loads of new jobs by
enabling people to work from home. All that will be needed is training of the kind offered by
"Upskill, an augmented reality company in the manufacturing and field services sectors," which
"uses wearable technologies to provide step-by-step instructions to industrial workers."
The author, himself the co-founder of an augmented-reality company, goes on to argue that,
"With the pace of technological progress only accelerating and with increasing specialization
becoming the norm in every industry, reducing the time necessary to retrain workers is pivotal
to maintaining the competitiveness of industrialized economies." There is no mention of the
wages that will be offered to these "upskilled" workers in their "meaningful" new jobs. We are
simply told that they will be relocated to "lower cost areas more in need of job creation."
Only at the very end of the commentary does the author acknowledge that, in fact, "Technology
is a force that has the potential to eliminate entire industries through robotics and
automation, and for that we should be concerned."
The retraining argument should give us pause. In portraying upskilling as the solution to
the labor displacement caused by new technologies, optimists rarely admit that if predictions
about "thinking robots" turn out to be anywhere near true, workers would need to be trained in
technical skills to an extent that is unprecedented in human history.
Moreover, the time it takes to upgrade the skills of the workforce will inevitably exceed
the time it takes to automate the economy. This will be true even if claims about an imminent
deluge of automation are greatly exaggerated. In the interval, there will be under- and
unemployment. In fact, this has already been happening. Although automation is not yet bearing
down on workers to the extent that has been predicted, it has nonetheless pushed more of them
into less-skilled jobs; and its mere possibility may be exerting downward pressure on wages.
There are already signs of the new class structure envisioned by the pessimists: "lovely jobs
at the top, lousy jobs at the bottom."
A more fundamental question is what we mean by upskilling, and what its consequences might
be. Often, heavy emphasis is placed on the importance of better technological education at all
levels of society, as if all people will need to succeed in the future is to be taught how to
write and understand computer code.
As the technology writer James Bridle has shown , this line of argument has a
number of limitations. While encouraging people to take up computer programming might be a good
start, such training offers only a functional understanding of technological systems. It does
not equip people to ask higher-level questions along the lines of, "Where did these systems
come from, who designed them and what for, and which of these intentions still lurk within them
today?" Bridle also points out that arguments for technological education and upskilling are
usually offered in "nakedly pro-market terms," following a simple equation: "the information
economy needs more programmers, and young people need jobs in the future."
THE MISSING
DIMENSION
More to the point, the upskilling discourse totally ignores the possibility that automation
could also allow people simply to work less. The reason for this neglect is twofold: it is
commonly assumed that human wants are insatiable, and that we will thus work ad
infinitum to satisfy them; and it is simply taken for granted that work is the primary
source of meaning in human lives. 1
Historically, neither of these claims holds true. The consumption race is a rather recent
phenomenon, dating no earlier than the late nineteenth century. And the possibility that we
might one day liberate ourselves from the "curse of work" has fascinated thinkers from
Aristotle to Russell. Many visions of Utopia betray a longing for leisure and liberation from
toil. Even today, surveys show that people in most developed countries
would prefer to work less, even in the workaholic United States, and might even accept less pay
if it meant logging fewer hours on the clock.
The deeply economistic nature of the current debate excludes the possibility of a
life beyond work . Yet if we want to meet the challenges of the future, it is not enough to
know how to code, analyze data, and invent algorithms. We need to start thinking seriously and
at a systemic level about the operational logic of consumer capitalism and the possibility of
de-growth.
In this process, we must abandon the false dichotomy between "jobs" and "idleness."
Full employment need not mean full-time employment, and leisure time need not
be spent idly. (Education can play an important role in ensuring that it is not.) Above all,
wealth and income will need to be distributed in such a way that machine-enabled productivity
gains do not accrue disproportionately to a small minority of owners, managers, and
technicians.
So disturbing, and this problem is only going to increase in the US as people realize they
can no longer afford to rent anywhere, and there are millions of Boomers who rent, with no
available affordable housing to move into, and no livable wage jobs (despite education) for
those who would gladly continue working – due to an as yet to be headlined age
discrimination which started during the dot.com boom Clinton/Gore ushered in, and exploded
during Obama's reign. Sickeningly, in Silicon Valley, 35 year olds feel over the hill.
None of the candidates want to even address this rental housing issue (for all ages) with
Federal Tax Policy even? Renters are the only ones who invest major sums of money into
housing, with no equity whatsoever?
Yes, it is the canary growing fainter and struggling for life in the dark gloom of the
coal mine. The most basic human requirement for survival is shelter, after food and water.
Clothing is also in that category. The poor and homeless ( absolutely including the working
poor) at first , when attention started to be given to the " national crisis and (in some
people's minds) and national disgrace", was just, you know, the usual suspects. From hobos (
whom many saw as romanticized free spirits or stubborn old guys) to including the abandoned
mentally ill, drug addicts, criminals, people with "something to hide", teens on the run from
neglect or abuse to? The numbers of people who are essentially w/o shelter is not going to
remain out of sight, out of mind. Now, we know that mothers, fathers, grandparents, children
and grandchildren are homeless. And, if they are not, many are living in what , once upon a
time, poor or desolate housing. Many are living in ,what was once called a boarding house, in
a room with their kids. They supposedly have access to "common areas". This is not people who
often even have more than a casual aquaintanceship with their "landlords". This is not the
"Golden Girls" living the high life in sunny Florida with the owner, who is an adorable
rascal. No doubt, some examples of older, single women housing together is a good fit for
some.
Most older people on limited incomes don't live in a golden fantasy world. Besides young
people not being able to afford outrageous rents, now include the older people. Couple this
with the "reports" that there are people hungry in this country. Age has become no restrictor
on this tragic fact. This can not stand. Trickle down the ,as was mentioned , breads and
circuses in all of their guises. Cheap, junk fast food will become not so cheap when in dire
poverty. Housing is just cold, hearted cash for the owners. Who gets to watch the circuses
and gladiators ? Got cable tv( even if you personally choose not to not the point)? Afford
the cost of any pro sports tickets ? Attend any cultural events that include paying for
tickets? Yep, am not going to include the all American past time of watching a game at the
local pub. Many people can not afford the luxury of the food and drinks OK, it's time to stop
now with my pov. I am fortunate to not be in the above circumstances. Too many are,
though.
God knows what's being planned behind closed doors for this increasing tragedy, the
reality is too clear for Congress not to be aware of it. Meanwhile, I'm fully sure that
amoral predators who are investing in those areas they're betting the homeless will be forced
to dwell and die in, or choose to be euthanized at.
Meanwhile, Congress does absolutely nothing about putting a stop to obscenely biased,
corrupted and deadly in its blatant discrimination AI, which is increasingly decimating
millions of jobs, and virtually tagging people with social scores they'll never get
out from under, no matter how false. This, ever since Obama glibly announced there would be
many jobs lost, and some pain, due to technologyThe Technocracy . A
Bipartisan, Horrid Congress accepted it as a necessary reality.
The only thing missing was a police officer going in after with a drawn gun. When millions
of people were being kicked out of their homes about a decade a go, I saw a photo that won an
award at the time. It showed a cop, with pistol drawn, going into a house that had the family
kicked out from it. Surrounding him was all the left overs from a family's life and it was
very sad.
It is heart rending. Even watching renters who leave before being evicted is heart
rending, they're forced to throw away many belongings, like perfectly good mattresses and
basic necessities. Lived at an apartment complex turned into ratty ass condos for mostly
foreign property 'flippers' who continued renting them out, then 'flipping' them. The
despair, fear, and loss during a huge job downturn was horrid to witness, as many had lived
there over ten years. I was lucky to be on my feet somewhat at the time, no longer.
Every fricking sign, particularly in Silicon Valley, that advertises Apartment
Homes ™ should be torn down and destroyed. The average US renters have
always been treated as second class leechers, I've witnessed it my entire adult life, now
they're being treated even worse.
Thanks Clinton/Gore, Obomber/Biden,
Nanny Pelosi , et al; and we thought that was only the mark of Republicans busy at
work.
Thinking on this subject even more, it occurs to me why the powers that be are so invested
in pitting each generation against the other. An empowered US renters' 'lobby' could be
enormous. It would cross all age – along with race, gender, religion, and geographic
– spectrums. Renters, along with the homeless are increasing in vast numbers of all
ages. The last thing the powers that be would want, is for those vast millions to stick
together against them, and age is the easiest barrier for the powers that be to keep renters
separated by.
Economy Adds 266,000 Jobs in November, Unemployment Edges Down to 3.5 Percent
By Dean Baker
The share of women in payroll employment is likely to exceed 50 percent in December.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy added 266,000 jobs in November.
While this figure is inflated by the return of roughly 50,000 striking GM autoworkers, upward
revisions to the prior two months' data brought the three-month average to a solid 205,000.
The unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent, returning to a 50-year low.
The job growth was widely spread across industries. Manufacturing added 54,000 jobs,
somewhat more than the number of returning strikers. It appears that the sector may again be
on a modest growth path, with the number of jobs up 13,000 from its level three months ago
and 76,000 from its year-ago level. Food manufacturing is providing the bulk of these gains,
adding 19,300 jobs in the last three months and 25,900 over the last year.
Health care added 45,200 jobs in November after adding just 11,900 in October. Job growth
for the two months together falls slightly below the 34,500 average for the last year.
Restaurants added 25,300 jobs, roughly its average for the last year. The high-paying
professional and technical services sector added 30,600 jobs, after three months of weak
growth.
Construction employment remains weak, with the sector adding just 1,000 jobs in November.
Job growth has averaged just 5,600 a month since June. Support activities for mining, which
has been losing jobs since February, lost another 5,700 jobs in November. Employment in that
sector is now down 23,700 (6.6 percent) over the last year. Retail added 2,000 jobs for the
month, but employment is still down 31,400 (0.2 percent) over the last year.
In spite of the strong job growth and low unemployment rate, there continues to be no
evidence of accelerating wage growth. The average hourly wage increased 3.1 percent over the
last year. The annual rate of growth over the last three months (September, October, and
November), compared to the prior three months (June, July, August), was just 3 percent.
Women's share of payroll employment edged closer to 50 percent in November, with the
figure now standing at 49.992 percent, up from 49.977 percent in October. This should mean
that the share will cross 50 percent in December.
The data in the household survey was generally positive. The overall
employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) remained at a recovery high of 61.0 percent for the
third straight month. The EPOP for prime-age workers (ages 25 to 54) also remained at its
recovery high of 80.3 percent. The EPOP for prime-age men edged up 0.2 percent to 86.7
percent, a high reached in March, while the EPOP for women slipped 0.1 percentage point to
74.1 percent, which is still a full percentage point above its year-ago level.
The average duration of unemployment spells fell in November, as did the share of the
long-term unemployed. There was a modest increase of 0.1 weeks in the median duration.
Perhaps the most disturbing item in this report was the dip in the share of unemployment
due to voluntary quits from 14.5 percent to 13.3 percent. This is extraordinarily low, given
the 3.5 percent unemployment rate. On the other hand, it is consistent with what we're seeing
with wage growth, which remains modest, and with no evidence of acceleration.
Another discouraging item in the household data is the decline in the share of the
workforce that chooses to work part-time. This fell by 15,000 in November. For the year
average to date, this figure is up by less than 0.5 percent, meaning that it is dropping as a
share of total employment. The share of voluntary part-time employment had increased sharply
after the Affordable Care Act took effect, the recent decline is likely an indication of the
increasing difficulty of getting health care coverage outside of employment.
[Graph]
This should be seen as a mostly positive report. The pace of job growth clearly has slowed
some from its 2018 rate, but with the economy presumably approaching full employment, this
was inevitable. The major downside is that workers seem to remain insecure about their
employment prospects, as evidenced by the low quit rates and the relatively modest pace of
wage growth.
The truth is that good, middle class jobs are very difficult to get. Almost impossible.
You are very lucky being a retiree with Vanguard funds chest ;-)
Recent graduates are in a very bad position, with only graduates from Ivy league colleges
resume not being instantly tossed into waist basket.
McJobs, Amazon warehouse jobs, Home Depot jobs, low level construction jobs (in $15-$20
per hour range), etc are available for graduates. But that's it. Looks like the USA is
looking now like a big amazon warehouse.
People over 50 are actually doomed, if they lost the job, to much lower standard of
living. Even if they are professionals.
"... "Employment in the United States has increased steadily over the last seven years, one of the longest periods of economic growth in American history. There are about 10 million more working Americans today than when President Obama took office. ..."
"... "David Autor, an economist at M.I.T., estimated in a famous paper that increased trade with China did eliminate roughly one million factory jobs in the United States between 2000 and 2007. However, an important implication of his findings is that such job losses largely ended almost a decade ago. ..."
"... It is also worth noting that even though our trade deficit has declined from its 2006 peak (the non-oil deficit has recently been rising again), workers are constantly being displaced by imports. The Bureau of Labor Statistic reports there have been an average of 110,000 layoffs or discharges a month in manufacturing thus far this year. If just a quarter of these are trade-related, it would imply that more than 300,000 workers a year are losing their jobs due to trade. ..."
"... The second point is the wage effect, which can go beyond the direct impact of job loss. The oil market can give us a useful way of thinking about this issue. Suppose that Saudi Arabia or some other major producer ramps up its oil production by 1 million barrels of oil a day. This will put downward pressure on world prices, which will have the effect of lowering prices in the United States as well. This could mean, for example, that instead of getting $50 for a barrel of oil, producers in North Dakota will only get $40 a barrel. This will mean less money for workers and companies in the oil industry. In the case of workers, it will mean fewer jobs and lower pay. ..."
"... This can happen even if there is very little direct impact of trade. The increased supply of Saudi oil may result in some modest reduction in U.S. exports of oil, but the impact on price will be much larger. The analogous story with trade in manufactured goods is that the potential to import low cost goods from Mexico, China, or other countries can have the effect of lowering wages in the United States, even if the goods are not actually imported. ..."
"... Finally, the balance of trade will have an impact on the overall level of employment in the economy when the economy is below its full employment level of output. Until the Great Recession, most economists did not think that trade could affect the overall level of employment, but only the composition. This meant that trade could cause us to lose manufacturing jobs in the Midwest, but these job losses would be offset by gains in Silicon Valley and other tech centers. This could still mean bad news for the manufacturing workers who lost their jobs, but the net effect for the country as a whole would still be positive. ..."
"... The Great Recession changed this view, as many economists came to believe that the United States is facing a period of secular stagnation: a sustained period in which lack of demand in the economy constrains growth and employment. In this context, the trade deficit is a major cause of the lack of demand since it is spending that is creating demand in other countries rather than the United States. If we could reduce the annual trade deficit by $100 billion then as a first approximation it will have the same impact on the economy as a stimulus of $100 billion. ..."
"... There is no generally accepted explanation as to why so many prime age workers would suddenly decide they didn't feel like working, but one often invoked candidate is the loss of manufacturing jobs. The argument in this story is that the manufacturing sector provided relatively good paying jobs for people without college degrees. With so many of these jobs now gone, these workers can't find jobs. If this argument is true, then it means that trade has cost the country a large number of jobs even if the economy is back at full employment. ..."
Given his history of promoting racism, xenophobia, sexism and his recently exposed boasts about sexual assaults, not many people
want to be associated with Donald Trump. However that doesn't mean everything that comes out of his mouth is wrong.
In the debate on Sunday Donald Trump made a comment to the effect that because of the North American Free Trade Agreement and
other trade deals, "we lost our jobs." The New York Times was quick to say * this was wrong.
"We didn't.
"Employment in the United States has increased steadily over the last seven years, one of the longest periods of economic
growth in American history. There are about 10 million more working Americans today than when President Obama took office.
"David Autor, an economist at M.I.T., estimated in a famous paper that increased trade with China did eliminate roughly
one million factory jobs in the United States between 2000 and 2007. However, an important implication of his findings is that
such job losses largely ended almost a decade ago.
"And there's no evidence the North American Free Trade Agreement caused similar job losses.
"The Congressional Research Service concluded in 2015 that the 'net overall effect of Nafta on the U.S. economy appears to
have been relatively modest.' "
There are a few things to sort out here. First, the basic point in the first paragraph is absolutely true, although it's not
clear that it's relevant to the trade debate. The United States economy typically grows and adds jobs, around 1.6 million a year
for the last quarter century. So any claim that trade has kept the U.S. from creating jobs is absurd on its face. The actual issue
is the rate of job creation and the quality of the jobs.
Here there are three issues to consider.
1) The direct job loss – the jobs that were displaced due to imports substituting for domestically produced goods and services;
2) The wage effects – the downward pressure on the wages of workers that retain their jobs that can result from job loss and
also the threat of job loss;
3) The impact of a trade deficit on the level of demand in the economy.
Taking these in turn we now have some pretty solid evidence on some of the job loss attributable to trade. David Autor's work
** found that imports from China cost the economy more than 2 million jobs in the years from 2000-2007.
"Estimates of the net impact of aggregate demand and reallocation effects imply that import growth from China between 1999
and 2011 led to an employment reduction of 2.4 million workers" (page 29).
These are workers who are directly displaced by import competition. In addition, as the article goes on to note, there were
more workers who likely lost their jobs to the multiplier effect in the local economies most directly affected by imports.
The impact of trade with China was more dramatic than trade with Mexico and other countries because of the huge growth in imports
over a short period of time. However, even if the impact from trade with other countries was smaller, it still would have a substantial
effect on the communities affected.
It is also worth noting that even though our trade deficit has declined from its 2006 peak (the non-oil deficit has recently
been rising again), workers are constantly being displaced by imports. The Bureau of Labor Statistic reports there have been an
average of 110,000 layoffs or discharges a month in manufacturing thus far this year. If just a quarter of these are trade-related,
it would imply that more than 300,000 workers a year are losing their jobs due to trade.
Of course people lose jobs for other reasons also, like increased productivity. So the fact there is job loss associated with
trade doesn't make it bad, but it is not wrong to see this as a serious problem.
The second point is the wage effect, which can go beyond the direct impact of job loss. The oil market can give us a useful
way of thinking about this issue. Suppose that Saudi Arabia or some other major producer ramps up its oil production by 1 million
barrels of oil a day. This will put downward pressure on world prices, which will have the effect of lowering prices in the United
States as well. This could mean, for example, that instead of getting $50 for a barrel of oil, producers in North Dakota will
only get $40 a barrel. This will mean less money for workers and companies in the oil industry. In the case of workers, it will
mean fewer jobs and lower pay.
This can happen even if there is very little direct impact of trade. The increased supply of Saudi oil may result in some modest
reduction in U.S. exports of oil, but the impact on price will be much larger. The analogous story with trade in manufactured
goods is that the potential to import low cost goods from Mexico, China, or other countries can have the effect of lowering wages
in the United States, even if the goods are not actually imported.
Kate Bronfenbrenner, a professor of industrial relations at Cornell, documented one way in which the potential to import can
have the effect of lowering wages. She found *** that employers regularly used the threat of moving operations to Mexico as a
way to thwart unionization drives. While most workers are not typically involved in unionization drives, it is easy to imagine
this dynamic playing out in other contexts where employers use the real or imagined threat from import competition as a reason
for holding down wages. The implication is the impact of trade on wages is likely to be even larger than the direct effect of
the goods actually brought into the country.
Finally, the balance of trade will have an impact on the overall level of employment in the economy when the economy is below
its full employment level of output. Until the Great Recession, most economists did not think that trade could affect the overall
level of employment, but only the composition. This meant that trade could cause us to lose manufacturing jobs in the Midwest,
but these job losses would be offset by gains in Silicon Valley and other tech centers. This could still mean bad news for the
manufacturing workers who lost their jobs, but the net effect for the country as a whole would still be positive.
The Great Recession changed this view, as many economists came to believe that the United States is facing a period of secular
stagnation: a sustained period in which lack of demand in the economy constrains growth and employment. In this context, the trade
deficit is a major cause of the lack of demand since it is spending that is creating demand in other countries rather than the
United States. If we could reduce the annual trade deficit by $100 billion then as a first approximation it will have the same
impact on the economy as a stimulus of $100 billion.
From this perspective, the trade deficit is a major source of job loss. Our current trade deficit of $500 billion a year (@2.8
percent of GDP) is a major drag on demand and employment. For this reason, a politician would be absolutely right to cite trade
as a big factor in the weakness of the labor market.
It is worth noting that many economists (including many at the Federal Reserve Board) now believe that the economy is close
to its full employment level of output, in which case trade is not now a net cause of job loss even if it had been earlier in
the recovery. There are two points to be made on this view.
First, there are many prominent economists, such as Paul Krugman and Larry Summers, who argue that the economy is still well
below its full employment level of output. So this is at least a debatable position.
Second, if we accept that the economy is near full employment it implies that close to 2 million prime age workers (ages 25-54)
have permanently left the labor market compared to 2007 levels of labor force participation. (The gap is close to 4 million if
we use 2000 as our comparison year.)
There is no generally accepted explanation as to why so many prime age workers would suddenly decide they didn't feel like
working, but one often invoked candidate is the loss of manufacturing jobs. The argument in this story is that the manufacturing
sector provided relatively good paying jobs for people without college degrees. With so many of these jobs now gone, these workers
can't find jobs. If this argument is true, then it means that trade has cost the country a large number of jobs even if the economy
is back at full employment.
In short, there are good reasons for a politician to complain about trade as a major source of our economic problems. There
is much research and economic theory that supports this position.
In a bid to end the massive welfare state, the Trump administration is expected to announce
new measures Wednesday that would end food stamp benefits for nearly 750,000 low-income folks.
The new rules will make it difficult for "states to gain waivers from a requirement that
beneficiaries work or participate in a vocational training program," according to
Bloomberg sources.
Republicans have long attempted to abolish the welfare state, claiming that the
redistribution of wealth for poor people keeps them in a state of perpetual poverty. They also
claim the welfare state is a system of command and control and has been used by Democrats for
decades as a political weapon against conservatives, hence why most inner cities vote
Democrat.
House Republicans tried to cut parts of the federal food assistance program last year, but
it was quickly rejected in the Senate.
The new requirements by the Trump administration would only target "able-bodied" recipients
who aren't caring for children under six.
Sources said the measure would be one of three enacted by the Trump administration to wind
down the massive federal food assistance program.
The measures are expected to boot nearly 3.7 million recipients from the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Though it comes at a time when employment is in a
downturn, manufacturing has stumbled into a recession
, and the US economy could be entering a mild recession in the year ahead. As to why President
Trump wants hundreds of thousands of low-income folks off SNAP ahead of an election year while
the economy is rapidly decelerating could be an administrative error that may lead to social
instabilities in specific regions that will be affected the hardest. Then again, no turmoil
could come out of it, and it's hailed as a success during the election year.
The Department of Agriculture estimates that the new measures could save the agency $1.1
billion in year one, and $7.9 billion by year five.
Nearly 36.4 million Americans in the "greatest economy ever" are on food stamps. At least
half of all Americans have low-wage jobs, barely enough to cover living expenses, nevertheless,
service their
credit cards with record-high interest rates . The economy as a whole is undergoing
profound structural changes with automation and artificial intelligence. Tens of millions of
jobs will be lost by 2030. It's likely the collision of these forces means the welfare state is
going nowhere and will only grow in size when the next recession strikes.
Cutting food stamps for low-income folks is the right move into creating a more leaner
government, but there are severe social implications that could be triggered if the new
measures are passed.
And while President Trump wants to slash the welfare state for poor people, his supply-side
policies and bailouts of corporate America have been record-setting in some respects.
Actions by the administration clearly show that corporate welfare for Wall Street elites is
more important than welfare for low-income folks. Perfect Storm: Trump Admin To Cut 750,000
From Food Stamps Ahead Of Recession
this is one of the most shameful acts for any president, especially a billionaire. If he
wants to save a billion/year, cut it from military. Or increase staff at SNAP to check for
fraud, but this is really shameful. I think it would've been better to raise tariff on China
and use that money to increase SNAP not decrease it
What's the need in cutting foodstamps? You can take every able-bodied recipient and have
them work a reasonable number of hours per week in a fair exchange. Plenty of work to be had
and you could do it WPA style where those of certain skills could apply them.
And if you want to cut welfare, START WITH CORPORATE WELFARE
This is a positive development in terms of the nuclear family. Women can't just abscond
with the kids and her husband's alimony if she knows she will have to actually get a job to
pay for her own food. I'm sick of paying taxes to support whore women and their bastard
children.
"The Department of Agriculture estimates that the new measures could save the agency $1.1
billion in year one, and $7.9 billion by year five."
Today's Repo operation by the Fed is $70.1 Billion. The $1.1 Billion in annual savings due
to this cut is about 1.5% of what the Fed pumped into the Repo market just today. I'm all for
cutting out the fraud. If you can work, then you should work. Don't work? Don't eat! But our
economy is a Service Sector for the most part now, and the wages suck for a big part in the
Service Sector. Wages overall have been nearly flat for about 30 years. How about we cut the
welfare **** to the banks, Wall Street? That would save trillions not just billions. Typical
DC. Fix problems while ******* over the little people, and continuing corporate welfare all
the while. This **** so needs to burn up!
great... outsource manufacturing, sign new trade deals to off shore more jobs, ramp up the
stock market for the rich, waste trillions on destabilizing other nations, give israel all
they want, print money to infinity, ask for zero interest rate.. and a billion per year to
feed poor people is too much.. Trump is in touch with the little guy
Trump will lose 2020... give the 750,000 guns and ammo and some food and water... and a
map to DC... Soros can provide the buses...
In a bid to end the massive welfare state, the Trump administration is expected to
announce new measures Wednesday that would end food stamp benefits for nearly 750,000
low-income folks
and yet Trump is crying for negative interest rates so the 0.1% can continue getting the
welfare they deserve ?
The new rules will make it difficult for "states to gain waivers from a requirement that
beneficiaries work or participate in a vocational training program," according to
Bloomberg sources.
And... those are actually the OLD rules, which are still on the books, but which Obama
waived by EO. I'm glad 750,00 are being cut from the roles.
Trump Admin To Cut 750,000 From Food Stamps Ahead Of Recession
OK, so I have to ask: What recession? Well, the coming one, obviously! So let's logic this
out. You wouldn't cut food stamps IN a recession (political suicide), so what's your
alternative? You're either in a recession or you're on your way to the next one which will
happen eventually, right? So, when would you be able to cut food stamps? I guess never by
that logic.
Despite spending 40 to 60 hours a week picking up riders in his 2015 Subaru Forester, Mr.
Ellenbogen is barely surviving financially. He had to give up his apartment and move into his
mother's condo in Verona, N.J. He relies on Medicaid for health care.
"It's something I'm accepting because I'm in need of money," he said of his Lyft gig. "I'm
capable of better things, but this is what's available to me."
Economists debate how to define this kind of employment, often categorized as
"nontraditional jobs" or "alternative work arrangements," and how to calculate the proportion
of the older work force engaged in it.
Popularly seen as the province of the young, it now provides work for a growing number of
people in their 50s, 60s and beyond.
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics includes independent contractors (who may be
self-employed but well compensated) and estimates that 11.4 percent of those aged 50 to 62 have
nontraditional jobs. The Government Accountability Office, using an even broader definition
including part-timers, says the figure is 31.2 percent.
Among workers over 62, economists at The New School's Retirement Equity Lab have found that
9 percent were in "on-call, temp, contract or gig jobs" in 2015; the researchers
believe the percentage has grown since then .
Their study defines nontraditional jobs as those that provide no health insurance or
retirement benefits. "They're probably low-paid," said Alicia Munnell, director of the center.
"Some have erratic schedules."
... ... ...
The majority of those in nontraditional jobs at ages 50 to 62 rely on them for most of their
employment, and their retirement income at 62 is 26 percent lower than that of employees
holding traditional jobs. (Nontraditional jobholders have somewhat higher rates of depression,
as well.)
... ... ...
Nontraditional jobs include food service and retail, as well as gig jobs; among the fastest
growing categories are janitorial work, and personal care and health aide positions. "They're
not easy on older bodies," Dr. Ghilarducci pointed out. "They require a lot of physical
stamina."
... ... ...
Mr. Ellenbogen, for instance, has a master's degree in social psychology from the
University of Vermont. After getting laid off from sales positions and finding a return to
business coaching unprofitable, he became a commission-only sales rep for Home Depot, with no
base salary or benefits.
The company let him go, he said, when retina surgery left him unable to drive for two
months. After he recovered, the only work he could find was with Lyft, where about a quarter of
drivers are over 50, the company reported last year.
Mr. Ellenbogen has searched for jobs on LinkedIn, on Indeed, in local newspapers. The New
Start Career Network at Rutgers University has provided free weekly sessions with a coach.
Nothing has materialized, so Mr. Ellenbogen keeps driving, trying to delay claiming Social
Security to maximize his benefits.
The investigation, if it results in criminal charges, could become the largest prosecution
yet of drug companies alleged to have contributed to the opioid epidemic, escalating the
legal troubles of businesses that already face complex, multibillion-dollar civil litigation
in courts across the country. Prosecutors are examining whether the companies violated the
federal Controlled Substances Act, a statute that federal prosecutors have begun using
against opioid makers and distributors this year.
By using statutes typically used to target drug dealers, prosecutors are finally seeing
these companies for what they are: drug pushers. This approach is unusual but not
unprecedented, according to the Journal:
Earlier this year, federal prosecutors filed major criminal cases in Manhattan and Ohio
that, for the first time, employed criminal statutes that are more commonly applied to drug
dealers, legal experts say.
When prosecutors from the Southern District of New York announced criminal charges against
a pharmaceutical distributor and two executives earlier this year, the Manhattan U.S.
attorney's office said the case was unusual.
"This prosecution is the first of its kind," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said
in April, "executives of a pharmaceutical distributor and the distributor itself have been
charged with drug trafficking."
The investigation marks a significant broadening of the federal government's focus on
pinpointing which parties contributed to the opioid crisis.
The six companies to receive subpoenas from the US attorney's office for the eastern
district of New York are: AmerisourceBergen Corp., Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc., Johnson &
Johnson, Mallinckrodt, McKesson Corp. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., as reported by
the WSJ, citing regulatory filings.
This investigation is in its early stages; whether or not other companies have thus far also
received subpoenas is not apparent. As federal prosecutors proceed, they will likely widen
their probe, drawing in more companies and individuals.
Separately, most states, as well as roughly 2,600 city, county, and municipal governments
have sued major players throughout the opioids supply chain. Despite intense pressure on
parties to settle, these negotiations have stalled and numerous lawsuits remain pending (see
Four Companies Settle Just Before Bellwether Opioids Trial Was to Begin Today in Ohio
.)
Purdue separately faces civil and criminal probes from the U.S. attorneys offices in New
Jersey, Vermont and Connecticut and U.S. Justice Department in Washington and has said that a
proposed plan to turn over its operations to creditors is
contingent on resolving the federal investigations .
President Donald Trump is donating his third-quarter salary to help tackle the nation's
opioid epidemic.
A White House official says Trump has given the $100,000 he would be paid in the quarter
to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, which oversees federal public health
offices and programs, including the surgeon general's office.
The White House says the funds are being earmarked "to continue the ongoing fight against
the opioid crisis."
Jerri- Lynn here. Well. Thanks for your concern!!
More from AP:
Trump has made tackling the misuse of opioids an administration priority. More than 70,000
Americans died in 2017 from drug overdoses, the bulk of them involving opioids.
Trump is required to be paid, but he has pledged to donate his salary while in office to
worthy causes. Trump donated his second-quarter salary to the surgeon general's office.
The US trend is in contrast to the state of play in other advanced countries; US life
expectancy began to lose pace in the 1980s, according to the JAMA study, and by 1998, had
declined to a level below the OECD average. Since 2014, US life expectancy rates have declined
for three consecutive years.
But a new analysis of more than a half-century of federal mortality data, published on
Tuesday in JAMA , found that the increased death rates among people in midlife extended
to all racial and ethnic groups, and to suburbs and cities. And while suicides, drug
overdoses and alcoholism were the main causes, other medical conditions, including heart
disease, strokes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, also contributed, the authors
reported.
From the JAMA study's abstract:
Findings Between 1959 and 2016, US life expectancy increased from 69.9 years to 78.9 years
but declined for 3 consecutive years after 2014. The recent decrease in US life expectancy
culminated a period of increasing cause-specific mortality among adults aged 25 to 64 years
that began in the 1990s, ultimately producing an increase in all-cause mortality that began
in 2010. During 2010-2017, midlife all-cause mortality rates increased from 328.5
deaths/100 000 to 348.2 deaths/100 000. By 2014, midlife mortality was increasing
across all racial groups, caused by drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, suicides, and a diverse
list of organ system diseases. The largest relative increases in midlife mortality rates
occurred in New England (New Hampshire, 23.3%; Maine, 20.7%; Vermont, 19.9%) and the Ohio
Valley (West Virginia, 23.0%; Ohio, 21.6%; Indiana, 14.8%; Kentucky, 14.7%). The increase in
midlife mortality during 2010-2017 was associated with an estimated 33 307 excess US
deaths, 32.8% of which occurred in 4 Ohio Valley states.
This trend has occurred despite the US spending the highest per capita on health of any
country in the world – a point made in a JAMA editorial published simultaneously with the
study, Confronting the Rise and Fall
of US Life Expectancy.
Now, no one would dispute that the US health care system is a mess. From the NYT:
"The whole country is at a health disadvantage compared to other wealthy nations," the
study's lead author, Dr. Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, said. "We are
losing people in the most productive period of their lives. Children are losing parents.
Employers have a sicker work force."
The study makes for depressing reading; you can download the full version for free by
registering at the above link.
If you lack time for that, some summary from the NYT:
"Mortality has improved year to year over the course of the 20th century," said Dr. Samuel
Preston, a demographer at the University of Pennsylvania. "The 21st century is a major
exception. Since 2010 there's been no improvement in mortality among working-aged
people."
Death rates are actually improving among children and older Americans, Dr. Woolf noted,
perhaps because they may have more reliable health care -- Medicaid for many children and
Medicare for older people. Jerri-Lynn here: my emphasis.
But the problem isn't wholly related to the dysfunctional US health care system. Extreme
inequality doesn't just harm the poorest and weakest among us. Over to the NYT:
"The fact that it's so expansive and involves so many causes of death -- it's saying that
there's something broader going on in our country," said Ellen R. Meara, a professor of
health policy at Dartmouth College. "This no longer limited to middle-aged whites."
The states with the greatest relative increases in death rates among young and middle-aged
adults were New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, West Virginia and Ohio.
Dr. Woolf said one of the findings showed that the excess deaths were highly concentrated
geographically, with fully a third of them in just four states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky
and Indiana.
"What's not lost on us is what is going on in those states," he said. "The history of when
this health trend started happens to coincide with when these economic shifts began -- the
loss of manufacturing jobs and closure of steel mills and auto plants."
What do the billionaires and their toadies have to say to that?
And, to return to where I began, note that Ohio is ground zero for the opioids epidemic.
A former Obama official was interviewed today about these investigations. When asked
point-black on whether or not pharma executives should go to jail on these charges, there was
tremendous hemming and hawing about the "goal is to prevent this from happening again in the
future" which is the same stance regarding financial executives after the GFC.
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/27/783223378/feds-may-pursue-criminal-charges-against-opioid-makers
So the drug laws incarcerate millions of poor and minority people for minor drug
possession offences but effectively running a drug cartel inside US corporations would not be
worth jailing somebody for? No wonder people are simply ready to toss the entire system.
Here's an excellent article about fentanyl smuggling from China. The opioid crisis is
not just about US companies. The larger question is why our government largely ignored
fentanyl smuggling for years during the Obama administration despite warnings from
DEA.
Pain patients who function quite well with medication are caught between the more strident
of the War on Drugs Crusaders and the addicts who use opioids recreationally, causing most to
think of anyone on pain medication as drug abusers. Pain patients using medication as
prescribed are not drug abusers and a safe harbor needs to be created to protect this
vulnerable population. They are genuinely in fear and despair has set in. They are
consciously and openly stating an intent to commit suicide. We should not forget them as this
war continues. They saw what Duarte promoted and understand they are powerless in a fight
where their lives are at stake.
Cutting off the supply through criminal prosecutions of manufacturers will harm the most
vulnerable. Perhaps that is the plan.
The issue appears to be "prescription" and "control"
You intimate the drugs will be removed from the market, as opposed to being subject to
proper and necessary stringent controls.
The issue at hand with the manufacturers is: Have the Manufacturers caused bypass on
controls. As I understand it, the drugs are not banned at this point in time.
The manufacturers appear to be investigated for promoting mis-prescription of their
products.
There have been unintended consequences from the war on drugs. To your point, we have seen
providers, insurers, and pharmacies set their own limits to avoid liability. Going after the
risk-averse pharmaceutical manufacturers will force them to decide whether the profit is
worth the risk of financial ruin and possible prison. And legitimate patients are caught in
the middle.
Anecdotally, we have this result that impacts the most vulnerable – not the
powerful, who will always get their drugs, whether they need them or not:
The misconception that opioid prescriptions lead to opiate addiction has been
widespread, and overarching state and federal measures to combat the opioid overdose crisis
are reaching a fever pitch. There's the Oregon Health Authority's (OHA) now-tabled proposal
to force-taper all Medicaid patients on opioids for certain chronic pain conditions;
Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cory Gardner's controversial proposal to limit all acute
pain medication prescriptions to a seven day fill, which sparked massive pushback from the
chronic pain and disability communities; and Ohio Senator Rob Portman, who favors a
three-day fill limit. In contrast, the American Medical Association (AMA) has come out
against arbitrary pill limits, as has a group called Health Professionals for Patients in
Pain (HP3).
Very few opioid addictions begin with a patient who has a doctor's prescription: Up to
80 percent of people with an opioid addiction illegally obtained pills from another source
like a friend or relative first. While the opioid overdose epidemic from illegal heroin and
fentanyl is a serious problem, federal and state actions to decrease the number of opioid
prescriptions and/or pills in circulation overall will have -- and are already having -- a
hugely negative impact on chronic pain patients who take opioid medications. While the
number of pain prescriptions has declined since 2010, the number of deaths due to overdoses
involving heroin and synthetic fentanyl has increased.
According to Thomas Kline, MD, a physician in North Carolina who maintains a list of
chronic pain patients who committed suicide after being forced off of their medications,
the anti-opioid hysteria that has taken root in the medical field and the federal
government has resulted in "people [being] killed."
"Very few opioid addictions begin with a patient who has a doctor's prescription".
This is very similar to the original marketing line of OxyContin, and I have a hard time
believing it. But it's only a gut feeling along with vague memories of educational materials
I've seen before but would have to look up.
I think there are pretty forceful (though not equally funded) agendas on both sides of the
issue that would want to down- or over-play the impact of prescribed opioids.
Either way, I don't think it's necessary to use that quote in order to make the case that
people in pain still deserve access to these drugs.
Other sources flatly contradict this claim. This is from an article by a professor of
medicine:
According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, four in five new heroin
users started out by misusing prescription painkillers, and 94 percent of opioid-addicted
patients said that they switched to heroin because prescription opioids were more expensive
and harder to obtain.
Andrew Kolodny, the co-director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative, at
Brandeis University, has worked with hundreds of patients addicted to opioids. He told me
that, though many fatal overdoses have resulted from opioids other than OxyContin, the
crisis was initially precipitated by a shift in the culture of prescribing -- a shift
carefully engineered by Purdue. "If you look at the prescribing trends for all the
different opioids, it's in 1996 that prescribing really takes off," Kolodny said. "It's not
a coincidence. That was the year Purdue launched a multifaceted campaign that misinformed
the medical community about the risks." When I asked Kolodny how much of the blame Purdue
bears for the current public-health crisis, he responded, "The lion's share."
I work as a pharmacist in northern Ontario, where the opioid problem is quite acute. To be
fair, this region had some insane narcotic prescribing habits -- dose/increases that seemed
unreasonably high (since well before I started practicing 10 years ago).
Now we're seeing a combination of new grad physicians seemingly afraid to prescribe
opioids, and older doctors either under investigation by their regulatory body, or retiring
as fast as they can to avoid getting nailed.
Their patients in the (sadly frequent) worst case, suddenly find themselves without a
doctor in an area which already has a shortage. Or they're put through a forced rapid taper
off these meds which seems only a bit less stressful.
Chronic pain patients can definitely benefit from tapering their dose, as opioid-induced
hyperalgesia is definitely a thing, and overdose risk increases with dose even taking into
consideration tolerance.
A lot of patients with pain can benefit from methadone or Suboxone, which is often the
only option remaining as addiction treatment centres are everywhere. But even if those drugs
work for them there's still a lot of inconvenience and stigma attached to them.
I wish the attitude was more accomodating to the patients who have been on these huge
doses for years. (usually in their 50s or 60s). Like, say to doctors "try not to get anybody
else hooked on opiates, but be gentle with the patients that already are".
But it seems like the approach taken is mostly based on avoidance of liability. And the
profits of addictions chains that provide dubiously valuable treatment.
I guess there's no perfect solution. It's a shitshow up here.
Yeah, off the top of my head the biggest financial issues that could be helped by a
government that gave crap would be:
1) increase the welfare/disability payments which have lost ground to inflation since the 90s
I believe
2) do something for the awful living conditions and opportunities for our first nations
reserves, which are (were?) the biggest centres of despair and addiction
3) free pharmacare would help, though our most vulnerable do already have coverage
4) actually fund mental health programs/psychotherapy
The vaunted Canadian healthcare system doesn't cover much that doesn't happen in a
doctor's office or hospital. It's it's not heading in the right direction.
What do the billionaires and their toadies have to say to that? Jerri-Lynn
Scofield
Certainly toadies, intentional or otherwise, must include those who support unethical
finance – the means by which so many jobs were outsourced in the first place.
Our finance system was designed or evolved to only create wealth – not to share
it justly – and we are reaping the bitter fruit of that shortsightedness.
Better late than never, I suppose. But, to look only to preventing such things from
recurring in the future is to give the current crop of miscreants a pass, as was done with
torturing and financial crimes since the turn of the century.
A criminal probe is definitely appropriate. It's already been established that drug
companies and their distributors have flooded the country with
76 billion opioid pills between 2006 through 2012. 76 billion pills amounts to
approximately 33 opiate pills per year for every man woman and child in the United States
during the 7 year time period covered in this article. And that's only oxycodone and
hydrocodone – it doesn't include the various types of fentanyl.
There is good evidence that providing treatment for the addicted rather than criminalising
them is the way to go with a big fringe benefits in terms of less crime etc for the rest of
the community, for example the work of Dr John Marks in Widness, England.
Methadone destroys your bones. They become brittle and crumble. Suboxone does very little
for pain relief. Suboxone only blocks the craving for opioids. It is obvious most of you
posters have little contact with addicts and rely on articles published by individuals who
use govt' info to BS the population.
WHY have there not been at least Criminal Manslaughter charges filed against some of
the actors in the dreadful life drama. The doctors, The manufacturers, the distributors. If I
give scrip opioids to another and thy die from taking them , I will be charged with a
Homicide.
Following decades of increased life expectancy rates, Americans have been dying earlier for
three consecutive years since 2014, turning the elusive quest for the 'American Dream' into a
real-life nightmare for many. Corporate America must accept some portion of the blame for the
looming disaster.
Something is killing Americans and researchers have yet to find the culprit. But we can risk
some intuitive guesses.
According to researchers from the Center on Society and Health, Virginia Commonwealth
University School of Medicine, American life expectancy has not kept pace with that of other
wealthy countries and is now in fact decreasing.
The National Center for Health Statistics reported that life expectancy in the United States
peaked (78.9 years) in 2014 and subsequently dropped for 3 consecutive years, hitting 78.6
years in 2017. The decrease was most significant among men (0.4 years) than women (0.2 years)
and happened across racial-ethnic lines: between 2014 and 2016, life expectancy decreased among
non-Hispanic white populations (from 78.8 to 78.5 years), non-Hispanic black populations (from
75.3 years to 74.8 years), and Hispanic populations (82.1 to 81.8 years).
"By 2014, midlife mortality was increasing across all racial groups, caused by drug
overdoses, alcohol abuse, suicides, and a diverse list of organ system diseases," wrote
researchers Steven H. Woolf and Heidi Schoomaker in a
study that appears in the latest issue of the prestigious Journal of the American Medical
Association.
At the very beginning of the report, Woolf and Schoomaker reveal that the geographical area
with the largest relative increases occurred "in the Ohio Valley and New England."
"The implications for public health and the economy are substantial," they added, "making
it vital to understand the underlying causes."
Incidentally, it would be difficult for any observer of the U.S. political scene to read
that passage without immediately connecting it to the 2016 presidential election between Donald
Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Taking advantage of the deep industrial decline that has long plagued the Ohio Valley, made
up of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, Trump successfully
tapped into a very real social illness, at least partially connected to
economic stagnation , which helped propel him into the White House.
Significantly, thirty-seven states witnessed significant jumps in midlife mortality in the
years leading up to 2017. As the researchers pointed out, however, the trend was concentrated
in certain states, many of which, for example in New England, did not support Trump in
2016.
"Between 2010 and 2017, the largest relative increases in mortality occurred in New
England (New Hampshire, 23.3%; Maine, 20.7%; Vermont, 19.9%, Massachusetts 12.1%) and the
Ohio Valley (West Virginia, 23.0%; Ohio, 21.6%; Indiana, 14.8%; Kentucky, 14.7%), as well as
in New Mexico (17.5%), South Dakota (15.5%), Pennsylvania (14.4%), North Dakota (12.7%),
Alaska (12.0%), and Maryland (11.0%). In contrast, the nation's most populous states
(California, Texas, and New York) experienced relatively small increases in midlife
mortality.
Eight of the 10 states with the highest number of excess deaths were in the industrial
Midwest or Appalachia, whereas rural US counties experienced greater increases in midlife
mortality than did urban counties.
A tragic irony of the study suggests that greater access to healthcare, notably among the
more affluent white population, actually correlates to an increase in higher mortality rates.
The reason is connected to the out-of-control prescription of opioid drugs to combat pain and
depression.
"The sharp increase in overdose deaths that began in the 1990s primarily affected white
populations and came in 3 waves," the report explained: (1) the introduction of OxyContin in
1996 and overuse of prescription opioids, followed by (2) increased heroin use, often by
patients who had become addicted to prescription opioids, and (3) the subsequent emergence of
potent synthetic opioids (eg, fentanyl analogues) -- the latter triggering a large post-2013
increase in overdose deaths.
"That white populations first experienced a larger increase in overdose deaths than
nonwhite populations may reflect their greater access to health care (and thus prescription
drugs)."
In September, Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, reached a
tentative settlement with 23 states and more than 2,000 cities and counties that sued the
company, owned by the Sackler family, over its role in the opioid crisis
Other factors also helped to drive up the U.S. mortality rate, including alcoholic liver
disease and suicides, 85% of which occurred with a firearm or other method.
The United States spends more on health care than any other country, yet its overall health
report card fares worse than those of other wealthy countries. Americans experience higher
rates of illness and injury and die earlier than people in other high-income
nations.
Researchers were perplexed but not surprised by the data as there existed clear signs back
in the 1980s that the United States was heading for a cliff as far as longevity rates go.
So what is it that's claiming the life of Americans, many at the prime of their life, at a
faster pace than in the past? The reality is that it is likely to be an accumulation of
negative factors that are finally beginning to take a toll. For example, apart from the opioid
crisis, there has also been an almost total collapse of union representation across Corporate
America, which has essentially crushed any form of workplace democracy. This author, a former
member of three worker unions, witnessed this egregious abuse of corporate power firsthand,
which is apparent by the total stagnation of wages for many decades.
Today's real average wage – that is, after accounting for inflation – has about
the same purchasing power it did about half a century ago . Meanwhile, in the majority of
cases, increases in salary have a marked tendency to go to the highest-paid tier of
executives.
In a
report by Pew Research, "real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago:
The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would
today."
One needs only consider the growing mountain of tuition debt now
consuming the paychecks of many university graduates, many of whom have yet to land their dream
6-figure job from their relatively worthless liberal education, to better understand the quiet
desperation that exists across the country.
At the same time, the exponential rise in the use of social media, which has been proven to
trigger depression
and loneliness in users, also deserves serious consideration. What society is experiencing
with its massive online presence is a total overhaul as to the way human beings relate to each
other. Presently, it would be very difficult to argue that the changes have been positive; in
fact, they seem to be contributing to the
early demise of millions of Americans in the prime of life.
Taken together, abusive labor practices that ignores workplace democracy, the epidemic of
opioid usage, compounded by the anti-social features of 'social media' suggests a perfect storm
of factors precipitating the rise of early deaths in the United States. Since all of these
areas fall in one way or another under the control of corporate power, this powerful agency
must find ways to help address the problem. The future success of America depends upon it.
With a college degree and half a brain things are still pretty good. They look pretty good
for trades guys too, as long as they are honest hard workers. I just got a quote from some
guy to dig up a 70 foot driveway and replace it with topsoil... $14,000. Nobody is hurting
too bad where I am except serious white trash with no job skills. Well, blacks and latinos
without job skills are hurting too, the difference is, they're resigned to their fate after
300+ years of getting abused. It's the Trump trailer trash who are mad that they aren't
throwing around big money any more for stealing copper or whatever the **** these trash did
before now.
You think life expectancy has dropped off now? Give it 10 or 20 years. Fentynal+a cheap
plastic mask with nitrogen or co2 emitter will be easily available on the internet...Most
people over 50 are ill equipped to deal with burgeoning economic realities. I'm 51 and I see
it all around me in NW Montana, dudes that are 50 or 100 pounds overweight, smoking, drinking
whisky and taking pills, not showing up for work. The economy here is booming and yet there
are men and women, mostly my age or older wandering around with tombstone eyes all day,
bumming money in front of the grocery stores. I spend more time than I like in Portland OR,
and it's even more apparent there. There are kids that panhandle, but 90% of the people
camping on the street are 45+. Dis Eases of dispair.
When men abandon their families to pursue money and fame, their families move on, and
then, when the men found they were chasing fool's gold, they despaired and died, since they
had fucked themselves, their children and the women who were willing to love them.
There wasn't any reason to live, if one doesn't believe in repairing such social crimes,
or second chances. And there's a time limit for such rehabilitation; wait too long to get
smart, and your chances are gone.
I know of three such cases in my immediate family.
In "Democracy in America", Alexis de Tocqueville commented on Americans' obsession with
money and means of procuring it. I would hypothesize that the deteriorating economic means of
ordinary Americans is behind the increase in midlife mortality. The pursuit of money has
resulted in a lifestyle that is not conducive to a happy and healthy life.
Stress causes the body to release cortisol which responds by building up belly fat for the
emergency times ahead. Sleep and stress reduction can reduce the waist line, slowly.
"there has also been an almost total collapse of union representation across Corporate
America, which has essentially crushed any form of workplace democracy. This author, a former
member of three worker unions, witnessed this egregious abuse of corporate power firsthand,
which is apparent by the total stagnation of wages for many decades." This cracked me up.
companies are NOT Democratic and never should be.
Isn't Capitalism wonderful? We mandate that a company may not make a decision not in the interests of the shareholder.
And then whinge because Big Pharma does just that. It makes drugs that maximize
profits. Why did you expect anything different?
And what about insurance companies? How are shareholders of insurance companies served if
the insurance companies pay up for claims? Anyway, let me present a physicians
point of view , that the AMA represents the shareholders of Big Pharma, not the
doctors. BTW. Black salve works against Big C. (I have to use euphemisms because it is illegal to
utter the words "Cures Big C". Why? I dunno. ( Bloodroot , a common plant.)
How unpatriotic it would be to praise Unions! So I shan't. Instead I recommend Guilds. A complete monopoly of particular trades by their
own Guild House. The guild controls the training of their members. It controls who gets to
work where. It controls their accommodation and pension. It controls for the benefit of it's
members. It is Vast.
It negotiates with politicians on protecting it's own interests by Law. (Hey, why should
only multi-national companies lobby in their own interest!)
For instance. A electrical guild would negotiate a contract with a builders guild for
cheap housing. (You scratch my back, I scratch yours.) It would negotiate with the teacher's
guild for the correct education of their children.
Big international companies are going to love it. But why do we need to consider their
emotions?
This rampant social illness is why Trump ran for President. He knew there were a lot of
hurting people out there who needed to believe in something, anything, and most importantly
he knew they would devour every scoop of manure he shoveled their way.
"real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate
recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would today."
No big drama here considering growth in wealth inequality for the period.
Job Growth Remains Slow in September, but Unemployment Rate Falls to 3.5 Percent
By Dean Baker
Manufacturing employment hit a record low as a share of private sector employment.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy added 136,000 jobs in September,
after adding 168,000 in August. The 157,000 average for the last three months is considerably
slower than the 179,000 average for the last year, but this slowing is expected in a tight
labor market.
The September job growth led to a 0.2 percentage point drop in the unemployment rate to
3.5 percent, a fifty-year low. The employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) rose 0.1 percentage
point to 61.0 percent, a new high for the recovery that is 0.6 percentage points above the
year-ago level.
The EPOPs for both prime-age (ages 25 to 54) men and women rose by 0.1 percentage point in
September. The 74.0 percent rate for women is a new high for the recovery, although still
below the peak of 74.9 percent hit in April of 2000. The 86.4 percent rate for men is 0.3
percentage points below the March level and 1.6 percentage points below the prerecession
peak.
The unemployment rate for Hispanics fell to 3.9 percent, the lowest on record, 0.6
percentage points below the year-ago level. The unemployment rate for workers without a high
school degree also fell sharply to 4.8 percent, 0.8 percentage points below the year-ago
level. The share of unemployment due to voluntary quits, a measure of workers' confidence in
their labor market prospects, jumped 1.7 percentage points to 14.6 percent, a level more
typical for a strong labor market.
Other data in the household survey were more mixed. While the mean duration of
unemployment spells edged down 0.1 weeks to 22.0 weeks, the median duration rose 0.5 weeks to
9.4 weeks. The share of long-term unemployed also rose by 2.1 percentage points to 22.7
percent.
The number of involuntary part-time workers edged down by 31,000. The number of workers
choosing to work part-time also fell, dropping by 124,000 in September. The percentage of the
workforce choosing to work part-time has been dropping over the last year, after rising
sharply following the implementation of the ACA. This likely due to workers having greater
difficulty getting health care outside of employment.
Another negative item is an increase in the number of multiple job holders, especially
among women. The share of employed women who have multiple jobs rose to 5.9 percent, 0.5
percentage points above the year-ago level. The vast majority of these women report that they
work a second job in addition to a full-time job.
The picture on the establishment side is more negative. Slower job growth is to be
expected in a tighter labor market, but it has virtually stopped altogether on the
goods-producing side. The goods-producing sector has added a total of just 2,000 jobs over
the last three months, with construction adding 8,000 jobs, manufacturing adding 4,000, and
mining and logging losing 10,000. A big part of this is the fallout from the trade war and
the resulting drop in investment. Also, lower world oil prices are a big hit to the mining
sector. The manufacturing share of private sector employment sunk to a new all-time low in
September of 9.96 percent.
On the service side, job growth in the high-paying professional and technical services
sector has slowed sharply in the last two months, added an average of 13,900, compared to an
average of 23,900 over the last year. Restaurant employment has also slowed sharply, with the
sector adding an average of just 1,500 jobs over the last four months. This should be
expected in a tight labor market, where workers have higher-paying options. Retail lost
11,400 jobs in September, bringing its losses over the last year to 60,900, just under 0.4
percent of total employment.
A big job gainer in recent months is health care, which added 38,800 jobs in September
after adding 37,200 in August. The sector has accounted for almost a third of job growth in
the private sector over the last two months.
In contrast to the evidence of a tight labor market in the household survey, wage growth
appears to be slowing slightly. The average hourly wage rose 2.9 percent over the last year,
although the annualized rate of wage growth, comparing the last three months (July, August,
September) with the prior three months (April, May, June), was a slightly higher 3.4
percent.
[Graph]
This is a generally positive report with some serious warning signs. The goods sector is
very weak and likely to get weaker, according to a wide variety of measures of manufacturing.
The evidence of slowing wage growth is also striking in a labor market with 3.5 percent
unemployment.
"... Meanwhile, greed -- once best known for its place on the list of Seven Deadly Sins -- became a point of pride for Wall Street's Masters of the Universe. With a sophisticated smile, the rallying cry of the rich and fashionable became "1 got mine -- the rest of you are on your own." ..."
And yet America's policies were headed in the wrong direction. The big banks kept lobbying Congress to pass a bill that would
gut families' last refuge in the bankruptcy courts -- the same bill we describe in this book. (It went by the awful name Bankruptcy
Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, but it should have been called the Gut the Safety Net and Pay OIT the Big Banks Act.).
The proposed law would carefully preserve bankruptcy protections for the likes of Donald Trump and his friends, while ordinary families
that had been crushed by debts from medical problems or job losses were thrown under the bus.
When we wrote The Two-Income Trap, it was already pretty clear that the big banks would win this battle. The fight kept going
for two more years, but the tide of blame-the-unlucky combined with relentless lobbying and campaign contributions finally overwhelmed
Congress.
In 2005, the Wall Street banking industry got the changes they wanted, and struggling families lost out. After the law was rewritten,
about 800,000 families a year that once would have turned to bankruptcy to try to get back on their feet were shut out of the system.1
That was 800,000 families -- mostly people who had lost jobs, suffered a medical catastrophe, or gone through a divorce or death
in the family. And now, instead of reorganizing their finances and building some security, they were at the mercy of debt collectors
who called twenty or thirty times a day -- and could keep on calling and calling for as long as they thought they could squeeze another
nickel from a desperate family.
As it turned out, the new law tore a big hole in the last safety net for working families, just in time for the Great Recession.
Meanwhile, the bank regulators kept playing blind and deaf while the housing bubble inflated. Once it burst, the economy collapsed.
The foreclosure problem we flagged back in 2003 rolled into a global economic meltdown by 2008, as millions of people lost their
homes, and millions more lost their jobs, their savings, and their chance at a secure retirement. Overall, the total cost of the
crash was estimated as high as S14 trillion.2
Meanwhile, America's giant banks got bailed out, CEO pay shot up, the stock market roared back, and the investor class got rich
beyond even their own fevered dreams.3
A generation ago, a fortune-teller might have predicted a very different future. With so many mothers headed into the workforce,
Americans might have demanded a much heavier investment in public day care, extended school days, and better family leave policies.
Equal pay for equal work might have become sacrosanct. As wages stagnated, there might have been more urgency for raising the minimum
wage, strengthening unions, and expanding Social Security. And our commitment to affordable college and universal preschool might
have become unshakeable.
But the political landscape was changing even faster than the new economic realities. Government was quickly becoming an object
of ridicule, even to the president of the United States. Instead of staking his prestige on making government more accountable and
efficient, Ronald Reagan repeated his famous barb "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are Tin from the government
and I'm here to help."'8 After generations of faithfulness to the promise of the Constitution to promote general welfare, at the
moment when the economic foundations of the middle class began to tremble, our efforts to strengthen each other and offer a helping
hand had become the butt of a national joke.
Those who continued to believe in what we could do together faced another harsh reality: much of government had been hijacked
by the rich and powerful. Regulators who were supposed to watch out for the public interest shifted their loyalties, smiling benignly
as giant banks jacked up short-term profits by cheating families, looking the other way as giant power companies scam mod customers,
and partying with industry executives as oil companies cut comers on safety and environmental rules. In this book we told one of
those stories, about how a spineless Congress rewrote the bankruptcy laws to enrich a handful of credit card companies.
Meanwhile, greed -- once best known for its place on the list of Seven Deadly Sins -- became a point of pride for Wall Street's
Masters of the Universe. With a sophisticated smile, the rallying cry of the rich and fashionable became "1 got mine -- the rest
of you are on your own."
These shifts played nicely into each other. Every' attack on "big government" meant families lost an ally, and the rules tilted
more and These shifts played nicely into each other. Every attack on "big government" meant families lost an ally, and the rules
tilted more and more in favor of those who could hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers. Lower taxes for the wealthy -- and more money
in the pockets of those who subscribed to the greed-is-good mantra. And if the consequence meant less money for preschools or public
colleges or disability coverage -- the things that would create more security for an overstretched middle class -- then that was
just too bad.
Little by little, as the middle class got deeper and deeper in trouble, government stopped working for the middle class, or at
least it stopped working so hard. The rich paid a little less and kept a little more. Even if they didn't say it in so many words,
they got exactly what they wanted. Remember the 90 percent -- America's middle class, working class, and poor -- the ones who got
70 percent of all income growth from 1935 through 1980?
From 1980-2014, the 90 percent got nothing.9 None. Zero. Zip. Not a penny in income growth. Instead, for an entire generation,
the top 10 percent captured all of the income growth in the entire country. l(X) percent.
It didn't have to be this way. The Two-Income Trap is about families that w'ork hard, but some things go wrong along the way --
illnesses and job losses, and maybe some bad decisions. But this isn't what has put the middle class on the ropes. After all, people
have gotten sick and lost jobs and made less-than-perfect decisions for generations -- and vet, for generations America's middle
class expanded. creating more opportunity to build real economic security and pass on a brighter future to their children.
What would it take to help strengthen the middle class? The problems facing the middle-class family are complex and far-reaching,
and the solutions must be too. We wish there could be a simple silver bullet, but after a generation of relentless assault, there
just isn't. But there is one overriding idea. Together we can. It's time to say it out loud: a generation of I-got-mine policy-making
has failed -- failed miserably, completely, and overwhelmingly. And it's time to change direction before the entire middle class
has been replaced by hundreds of millions of Americans barely hanging on by their fingernails.
Americas middle class was built through investments in education, infrastructure, and research -- and by' making sure we all have
a safety net. We need to strengthen those building blocks: Step up investments in public education. Rein in the cost of college and
cut out- standing student loans. Create universal preschool and affordable child care. Upgrade infrastructure -- mass transit, energy,
communications -- to make it more attractive to build good, middle-class jobs here in America. Recognize that the modem economy can
be perilous, and a strong safety net is needed now more than ever. Strengthen disability coverage, retirement coverage, and paid
sick leave. And for heavens sake, get rid of the awful banker-backed bankruptcy law, so that when things go wrong, families at least
have a chance at a fresh start. We welcome the re-issue of The Two-Income Trap because we see the original book as capturing a critical
moment, those last few minutes in which the explanation of why so many hardworking, plav-by- tho-mlcs people were in so much trouble
was simple: It was their own fault. If only they would just pull up their socks, cinch their belts a little tighter, and stop buying
so much stuff, they -- and our country -- would be just fine. That myth has died. And we say', good riddance.
"... The main culprit for the economy's falling growth rate and the general middle-class economic squeeze is debt - or more specifically, the burden of having to pay it back, with penalties, fees and lower credit ratings. The mainstream press depicts the rising market price of homes as a benefit to homeowners, a capital gam as if they almost were real estate speculators or capitalists in miniature, not wage-eamers running up debt. GDP statisticians include the rise hi valuation of owner-occupied real estate and the rising rents it saves homeowners from having to pay as adding to GDP. ..."
"... "What has occurred is an inversion of values about the proper aim of economies. Today, it is to get rich by means of a financialized rentier economy. From the point of view of rentiers and other investors, the production-and-consumption economy is the overhead. The costs of labor and capital are to be minimized by squeezing out more economic rent. By contrast, our approach treats the production-and-consumption sector as primary, and the FIRE sector and other rent extracting sectors as overhead." ..."
"... "Each debt is a credit on the other side of the balance sheet, because behind each borrower is a lender." ..."
Those who praise the post-2008 economy as a successful recovery point to the fact that the
stock market has soar ed to all-time highs, while the unemployment rate has fallen to a
decade-low. But is the stock market a good proxy for how the overall economy is doing? The low
reported unemployment rate sidesteps the predominance of minimum-wage jobs. part-time "gig''
work, and the fact that the Federal Reserve's Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S.
Households in 201S reports that 39% of Americans do not have $400 cash available for a medical
or other emergency, and that a quarter of adults skipped medical care hi 2018 because they
could not afford it. 1 The latest estimates by the U.S. Government Accountability
Office (GAO) report that nearly half (48 percent) of households headed by someone 55 and older
lack any retirement savings or pension benefits.2 Even in what the press calls an economic
boom, most Americans feel stressed and many are chronically angry and worried. According to a
2015 survey by the American Psychological Association, financial worry is the "number one cause
of stress in America today."3 The Fed describes them as suffering from '•financial
fragility." What is fragile is their economic status and self-worth, teetering 011 the brink of
downward mobility. Living hi today's fmancialized economy creates stresses that seem more
damaging emotionally than living hi a poor country. America certainly is not a poor counfry,
but it has become so debt-ridden, and its wealth and income growth so highly concentrated, that
much of its population is emotionally worse off than that of almost any other country hi the
world.
The U.S. economy's soaring wealth and income finds its counterpart on the liabilities side
of the balance sheet. Rising stock prices have been fueled by corporate stock buyback programs
and debt leveraging, not earnings from new tangible investment and employment. And rising real
estate prices reflect the decline hi interest rates, enabling a given rental flow to be
capitalized hito higher bank loans and market prices. Additionally, the wave of foreclosures
011 junk mortgages and debt- strapped new home buyers has reduced home ownership rates, forcing
more of the population into a rental market, whose rising charges for housing have supported
general real estate prices. Thus, these capital gains do not reflect a thriving economy, but a
higher-cost one that is polarizing between creditors and debtors, property owners and renters,
and the financial sector vis-a-vis the rest of the economy.
The main culprit for the economy's falling growth rate and the general middle-class economic
squeeze is debt - or more specifically, the burden of having to pay it back, with penalties,
fees and lower credit ratings. The mainstream press depicts the rising market price of homes as
a benefit to homeowners, a capital gam as if they almost were real estate speculators or
capitalists in miniature, not wage-eamers running up debt. GDP statisticians include the rise
hi valuation of owner-occupied real estate and the rising rents it saves homeowners from having
to pay as adding to GDP. But
2 William E. Gibson, "Nearly Half of Americans 55+ Have No Retirement Savings or Pension
Benefits," AARP, March 28, 2019.
https://www.aarp.org/retirement/retirement-savings/info-2019/no-retirement-money-saved.html
3 Source: American Psychological Association (2015). "American Psychological Association
survey shows money stress weighing on Americans' Health Nationwide," February 4, 2015.
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/02/monev-stiess.aspx.
"What has occurred is an inversion of values about the proper aim of economies. Today, it
is to get rich by means of a financialized rentier economy. From the point of view of
rentiers and other investors, the production-and-consumption economy is the overhead. The
costs of labor and capital are to be minimized by squeezing out more economic rent. By
contrast, our approach treats the production-and-consumption sector as primary, and the FIRE
sector and other rent extracting sectors as overhead."
"Each debt is a credit on the other side of the balance sheet, because behind each
borrower is a lender."
Yes it is, but only for couples with low level of marital satisfaction.
Notable quotes:
"... They also looked at marital breakup more generally, focusing on when couples decided to end their relationships (not necessarily if or when they got divorced). Their findings revealed that when men were unemployed, the likelihood that either spouse would leave the marriage increased. What about the woman's employment status? For husbands, whether their wife was employed or not was seemingly unimportant-it was unrelated to their decision to leave the relationship. It did seem to matter for wives, though, but it depended upon how satisfied they were with the marriage. ..."
"... When women were highly satisfied, they were inclined to stay with their partner regardless of whether they had employment. However, when the wife's satisfaction was low, she was more likely to exit the relationship, but only when she had a job. ..."
3:39
8:24
Richard D. Wolff: Viruses like Covid-19 are a part of
nature we must accept. But Capitalism-2020 must be destroyed
ONE IN SEVEN Americans would avoid Covid-19 treatment for
fear of cost, even as pricey new pill shows promise against virus