Paying Workers Enough to Live Is Communism

Pharoah Bloomberg: Paying Workers Enough to Live Is Communism | | AlterNet.

Long-term unemployed losing benefits as job picture appears to improve

Nationwide about 12 million people are out of work and actively seeking a job. About 5.1 million of those are considered “long-term unemployed,” meaning they have been looking for work for 27 weeks or longer.

What’s more, one big reason the unemployment rate has been falling is because many people are giving up on finding a job or not entering the labor force to begin with. People not actively seeking a job are not counted as unemployed by the BLS.

Economy Watch – Long-term unemployed losing benefits as job picture improves.

“Too Crooked to Fail”: Matt Taibbi Says Bailouts, Fraud are the Secrets to Bank of America’s Success

In his new article, “Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail,” Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi chronicles the remarkable history of the rise of Bank of America — an institution he says has defrauded “everyone from investors and insurers to homeowners and the unemployed.” Taibbi describes how the Bush and Obama administrations have repeatedly propped up the financial institution, which received a $45 billion taxpayer bailout in 2008. Bank of America has also received billions in what could be described as shadow bailouts. The bank now owns more than 12 percent of the nation’s bank deposits and 17 percent of all home mortgages. Taibbi also recounts how fraudulent practices by Bank of America and other companies ravaged pension funds. “Most people think of [the mortgage crisis] as some airy abstraction — you know, bankers ripping off bankers,” Taibbi says. “That’s not what it is. It’s bankers stealing from old ladies and retirees.”

via “Too Crooked to Fail”: Matt Taibbi Says Bailouts, Fraud are the Secrets to Bank of America’s Success.

The worst-paying cities for women

While it’s been nearly a century since women across the country won the right to vote and the right to work alongside men, equal pay continues to remain a distant goal.

via Bottom Line – The worst-paying cities for women.

Is decoupling real? « Consider the Evidence

Since the 1970s, income growth for middle-class American households has become decoupled from growth of the economy.

via Is decoupling real? « Consider the Evidence.

Paychecks for young adults getting slimmer

Wages for young workers have been declining for more than a decade. They fell off a cliff during the Great Recession to levels not seen since the 1970s for certain groups of entry-level workers, according to new data from center-left think tank the Economic Policy Institute.

via Life Inc. – Paychecks for young adults getting slimmer.

Bye Bye American Pie: The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution

So while the productivity revolution is indubitably good, the task ahead is to figure out how to distribute more of its gains to more of our people.

via Robert Reich Bye Bye American Pie: The Challenge of the Productivity Revolution.

Jobs Returning Slowly as Wages Lag

The pressure on wages has multiple causes. None of the main factors seems poised to change for the better. Advanced information technologies have slashed the ranks of many careers, such as travel agents. Competition from emerging markets has sliced away jobs on the factory floor and customer-service phone banks. Union membership has plunged, from some 35 percent of private sector workers in the early 1950s to 6.9 percent in 2010.

via Jobs Returning Slowly—as Wages Lag – Businessweek.

Eliminating Minimum Wages as a Jobs Plan?

Fox News said Cain’s opportunity zone plan risks angering unions because it would enact policies they consider bad policy, such as the elimination of the U.S. minimum wage.

Eliminating unemployment is a necessary yet not sufficient solution. We need living wages.  At issue here is not whether eliminating minimum wages would diminish joblessness (increase employment); rather it is to question living standards. Implementing a policy as this would create a larger poverty class. Even currently employed workers in affected areas would suffer as they would now be competing in a race to the bottom.

via Cain to scrap minimum wage in poor areas? – politics – Decision 2012 – msnbc.com.

Supply and Demand?

A humourous commentary on supply and demand economics…

The conversation goes like this:

• Customer: $15 bucks a glass?
• Calvin: That’s right! Want some?
• Customer: How do you justify charging 15 dollars?
• Calvin: Supply and demand.
• Customer: Where’s the demand?! I don’t see any demand!
• Calvin: There’s lots of demand!
• Customer: Yeah?
• Calvin: Sure! As the sole stockholder in this enterprise, I demand monstrous profit on my investment!
• Calvin: And as president and CEO of the company, I demand an exorbitant annual salary!
• Calvin: And as my own employee, I demand a high hourly wage and all sorts of company benefits! And then there’s overhead and actual production costs!
• Customer: But it looks like you just threw a lemon in some sludge water!
• Calvin: Well, I have to cut expenses somewhere if I want to stay competitive.
• Customer: What if I got sick from that?
• Calvin: ”Caveat emptor” is the motto we stand behind. I’d have to charge more if we followed health and environmental regulations.
• Customer: You’re out of your mind. I’m going home to drink something else.
• Calvin: Sure! Put me out of a job! It’s you anti-business types who ruin the economy!
• Calvin: I need to be subsidized.