HGF

Einstein

We've been so crazy about the theory of relativity developed by a guy whose first job out of college was in a patent office, and our education system sucks so much ass that it's not likely that anyone familiar with Einstein famous theory knows anything about any of his other work.  (btw his work didn't materialize out of any great epiphany, the only job he could find out of college was at the patent office.  He got passed over for promotion twice before he left.)

In 1949 he wrote, yet again on his feelings regarding capitalism.  He had some good ideas, unfortunately no one listens to this kind of talk here in America. 

"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate (the) grave evils (of capitalism), namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society."

Albert Einstein, Why Socialism?, 1949 ^[13]

That last sentence almost makes me want to cry.  

That we need to make substantive changes to our economic system is clear.  However, here we are watching the state of Missouri debating, not when, or even if, but how much of our tax dollars they should give away to Ford Motor Company so they don't pull out of the Claycomo plant near Kansas City.

Yes, they'd take 3700 jobs with them not to mention the peripheral jobs that would dry up if they left, but seriously, we're paying some undereducated lug 70k to put windshield wipers on an SUV, which no one even buys anymore.  Why don't we pay 70k to the guy who teaches our children?  We've got it all backwards and the system can't sustain itself. 


Until and unless we start figuring out that voting against our own interests is not the way to go we're doomed.  Look at the Midwest.  The small towns are drying up.  They're dying slow protracted deaths, and no one can seem to stop it.  Yet the people who live there keep voting Republican.  All they have to do is look around, it doesn't take a genius to see that the very people they keep in office are the ones helping to destroy their economy.  Why do they do so?  Religion.


Religion is killing our country like it has so many before it.

Recently the Kansas City Star ran an article extolling the virtues of immigration to western Kansas.  They told of economic development in Garden City, and how the schools were overcrowded because so many families are moving there from Mexico just to work at the meat packing plants.

What they conveniently neglected to mention is that those self-same meat packing plants run the whole she-bang.  If they don't get the tax breaks they want they pack up and move to the next town where they will get them.  They insist that they don't have a tax burden so the poor workers are saddled with the burden of creating roads, which don't exist, schools, which are overcrowded, health care, which the companies don't provide, and it keeps the towns and the citizenry poor and stupid just the way the company wants them.    

And all the while the rich get richer. 

The system is going to implode. We've seen this kind of rot in cultures in the past, yet we deny it exists in our own.

Take me for example, I hold an associates degree in ceramics, a Bachelors degree in Liberal Arts, a Master's degree in Theatre, and a PhD in comparative religion, and I work in a grocery store, for about a third of what I made two years ago when George Bush invited his friends over to sack the treasury.

Imagine trying to maintain your standard of living on 1/3 of your income.  Let's be clear here, I live in a 650 sq ft apartment, I drive a 3 y/o car with 70k on the odometer, and I have so little retirement savings that it's laughable. Credit card debt I no longer concern myself with because I'll likely have to file bankruptcy within the calendar year.  The days of travel, of housekeepers, of , hell of HBO and Showtime are long over, yet I keep on keepin' on, what choice do I have?

Am I bitter?  Fuck yes I'm bitter!  But I'm not alone, that's my only solace. There are millions of me.


Shortly before the 2008 elections I heard a report on doom and gloom radio (read NPR) and this guy who at the time was with some government agency said that he often emerged from meetings on Wall Street and looked around and thought to himself, "If the people knew what was going on there'd be a revolution."

Well, they know now...

And so it goes:

Be careful what you wish for

Just when one thinks the Gods have forsaken them and all hope is lost, along comes the very thing one wished for, and it's a demanding bitch.

A few weeks ago I mentioned having sent off a writing sample to a website in application to be a reviewer for them.  Then I realized I'd sent off an article that I'd edited poorly and they asked for another.  I wasted a week on revisions of an article I'd dashed off in a few minutes and finally sent it yesterday.

They hired me.

They also sent me a list of things they expect within the week. 

Someone remind me to be grateful.-


My poor brother is the only one left who will deal with that S.O.B. my adoptive father.  Last night he was called to come and help the old man who was complaining of shortness of breath. When he got there the old man thoughtlessly insulted my brother's wife.  Needless to say all hell broke loose. Many things got said.  My brother quotes himself as saying something to the effect of: "You ran S*** off, you ran C***** off, you ran my son off and my wife and now you're trying to run me off. Who the hell are you going to have left when you're done with all of us?"

Personally I couldn't care less, that old bastard should rot, but I find his patterns of abuse interesting.  Someone must always be to blame.  And when it's discovered that he's the culprit there's never an apology forthcoming.  He also asked my brother not to tell anyone of the argument.  This is an old pattern because he knows he'll come off looking bad and he wants to control the situation.  Dick.

I also contend he couldn't have felt that bad he had the energy to have a fight with my brother.

It's my firm belief that he's still here at 87 because he refuses to learn the lessons the Gods put him here to learn.  The day will come and I wouldn't want to be him when it does.

And so it goes:

Everybody's got an opinion

Yes, everyone has an opinion and they're free to express it, particularly here in America where we're free to be the world's moralists and tell them exactly what they should think and do.

I read this morning that Roman Polanski won't be extradited to the U.S. for the crime he's accused of, and true to form a lot of the comments from Americans were charged with self-righteousness. 

I made the mistake of voicing my opinion and was roundly trashed by the commenters who need their meds adjusted.

But we are!  We think we're right because we're Americans, and we NEVER think of the opinions nor the needs, nor the concerns of others.  It's US, that's all that matters.  I did notice that those who trashed me were the self-same commenters who checked the option NOT to be replied to.  hehe.

Here in the world George Bush left us, one in which we're told to be stupid and fearful, which Americans were happy to do, we stomp around the world and regulate commerce, military conflicts, religious conflicts, and any other disagreement it's to our advantage to get in  the middle of.

I'm waiting for the day America gets her comeuppance.  I fear it'll be a biggen. Which is one of the big reasons I don't want to be here. 

Truthfully if I could find a country that would take me, in which I wouldn't likely be stoned to death just for being an American, I'd go tomorrow.  Alas, no one will have me.  I'm an American so I'm poor and they don't want me taking up space on their employment status.  I'm an American, so though I'm over educated I have no real idea how the rest of the world thinks, which makes me nothing more than a liability that has to be re-educated, and at my age they hardly want to make the investment.  I'm an American, so I'm going to think I'm entitled to EVERYTHING!  Which is a well-founded fear, so there's that. I'm an American so I'm infused with all that Christian bible-thumping crap(they assume) which they'll be not only mesmerized by but also which they'll abhor. AND I'm an American.  And if they're not a third world country they really don't have any interest in giving me one of the jobs we exported to them in the last decade.  

I'm a liability.

Of course, if Ronald Reagan, George Bush I, and Bill Clinton hadn't decimated the labor market in the U.S. and eliminated the middle class many of these problems wouldn't exist.  Alas, they did.

Why I aspire to the middle class I'll never know, but apparently I do.

But the catalyst for this epiphany was Roman Polanski's extradition hearing in Switzerland.  Is he guilty, well, yes and no.  First of all, what was he doing alone with a 13 y/o girl in the first pace, where was her guardian?
Second, what kind of judgment was being exercised by all the adults in this situation?  Third, wasn't this in the 70's?  There remains no understanding of that sexual mindset in this age of religious zeal and sexual phobias.  So yet again we apply our current restrictive and fear-driven mores to a person, a situation, and yes a crime that currently is really none of our business.  The woman in question wants nothing more to do with the whole mess, and Polanski is 76.

But we're the arbiters of everything moral here in America, so let's cast that first stone since we're so free of sin.

and so it goes:

ed note: It's been brought to my attention that I neglected to mention a few weeks ago that my beloved Cubbies were also in the Chicago Pride parade.  Thanks to Ernie Banks and the Cubs. 

HGF

Genius at work

I'm the New Me, and the word for today is Irony.


This genius married poorly in the 1970's and apparently is still paying the price for it.



I've always expected the police to arrive to deliver such news only I figured my "sister" would be the culprit. She's certainly crazy enough.

Then there's the Mexican drug cartel that apparently controls most of the meth traffic in the U.S. who likes to throw severed heads onto the dance floors of Mexican nightclubs.

Apparently La Familia Michoacana is a Christian fundamentalist paramilitary crime syndicate (to borrow a phrase, you can't make this shit up, I dare you to try!) that insists they only kill people who deserve it and that their members have good manners.

I will contend, until OJ, or a well-mannered member of La Familia Michoacana severs my head, that this was not the intended message of the authors of the bible. I think that perhaps a message of love and acceptance was the intent, not "Well, yeah it's ok if they deserve to die."

Alas, here in suburban America it's easy to judge.

I know a woman at work who's a single mother (28) and has been an employee at the grocery for 9 years. Trying to raise her 8 y/o daughter, and has had one bad series of things happen to her after another. Nothing catastrophic, but annoyances major enough to put her into bankruptcy and back in her mother's home.

This past month after hearing that she had enough money to buy a car and move out I happened to run cross both a car and a house that fit her needs perfectly. Today she'll drive the car I found to the house I found and sign the lease. I feel like I did something good for someone. Feels nice.

On the other hand I still have that list of people who need their heads severed, maybe I should read a few passages of the bible while contemplating.

And so it goes:

Mourn this bitches!

I'd love to sit here and pontificate about how delightful this is to hear that the Catholics have yet another thing to mourn but it's just too rich to comment on further.  

I hope you get as much enjoyment out of this item as I did. 

  from towleroad via joe my god-

CONNECTICUT: Catholic Priest Busted For Embezzling $1.3M For RENTBOYS

Father Kevin J. Gray is under arrest in Connecticut for embezzling $1.3M from his parish, money he allegedly spent on luxury vacations and lavishly appointed rentboys.

Police have arrested a well-known Roman Catholic priest in connection with the theft of $1.3 million from the Sacred Heart/Sagrado Corazon parish over a seven-year period. Rev. Kevin J. Gray, 64, was charged today with first-degree larceny. Police said he used church funds to pay for hotels, restaurant meals, clothing and male escorts. Gray turned himself in to authorities this morning and is scheduled to be arraigned in Waterbury Superior Court today. Gray was placed on medical leave by Hartford Archbishop Henry J. Mansell on April 15. The priest had told people in the community he was gravely ill. Gray was described as a popular priest in Waterbury, having served in the city for 26 years, first at St. Margaret's and St. Cecilia's churches before arriving at Sacred Heart/Sagrado Corazon. "We are deeply saddened by the events which have recently had such a profound effect on Sacred Heart/Sagrado Corazon parish," Rev. John P. Gatzak, director of communications for the Hartford Archdiocese, said in a statement today.

In March of this year, Gray presided over 40 couples (photo below) as they renewed their opposite marriage vows in a ceremony created by the Hartford Archdiocese's anti-gay Family Life Office. In January, the Hartford Archdiocese endorsed the anti-gay Manhattan Declaration, which calls on Christians to disobey all LGBT rights laws. The Hartford Archdiocese has also denounced same-sex marriage in DC and in April they claimed that out of all child molestation cases, "less than two per cent [are committed], allegedly, by Catholic clergy," therefore the problem is "societal" and not theirs.

And so it goes:

strange behavior

Google is a strange animal.

This week I see a post on Towleroad telling us all how cool Google is that they're paying their gay employees a little more to make up for the extra taxes they have to pay for health benefits for their partners.

Then I see a post by a fellow blogger in the UK who says his fairly innocuous comments won't post.  They are as follows:

Racial background of US Presidents and Blogger

[With reference to Look Mummy, below]

Something very weird is happening at Blogger. In response to my ramblings about Pride, a kind reader left this comment:

It feels like Obama has been in office for a looong time, but there is still no way the equivalent of this could be seen in the homeland of our US "allies", who continue with the idea that there are no queers in their Goddamn man's military. It must be utterly galling for them to have to serve alongside the lezzers and woofters in the British forces.

Quite the opposite. There are many in the military who wish to end Don't Ask, Don't Tell, including General Petreaus, James Jones, Colin Powell and certain members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Don't lump the mouth-breathing troglodytes with the rest of us Yanks, ok?

It frustrates me when others paint Americans as unenlightened inbred hill folk, since the rest of the world isn't so much better. We did elect an Obama, after all. When will the British elect a Prime Minister of Pakistani descent? Or the French a Senegalese President? The Dutch a Moroccan Prime Minister? The Germans a Turkish leader?

See, you got me all worked up, and not in the way I'm usually worked up when I visit your blog! Oh well, I'll scroll down and look at the pretty pictures again.

I replied, with this -- but for some reason Blogger refuses to publish this comment:

There are many in the military who wish to end Don't Ask, Don't Tell, including General Petreaus, James Jones, Colin Powell and certain members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Well now I'm really confused. If all those powerful people want to end it, and if the saintly Commander-in-Chief also wants to end it, er... why hasn't it ended? Are they all just completely inept? Or is it that they don't actually care that much about this issue because, as Clinton found, queer rights don't play so well in the electoral heartlands?

Really, I'm struggling to reconcile the picture you've painted of all the views of all these lovely enlightened people with the fact that "don't ask, don't tell" is still in place.

You should in no way think this is an attempt to diminish your people and Big Up my own -- as you'll have seen on numerous occasions, I am much, much harder on British politicians than I am on any others.

But we've got to stop letting Obama off the hook just because he comes from a different racial group. That would be like letting Thatcher get away with stuff because she just happened to be a woman.

Of course these break-throughs are to be celebrated. But either these people are fit and proper to do their jobs or they are not -- and their particular circumstances should not be an excuse for mistakes or under-performance.

The whole point of Pride is to (or was to?) underline that queer rights are basic human rights. My post was a reflection of the fact that, for almost every practical purpose, we have finally managed to achieve queer equality in the UK. Other places are not so fortunate -- and we can either make excuses for that or we can keep the pressure up.

For sure, there are much worse places than the US for queer rights. But since we are supposedly the closest allies in the current insane wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and since I was commenting on the British military's always rather popular presence at Pride, it seemed a logical swerve to the US. I'm sorry you don't see it that way.

On reflection, I thought I'd not properly responded to another point, so I left a second comment -- which, for some reason, Blogger also refuses to publish. Here it is:

Oh, and I'm rather with you on the racial background of elected politicians. I'd like a world in which these things don't matter, any more than gender or sexuality or disability.

But if you want to prove the US is more enlightened because it has elected a leader from a different demographic background, most of us can play similar games: a few decades back both Britain's Head of State and Head of Government were women -- when will the US elect a woman President?

I've lost track of the number of lesbian and gay ministers that have served openly in the British Government. But I'm struggling to think of a single lesbian or gay US Secretary.

Race is one issue, and an important one (though I suspect more important in the US than in the UK, for all sorts of historical reasons). But it's not the only one.

I'm very suspicious about why these wouldn't publish. Very strange.

Incidentally, I might also have done a bit of demographic sleuthing -- don't minority ethnic groups in the US make up around 40% of the population (and heading for majority status in a few years)? In the UK the equivalent figure is about 7%, so if you want to do "what proportion of UK Prime Ministers should come from minority ethnic groups" it will be very, very much lower than the equivalent for US Presidents. Women, of course, make up a majority in both countries...

-reciprocating motion

As you can see he didn't say anything particularly inflammatory, and yet is suspicious about why these comments won't post.   Personally I just think they were too long and blogger isn't programmed to think we can formulate sentences that lengthy.

But then the other day I tried to access an email account I have and got the message that they suspended it because of "suspicious activity."

What suspicious activity?  I rarely use the account, in fact it's my secret acct for when I have to give someone an address like for a department store or other online account that I know is only intended to generate useless emails that will do nothing but clog up my personal account. So naturally I was miffed and sent Google the following message:

Stay out of my accounts, I'm doing nothing in there but contacting family and friends which is none of your business.

Today I find that I can't access the account at all.  In fact it asks for my LIBRARY CARD number to reset the password. What the fuck is that?

I sent a form to google from which I expect very little action.  But their unwillingness to actually help me with the problem speaks volumes over and above the domestic partners benefits thing.

So let's hope that someone is actually hijacking email addresses and that's what's happened to mine.   Otherwise Google is turning into something I don't want to associate with...and that would be a hassle.

Feeling like everything is up for grabs recently and that losing it all isn't really the worst thing that could happen.  It is after all just stuff.

and so it goes:

Independence?

Funny how Pride and Independence Day coincide isn't it?

I've had issues these past several years about being Proud of parades that celebrate boys in speedos and drag queens, but then my type isn't very interesting, and when the married with children crowd takes over the parade I'm not impressed by homogenization.

Then there's this:

British men and women in the military ...serving as openly gay men and women.

Where's the military in our parade?

I heard tell of some Christians in America who showed up at parades with signs of apology since they FINALLY interpreted the message of their God as being one of acceptance and love, instead of fear and hatred. 

It's about fucking time.


There's a young man whose blog I read frequently, he goes by the moniker Davey Wavey, (yes he's young) and  recently he's become quite the outspoken little activist. 

I quoted and linked to his post recently about  some Catholic propaganda he'd found while doing research. And then today I see that he's a little miffed that he can't stay in the United States and get married to his love.

Good for him.

I'm not sure going up against the IRS is a good idea, but it would certainly get attention.

So here's to awakenings.  May they be informative, motivating, and have lots of positive results.

The 5th of July it seems is a lazy day designed to provide rest and reflection for those of us lucky enough to be born in a country as simultaneously rich and poor as this.

Taking it easy and considering what we really need to be doing for each other as citizens of a great nation that would not only benefit some but enrich us all, would be a healthy and possibly informative activity today that wouldn't take a lot of energy.  Maybe we could use tomorrow's energy to put newfound ideas into action. 

And so it goes:

 

and another thing

Have a safe and happy 4th so u can do this after:

hgf

So this is summer

Well as summers go it's not a bad one weather wise at least this week.  Though I reserve the right to start throwing a fit over the heat if and when it returns.

And work!  Damn work!  I hate it in any capacity, but this year I'm resenting it in ways I haven't before.  It seems there's no end to drama at a grocery.  Put out one fire and another starts raging. The capacity of he employees to make things that don't concern them strictly ABOUT them is amazing.  If they'd put that much energy into being good co-workers they'd be incredible.  Alas, it appears it's not to be.  So suffer the fool (me) who has to corral them daily.

Been spending time with the ex recently, we get along so well..most f the time, but there are areas in which we don't click, not sure how that's going to work out but in the meantime it's fun to enjoy each others company.

What I want to do is to sit in the studio and make pots all day.  But as I write this I relize I agreed to work for a woman who lost her father Sunday and must attend the funeral this afternoon.  I also realized that I hav to be there at 10 not 11.

It's 9:09.

SHIT!!

And so it goes:

Brave (?) New World

In this freelance world we're about to enter in which the corporations place the risk solely on those it hires to do its bidding, I find myself conflicted.

I also find myself poking about for the place to fit in.

A few days ago I sent off a writing sample for a freelance writing job with a site that deals with the Arts.  Mind you it's not my preference, but I thought I'd give it a try since I like eating and living indoors and the capability to do both is in question at this time.  So I dashed off a little missive and atached a sample that I thought was pretty good, a piece from this blog about Showtime's season ending episodes this past year.

There were a few hitches though.

In my zeal to get this job and impress with my "abilities" I may have written myself out of a job, we'll see.

Yesterday I got an email:

I'm paraphrasing here  but :
You know...we want housewives from Topeka to be able and willing to read this stuff.  So, if you wouldn't mind could you send me something I could submit to the editors?
Was the gist of it.

I guess all the talk about straight guys and using the  word Shit, isn't what they're looking for. See, too excited, I went off my head.

So now I have to learn to write for the masses, not just the four five of you who read this blog.

Oy!

And so it goes:
 

To the point

Yesterday I failed to make my point I think.

The current, and obvious plan by the GOP to prevent passage of any bill that might (and I say might with much trepidation) lift us out of the current Great Depression is meant to weaken the democrats in November, thus returning the GOP to power in congress, and THEN they'll attempt to open the floodgates of relief to help create jobs etc. and then claim they're our heroes.

Fuck them.

If the education system in America worked and Americans were smart, which they've proven time and again they're not, they'd keep all the Democrats and see what they can actually accomplish instead of believing the old lies about Democrats fiscal irresponsibility.

I might add that the deficit was increased more by George Bush, (the worst President in over 100 years, probably ever) in his administration than it has been by the Democrats, we just didn't know it because of all the prestidigitation that was going on.

So let's not blame the guy who's spending money to help us when the other guy spent not only all our money to wage unjust and illegal war, but invited his friends in and helped them sack the treasury!

November will tell the tale of whether we're as stupid as I fear, it'll also be one of the deciding factors on where I spend my retirement years. If the people of Mexico think it's so great here then I say they can have it, I'll move to the country they're abandoning and live in peace.

Having the worst time at the wheel this summer, it's like I've never done this before, making all the rookie mistakes in the book. Can't understand it.

Ran across a fb post by an old friend about a show we were in more than a few weeks ago. Though I hadn't forgotten about the show I had forgetten what it meant to us all, and apparently by the comments still does. I'm so proud to have been a part of such things.

And if I'm lucky...

And so it goes:

Common Sense

On the rare occassion in this day and age when it appears common sense is actually being applied to the culture and it's dilemmas I feel I need to acknowledge it so that perhaps it might continue to be utilized.

It's a rare commodity these days.

First I wish to acknowledge the Chicago Blackhawks and their appearance (WITH the Stanley Cup) in the Chicago Pride Parade this weekend. To an old geezer like me, the only thing that comes to mind is the question, "How fucking cool is THAT?"

Hockey players in the Pride parade, whoda thunk it? Back in the day, we were lucky to be able to get a straight person of any stripe in the damn thing. And it doesn't really matter why they were there. THEY WERE THERE!

So, to Brent Sopel and the Blackhawks I say a personal thanks, you re-affirmed my terminally shaky faith in people this weekend. (And whether or not you are aware of it THAT'S quite an accomplishment.)

And let's not forget the apparently still cool city of Seattle that flew the gay flag on top of the Space Needle.

Sometimes when you see things you never thought you'd live to see it gives you goosebumps a little.  I'm so proud to be a gay man this year.

And while honoring the tradition of common sense, let's talk about my new love.  Let's first be clear, I've never met him, and he's likely straight.  But Thom Hartmann is my new love.

Thom is an economist.  Now economists are rarely known for talking in terms of common sense, and often not even in terms most of us understand.

Thom however, made an incredible point about a year ago which I wish I had seen during my unemployment, it might have given me solace to know that someone was actually thinking about my plight at the time.

I've considred quoting Thom and I've considered paraphrasing Thom, and in the end I think it best to let him speak for himself,

Cash for Geezers? Lower the Retirement Age to 55 Now!

Cash for Geezers? Lower the Retirement Age to 55 Now!

Submitted by Louise on 25. August 2009 - 11:09

• Thom's Blog
  

One of the most powerful forms of stimulus we could apply to our economy right now would be to lower the current Social Security retirement age from the current 65-67 to 55, and increase the benefits back to where they were in inflation-adjusted 1960s dollars by raising them between 10 to 20 percent (so people could actually live, albeit modestly, on Social Security).
The right-wing reaction to this, of course, will be to say that with fewer people working and more people drawing benefits, it would bankrupt Social Security and destroy the economy. But history shows the exact reverse.
Instead, it would eliminate the problem of unemployment in the United States. All those Boomers retiring would make room in the labor market for all the recent high-school and college graduates who are now finding it so hard to find a job.
If enough Boomers left the job market, it would even flip the current dynamic of too-many-people-chasing-too-few-jobs upside down, and create a tight labor markets. Tight labor markets drive up wages.
And as wages go up, tax revenues – which are paying for Social Security (among other things) – would increase.
Additionally, these new-into-the-workforce people can then pay off student loans, buy new houses and cars, and otherwise drive the economy from the bottom up. Which will further increase tax revenues further strengthening the Social Security system.
To further tighten the job market and drive up wages (and tax revenues), modify the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 – which tightened the labor market and reduced unemployment by establishing the 40-hour work week – to include all hours worked by a person. We could also, like in France, drop the 40-hour maximum-workweek threshold to 35 hours (used by the Mitterrand government to successfully lower unemployment and stimulate the French economy). A final step would be to emulate the rest of the developed world and require by law that every worker get at least two to four weeks a year of paid vacation – further tightening the labor market.
In Uganda, Joseph Okwakoi gets it. He’s the president of the National Youth Council in that nation, a group that has considerable political power (and an affiliated Member of Parliament, the Central Youth Party’s Joseph Kasozi).
Earlier this month, Okwakoi called on Parliament and President Museveni to lower the age of retirement for government workers (the country’s largest employer) from the current 60 years of age to 55. This single act would instantly create about 15,000 job openings in the country, which could be filled by currently unemployed young people.
President Museveni replied that he’d consider it seriously, pointing out that, “The retirement age was actually 55 when we came but because of manpower shortage we put it at 60.” Now that the manpower shortage has eased, wages are falling, and unemployment is rising, he noted, “We shall study it.”
What Joseph Okwakoi understands is that there is a marketplace for labor. When the supply of labor exceeds demand, the price of labor (“wages”) falls. On the other hand, when the demand for labor is at or greater than the supply of labor, the price of labor – wages – increases.
This is the main reason why the labor movements of the 18th and 19th centuries fought so hard against child labor; they knew that if children were removed from the labor marketplace, then the supply of labor (the number of people available to work) would decrease and the price of labor (wages) would increase. And, sure enough, that’s exactly what happened – and it began the creation of a blue-collar middle class.
It’s also why the labor movement pushed for an 8-hour day and a 40-hour maximum workweek. By reducing the amount of labor available from each worker from the average 60 hours a week or so people were working before 1938, the labor market tightened up, increasing the number of people who could be employed and raising wages.
Of course, this is the exact opposite of American labor policy ever since the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush era. Reagan drove down wages by busting unions (which tighten a labor marketplace); declared an amnesty for millions of then-illegal immigrant workers to increase the supply of labor and depress wages (particularly whacking the carpenters and other construction trades unions); and began the process (completed in a big way by Bill Clinton with NAFTA and GATT/WTO) of dismantling tariffs, taxes, and laws that made it expensive or illegal to export American jobs.
Reagan also put into the chairmanship of the Fed Alan Greenspan, who openly declared that his most important job as chairman of the Fed was to prevent “wage inflation” – a term which he exclusively applied to working-class people. Greenspan is still preaching that now-discredited and anti-American philosophy he learned from Ayn Rand, in fact.
Having already largely wiped out the ability of a blue-collar single-wage-earner family to have a middle class lifestyle over the past 30 years, Greenspan now wants to go after white-collar workers by eliminating limits on H1B visas for skilled workers ranging from computer programmers to physicians to scientists. The investor class would always be protected, in the Greenspan world, but the working class – regardless of skill level – should always be the working poor.
In September of 2007, in an interview on C-SPAN for Book TV, Greenspan said:
“We pay the highest skilled labor wages in the world. If we would open up our borders to skilled labor far more than we do, we would attract a very substantial quantity of skilled labor which would suppress the wage levels of the skilled, because the skilled are essentially being subsidized by the government, meaning our competition is being kept outside the country.”
It’s shocking that ideologues like Greenspan, Reagan, and Clinton believe this, but they do. And the only way to reverse the past 29 years of Reaganomics/Clintonomics is to tighten up the labor market again. While a great start would be to pull out of our insane trade treaties and begin again protecting American manufacturers, that will take a decade for the impact to be truly felt even if we were to go back to our 1980 tariff levels today.
But providing space for a good chunk of the 16 percent of the American workforce over 55 years old will immediately take us to nearly zero unemployment and dramatically stimulate the economy. Then we can begin to bring our manufacturing jobs back home from China and the other important steps (Medicare For All and Card-Check for unionization) to restore the strength and integrity our nation and national economy once had.

And so it goes:

Hot Royals

hgf

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Santayana, if only we knew how right he was,  we MIGHT stop making the same damn mistakes over and over.

A century ago we found ourselves in the throes of corporate takeover.  They owned towns, stores, in essence people, and no one thought it inappropriate.  Until they got too greedy that is. (my research tells me company towns are not outlawed, and the way things are going I expect to see Verizonville any day now. P.S. in 2010speak it's called privatization, we'll have covenants restricting who can live where again if the trend continues.)

Does that sound familiar?

Corporations are doing it again.  They're getting too greedy, they don't want more, they want it all.  If they can't get their money one way, they'll find a way to get it another.  Look at credit card companies, (mine incidentally, is a paragon of virtue, they haven't gouged me at all during any of the recent changes, well the one I still have that is, the other one tried to fee me into the poor house. they got paid off and cut loose I'll take the credit hit.)  they lose the ability to charge a certain fee, and they raise an existing fee or create a new one. Phone companies, as though they didn't learn the lesson the first time, charge you for calling to ask a question.  Wall Street gets a crackdown, they raise fees across the board on 401k's. 

It's coming, maybe not soon, and maybe not as swiftly as it should, but the backlash is coming, the people will rise up and demand it be stopped.  That they be protected from the usury they invited in the first place.

There is no such thing as Shangri-La, but if we keep inviting disaster in the form of corporate malfeasance we're courting the exact opposite.

We get the government we deserve.

And so it goes:

What you put out there

It's funny, when you put stuff out into the universe and it answers. It's not always going to say, "Hey! Great idea, here's some stuff with which to accomplish that goal." Sometimes it'll tell you to sit still and keep your mouth shut, but that isn't my experience.

The universe has a tendency to tell me to move, to explore, to create. Sometimes I listen. And when I do it usually rewards me with rich experience I wouldn't trade for anything.

Yes, there are aggravations, there are moments when I think it would have been oh so much better to stay at home in my comfy little apartment and not dealt with the hassle, but I'm wrong, it's always worth the trouble.

Sometimes, as one gets older and a little less afraid of the world one feels like exploring a little further afield, and sometimes the universe encourages that.

So I highly recommend that you put your dreams out there, that you stretch a bit, and make yourself a little uncomfortable. The rewards you'll get are immeasurable, and the friendships that carry you through these adventures are priceless.

Say it! Say it out loud, write it on your blog, put a note on your fridge, make it your screensaver, whatever it takes, just let the universe know you're ready and willing to take the next scary and exploratory step. I bet it brings you some interesting news.

And so it goes:

hgf