tagged w/ joblessness
-
Yesterday, I met a small-framed man with a red bandanna tied around his shaggy gray hair. His skin was tanned to leather. He fit the part of old hippie, and he slightly resembled Charles Manson, which is maybe why I trusted him right away.
"Hey, chief!" he said. I was on my way into Bristol Farms to get coffee. "How are you today?" I said I was fine and asked how he was. "I could use fifty cents," he said, "or hell, I'd be happy to get a dollar." I couldn't resist giving him a buck. The demand wasn't strenuous.
I pulled out one dollar and wondered if I should be giving him more. He thanked me, I walked away. Suddenly, "Hey you!" he shouted. I turned, a little concerned why he was shouting at me. Did he want another dollar? Dear Jesus, let this guy leave me alone. "Hey, thank you so much, brother," he called. He stared into my eyes. He was thankful.
The most unworthy Americans: they NYPD's continued brutality
I went inside, bought my coffee, browsed the fresh fruits and vegetables section, and then left. He was standing outside. Shit, I thought, here we go again. I looked him in the eyes, expecting him to ask for more. He stared at me too, and we didn't say anything for one awkward moment. A couple other people walked by, but I was hardly paying attention. I was nervous about what he was going to say, or not say.
The old homeless hippie reached out a fist, and we bumped knuckles. His eyes intensely watched me. "Thank you," he said again, "I love you, brother." And that was all. I walked away feeling like I should have bought him coffee, even a meal, whatever he needed. Fuck it that I'm just a student and taking on a lot of debt. I've never seen anyone so sincerely grateful for one dollar. I had clean clothes, a backpack, a car. He didn't seem to have much more than the dirty clothes he was wearing.
And that's the issue. I keep giving out my student loan money to the homeless and destitute wandering the streets of Los Angeles. I suspect a lot of people with very little give to those with even less. We know how easily we could be them, how easily we could be out of work, out of our apartments, and on the streets. I don't need a wild imagination to picture myself in serious financial difficulty. It's not like there are any new jobs being created.
Read the rest:
http://deardirtyamerica.blogspot.com/2011/10/thoroughness-of-good-whore-buying-into.htmlYesterday, I met a small-framed man with a red bandanna tied around his shaggy gray... more
-
-
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. .... read more http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/recent-news/43010-declaration-of-the-occupation-of-new-york-cityAs we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must... more
-
-
worrg
-
added this
-
8 months ago
- |
-
is unfathomable that yet another Texas blowhard governor has emerged as a front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination. The persistent appeal of the mythology of Texas as a model for the nation defies the lessons of logic and experience, and yet here we are with Rick Perry, a George W. Bush look-alike, as a prime contender to once again run our nation into the ground.
We Recommend.Rick Perry's Polluter Cronies (Global Warming and Climate Change, Conservatives and the American Right, Presidential Campaigns and Elections)
Texas Governor Rick Perry has raised massive campaign contributions from a network of wealthy executives with business before his state and anti-environmental interests.
Ben Adler
24 comments Five Questions for Rick Perry (US Politics, Political Figures, Campaigns and Elections, Conservatives and the American Right, Electoral Politics, Presidential Campaigns and Elections, Tea Party, Politics)
Texas Governor Rick Perry has joined the presidential race. Here are some questions he should have to answer.
Ben Adler
50 comments .Related Content.Democrats Stage a Revival in Texas
The Tea Party and Goldman Sachs: A Love Story
The New Corporate World Order
No Nukes Is Good Nukes
W.'s First Enron Connection: Update on the Bush-Enron Oil Deal
About the Author.Robert Scheer
Robert Scheer, a contributing editor to The Nation, is editor of Truthdig.com and author of The Great American Stickup....Also by The Author[ Click for More ] .Another Bailout Joins the Goofball Economy (Economic Policy)
The economy is a shambles, saved from a free fall only by the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented promise of free money for banks for at least two years.
Robert Scheer
10 comments The Recovery Is Dead, Long Live the Recovery (Economy, Politics)
The die has been cast. Obama’s deal to raise the debt ceiling is a disaster in the making.
Robert Scheer
10 comments .Related Topics.Rick Perry Texas .To begin with, Texas is not and never will be a model for the nation unless the other states discover similarly rich deposits of oil and natural gas that account for one-third of jobs and supply 40 percent of tax revenues within those states. If Texas energy receipts and jobs helped float Governor Bush’s reputation, they have been nothing short of miraculous for Perry’s tenure. The price of oil rose from $25 a barrel when Lt. Gov. Perry replaced the newly elected President Bush to $147 in 2008 and has stayed at more than $80 a barrel since, to the dismay of anyone who has to buy gasoline.
In addition, thanks to breakthroughs in oil field technology that Perry had nothing to do with, there have been controversial new drilling techniques that have vastly expanded the exploitation of gas and oil reserves, producing many of the new jobs that the Texas governor claims. For a relatively ineffectual governor, in a state in which the part-time Legislature holds the power, to take credit for this job boom is as ludicrous as a Saudi prince bragging of his entrepreneurial skills as the source of royal wealth.
Unfortunately, the boom in the energy industry has not spread to those in the state stuck in less lucrative sectors of the economy. Texas remains tied with Mississippi for the largest number of workers earning wages equal to or less than the federal minimum wage. This is particularly true for the majority of nonwhite Texans, who account for a good portion of the state population increase that Perry brags about. It will be interesting to see how he handles the immigration issue in light of the fact that the manufacturing sector, particularly automobiles, is dependent on robust traffic of parts and workers across the border from Mexico.
It should be added that much of the non-energy job growth is in the public sector, which has been in part financed by the federal government that Perry lambastes. As the Austin American-Statesman newspaper points out: “… [A]lmost half of the state’s job growth the past two years was led by education, health care and government, the sectors of the economy that will now take a hit as federal stimulus money runs out and the state’s 8 percent cut in state spending translates into thousands of layoffs among state workers and teachers in the coming months.”
There is, however, something very important in the Texas experience that could serve as a model for the nation, and that is the state’s success in avoiding the worst effects of the housing crash. Texas has not suffered anything like the crushing foreclosure crisis that is the main source of joblessness in states from Florida to California. But Perry surely will not dwell on the reasons for Texas having escaped that fate, because his mantra of less government regulation doesn’t work in this instance. If lax environmental and zoning codes were the secret, neighboring Arizona and Nevada would not be the housing basket cases that they are. The difference for Texas is one that most free-market conservatives ignore: It was precisely the tight government regulation of the housing market that spared Texas a similar fate.
From the first days of statehood in 1845, Texas has maintained the strictest laws on home mortgages in the nation. The Texas constitution’s blanket ban on home equity loans, born of outrage over previous land grabs by banks, has been eased substantially over the years, but a firm commitment that the total amount in loans on a house not exceed 80 percent of appraised value, and other consumer-friendly restrictions on mortgage lenders, saved Texas from the home mortgage disaster visited upon many other states.
That put a crimp in the wild lending that fed the securitization of home mortgages that still proves to be so toxic to the nation’s economic recovery outside Texas. As a bit of irony, it was US Senator Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who pioneered the passage of federal legislation preventing government oversight of those mortgage-backed securities. Perhaps because Texas homeowners were better protected than those in the rest of the nation, the Texan Bush managed to be splendidly indifferent during his presidency to the dire consequence of the housing bubble.
Indeed, how can Perry seek the presidency largely on the basis of his Texas governorship without conceding that it is his Texas predecessor, himself purely a product of Texas state government, who is far more responsible for the economic meltdown than the current president?
Barack Obama “inherited a mess,” economist Nouriel Roubini—made famous by his 2005 prediction of the economic collapses, which Bush ignored—told the Wall Street Journal, adding, “We’re lucky that this Great Recession is not turning into another Great Depression.” In case his point was missed, Roubini reminded of the obvious: “We destroyed our fiscal sustainability before [President Obama] came to power.… We had guns and butter and low taxes. It doesn’t work, if you want guns and butter, you should have high taxes during wars.”
Bush, as Perry is doing, complained about big government in every area except lavish spending on the military-industrial complex, an important part of the Texas economy at more than $200 billion a year, double what it was a decade ago. But that’s all the hypocrisy we have time for in one column.
Robert Scheer is the author of The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street (Nation Books).
Robert Scheer
August 17, 2011is unfathomable that yet another Texas blowhard governor has emerged as a front-runner... more
-
-
It’s time to do more for veterans seeking employment. We have an obligation to make sure our veterans are able to navigate this difficult labor market and succeed in the civilian workforce. That’s why the President today announced a comprehensive plan to ensure that veterans have the employment support and assistance they deserve. Building on the First Lady and Dr. Jill Biden’s work through Joining Forces, and on the President’s Veterans Employment Council, the proposals outlined by the President today use every available avenue to make sure that veterans have the skills employers want and that employers understand the value of hiring a veteran.
http://crumblinginfrastructure.blogspot.com/2011/08/putting-our-veterans-back-to-work.htmlIt’s time to do more for veterans seeking employment. We have an obligation to... more
-
-
"In Tunisia, the young people who helped bring down a dictator are called hittistes—French-Arabic slang for those who lean against the wall. Their counterparts in Egypt, who on Feb. 1 forced President Hosni Mubarak to say he won't seek reelection, are the shabab atileen, unemployed youths. The hittistes and shabab have brothers and sisters across the globe. In Britain, they are NEETs—"not in education, employment, or training." In Japan, they are freeters: an amalgam of the English word freelance and the German word Arbeiter, or worker. Spaniards call them mileuristas, meaning they earn no more than 1,000 euros a month. In the U.S., they're "boomerang" kids who move back home after college because they can't find work. Even fast-growing China, where labor shortages are more common than surpluses, has its "ant tribe"—recent college graduates who crowd together in cheap flats on the fringes of big cities because they can't find well-paying work."
Interesting article, be sure to follow the link and read the whole piece. I've mentioned this in relation to others stories I've found here on Current. This is the first article I've seen that actually puts a global picture on it."In Tunisia, the young people who helped bring down a dictator are called... more
-
-
With summer upon us, CBS News examines the staggering unemployment rate for teens looking to land a summer job. In Los Angeles, “last summer, Los Angeles hired 16,000 young people. This summer, only 6,000 will land a city job” leaving many concerned about the teenagers who will have no activity or job. With nearly 14 million Americans looking for work, what chance do teenagers have?
http://www.ourtime.org/page/news-about-you-6-6-2011/With summer upon us, CBS News examines the staggering unemployment rate for teens... more
-
-
WASHINGTON — The number of people seeking jobless benefits jumped sharply last week, after two straight weeks of declines.
The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment aid rose by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000 for the week ending Oct. 30. Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a smaller rise.
The increase comes after claims fell in four of the previous five weeks. Those drops had brought claims to their lowest level since July and raised hopes the job market was improving.
Read More: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/applications-for-jobless-aid-rise.htmlWASHINGTON — The number of people seeking jobless benefits jumped sharply last... more
-
-
-
-
-
