Jack Saturday

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Anti Wage-Slavery, Pro Freedom Quotations Of The Week 623, 624

Consider: A corporate leader who increases profits by slashing his work force is thought to be successful. Well, that’s more or less what has happened in America recently: employment is way down, but profits are hitting new records. Who, exactly, considers this economic success?
The Competition Myth
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 23, 2011

AA




TOIL and grow rich,
what’s that but to lie
with a foul witch
and after, drained dry,
to be brought
to the chamber where
lies one long sought with despair.
William Butler Yeats

Monday, January 17, 2011

Anti Wage-Slavery, Pro-Freedom Quotations Of The Week 621-622

Logs of Jared L. Loughner’s conversations with fellow players in an online game of strategy show a young man who has become frustrated by his inability to find a job, who views his early education as tantamount to slavery…
In an Online Game Forum, Tucson Suspect Lashed Out
SARAH WHEATON
New York Times
January 14, 2011



aaa
…the UK's Institution of Mechanical Engineers has delivered... A report out this week shows how humanity already has at its disposal all the tools to make room for as many as 9 billion people.

There are "no insurmountable technical issues in meeting the needs of 9 billion people... sustainable engineering solutions largely exist", the engineers write in Population: One Planet, Too Many People?

Another report out today also sets a high note, declaring that it is possible to feed the future 9 billion without trashing the planet.
Housing 9 billion won't take techno-magic
12 January 2011 by Fred Pearce
New Scientist

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Anti-Wage Slavery, Pro-Freedom Quotations Of The Week 619, 620

Except for the height of the housing boom -- October 2007 through June 2008 -- real GDP is now higher than it has been in the entirety of U.S. history.

The story runs as follows. Before the financial crash, there were lots of not-so-useful workers holding not-so-useful jobs.
10 Percent Unemployment Forever?
BY TYLER COWEN, JAYME LEMKE
Foreign Policy Magazine
JANUARY 5, 2011

AAA
One of my son’s friends who graduated from the University of British Columbia last spring with a business degree has been looking for work. He’s applied everywhere, in search of something even remotely connected to his area of study. No luck.
So now this bright, educated 22-year-old who got solid grades has begun sticking flyers through people’s mail slots offering his services to do odd jobs, anything to put a few bucks in his pocket.
…for now, many of our university grads will have to content themselves with cleaning gutters for a living – if they’re lucky.
What’s the matter with kids today? Well, no jobs, no money …
Gary Mason
Globe and Mail
Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010

Friday, January 07, 2011

Peter Joseph

You'll need the time and popcorn for this longer video:

Senator Speaks

Public Sector Losers

Monday, January 03, 2011

Anti-Wage-Slavery, Pro-Freedom Quotations Of the Week 616-618

Seriously, what we’re looking at over the next few years, even with pretty good growth, are unemployment rates that not long ago would have been considered catastrophic — because they are. Behind those dry statistics lies a vast landscape of suffering and broken dreams. And the arithmetic says that the suffering will continue as far as the eye can see.
Deep Hole Economics
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 2, 2011

AAA

Real growth at two-percent? Really, where? Technically we're not in a recession, I guess technically my uncle and millions more who lost their homes just technically relocated. Maybe you think flipping tainted burgers for ignorant, obese, poor people constitutes meaningful employment. When several thousand job seekers show up for thirty open positions it is indicative of systemic failure. "If people really want to work there is work." Yeah, and the poor are poor because they are lazy and it's their own fault and they should just "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps" and blah blah blah bullshit.
NewRevolution
AAA

America’s biggest — and only major — jobs program is the U.S. military.

Over 1,400,000 Americans are now on active duty; another 833,000 are in the reserves, many full time. Another 1,600,000 Americans work in companies that supply the military with everything from weapons to utensils. (I’m not even including all the foreign contractors employing non-US citizens.)
America’s Biggest Job Program – the U.S. Military
Robert Reich