This week in economic outrage has some real winners. Everyday there are so many injustices it is hard to keep up. Here are some cut to the chase boil downs of news and events you might have missed. As usual, corporations are running the government while the American people and labor be damned.
A report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics titled Comparing benefit costs for full- and part-time workers says, "Health insurance appears to be the only benefit representing a true quasi-fixed cost to employers, meaning that the cost per hour worked is greater for part-time employees than it is for full-time employees."
We fill our lives with media. Day in and day out the screens and voices spin a tall fictional tale of Americans with good jobs, houses, cars, educational opportunities and money. Frontline brings home the real America, the one we don't want to face. Gone is the American Dream, replaced with foreclosures, food stamps and work that doesn't pay enough to even make the most modest rent. The new America is a wasteland of broken dreams, broken promises and broken people working themselves into the ground and still not even getting by.
Before arguing against Robert Reich's antiquated theory on his pro-immigration stance, first allow me to give you a very brief history of immigration to the U.S. as it relates to population growth, and the major occupation that supported the livelihoods of most Americans during this time. That way, by putting everything into a broader context, you will have a much better understanding of just how new immigration will affect us today.
Manufacturing was once widely recognized as the outstanding strength of America and the basis of its prosperity, but manufacturing also has a more recent history of being almost a pariah. This newer view equated computer chips with potato chips, asserted that manufacturing is better left to others, and suggested that the nation is actually fortunate to be losing manufacturing and aiming to replace it with design, research, and services.
As expected, the Senate betrayed workers everywhere and passed the corporate cheap labor laden immigration bill and now lobbyists are pushing it to pass the House before voters can react in 2014. America's workers only hope now lies with Republicans, not exactly known for their labor friendly agenda. The situation is bleak. Even the AFL-CIO has sold out U.S. technical workers as well as low wage workers and endorsed the Senate bill.
This week several groups announced a campaign to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). People have had enough experience with treaties like NAFTA to know that it is bad for the economy, bad for workers and bad for the environment. And the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement is NAFTA on steroids.
Again, just prior to the 4th of July week-end, political activist and consumer advocate Ralph Nader questions the patriotism of corporate America in an op-ed piece, writing to business leaders about reciting the pledge allegiance to the American flag at their annual shareholder meetings.
It's been said that money is the root of all evil. But does money really make people more likely to lie, cheat and steal? New research released by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencessays "yes".
When two bombs exploded this spring near the Boston Marathon finish line, many rushed to help those who were hurt. We read about their actions with approval and admiration, but not with surprise. On some level people understand that it is human nature to try to help, even if doing so involves risk or sacrifice.
This part of human nature is largely absent in business, a world that believes almost entirely in motivation through self-interest and even in the social good of self-interest
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