If I think too much about how the world really is, I crawl into bed and cannot get out.
Minimum Wage Over Time
Comparing the value of labor over time is apparently not that straight forward. I was wondering about minimum wage. When I graduated high school in 1970 
(gasp… yes) the minimum wage was $1.60. I dropped out of college after a year, and I went to work in a factory for somewhat more than the minimum wage. After a few months I had raises that put me up to $2.60 an hour which was nearly 60% higher than minimum wage. Even at that astronomical wage, even without a car to support, even with living in basically a slum apartment, I was having a hard time making ends meet. I had to be careful with every penny. I had a crisis back then that wiped out very quickly what little savings I had. I had absolutely no benefits. A medical emergency would have been a financial disaster.
Using data as calculated on the website, Measuring Worth , I came up with the following data:
Current data is only available till 2012. In 2012, the relative worth of $1.60 from 1970 is: Continue reading “Minimum Wage Over Time”
The Real Meaning of Black Friday
Wal-Mart heirs occupy slots 11, 14, 16 and 17 of the richest people on the Planet! Yet many of its employees are forced into public welfare programs due to low wages and their HR policies. If you work and are willing to work full-time should not have to get public assistance to make ends meet. That is the real Black Friday…a day of mourning for the American retail worker.
Egypt – The Withering of the Arab Spring
As an outsider looking in at the situation in Egypt it is very confusing. I am going to explore my thoughts via this piece. It would be appreciated if anyone who had thoughts on this would comment. It just seems like awful conflict with both sides wrong.First allow me to admit that most of my news comes from NPR. While many folks rant about NPR’s “Liberal” slant I find it one of the few news sources without a large bias. So many of the news sources of our time are more opinion than news and/or have a definite bias. Since I almost never watch TV news, my other source of news is the Internet, so much of which must be taken with a grain of salt. I do tend to browse the more liberal news/opinion sites. To counterbalance this I do browse the BBC site almost daily to get a point of view from outside the United States. On very rare occasions I will look at Al Jazeera site. Like most folks I am stuck in my bias silo, but I do attempt to make the occasional foray into other arenas of thought.
I have a love/hate relationship with my country. Continue reading “Egypt – The Withering of the Arab Spring”
Is the postal crisis real or manufactured?
Is the postal crisis real or manufactured?
Jim Hightower in an article, The Truth About the US Postal Service, on Common Dreams contends that current United States Postal Service crisis is a manufactured crisis.
“The privatizers squawk that USPS has gone some $13 billion in the hole during the past four years… the service actually produced a $700 million operational profit (despite the worst economy since the Great Depression).”
“In 2006, the Bush White House and Congress whacked the post office with the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act — an incredible piece of ugliness requiring the agency to PRE-PAY the health care benefits not only of current employees, but also of all employees who’ll retire during the next 75 years. Yes, that includes employees who’re not yet born! Continue reading “Is the postal crisis real or manufactured?”
A Scary Polls on Yahoo
I don’t know a lot about James Buchanan, but for my money George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan vie for the worst president of all times.
Reagan was a disaster for the common man, promoting the greed of the already rich and powerful. By ignoring the energy crisis, he has left us decades behind where we need to be in a world where fossils fuels are ruining the environment and oil dependency hampers the economy. His zest for deregulation has been disastrous Continue reading “A Scary Polls on Yahoo”
How Much Do You REALLY Love That New iPhone?
Another sad account of Foxconn and Apple and the high human cost of your iPhone: iEmpire: Apple’s Sordid Business Practices Are Even Worse Than You Think
Someone please tell what is right about unfettered capitalism be practiced globally with US in the lead.
Here is a link to a Forbes article listing the top 400 richest people in America. Number 400 has a net worth of $1 billion. Number 1 on the list, Bill Gates, has a worth of 59 billion. Six of the folks on this list made their wealth from Wal*Mart. Steve Jobs is number 39 with a paltry $7 billion. Michael Dell is number 18 with a worth of $15 billion.
Go to the top of the list and find the “source” heading. Click on Continue reading “How Much Do You REALLY Love That New iPhone?”
Wal-Mart Could Easily Pay $12 an Hour
I referenced this same article in a previous blog, but I think it is important enough to pull out by itself.
“Raising the pay of Wal-Mart’s U.S. workers to a minimum of $12 an hour would lift many out of poverty, reduce their reliance on public assistance, and cost the average consumer, at most, $12.49 a year.
That’s the conclusion of a new study published by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. The study is primarily concerned with the question of how raising Wal-Mart’s wages would affect poor families, including both those who work at its stores and those who shop at them. The benefits to poor families, the study concludes, would far exceed the costs. “
Read the whole article at Wal-Mart Could Easily Pay $12 an Hour
Teachers’ newest online worry: cyberbaiting
As if teaching in today’s environment is not hard enough! It seems that any technology humans come up with, someone finds a way to pervert it. I do know that the school system where my significant other teaches has a policy prohibiting teachers from interacting with students on social sites. Apparently, it is for some very good reasons.
Below is a link to an article about cyberbaiting (why does that sound so nasty) at eSchool News