Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Low Wages

Why would you not support this?

Good paying jobs with decent benefits and rights have been systematically eliminated in the USA, by union-busting, off-shoring, "free trade," strong dollar policies, you name it.  Unemployment and underemployment, together with the rising cost of the regressively underfunded system of public higher education are keeping huge numbers of today's young people out of both work and school.  In both places they compete against older folks, booted out of their 10-20 year seniority jobs by market corrections and the like.  And when they do find work - ugh! - the wages are low, the disrespect is high, and the grind is lucky-if-daily.

These are the new coal mines.  Cola mines, we might call 'em.

The corrosive effect of this re-proliferation low wage work is concrete.  But liberals miss half the point.  It isn't stupidity that leads to policies favoring this social ill, it's self-interest on the part of the really big bosses.  People accept lower wages and work with greater compliance when they are desperate and ill-fed (I use the word advisedly: people in this country tend to have enough to eat in terms of quantity -- when's the last time  kwashiorkor was a big problem in the US?  Never? -- but the poorer you are the worse is the quality of your sustenance.)

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Dick Durbin Lies About Social Security

No kidding, a politician lied.  Who'da thunk it?  Well, this one's a whopper, and it's insidious because it's been around since the late 1970's and many millions of people actually buy the crap.  Since Social Security was first proposed, its detractors have screamed "socialism!"  When that didn't fly, they started saying the idea would never work.  Here's the problem with that: it works.