So., why is the Ides of March bad luck? If you want to avoid death or worse, 1,000 cuts, beware the ides of March. The date was certainly unlucky for Julius Caesar, who was assassinated in front of the Roman senate on March 15. William Shakespeare dramatized the event in his play about Caesar with the famous quote, ‘beware the ides of March.” For us, the 80 Percent, we have 24/7, 365 days a year of those Ides of March!
As a communist, I have deep understanding of the hate toward communists throughout history, and why countries in Africa and elsewhere are, were, and will lean toward socialism: kicking out the prostitutes, pimps and purveyors of chaos and terror. Bankers and Bombs. Viruses and Lockdowns. Neoliberal or Neocon. The purveyors of pain are at the top.
And, well, in the middle. So, I quit a job November 3 when my supervisor hung up on me. I was stationed 80 miles from where she was headquartered, where the HR was headquartered and where the Executive Director was headquartered.
This woman was a complete disaster as a human and professional (sic). She had already had issues with the fellow I replaced, who stormed out, quit. Her forked tongue and broken personality, well, she was the nonprofit’s two year wonder, her son worked for the nonprofit, and she had control of the small satellite office in my county.
My job was to take over case management for adults with developmental disabilities. That system is county run, with state DHS funding. It is a broken system, understaffed, and staffed with broken humans. So, one month on this job I was subjected to this supervisor’s personal life, her homophobia even though her Air Force son was marrying a man. She called herself a beaner, as she has some Latina in her bloodline. She asked me if I drove like an old man. On and on, and so, when I heard her voice, heard her warn me she was hanging up on me, and the fact that she would not listen to my concerns about a client who complained about shorted checks for a janitorial job we were not managing for him, I knew it was time to go.
Oregon’s judges:
So, this is my thinking — it was a just cause quit, to use the parlance of the dirty Unemployment Insurance/Employment Department lingo.
A job at $20 an hour, benefits like health insurance and PTO, and, I was expecting to be there for two years, three? But, for my physical health and mental health, bye-bye toxic and unprofessional people and organization. I was thinking this would be a legit quit making me eligible for some pittance of unemployment, as in $180 a week. Covid benefits had ended last November. Quitting or termination from a job after only one month looks bad to the future employers. Age 65, now, and alas, living in a rural county, and here we are, I am dead in the water as a worker, a man, a contributor to “society.”
Then, the application for Unemployment Insurance. Hoops to jump through (easy), and then applying for jobs as part of the deal. Then, the hell of Idiots Rule, the Bureaucrats. The adjudicator was unprofessional, taking my statements in his home (Zoom Doom), I heard him drawing on cig after cig, and he had to tell me he was gay, a real liberal (he thought I was a liberal — fucking comedy hour: Read, Communist!). Real bizarre. Real Portland Bizarro
The bastards got my story, and this dude had to get my statements over a span of three phone calls. He went off topic beyond stupidity, but he found against me: not eligible for UI, unemployment insurance. Then, I had to file an appeal.
That was more hell, and three hours with a judge (sic) and the HR director came on the line. Five days later, the judge, again, found against me.
Then, an appeal of the appeal through the Employment Appeals Board. That entailed sending in any additional information, to both the Board and the former employer.
Forty days later, again, two out of three judges (the 3rd one was not present to hear my appeal) found against me. They predicate that I had opportunities to deal with the issues I was dealing with through, yep, the HR, which was, again, part of the clique. The Executive Director was already on his way out, heading for another nonprofit ED position in the same place, Coos Bay.
Now, there is an appeal of the appeal through the state Appellate Court, but that entails a $391 filing fee. Yep, money to keep these blue state bureaucrats paid.
Irony after irony is that I have been employed to help homeless or developmental disabled to navigate systems of rents, medical needs, employment, and getting through the paperwork hell. I have helped some with their unemployment claims, and to get the Veterans Administration to find they have service – connected disabilities so they might get a few hundred bucks a month from Uncle Sam.
These are the systems of oppression and penury. This is the system that will never be discussed with gusto in mainstream and left-stream media. This is the system of holding people down and keeping worthless humans in jobs that are the opposite of humane and human.
Now now, this is not a spilled milk screed, hyperbolic and completely insignificant just because the world is falling apart, Ukrainians are being blowing apart by ZioLensky, and wildfires are rampant, toxicity out the roof, housing homicidal, billionaires drunk on power. This is foundational, readers of DV. Yep, amazing writers here talking about Boris Johnson, lots about Roe v Wade, lots on “the global economies” and tons on Ukraine and the EU and UK and global “situations.” Climate change, climate fatigue, climate chaos in a climate of fear and Stockholm Syndrome.
It starts locally, at the city and county level, at the state level. We (citizens) are here for a broken system of planned dysfunction, planned obsolescence, planned homicide to sputter ahead, to keep the bad people in jobs and the rest of us at their whim(s).
So, more shouts into the wilderness, flailing against the windmills of the Byzantine world of state policies, and rationalizations spewed toward the middle managers, the professional office class, the cogs in the systems of pain and begging and absurdity.
Oregon’s seasonal recreation and employment — smoke jumpers:
My letter to the two hearing board people: Nothing fancy, nothing a lawyer would write. But life sucks, no, when you don’t have the shekels to pay for criminal lawyers?
Oregon:
To an uncaring two-person appeals board – Hettle and Steger-Bentz:
I wholeheartedly see this decision as both incompetence and lack of empathy. Citing that I as the employee had recourse to not quit a highly toxic work environment shows the lack of creed you have. You are not in the know about non-profits, about the developmental disabilities case management realm. You have no idea how toxic those small nonprofits can get. The new case manager, as I was, had no connection to the actual main office and all of those inner workings of their clique. I had no recourse to thrive or do well at this job after I was hung up on by the supervisor. I had already for a month dealt with her unprofessional commentary and her racist remarks. That was the culture there, and citing some sort of recourse I might have had with the HR head is inane.
This is not a state or county agency with a more developed culture of workplace stability and professionalism.
You have no street creed or ground truthing when it comes to workplace cultures.
This outfit, Bay Area Enterprises, is shoddy, highly unprofessional, and alas, the rationale given in your wrong-headed decision is faulty: I did not have just cause to quit. Absurd. I needed to get out of a toxic and uncompromising situation. You are fools to think there was another option. You are overpaid State bureaucrats with little sense of the real workplaces workers in Oregon have to submit to. Do you realize that this small company, new to me, is all about insider cliques? That my immediate supervisor and the HR head work in the same office, 80 miles from where I was assigned? That the executive director left the company a week after my complaints, so he was already on the outs. That the executive director and the immediate supervisor I was worked in the same office and were in constant discussion back and forth about employee x and employee y? That there are prejudicial allegiances made under those circumstances?
I was hung up on by my supervisor. She was in the office where the HR director and the ED work. My immediate motion for self-preservation was to resign. Indeed, your bureaucratic mentality is what I teach my students in colleges (and some in K12 as a substitute) to not only watch out for, but to rail against, and challenge. In this case, I went through the Oregon state hoops designed to assist companies to get out of paying some of the unemployment insurance. The system is rigged in favor of the employer.
You are at fault for this decision, for not taking into account a deeper sense of the workplace, that workplace I was in. In no away was I going to put myself through mental and emotional hell by putting up with the situation I have already laid out. You can sit back and lord over workers, making the same tired decision that occurred first by the Unemployment adjudicator, then by the appeals hearing judge. Here we are, now, a faceless board of three with one absent making the same wrong decision.
Now, for me to take this to the next level of appeal would require more state rip-off fees — $391 to file. This is why the average person has no faith in the State of Oregon’s so-called agencies for the people. You are dead wrong in denying me unemployment, and your titles, whatever they might be in this sense, are not worth the paper I am printing this letter on.
Shame on you, and, well, this is another teachable and journalistic moment for me but it doesn’t compensate for the time and effort I put in filing unemployment weekly, and looking for work in this county where I live. I will rail against this system, your decision and the process that was so protracted. You will not feel shame because I suspect you are wired to not have empathy when it comes to these cases that indeed are just cause for quitting. Nuance is not something you three probably have as human characteristics.
The June employment report showed the economy created 372,000 jobs last month, with the private sector adding 381,000. Private sector employment is now 140,000 jobs above its pre-pandemic level. Total employment is still down 524,000, as local government employment is 599,000 below pre-pandemic levels, and state government employment is 57,000 below pre-pandemic levels. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.6 percent for the fourth consecutive month.
Wage Growth Moderates Further
Perhaps the best news in this report is further evidence of moderating wage growth. The annualized rate of wage growth, comparing the last three months (April, May, June) with the prior three months (January, February, March), was 4.3 percent. That is down from an annualized rate of 6.1 percent, comparing the winter (November, December, January) to the fall (August, September, October).
This is a huge deal because the Fed’s plans for aggressive rate hikes was based on a concern for a 1970s-type wage-price spiral. It is impossible to have a wage-price spiral when wage growth is slowing. As it is, the 4.3 percent annualized rate of wage growth is only a 0.9 percentage point higher than the 3.4 percent rate in 2019 when inflation was comfortably below the Fed’s 2.0 percent target.
Construction Again Adds Jobs, Manufacturing Employment Above Pre-Pandemic Levels
Construction added 13,000 jobs in June, with gains elsewhere offsetting a small decline in residential building. Overall employment in the sector is now 0.6 percent above pre-pandemic level. Lower housing starts will be a drag on employment in the sector, although this will be at least partially offset by easing supply chain problems, which is allowing for more completions. Manufacturing added 29,000 jobs, pushing employment in the sector slightly above its pre-pandemic level.
Air Transportation and Retail Add Jobs
Air transportation added 7,500 jobs in June. Employment in the sector is now 7.9 percent above the pre-pandemic level. The retail sector added 15,400 jobs, putting employment now 1.2 percent above the pre-pandemic level.
Healthy, But More Normal Job Growth in Hotels and Restaurants
Hotels added 14,800 jobs in June, while restaurants added 40,800 jobs. These are strong numbers but not out of line with what might be expected in a normal month with good job growth. These sectors were among the hardest hit by the pandemic.
Employment in hotels is still down 18.0 percent from its pre-pandemic level. Restaurant employment is 5.9 percent lower. It is likely that with a permanent decline in business travel, hotels will not recover their pre-pandemic employment levels. The same is likely the case with restaurants, where real sales are already well above pre-pandemic levels.
Nursing Homes and Child Care Centers Add Jobs, But Employment Still Far Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
Both nursing homes and childcare sectors have had difficulty adding jobs in the recovery as low pay and difficult working conditions make these jobs relatively unattractive. Nursing homes and childcare added 5,400 and 10,600 jobs in June, respectively. This leaves employment in the sectors 14.4 percent and 9.6 percent below pre-pandemic levels.
Local Government Adds 5,000 Workers, Employment Still Down 599,000 From Pre-Pandemic Level
Like nursing homes and childcare centers, state and local governments have had difficulty attracting workers in the recovery. Employment in local government is still down by 4.1 percent from pre-pandemic levels. More than half the drop is in local government education. State government employment is down by 57,000, or 1.1 percent from pre-pandemic levels.
U-6 Measure of Labor Market Slack Hits Record Low
While the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.6 percent in June, a sharp drop in the number of people involuntarily working part-time lowered the U-6 measure of labor market slack to 6.7 percent, the lowest level on record.
Drop in Labor Force Participation Rates
The overall labor force participation rate (LFPR) fell by 0.1 percentage point to 62.2 percent. The LFPR for prime age (25 to 54) men dropped by 0.3 percentage point, while it fell 0.2 percentage point for prime age women. The June LFPR for men was 0.8 percentage point below its pre-pandemic peak, while it was 0.5 percentage point lower for women.
Length of Average Workweek Stable
The length of the average workweek was unchanged at 34.5 hours in June. For production and nonsupervisory workers, it was 34.0 hours, down from 34.3 hours last June. Employers that can’t find workers often increase workweeks. This does not seem to be a problem now.
Share of Unemployment Due to Voluntary Quits Rises, But Still Below Peaks
The percent of unemployment due to voluntary quits rose to 14.0 percent, still well below peaks of more than 15.0 percent hit in February of this year and peaks hit in 2000 and 2019. This is consistent with a strong, but healthy labor market.
Another Really Great Jobs Report
The June report showed considerably stronger job growth than was generally expected. It also showed a labor market that is looking more normal, although still very strong. We continue to see moderation in wage growth, which should alleviate concerns about a 1970s wage-price spiral. The unemployment rate remains near a 50-year low and the U-6 measure of labor market slack is the lowest on record. If the economy stays on this path, the second half of 2022 should look very good, as the supply chain issues get largely resolved and prices fall back to more normal levels in many areas.
This paper, from Oeconomicus, Volume V, Winter 2002, explores the basis for understanding modern monetary systems as rooted in the monopoly powers of the State.
The author Steven Pinker’s blinkered perspective in Enlightenment Now is limited to critiquing what remains of an academic leftism often accused of a reflexive anti-Western bias. Pinker’s advocacy of rationality and science in itself adds little to the mainstream recognition of human intellectual advancement since the 18th century Enlightenment. Over the centuries, the main opponent of free inquiry, it should be recalled, was organized religion–the ideological dogmas of which sanctified State despotism and discouraged independent learning (and even literacy).
Yes, “wealth is created.” But how? Pinker blithely ignores the global reality of opposing class-interests. In the late 20th century, in the name of promoting “development,” the World Bank and the IMF produced a mountain of Third World indebtedness to the extent that many nations were compelled to drastically cut critical social services in order to service that debt (or default). Moreover, trans-national capital flow continues today to seek out poverty-wage locales for sweatshop manufacturing (little or no labor rights, few if any environmental regulations, etc.). Pinker likewise fails to discuss the quite favorable “profit-sharing agreements” imposed by oil companies and others (think Iraq, Nigeria, etc.)
In his paean to the establishment of the United Nations (1945), and of growing recognition of international human rights in general, he hypocritically ignores the United States’ repeated violation of the UN Charter and Security Council edicts (most egregiously in 2003, when the Bush Administration flagrantly ignored the Security Council’s veto of the imminent invasion of Iraq). And surely, such waging of aggressive war–in the case of Iraq, destroying the lives and livelihoods of millions, remains even today the foremost threat to the very “reason-and-progress” which Pinker proselytizes. And Pinker, who manifests a surprising ignorance of U.S. foreign policy (cf. Noam Chomsky’s seminal book Rogue States), also seems uninformed about the U.S.-imposed, draconian sanctions, which have deliberately caused very high rates of infant mortality and massive starvation (Iraq, North Korea, etc.). Such horrors remain unseen through rosy-colored spectacles which can only detect growing “peace-and-prosperity.”
(Computers were indeed labor-saving devices; i.e., substitutes for millions of white-collar workers, thereby making dramatic labor-cost reduction once again a major source of corporate profit.) What of the emerging “gig economy,” in which millions of young people, already saddled with about $1.25 trillion in student loan debt (U.S.), are finding themselves under-employed and without union representation? A possible “jobless future”? Ironically enough, Oxford Martin’s Our World in Data, the primary source for Pinker’s sunny diagnostics, has warned of just such a possibility.
Pinker strives to document his claims of decreasing world poverty and social problems with some dubious sources: not only Oxford Martin, but endless charts provided by the World Bank and the CIA. Without necessarily invoking – “lies, damned lies, and statistics”– one is entitled to question the objectivity and ideological agendas of such sources. Low-wages and dubious lending schemes, as well as fomenting insurgencies, have crippled economic conditions in innumerable nations. Pinker doesn’t seem aware that some 75 or so global mega-billionaires have a combined wealth greater than that of the roughly 3,500,000 living largely in the Global South (Oxfam data). Perhaps he is confidently awaiting that most elusive of phenomena: the “trickle down.”
The economy added 390,000 jobs in May, while the unemployment remained unchanged at 3.6 percent for the third consecutive month. The May report showed clear evidence that the labor market is normalizing with wage growth continuing to slow.
The annualized rate of wage growth comparing the last three months (March, April, and May) with the prior three months (December, January, and February) was 4.3 percent, down from the 5.2 percent year-over-year increase. This is only moderately higher than the peak 3.6 percent year-over-year rate hit in February 2019. This means that if we are concerned about underlying inflation rather than supply shocks, most of the Fed’s work has been done.
Share of Unemployment Due to Voluntary Quits Edges Downward
The share of unemployment due to voluntary quits edged down to 12.8 percent. This is a sign that workers perceive they have less bargaining power. It peaked at 15.1 percent in February. It also reached levels above 15.0 percent just before the pandemic and in 2000. This is not a labor market in which workers feel totally comfortable quitting their jobs.
Hours Are Also Stable
Earlier in the recovery, employers increased the length of the average workweek to a peak of 35 hours in January 2021 from a year-round average of 34.4 hours in 2019. This presumably was because of the difficulty in hiring workers. The average workweek has been at 34.6 hours for the last three months. This is consistent with a story where most employers are no longer experiencing much difficulty hiring workers.
The Slowdown in Wage Growth is Widespread
The fastest wage growth in the recovery has been at the lower end of the labor market, but the slowdown is showing up here as well. The annual rate for production and nonsupervisory workers was 5.1 percent, BUT was down from 6.5 percent year-over-year when comparing wage growth over the last three months with the prior three months. In hotels and restaurants it was 9.5 percent, down from 11.8 percent year-over-year.
Private Sector Nearly Back to Pre-Pandemic Employment Level
The private sector added 333,000 jobs in May, leaving it down by just 207,000 from its pre-pandemic level. It will likely cross this threshold in June.
Job Gains Widely Spread Across Sectors
Construction added 36,000 jobs in May, putting its employment 40,000 above the pre-pandemic level.
Manufacturing added 18,000 jobs in May, leaving its employment just 17,000 below the pre-pandemic level. Air transportation and trucking added 5,700 jobs and 13,300 jobs, respectively, in May, leaving employment in the sectors 6.3 percent and 4.3 percent above the pre-pandemic level.
Low Paying Nursing Homes and Child Care Centers Still Struggle to Find Workers
Nursing homes added 1,300 jobs in May, while childcare centers added 1,500 jobs. Employment in both sectors is still down more than 10 percent from pre-pandemic levels.
Leisure and Hospitality Sector Adds 84,000 Jobs
The leisure and hospitality sector was hardest hit by the pandemic closings. It is adding jobs at a rapid pace, but employment is still far below pre-pandemic levels. The arts and entertainment sector added 16,200 jobs, now down 211,000 jobs from the pre-pandemic level. Hotels and restaurants added 21,400 and 46,100 jobs, respectively. Employment in the sectors is now down by 383,000 and 751,000 jobs, respectively from pre-pandemic levels. It is worth noting that, despite the drop in employment, real restaurant sales are well above the pre-pandemic level.
State and Local Government Education Has Largest Job Gain in a Year
State and local government education added a total of 50,700 jobs in May. This is the largest gain since July 2021. Employment in public education is still 280,500 below its pre-pandemic level, as schools have had trouble attracting workers. The May jump is a big step towards reversing this shortfall.
Retail Sector Shows Big Job Losses in May
The retail sector lost 60,700 jobs in May, 32,700 of this loss was in general merchandise stores. This is consistent with reports of falling demand by Target, Amazon, and other major chains. With these chains reporting a glut of merchandise and loss of pricing power, we may soon see lower prices for many items.
Labor Force Participation Up for Prime Age Workers
The overall labor force participation rate edged up 0.1 percentage point to 62.3 percent, but the participation rate for prime-age workers (ages 25 to 54) rose 0.2 percentage point to 82.6 percent, 0.5 percentage points below the pre-pandemic peak but above the 2019 average. The rise was due to a 0.4 percentage point increase for prime-age women (the rate for men was unchanged) to 76.6 percent, a 0.3 percentage point below the pre-pandemic peak. Clearly, there has been no “great resignation.”
Self-Employment Rises in May
The number of both the incorporated and unincorporated self-employed rose in May. It now stands more than 1.1 million above its pre-pandemic level. Earlier in the recovery, it was plausible that many workers turned to self-employment because they were unable to get regular payroll employment; with the unemployment well under 4.0 percent, this is no longer the case. This jump in self-employment is by choice.
Another Very Positive Employment Report
The May employment report was just about as good as could have been hoped for. It continued to show strong job growth, but also a normalizing of the labor market that should allay concerns about the economy overheating and a wage-price spiral. Wage growth is clearly slowing, not accelerating as the wage-price spiral story would have it.
At the same time, most of the data look very similar to the strong pre-pandemic period. Most measures of employment and labor force participation rates are near pre-pandemic peaks and above 2019 averages. While payroll employment is still below the pre-pandemic level, it is important to remember that if we add in self-employment, current levels are considerably higher.
In episode 100, News on China tells of China developing an oral dose of vaccine, prioritizing urban employment, and defending against colonialism by the pirate queen Zheng Yi Sao.
More than two million New Zealanders will get a one-off $350 sweetener as part of the Budget’s centrepiece $1 billion cost-of-living relief package.
The temporary short-term support is counterbalanced by a record $11.1 billion for the health system as the government scraps district health boards (DHBs) and replaces them with a central agency.
“But as the pandemic subsides, other challenges both long-term and more immediate, have come to the fore. This Budget responds to those challenges.”
Ongoing uncertainty over inflation, covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine continue to cast a pall over the economy until at least the end of the year.
A large $19 billion deficit is expected this year, returning to surplus in 2025.
Treasury is forecasting house prices to ease and unemployment to drop as low as 3 percent.
Cost-of-living sweetener
New Zealanders aged 18 and over will be eligible for the $350 payment unless they earn more than $70,000 a year or already receive the Winter Energy Payment.
The sum will be paid in three instalments over August, September and October, working out at roughly $27 a week.
The temporary payment is estimated to cost $814 million — funded out of the remaining money in the covid-19 war-chest which is now being wound up.
NZ Finance Minister Grant Robertson delivers Budget 2022. Video: RNZ News
The support comes with a two-month extension to the fuel tax reduction and half-price public transport given the current high fuel prices.
New Zealanders who have a community services card will continue to get half-price public transport permanently from mid-September.
“While we know the current storm will pass, it’s important we do what we can to take the hard edges off it now,” Ardern said.
The government will also rush through legislation under urgency over the next few days to crack down on supermarkets in an effort to reduce grocery bills.
The legislation will ban supermarkets from using restrictive covenants to prevent competitors from accessing land to open new stores.
Ministers flagged further announcements in response to the Commerce Commission’s recent report in the sector “in the coming days”.
Health service The Budget contains “the largest investment ever in [the] health system” — $11.1 billion — as the government presses ahead with its plan to replace DHBs with a centralised health service.
An initial $1.8b annual investment this year will help clear DHBs’ debt, giving the replacement Health New Zealand service and Māori Health Authority a “clean start”.
Health Minister Andrew Little said the 20 DHBs had collectively run annual deficits in 12 of the 13 years since 2008.
“As Health NZ takes over the books from the 20 DHBs on 1 July, a funding boost is being provided so the national system can start with a clean slate.”
The Māori Health Authority will get $168m over four years to directly commission hauora Māori services.
New Zealand’s drug-buyer Pharmac will also get an extra $191m over the next two years – in what Little says is the medicine budget’s “biggest-ever increase”.
It brings total funding to $1.2 billion which is 43 percent higher than when Labour was elected in 2017.
“Pharmac has assured me it will use this funding to secure as many medicines on its list as it can, with a focus on better cancer treatments, to ensure as many New Zealanders as possible benefit from this biggest-ever increase to its medicines funding,” Little said.
More than $166 million has been put aside over four years for ambulance services, adding more than 60 vehicles to the road fleet and about 250 more paramedics and frontline staff. Another $90.7 million will go towards air ambulance services to replace ageing aircraft with modern helicopters.
The Budget increases dental grants for low-income families from $300 to $1000 in line with Labour’s 2020 campaign promise.
A new Ministry for Disabled People is also being established at a cost of $100 million.
Housing support While the housing market is showing signs of slowing, the Budget includes more support for first home buyers with funding available for about 7000 more grants.
House price caps across regions have been increased to line up with lower quartile market values for new and existing properties.
It means some significant shifts — both Wellington’s cap and Queenstown’s jump from $650,000 to $925,000, and Tauranga’s jumps from $600,000 to $875,000.
The income caps remain the same but will be reviewed every six months along with the new house price caps.
A new $350 million housing fund has also been set up where not-for-profit developers can apply for grants to build affordable rental accommodation.
Education equity Replacing school deciles is the single biggest area of new spending for education.
The Budget provides more than $80 million a year for the equity index which replaces deciles as the measure of disadvantage in schools.
Most of the money, $75 million a year, will go directly to schools, adding to the $150 million they currently receive through the decile-based system.
The budget increases school operations grants and tertiary and early childhood education subsidies by 2.75 percent.
There is also $266 million over four years to give early education teachers pay parity with school teachers.
In tertiary education, the Budget provides $56 million a year to pay for an expected increase in enrolments next year and in 2024.
There is also $40 million for modernising polytechnic facilities.
Māori health, wellbeing More than half a billion dollars is being pumped into the Māori Health sector with $579.9 million going towards Māori health and wellbeing.
The Māori Health Authority, Te Mana Hauora, is set to be launched July 1 and will receive $188.1 million over four years for direct commissioning of services.
Some $20.1 million will go to support iwi-Māori partnership boards, and $30 million will be invested into Maori providers and health workers to provide support and sustain capital infrastructure.
Lack of workforce capability has been identified as a key factor in being able to bolster Te Mana Hauora — and $39 million will be used for Māori workforce training and development to support them within the new health system.
The $579.9 million invested in Māori health and wellbeing is on top of the $11.1 billion health allocation.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The economy added 428,000 jobs in April, while the unemployment rate remained flat at 3.6 percent. The unemployment rates for white workers (3.2 percent), Blacks (5.9 percent), Asians (3.1 percent), and Hispanics (4.1 percent) were all virtually unchanged from the previous month.
Labor Force Participation Gains Slowed, Still Approaching Pre-Pandemic Levels
The overall labor force participation rate (LFPR) declined 0.2 percentage points to 62.2 percent, returning to the January 2022 level. This marks the first time since May 2021 that the LFPR has experienced a month-over-month decline. For prime age (25 to 54) workers, the LFPR is still below their 2019 average, while for workers ages 55 to 64, the LFPR is now 0.1 percentage point above their 2019 average.
The LFPR for prime age men remained flat 88.7 percent, while for prime age women it ticked down 0.3 percentage points to 76.2 percent. The LFPRs for prime age men and prime age women are now half a percentage point below their respective pre-pandemic levels.
For those ages 55 to 64, the LFPR for men ticked down 0.2 percentage point to 71.3 percent; it rose by the same amount for women in this age range, and is now at 59.9 percent. The LFPR for men ages 55 to 64 still lags the pre-pandemic level, while the rate for women is now 0.2 percentage point higher than their Feb 2020 LFPR.
There are 586,000 still out of the labor force due to the pandemic, including 63,000 prime age men and 165,000 prime age women. There are also 124,000 parents with children under 18 who cited the COVID-19 pandemic as their reason for being out of the labor force. The share of parents who cite the pandemic as their reason for being out of the labor force is twice the size of non-parents who say the same.
Wage Growth Showing Signs of Moderation
Significant wage growth over the last year has been important in offsetting the pace of inflation for workers. Growth has been especially prominent for workers at the lower end of the wage distribution over the last two years. However, more moderate overall wage growth will be expected if inflation is going to return to more palatable levels.
Overall wage growth showed signs of slowing this month. The average hourly wage was up 5.5 percent year-over-year, but increased at a 4.4 percent annual rate when comparing the last three months (February-April) with the prior three months (November-January).
The rate of slowing was even sharper for production and nonsupervisory workers in leisure and hospitality, a relatively low-paying industry group. The year-over-year increase in average hourly earnings in this group was 12.6 percent, while the annual rate when comparing the last three months with the prior three months was 8.4 percent.
Share of Unemployment Due to Voluntary Quits
The share of unemployment due to people who voluntarily quit their jobs is often used as a proxy for labor market strength. It implies people are confident that they can secure employment quickly after leaving their current job. By contrast, declines in the share of voluntary quits can indicate that the labor market is beginning to weaken. The share of job leavers increased by just 0.1 percentage points between March and April of 2022, and now stands at 13.1 percent.
While these data can be erratic, the month-to-month consistency suggests that the tight labor market may be on the verge of becoming less so. The steadiness of the voluntary quit rate is also important when considering the slowing wage growth mentioned above. In a weaker labor market, employers will be under less pressure to increase wages in order to compete for workers.
Industry Gains
The number of childcare workers continued to grow, with the industry adding 2,700 workers between March and April. But this is a smaller increase than any other month in 2022, and the childcare workforce remains 116,200 workers short of its pre-pandemic size (February 2020). It is important that the childcare workforce continue to grow, given the industry’s importance to women’s labor force participation (which ticked down slightly this month).
Leisure and hospitality added 78,000 jobs, including 43,800 jobs in food services and drinking places. The month-over-month growth in both of these groups was smaller between April and March of 2022 than between February and March of 2022. Food services and drinking places are also still just under 800,000 jobs short of their pre-pandemic level.
The number of jobs in motion pictures and sound recording industries fell by 5,700 this month. It is still up by 82,200 compared to April 2021, but 16,400 short of its pre-pandemic level. This industry group is notable for having the largest private sector increase in union membership between 2019 and 2021, so it will be interesting to see how the fluctuations in job growth affect union density.
Employment Uptick Among People With Disabilities
The United States has made progress toward removing barriers to employment among people with disabilities since the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, but employment levels among people with disabilities remain far below those of their non-disabled counterparts. Lately, the pace of these strides has shown signs of picking up. Employment among people with disabilities grew by 40,000 this month, while the LFPR stayed flat. At 23.1 percent, this LFPR is just slightly more than a third of the non-disabled rate.
The employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) for people with disabilities increased by 0.1 percentage points to 21.2 percent between March and April of 2022. This is the second highest ever recorded level, and represents a 2.8 year-over-year percentage point gain. However, it is still less than a third of the non-disabled EPOP.
The unemployment rate for people with disabilities declined by 0.5 percentage points to 8.3 percent in April 2022. The rate is more than 2.5 times higher than for those without disabilities.
When Anthony Albanese said he did not know the unemployment rate, he should have said that no one really knows the unemployment rate. When Scott Morrison claimed there are more Australians in work than ever before, he stated the truth, but it was not as significant as he made it sound. The fact that the…
A new study has revealed that Republican-run states prematurely ending unemployment benefits last year did not have a significant impact on getting people back to work, as GOP lawmakers claimed it would — but it did result in financial hardship for millions of Americans.
In the summer of 2021, as many areas of the country were dealing with a supposed “worker shortage,” several Republican-led states’ governors decided to end extended federal unemployment benefits that included weekly increases to the typical insurance payment. The move affected some 4.1 million unemployed workers in the 25 states that ended the program, which had been initiated in response to the economic downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
The move to prematurely end the extended unemployment benefits seemed to have had little, if any, effect on getting people back to work, according to a paper published last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. In states that ended the unemployment benefits, hiring did pick up at a faster pace, on average — but the rate difference, when compared to states that didn’t end extended unemployment benefits, is incredibly miniscule.
The states that ended the benefit early only saw a hiring rate difference of 0.2 percent compared to other states, the study found — a difference that is “pretty much imperceptible,” said Robert Valletta, associate director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and co-author of the paper.
Put another way, for every 1,000 people that were hired in states that kept the unemployment benefits in place, 1,002 people were hired in states that removed the benefits — hardly the significant change that GOP lawmakers promised would come from ending the benefits.
At the same time, Valletta added, a “meaningful fraction of people suffered real hardship as a result” of the cuts. Among the millions of Americans who saw their unemployment insurance curtailed, the average worker lost around $6,000 in benefits compared to workers in states that kept them intact.
Progressive lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), largely rejected conservatives’ claims that unemployment insurance benefits were hurting businesses seeking workers. Even if that was the case, Sanders said, it wouldn’t justify ending the extended benefits.
If such benefits were “preventing employers from hiring low-wage workers there’s a simple solution,” Sanders said in the spring of 2021. “Raise your wages. Pay decent benefits.”
Government action and worker solidarity is key to overcoming the scourge of insecure work and ensuring pay rises keep pace with inflation and productivity improvements, argues Graham Matthews.
Eventually, long-term unemployment causes disillusionment and people find ways to survive outside of the above-ground job market. People who want work but have given up trying are excluded from the labor force as “discouraged workers.”
The economy added 678,000 jobs in February, pushing the unemployment rate down to 3.8 percent. The jobs numbers for December and January were also revised up 92,000. This left the number of jobs in the economy 2,105,000 below the pre-pandemic level.
Increase in Hours Likely Pushed Private-Sector Hours Above Pre-Pandemic High
With the waning of omicron, the drop in the length of the average workweek in January was partially reversed. The rise in hours combined with the jump in jobs led to a 0.8 percent increase in the index of aggregate weekly hours, the equivalent of more than 1 million private sector jobs with no change in hours.
The index of aggregate hours, which only refers to the private sector, is just 0.2 percent below its pandemic peak. With the number of unincorporated self-employed now 440,000 above the 2019 average and the number of incorporated self-employed up 220,000 from the February 2019 level (incorporated self-employed data are not seasonally adjusted), hours worked in the private sector are likely above their pre-pandemic peak.
Wage Growth May Be Moderating
In the last year we have seen a pattern where wage growth in low-paying industries far exceeded the rate of wage growth overall. This seems to be continuing, although the rate of growth in the lowest paying sectors may be slowing.
Over the last year the average hourly wage overall rose 5.1 percent, but it was at a 5.6 percent annual rate when comparing the last three months (December-February) with the prior three (September-November).
For production and nonsupervisory workers, the hourly wage rose 6.7 percent over the last year, and 6.8 percent when comparing the last three months with the prior three. For production and nonsupervisory workers in retail, the hourly wage increased 7.7 percent over the last year, and at a 9.1 percent annual rate comparing the last three months with the prior three. In leisure and hospitality, the average hourly wage for production workers is up 14.3 percent over the last year, but rose at just an 8.2 percent rate comparing the last three months with the prior three months.
As a rough first approximation, a 5.0 percent rate of wage growth, combined with the 2.3 percent rate of productivity growth we have seen the last three years, translates into a 2.7 percent annual inflation rate.
Jobs in Many Sectors Are Close to or Above Pre-Pandemic Levels
The strong job growth in recent months has pushed employment in many sectors to pre-pandemic levels. Employment in retail increased by 37,000 in February and is now 104,000 above its pre-pandemic level. Airlines added 6,900 jobs in February. Employment in the sector is now up 14,400 from February 2020.
Construction added 60,000 jobs in February, leaving employment just 11,000 below its pre-pandemic level. Manufacturing jobs increased by 36,000, but are still 178,000 down from February 2020. The auto sector was a big drag on growth in the month, losing 18,000 jobs, likely due to the semiconductor shortage and Canada convoy.
Most of the continuing gap in jobs from the pre-pandemic levels is concentrated in a small number of sectors. The health care sector, which added 64,000 jobs in February, is still down 306,000 from the pre-pandemic level. All of this is explained by a drop in employment of 398,000 jobs in nursing and residential care facilities.
Restaurants added 124,000 jobs in February, but employment is still down 824,000 jobs from February 2020. This is despite the fact that real sales are above pre-pandemic levels. The arts and entertainment sector added 28,000 jobs, but is still 263,000 below its pre-pandemic level.
State and local governments continue to have difficulty hiring. They added 24,000 jobs in February, but are still down 695,000 from pre-pandemic levels. This is almost one-third of the total shortfall in jobs.
Largest Drop in Unemployment Is for Most Disadvantaged Groups
As is typically the case when the labor market tightens, the most disadvantaged groups see the greatest benefit. That was certainly the case last month. The unemployment rate for Blacks fell by a 0.3 percentage point to 6.6 percent, 1.2 percentage points above the pre-pandemic low. For Black teens the drop was 2.9 percentage points to 17.8 percent, 2.8 percentage points above pre-pandemic low and 7.9 percentage points above the low hit last June.
The unemployment rate for Hispanics fell by a 0.5 percentage point to 4.4 percent, a 0.4 percentage point above the pre-pandemic low. The unemployment rate for workers without a high school degree fell by a 2.0 percentage point to 4.3 percent, the lowest on record. The unemployment for Asian Americans fell by a 0.5 percentage point to 3.1 percent, although this is still 1.0 percentage point above the pre-pandemic low.
With the Pandemic Waning, Labor Market Near Normal
There were still 1.2 million people who reported being out of the labor force in February due to the pandemic, but this is down from 1.8 million in January. This figure can explain most of the drop in labor force participation from before the pandemic. The labor force participation rate for prime age workers rose by 0.2 percentage point in February to 82.2 percent, a level not reached following the Great Recession until October 2018, although this is still down 0.9 percentage point from the pre-pandemic peak.
All of this rise was among men, who had a rise of 0.6 percentage point in labor force participation in February compared to a 0.2 percentage point drop among women. The drop in participation rates from pre-pandemic levels had been pretty much the same between men and women until this month, so this could be an anomaly.
The share of long-term unemployed (more than 26 weeks) edged up 0.8 percentage points to 26.7 percent. This is higher than normal, but far below the 40 plus percent shares in the spring and summer of last year. The share of unemployment due to voluntary quits rose to 15.1 percent, which is what would be expected in a strong labor market.
Overall, the Labor Market Is Looking Very Good
The labor market has largely bounced back from the pandemic. Unemployment and employment rates are not fully back to pre-pandemic levels, but they are at the levels reached in the middle of 2018 when many economists argued we were at full employment.
Wages continue to grow at a rapid pace, with the largest gains in low-paying industries. There is some evidence of slowing, which is a positive development since wage growth at the rate we had been seeing could not be sustained without high rates of inflation.
This is a little soft-shoe pissed off blathering from me, so apologies up front. No big news on the Ukraine Invasion front, or the Gates Owning All the Farms front, or the Climate-Wall Street-Chronic Illness front. Nothing related to the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank) front. Just plain old burnt toast and spilled milk from a radical who has to still be in the job market at the tender age of 65.
Never in my imagination, just five years ago even, would I have figured I’d be here, that is, stuck in the USA, blessed to be in a relationship (it’s good, but again, people in my life do need me somewhat sane to handle varying degrees of their own trauma), and pigeon-holed as a malcontent who is also unemployable.
The fact that people in the fields I venture into are less than middling, and the fact that lives hang in the balance tied to vax mandates, and forced boosters, and proof of mRNA life (I hear people, through the fog of the propaganda madmen, that mRNA a la Pfizer and Moderna, is better than the J & J, Janssen, which is not the same vax, but is now being discontinued. Imagine, J & J was a single dose experimental jab, but the Mengele actors in the CDC and Big Pharma move the goal posts daily so J & J single dose, has to be seconded to be a full-vax record — after a five month lapse between the two. However, the J & J is cancelled, no more manufacturing, so anyone trying to stay away from mRNA now, after their one shot of J & J has to submit to a completely different platform for this SARS-CoV2 mass experimentation game).
These are experimental. The blasphemy is, a, forced vaccinations on everyone, no discussion about the alternatives, or the safety; then, forcing these on youth, age six months; then, the lack of choice of all the vaxxes around the world, including China’s and Cuba’s; then, complete liability for death and injury for the big Pharma thugs; then, of course, we, the taxpayer foot the bill for R & D, for the salaries of these thieves, and then we buy the vials, and when they are contaminated, or when they expire, we end up watching 30 million doses down the drain, and then we, the taxpayer, foot the bill for the replacements. Money and more money, that is the planne pandemic.
Pre-Planned Demic — forced vaccinations for college students, and then, how many for kids going to kindergarten, K12, have to be vaxxxed? Then, the HPV, and I have written about that here —
I got screwed, blued and tatooed by the powers that be. Big Pharma, Planned Parenthood and the nonprofit industrial complex. Try that out for size!
So, what is in the discontinued Johnson & Johnson (J&J)/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine?
Ingredients:
The J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine contains a piece of a modified virus that is not the virus that causes COVID-19. This modified virus is called the vector virus. The vector virus cannot reproduce itself, so it cannot cause COVID-19. This vector virus gives instructions to cells in the body to create an immune response. This response helps protect you from getting sick with COVID-19 in the future. After the body produces an immune response, it gets rid of all of the vaccine ingredients just as it would discard any information that cells no longer need. This process is a part of normal body functioning.
Full list of ingredients: The J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine contains the following ingredients:
A harmless version of a virus unrelated to the COVID-19 virus: Recombinant, replication-incompetent Ad26 vector, encoding a stabilized variant of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein. Provides instructions the body uses to build a harmless piece of a protein from the virus that causes COVID-19. This protein causes an immune response that helps protect the body from getting sick with COVID-19 in the future.
Sugars, salts, acid, and acid stabilizer:
Polysorbate-80
2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin
Trisodium citrate dihydrate
Sodium chloride (basic table salt)
Citric acid monohydrate (closely related to lemon juice)
Ethanol (a type of alcohol)
These work together to help keep the vaccine molecules stable while the vaccine is manufactured, shipped, and stored until it is ready to be given to a vaccine recipient.
Alas, I teach a class at the community college here, OCCC. One student asked first day of class who was vaccinated and boosted. I massaged that into, “Well, we have to wear masks, per college requirements, but there is not vax mandate. Best we not ask people personal questions about their health issues and decisions.”
My marching orders were that if I asked once and then twice for a student to mask, and if they refused, the course would be cancelled.
That is the absurdity of this entire dress rehersal for bigger and more systematic totalitarian methods of control. The mob, the bandwagon, the transfer of Fauci’s credentials to infer credibility. Pissing matches now on which vax and booster you get.
I do not know if many DV readers get the totality of this Western Mentality for Ordering People Around at work, school, in public, everywhere. Again, pre-SARS-CoV2, and conccurently — people I have gotten jobs for are working 14 hour shifts, in sub-freezing warehouses, moving frozen goods/foods along frozen floors with forklifts sliding all over the place. Imagine, coming home and still five hours after the shift frozen fingers and core temperature still not normal. Forced drug screening, forced background checks, forced credit checks, checks on prior evictions, driving record checks, physicals, all medications listed, reference checks, in-case-of-emergency references, and more, including being paid every two weeks, on a fucking Visa card.
Toil, weathering, mean as cuss bosses and supervisors, repetitive deadening work. No talking on the job. Keep those headphones and ear buds off. I’ve challenged the honchos driving up in Mercedes and Teslas how the hell do they look at themselves in the mirror at night or in the morning without seeing a monster of exploitation. Big jacked up $60,000 pickups while my clients have to take rotten and rotting public buses, many lines of which stop a mile or two away from the facility.
Work, baby, the great resignation, sure. But, here we are now — who owns us? How do we put that roof over our heads and that john in the corner and kitchen next to the bed?
Wall Street won’t rest until it become the biggest – and perhaps only – landlord in the US.
At least that’s the impression one gets by observing the behavior of the two Wall Street “black” giants, Blackrock and Blackstone. As a reminder, the WSJ sparked widespread outrage recently when it exposed what most industry insiders had known for a long time, namely that Blackrock (and other institutional investors) have been ravenously gobbling up US real estate. Now it’s Blackstone’s turn.
On Tuesday, the WSJ reported that Blackstone – which already is not only America’s largest landlord but also the world’s largest real estate company with a $325 billion portfolio – has agreed to buy single-family rental company Home Partners of America for $6 billion, betting the demand for suburban housing will stay hot even as the pandemic eases. Home Partners owns more than 17,000 houses in the United States; the company buys, rents out and eventually offers its tenants a chance to buy them. Now all those functions will be done by the largest US private equity firm.
And so, I, like millions, are at the whim of the followers, the sheeple, for sure, and we play their game, and STILL, we can’t be in their sandboxes. All those state and city and county and even nonprofit jobs tied to state, city, county contracts (grants) I apply for caveat the application in big bold notations — Upon hire, the candidate must submit proof of full Covid-19 vaccination. That means, of course, those agencies have the power to go straight to CDC/STATE records of the shot sheet. Not a paper copy of the CDC shot record, but the proof has had to be recorded into the data field; i.e. computer.
I was going to cross that bridge if and when I got any sense of being offered a job, but, alas, there are not job offers for schmucks like me. That is, of course, the lamentation here. But as always, I attempt to make my little Paul’s World tie into a larger frame, some universal set of lessons.
age
gender
politics
over-educated
too many different jobs over time
moving too many times
too confident
too willing to discussion many aspects of the job in the Q & A
too much on the internet, easily searchable vis Google
blacklisted through checking off, “no, it is not okay to contact previous employer”
more
There are so many reasons why “they” don’t hire folks like “me.” Strike up the ageism and sexism band, for sure. I am 65, a male, and the jobs I am attempting to get are in the social services/education/editing/writing arena.
Educational navigator, state and county jobs, even city jobs. The writing is on the wall, in a rural county, and, when I do get interviews, it’s four to six women on Zoom. I’ve had 12 people in a room for one job interview I actually drove 40 miles to attend in person. I was asked to apply by the ED. Very good back and forth, and they liked me, thought I was smart, a fit, but not a perfect fit. The rejection letter from the Executive Director was all complimentary. But, again, here I am, on the job market. Many times an interview is couched with “we are a tight-knit family, a very close team so how do you think you’d be part of that?”
I’ve had to ask several time, at the end of interviews when they ask me if I have questions, what ways do the people on the team work with people like me, an obvious outsider, to be part of a team that they call family? Really, what makes it easy for a male with education to fit into a tight knit team, which from the outside seems like a clique?
I am a great interview, and I am able to put on many faces, in addition to bringing up interesting connections to my long work experience and my education to each respective job I’ve applied for.
And, that small-knit female group is not wanting to have an outsider, someone who doesn’t look like them. These people, to be blunt, are seated inside a nanny mentality, and drawn into paperwork world while following procedures to the letter. They are not giving and creative souls, not in any real sense. Also, they seem to be pretty one-dimensional. I get through the screening, then the interview, then the email a week or weeks later, which is a form letter, that states in mealy mouthed terms, I was rejected:
PAUL — Thank you for interviewing for the position of Permanency Workers (Social Services Specialist 1) Newport . Although you have not been selected for the position, we enjoyed learning about your background and experience in greater detail.
Again,thank you for your timeand interest. We encourage you to apply for other opportunities in the future.
Thank you.”
Yep, my mother told me I should have continued at the U of Arizona and got the medical degree. Even a law degree. That was way back when, at 19 years of age and having the gift of gab, the gift of testing to a high level, above 89 or 90. Gifts . . . now, at 65, feeling, well, embarassed that, a, I have to look for work with no retirement, in this shit hole country, and in any shit hole state (you name it). Democratic or Republican governor, the scum rises to the top. With so much scum below them. And, b, I am pissed off and in this predictament. And, c, that I even feel this way — useless, a throw-away, disposable, nothing (I don’t feel these for many minutes in a day, but still, feeling this shit is like hot lead down one’s gullet).
One of the questions from the above committee of three was around “Many people perceive the CPS (child protective services) has having a lot of power. Rightly or wrongly, how would you deal with this perception?”
Well, of course, I know a few things or two about CPS and foster care and removing children from families. And, I thought I could give the CPS a bit of perspective, AND, while the gender police want to top load professions that are traditionally not full of women with women, you would think those female-filled social services centers would want a few wise males in their ranks.
That’s just hopeful thinking. Well, here, from an old article, Atlantic, from a CPS worker:
It seems there is always some sort of story in the media regarding one form of child abuse or neglect or another. Recently, I came across two such stories, one about a working mother who allowed her 9-year-old daughter to play unsupervised at a playground near her work and was subsequently arrested and her daughter put into foster care; and another, actually, about the mass shut-off of water services in an underprivileged Detroit neighborhood which brought up the fact that many don’t complain about the issue due to fears of having their children immediately removed from their homes as lack of water service is, allegedly, grounds for this in the city. These stories always hit home for me. Besides being a parent, I previously worked for Children’s Protective Services in Ohio.
Opinions usually fell into one of two predictable camps: as a CPS worker you were either accused of doing too little to protect the children involved, or of being too invasive, at best another mindless bureaucrat and at worst a power-happy sadist that got off on telling others how to raise their kids. In truth, both are often correct. I’ve seen them personally. And it’s a problem. Most workers, however, fall somewhere along the wide spectrum in between, and where they fall will be influenced more by their local inter-and-intra-agency culture than any statute.
Thinking of the mother of the 9-year-old, I realize I am not privy to the details of the case. I understand there is a lot I don’t know. Things like, does this mom have a history of abusing or neglecting this child or other children? Did the child have any special needs that made her especially vulnerable to being unsupervised? Did the child have any other signs of abuse like severe bruising or physical injuries, or of neglect such as obvious malnutrition or chronic head lice, or any other incalculable number of things? These would no doubt make a huge impact on my opinion of the situation, but as it stands what I read is this: a 9-year-old girl was left with a cellular phone at a playground near her mother’s workplace with adequate shade and access to water. Upon learning that her mother was not present, an adult called the police. So far, I vilify neither the caller for calling nor the police for responding. It is what happens next that I strongly question.
Apparently, the best answer to this case was to remove the child from her mother’s custody, put her in foster care, and arrest the mother. I’ll be blunt: this is insane.
Well, of course, I handled ALL the questions well, but then, the rejection. All those rejections. All those terrible people lifted through the prostitution called politics of bureaucracies. There are so many mean, dog-eat-dog, I-got-mine-too-bad-you-don’t-got-yours fucking Americanos. Yankee or Stars and Bars, most are cut from the same shit-hole Mayflower cloth. There are some mean folks I have met in Child Protective Services. In Portland, in Seattle, in Spokane, in El Paso!
This is the shape of things to come, for many of us, who are self-avowed radicals, willing to say and write and publish things that are definitely outside the bold lines of the center fold of American meanness. American group think. American belonging in the bandwagon. Infantalized. Disneyfied. Now, get stuck in a rural arena, with few opportunities, and this is the weekly routine —
change up the resume
write a new cover letter
do an on-line application
sometimes complete these timed tests, many of which are psycho personality tests — sick stuff
attest at the end of the application, before hitting submit, that all stuff is truthful, and that they, the prospective employer, has the right to go back into all manner of work and legal and living history
And it is almost impossible during this process, and while consuming corporate, commercial, un-News news, to not get jaded, cynical, pissed off and, well, dejected. Since all the stories are about the beautiful people, the celebrities, all the crap around thespian stars and sports stars. All the felonies committed by politicians, corporate heads, even those in positions of state-county-city government.
There are so many undeserving folk in positions of big and minimal power. Yep, we know that. And to hear any manner of these people who get quoted or get the limelight for me is to hear monsters who have zero idea how the 80 percent live.
Nepotism, favoritism, cancelling, xenophobia, bandwagoning, credentialism, and other -isms rule the day. Then, to see folks circling their wagons interviewing me only because they may be checking off something on their diversity list — “get a white old male in the mix to look like we are diversity mavens” — to have at least three people in the pool. I have had my application stopped because not enought applicants hit the pool. Imagine that.
Then, there’s this blasphemy — more and more staffing firms, the bane of humanity, controlling the hiring process. That culprit, Indeed, has gotten into staffing. LinkedIn? All of them, rotten to the core, and many jobs are now conduited through those chosen people’s job screening-prepping-hiring headhunter systems that are all relying upon algorithms and Salesforce techniques:
Contracting is Worker Exploitation — (source). I have written about this in the past. Broken records abound:
Staffing agencies perpetuate this ugly cycle because they make a hefty profit exploiting contractors. Staffing agency recruiters will lie about the length of the contract and specific requirements, they’ll alter resumes without your knowledge, and make little to no effort to find another assignment once a contract ends. Some of these staffing agencies are so unprofessional, they’ve sent me emails meant for other people they’re trying to recruit. Staffing agencies are the worst. They don’t disclose how much they charge a company for a contractor’s services to maximize their profits. For example, for one of my recent contracting gigs, the company paid the staffing agency $60 an hour. I received $40 an hour while the staffing agency received $20 an hour for every hour of my work. The staffing agency received $800 a week for doing practically nothing, while I did all the work. These are the risks of contracting work, but it doesn’t make it right or ethical.
+–+
“This Is One of the Most Important Legal Battles for Labor in Decades” (In These Times)
Over the last few decades, a growing number of American workers have effectively lost many of their labor rights because of the way their bosses structure the employment relationship. These workers are contractors who are hired by one company but work for another: the Hyatt Hotel housekeepers who actually work for Hospitality Staffing Solutions, the Microsoft tech workers who actually work for a temp agency called Lionbridge Technologies, and the Amazon warehouse workers who actually work for Integrity Staffing Solutions. These workers often perform the same work at the same place as other workers, frequently on a permanent basis.
But because their employers have entered into complicated contracts with each other, these workers have been unable to exercise their labor rights. If the workers can only bargain with the staffing company and not the lead company where they actually work, they are negotiating with the party that often has no power to change the terms of their employment. For that reason, workers have fought for a more inclusive definition under the National Labor Relations Act of what constitutes an employer — and when two employers are joint employers.
Here, in my neck of the woods, the Lincoln County School District, again, sell outs at the top, and the bizarre superintendent and her VPs and thug principals in league with her meglamania, the District gives shit about workers:
Educational Staffing Solutions (New Jersey, Tennessee) is a staffing firm specializing in placing highly qualified staff in daily, long-term, and permanent K-12 school district positions, including paraprofessionals, substitute teachers, and other support staff. The company innovates education staffing to provide dynamic solutions to schools and professional opportunities to passionate educators. ESS provides its employees with the ability to work for schools across the country and competitive training, flexible work schedules, and professional development. The company’s partner schools receive personalized solutions, hands-on management, technology, and program reporting and analytics. ESS was founded in 2000, and its headquarter is located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, United States. The firm’s expert professionals serve more than 3 million students with a pool of 60,000 substitute and permanent employees throughout the United States. ESS provides healthcare benefits and other perks to its employees.
So these schools, public schools, have sold out their food services to profiteers (Sodexo, et al), given up cleaning to the janitorial profiteers (Sodexo; Bon Apetite), contracted out the buses (Student First, et al), and their hiring of staff, teachers, administrators, too, sold out to the profit gougers. Staffing firms and those all-American welfare cheats who look, sound, smell like, well, good people. This is what the average person has to confront.
A national labor phenomenon known as “The Great Resignation,” or “The Big Quit,” began to take hold in January 2021 and has since grown. Millions of workers in the United States have turned the turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic into opportunities to rethink their professions and reframe their lives.
The trend is especially pronounced in the accommodation and food services sector, which experienced more than 5 percent worker attrition each month from June to October of last year.
Online, people flooded a Reddit forum called “r/antiwork” for commiseration and solidarity; by year’s end, the page had reached 1.5 million members. In the streets, thousands of unionized workers in manufacturing, health care, and higher education went on strike last fall for fair pay and protections. (source)
So, with two master’s degrees, and three dozen years teaching, and some of that including substituting K12 in Washington and Texas, I have to face jobs where $14.89 an hour, no benefits, on-call, at will, are the options. But add to this paltry pay: a substitute teacher needs to pay a fee to get a substitute certification, which is $350 in Oregon. I even had to take a civics test, here in Oregon, a test that was so fucking easy that, well, another fee to pay in order to get a shitty $14.89 an hour.
And, then, being banned from teaching, another story, here at DV —
“Take Down this Blog, or Else!” — No job interview, no job offer, targeting by city, county, state honchos, watched by the pigs, shadowed by all the sub humans
You will not hear VP Harris or Jill Biden talking about this blasphemy, or Henry Giroux or Chris Hedges writing about this stuff. Believe you me, this is below them, to be blunt. I am part of a legion of older folk caught in several levels or circles of THEIR hell: the arbitrators, the people in high and mid office, making some of the worst decisions ever. We are at the whim of lock-step fearful folk. We are at the beck and call of the most uncreative people on earth. I have seen the antithesis of education, of journalism, of social work, of college teaching in my many decades of wandering the planet as a writer who should have gone the route of med school or law.
I’m sixty-five and really part of the growing throw-away contingency of millions in this Western Culture who are just the flesh and blood (and data mines) in a pipeline for more rich and super rich and almost rich people to take their pound of flesh — fees, penalties, late charges, triple taxation, tickets, surcharges, foreclosures, evictions, repossessions, code infractions, add-ons.
Oh, cry for me, United Snakes of America. Evictions, uh? They — the landlords, the BlackRocks, the BlackStones, the Banks and the Insurance and the Real Estate monsters, they are the Stinkin’ Badges!
I’ve written about this before, so again, broken DVD/record:
Never forget who we are:
In 2019, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren blasted Blackstone for “shamelessly” profiting from the U.S. foreclosure crisis, arguing that Wall Street’s investment in single-family homes was a “huge loss for America’s renters.” (source)
Never mind, though, old Elizabeth states she is through and through a capitalist. Haha, rhetoric, yakking, and not a fucking thing is done. Huge loss for America’s renters? This is life and death, again, these people at the top are clueless, intentionally, or just because they do not know what it is to be us.
But then, forgetting is in the water:
And, you can’t get Whoopied when you got no millions:
Unemployment, on the dole, on the fiddle, under the table, riff-raff, deplorable, welfare king, trash, undesirable, vermin, dreg of society, scum, outcast — terms thrown at me and my people. Hell, just look at the Chosen People’s movie channels — all those narratives, those Hulu and Netflix and Amazon series and movie crap, how they depict (they never really depict real struggle) us commoners, those of us who still have a few good years left to be “contributors,” but for many reasons, will never get the third, fourth, tenth chance. Watch closely how they depict the working class. Take notes. We are dregs, man. Broken, mean, thieves, fornicators, dumb, and deplorables.
Remote Area Medical? Shit, we are an underperforming country, intentional, vis-a-vis the corporate whores, the lot of them:
Scale this shit up. Dental clinics, care homes, medical clinics. Free, of course. Reroute that Biden-Trump-Bush-Obama-Clinton war money to what we need: Stan Brock, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom:
A debate over healthcare has been raging nationwide, but what’s been lost in the discussion are the American citizens who live day after day, year after year without solutions for their most basic needs. Remote Area Medical documents the annual three-day “pop-up” medical clinic organized by the non-profit Remote Area Medical (RAM) in Bristol, Tennessee’s NASCAR speedway. Instead of a film about policy, Remote Area Medical is a film about people, about a proud Appalachian community banding together to try and provide some relief for friends and neighbors who are simply out of options.
Fucking amazing Stan Brock — they don’t make people like him anymore!
The headlines last week after the release of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics told one story. “Stunning jobs report,” said Politico. CNBC said the report showed a “surprisingly powerful gain.” And CNN added this take: “Here’s what makes the jobs report ‘shocking.’”
Even President Joe Biden celebrated. “This morning’s report caps off my first year as president,” he said. “And over that period, our economy created 6.6 million jobs — 6.6 million jobs. If you can’t remember another year when so many people went to work in this country, there’s a reason: It never happened.”
But for Indigenous people, the numbers show that the labor market is leaving Indigenous people behind, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution.
“While the nation’s topline unadjusted unemployment rate was 4.4% in January, the unemployment rate among Native American workers was an extraordinarily high 11.1%,” writeRobert Maxim, Randall Akee and Gabriel R. Sanchez. “Nearly two years into the recovery, Native American workers are contending with a labor market that would be considered catastrophic if it was reflective of the full economy.”
But the report is also striking because the data is now available.
“It was the first time, in my opinion, a historic data release,” said Maxim, a senior research associate at Brookings in Washington, D.C. and a citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
Every month the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its report on labor but does not contain any information on Native American workers. That means there was a gap in how the economy was working because it excluded Native people in general.
“I think that largely left us out of the discussion when it came to how the labor market was doing,” Maxim said.
The Brookings report shows that Native Americans had a higher unemployment rate than other racial groups before the pandemic, “with a 7.5% unemployment rate in February 2020. As the pandemic took hold, the Native American unemployment rate jumped to an astonishing 28.6% — a level comparable to national unemployment during the Great Depression.”
Even with the recovery, Native Americans have an unemployment rate “that’s two and a half times higher than the nation as a whole,” Maxim said. Those could be considered “crisis levels,” he said.
Maxim said one of the goals of the analysis was to highlight the problem of measuring unemployment and to show that “Native people have had a much more difficult time with this pandemic than the United States as a whole.”
The health disparities, magnified by the pandemic, lead to worse economic outcomes. He said: “If you’re not healthy enough to work, if you’re just trying to stay alive, you can’t even think about your economic well being. You’re just trying to survive.”
It’s that very difficulty that shows up in the employment numbers.
Beyond the January employment news, the Brookings piece explores improving the data quality of economic reporting.
“I mentioned in the piece that this data only identifies people that self- identify as American Indian or Alaskan Native alone. And why does that matter? Well, 61 percent of Native people identify as two or more races, it’s the highest of any racial or ethnic group,” Maxim said. “You’re effectively excluding three out of every five Native people in the data about them.”
He said it’s a lot like skipping states and ignoring all of the data.
“People would say that that’s of course not representative,” he said.
That calls for the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to rethink their data collection. “Now it’s time to kind of ask this broader question about how we as a country think about Native people,” he said.
Capital-centered economics is unscientific and irrational. It does not provide people with a coherent, integrated, and cogent understanding of the economy. Instead it increases confusion every day, leaving people rudderless and disoriented about what is really happening.
The capitalist economic system is always chaotic, anarchic, and violent, but the last two years have been more volatile and disordered than usual. Stability and security remain elusive. Uncertainty and anxiety are ever-present. Sustained healthy economic growth is largely absent.
In the most schizophrenic way, one week the monopoly-controlled media claims that the economy is doing extremely well while the following week we are told the economy is collapsing. We are to accept constant uncertainty and precariousness and conclude that this is the best we can do. A CNBC news article, After a huge year for growth, the U.S. economy is about to slam into a wall, is emblematic of this incoherence and irrationalism. So is this headline from U.S. News & World Report, The Maddening Reality of the Biden Economy, and this one from CNN Business, America’s economic recovery is about to go into reverse. What “growth”? What “recovery”? And why are “growth” and “recovery” suddenly “about to go into reverse” or “slam into a wall”?
The main nagging economic problems are well-known: endless debt of all kinds, ceaseless money printing, high inflation, growing inequality, extensive supply chain disruptions, more poverty, rising insecurity, widespread under-employment, erratic business hours, poor wage growth, prevalent homelessness, additional pay-the-rich schemes, and more.
These grave problems are interrelated and reflect an economy dominated and distorted by a handful of competing owners of capital while the vast majority, the actual producers of wealth in society, remain marginalized and disempowered, reduced to helpless bystanders watching everything decline. We are to believe that conscious human control of the economy is impossible and that all we can do is “make the best” of a treacherous situation, “endure the pain,” and “weather the storm together.” Apparently there is no alternative to this obsolete state of affairs. We are to “wait things out,” cross our fingers, and hope that things magically sort themselves out.
Existing conditions are screaming for new social, political, and economic relations but the present authority refuses to modernize relations to bring them on par with what is needed. The international financial oligarchy is desperately hanging on to a dying and decaying world, determined to block the new.
What are people to make of this untenable situation? What should they do? How can they change the situation in a way that favors them?
Continually engaging in a conscious act of finding out and combing analysis with action are critical to opening the path of progress to society. These are not easy responsibilities, especially under oppressive anti-conscious conditions.
Economic problems cannot be solved without concrete analysis of the conditions and collective action to solve problems. The rich and their allies are not going to solve anything. They have no interest in the balanced extended reproduction of society. They cannot be relied on because they are concerned only with their narrow private interests, not the economy as an integrated whole. They reject public control of the economy. Nor do they want anyone engaging in conscious investigation of what is going on and organizing with others to create new pro-social arrangements. The ruling elite does not want its domination challenged in any way, no matter how many lofty phrases they throw around about being democratic, inclusive, and progressive.
Blindly repeating and supporting the ideas of the rich and their political representatives will not lead to one iota of progress. Embracing the outlook and agenda of the ruling elite and rejecting theory, analysis, and investigation will only perpetuate the destructive status quo. It is only by taking up our social responsibility together that we can overcome the forces dragging society backward. It is both possible and necessary to understand and control the economy to serve the people as a whole. Living and working standards do not have to decline in this modern age. The economy is not a mystery. It can be directed to serve the general interests of society.
Under existing arrangements we have seen what happens when different sectors of the economy are dominated by competing owners of capital interested only in their own profits no matter how damaging this is to the social and natural environment. The economy is prevented from being self-reliant, balanced, and coordinated to serve the broad needs of a modern society based on mass industrial production.
Under capitalism everything is so discombobulated that one “glitch” in one sector leads to disruptions, distortions, and upheaval elsewhere. Why is this unsustainable state of affairs allowed to prevail in 2022? Is there no alternative to this backward state of affairs?
Major owners of capital are a block to progress and progress begins by taking a stand against the old and in favor of the new. It begins by rejecting a capital-centered outlook of the economy and society. Together we can decipher and understand what is going on and collectively improve the social and natural environment. Only we can usher in the alternative to the status quo.
The economy added 467,000 jobs in January, in spite of the spread of the omicron variant. Even pandemic sensitive sectors such as hotels and restaurants were big job gainers. It appears that employers’ main response was to reduce hours, with the average workweek falling by 0.2 hours, a decline of 0.6 percent. The unemployment rate was little changed at 4.0 percent.
Revisions Change Our View of the Economy
The annual benchmark revisions, which include different seasonal adjustment factors, give a radically different view of the economy in 2021. With the revisions, job growth in November and December was revised up by 709,000 to show a two-month gain of 1,157,000. By contrast, job growth in June and July was revised down by 807,000, so that these months now show a total gain of 1,246,000.
The new data indicate that job growth was far stronger at the end of 2021 than previously thought, while somewhat less rapid for the summer months. For the year, the revisions added 217,000 jobs, putting the 2021 total gain at 6,665,000 jobs. Job loss in 2020 now stands at 9,292,000. We’re now 2.9 million jobs below the pre-pandemic level.
Wage Growth Is Still Very Rapid
There is little evidence in this report that wage growth is slowing. Comparing the last three months (November-January) with the prior three (August-October), overall private sector wages rose at a 6.5 percent annual rate, up somewhat from the 5.7 percent rate over the last year. Wages in retail grew at a 5.8 percent annual rate, up from a 5.4 percent rate over the last year. Wage growth in restaurants did slow somewhat, rising at a 10.6 percent rate, compared to a 13.0 percent rate over the last year.
The reduction in hours could be skewing the wage data up modestly in January. The decline in hours is equivalent to a decline in private sector employment of more than 700,000. If most of the hours lost were among lower paid workers, then it would raise the average pay for the month.
Employment and Unemployment Rates Little Changed
The employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) rose 0.3 percentage point, but all of that was due to the annual change in population controls. Without these changes, it would have edged down by 0.1 percentage point. The unemployment rate was unaffected by the controls, rising 0.1 percentage point. The prime-age (25 to 54) EPOP edged up to 79.1 percent, a level not reached following the Great Recession until February 2018.
Black Unemployment Falls 0.2 Percentage Point to 6.9 Percent
The Black unemployment is still 1.5 percentage points above its pre-pandemic low. By contrast, the white unemployment is just 0.4 percentage point above the low reached before the pandemic.
The unemployment rate for Asian Americans fell slightly to 3.6 percent. It is still 0.2 percentage point above the unemployment rate for whites. Before the pandemic, the unemployment rate for Asian Americans was typically somewhat below the unemployment rate for whites. The unemployment rate for Hispanics was unchanged at 4.9 percent, 0.9 percentage point above its pre-pandemic low.
Other Data in Household Survey Is Looking More Normal
There was a sharp drop in the share of long-term (more than 26 weeks) unemployed to 25.9 percent. This is still high but much closer to pre-pandemic levels. The share of unemployment due to voluntary quits jumped to 14.5 percent, which is more in line with the low unemployment number. The number of involuntary part-time workers fell sharply, hitting its lowest share of employment since 2000. The U6 measure of labor market slack fell to 7.1 percent, just 0.3 percentage point above its all-time low.
Manufacturing and Construction Had Mixed Performance in January
Manufacturing added 13,000 jobs in January, its ninth consecutive monthly gain. Employment in the sector is now down 1.8 percent from pre-pandemic levels. Construction lost 5,000, which was possibly weather related. Employment is down 1.3 percent from pre-pandemic levels.
Many Pandemic Affected Sectors Did Well in January
Airline employment rose 6,800 in the month and is now more than 1.0 percent above its pre-pandemic level. Restaurants added 108,200 jobs, hotels added 22,600 jobs, while arts and entertainment added 20,100 jobs. Employment in these sectors is now down 8.0 percent, 22.3 percent, and 11.7 percent, respectively from pre-pandemic levels. These sectors account for the overwhelming majority of the jobs shortfall from pre-pandemic levels.
Retail added 61,000 workers in January. This gain, coupled with upward revisions, pushed employment in the sector above its pre-pandemic level.
Nursing Homes and Child Care Add Workers
Jobs in nursing homes increased by 2,100 in January in only the second rise since the pandemic began. Employment is down by 15.0 percent from before the pandemic. Employment in childcare was up 5,600, but it is still down 12.4 percent from its pre-pandemic level.
State and Local Education Add Workers, Still Far Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
State and local education added 28,400 jobs in January, but employment is still down 3.6 percent from its pre-pandemic level. This likely reflects difficulty competing with private sector wages, but it may also be partially due to political attacks on teachers in recent months.
Another Strong Report
Contrary to most expectations, it doesn’t seem that the omicron variant dampened job growth in January. In many respects the labor market is looking much closer to normal; although public sector employment and employment in the leisure and hospitality sectors are still far below pre-pandemic levels.
Wages continue to grow at a rapid pace. There is some evidence of slowing in sectors showing the most rapid growth, but wage growth in excess of 6.0 percent cannot be sustained without serious problems with inflation.
Economic and social conditions have been worsening for decades at home and abroad, especially in the context of the neoliberal antisocial offensive which was launched more than 40 years ago by the international financial oligarchy. But they have been getting even worse in recent years and over the past two years in particular.
Inequality, poverty, and debt, along with homelessness, unemployment, and under-employment are on the rise in an increasingly interconnected globe. It is no surprise that suicide, depression, illness, and anxiety persist at very high levels. There is an unbreakable connection between economic, social, and personal conditions. As economic and social conditions decline, so too do people’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
Below is a current snapshot of deteriorating economic and social conditions in the U.S. and elsewhere. The U.S. population currently stands at 332,403,650. The world population is 7,868,872,451.
Conditions in the U.S.
American student loan debt increased at a rate of 20 percent in the last ten years, leaving college graduates with hefty payments. The student loan debt in the US is a growing crisis with college graduates owing a collective $1.75 trillion in student loans. In 2021, there are 44.7 million Americans who have student loan debt averaging about $30,000 at the time of receiving their undergraduate degree.
The number of Americans living without homes, in shelters, or on the streets continues to rise at an alarming rate.
The $5 trillion in wealth now held by 745 billionaires is two-thirds more than the $3 trillion in wealth held by the bottom 50 percent of U.S. households estimated by the Federal Reserve Board.
The official poverty rate in 2020 was 11.4 percent, up 1.0 percentage point from 10.5 percent in 2019. This is the first increase in poverty after five consecutive annual declines. In 2020, there were 37.2 million people in poverty, approximately 3.3 million more than in 2019.
After the longest period in history without an increase, the federal minimum wage today is worth 21% less than 12 years ago—and 34% less than in 1968.
CEOs were paid 351 times as much as a typical worker in 2020.
[F]or seven months of 2021, workers have been quitting at near-record rates.
More than 4.5 million people voluntarily left their jobs in November [2021] the Labor Department said Tuesday. That was up from 4.2 million in October and was the most in the two decades that the government has been keeping track.
According to a report by UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Initiative, Latinas are leaving the workforce at higher rates than any other demographic. Between March 2020 and March 2021, the number of Latinas in the workforce dropped by 2.74%, meaning there are 336,000 fewer Latinas in the labor force
The adult women’s labor force participation rate remains blunted at 57.5%—well below pre-pandemic levels. In fact, it’s worse than pre-pandemic levels.
U.S. job openings jumped in October to the second-highest on record, underscoring the ongoing challenge for employers to find qualified workers for an unprecedented number of vacancies. The number of available positions rose to 11 million from an upwardly revised 10.6 million in September.
As of November [2021], 15.6 million workers in the US are still being affected by the pandemic’s economic downturn; 3.9 million US workers are out of the labor force due to Covid-19, 6.9 million workers are still unemployed, 2 million workers are still experiencing cuts to pay or work schedules due to Covid-19, and another 3 million workers are misclassified as employed or out of the labor force, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
About 2.2 million Americans remain long-term unemployed — about 1.1 million more than in February 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[I]n 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in November that more than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, May 2020 to April 2021, with about three-quarters of those deaths involving opioids — a national record.
Suicide rates increased 33% between 1999 and 2019, with a small decline in 2019. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. It was responsible for more than 47,500 deaths in 2019, which is about one death every 11 minutes. The number of people who think about or attempt suicide is even higher. In 2019, 12 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.5 million planned a suicide attempt, and 1.4 million attempted suicide. Suicide affects all ages. It is the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-34, the fourth leading cause among people ages 35-44, and the fifth leading cause among people ages 45-54.
Alarming Anxiety & Depression Toll making All Time Record Highs Impacting 30% of all Americans.
[Depression] has been rising for well more than a decade in teens and hiked further during the pandemic. And after a pandemic-induced spike, depression symptoms now plague more than a quarter of U.S. adults. More than 13% of Americans were taking antidepressants before Covid hit and during the pandemic, prescriptions shot up 6%.
At least 12 major U.S. cities have broken annual homicide records in 2021.
Private health insurance coverage declined for working-age adults ages 19 to 64 from early 2019 to early 2021, when the nation experienced the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, 4.3 million children under the age of 19 — 5.6% of all children — were without health coverage for the entire calendar year.
International Conditions
Even as tens of millions of people were being pushed into destitution, the ultra-rich became wealthier. Last year, billionaires enjoyed the highest boost to their share of wealth on record, according to the World Inequality Lab.
Global wealth inequality is even more pronounced than income inequality. The poorest half of the world’s population only possess 2 percent of the total wealth. In contrast, the wealthiest 10 percent own 76 percent of all wealth, with $771,300 (€550,900) on average.
The pandemic has pushed approximately 100 million people into extreme poverty, boosting the global total to 711 million in 2021.
More than half a billion people pushed or pushed further into extreme poverty due to health care costs.
33% of Arab world doesn’t have enough food: UN report. The Arab world witnessed a 91.1 per cent increase in hunger since 2000, affecting 141 million people.
The 60% of low-income countries the IMF says are now near or in debt distress compares with less than 30% as recently as 2015.
According to a recent Gallup poll, 63 percent of Lebanese would like to permanently leave the country in the face of worsening living conditions.
Turkey’s annual inflation rate is expected to have hit 30.6% in December, according to a Reuters poll, breaching the 30% level for the first time since 2003 as prices rose due to record lira volatility.
Kazakhstan government resigns amid protests over rising fuel prices.
November saw inflation rise by 14.23 percent, building on a pattern of double-digit increases that have hit India for several months now. Fuel and energy prices rose nearly 40 percent last month. Urban unemployment – most of the better-paying jobs are in cities – has been moving up since September and is now above 9 percent.
Sri Lanka is facing a deepening financial and humanitarian crisis with fears it could go bankrupt in 2022 as inflation rises to record levels, food prices rocket and its coffers run dry.
COVID-19 spike worsens Africa’s severe poverty, hunger woes.
Latin America’s biggest economy [Brazil] is seen remaining stuck in recession as it confronts double-digit price increases.
Japan admits overstating economic data for nearly a decade.
New Zealanders are feeling pessimistic about the economy, worried about rising interest rates and the prospect of new Covid-19 variants, Westpac’s latest consumer confidence data shows.
Canadians’ optimism towards their financial health and the economy at large reached its lowest point in more than a year during the final work week of 2021, according to Bloomberg and Nanos Research.
Polish Inflation to Rise Sharply in 2022, Central Bank Boss Says.
Inflation is at its highest level in the UK since 2011.
The Resolution Foundation predicts higher energy bills, stagnant wages and tax rises could leave [U.K.] households with a £1,200 a year hit to their incomes.
Air travel in and out of UK slumps by 71% in 2021 amid pandemic. Report from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows domestic flights were down by almost 60%.
Annual inflation in Spain rises 6.7% in December, the highest level in nearly three decades.
OECD predicts Latvia to have the slowest economic growth among Baltic States.
While deteriorating economic, social, and personal conditions define many other countries and regions, the main question is why do such horrible problems persist in the 21st century? The scientific and technical revolution of the last 250 years has objectively enabled and empowered humankind to solve major problems and to meet the basic needs of all humans while improving the natural environment. There are a million creative ways to affirm the rights of all safely, sustainably, quickly, and on a constantly-improving basis. There is no reason for persistent and widespread instability, chaos, and insecurity. Living and working standards should be steadily rising everywhere in the 21st century, not continually declining for millions. Objectively, there is no shortage or scarcity of socially-produced wealth to meet the needs of all.
Under existing political-economic arrangements, however, systemic instabilities and crises will persist for the foreseeable future, ensuring continued anxiety and hardship for millions. The rich and their political representatives have repeatedly demonstrated that they are unable and unwilling to solve serious problems. They are out of touch and self-serving. As a result, the world is full of more chaos, anarchy, insecurity, and violence of all forms. The rich are concerned only with their narrow private interests no matter how damaging this is to the natural and social environment. They do not recognize the need for a self-reliant, diverse, and balanced economy controlled and directed by working people. They reject the human factor and social consciousness in all affairs.
It is not possible to overcome unresolved economic and social problems so long as the economy remains dominated by a handful of billionaires. It is impossible to invest socially-produced wealth in social programs and services so long as the workers who produce that wealth have no control over it. Every year, more and more of the wealth produced by workers fills the pockets of fewer and fewer billionaires, thereby exacerbating many problems. Wealth concentration has reached extremely absurd levels.
It is extremely difficult to bring about change that favors the people so long as the cartel political parties of the rich dominate politics and keep people out of power. Constantly begging and “pressuring” politicians to fulfill people’s most basic rights is humiliating, exhausting, and ineffective. It does not work. No major problems have been solved in years. More problems keep appearing no matter which party of the rich is in power. The obsolete two-party system stands more discredited with each passing year. Getting excited every 2-4 years about which candidate of the rich will win an election has not brought about deep and lasting changes that favor the people. It is no surprise that President Joe Biden’s approval rating keeps hitting new lows every few weeks. People want change that favors them, not more schemes to pay the rich in the name of “getting things done” or “serving the public.” “Building Back Better” should not mean tons more money for the rich and a few crumbs for the rest of us.
A fresh new alternative is needed that actually empowers the people themselves to direct all the affairs of society. New arrangements that unleash the human factor and enable people to practically implement pro-social changes are needed urgently. All the old institutions of liberal democracy and the so-called “social contract” disappeared long ago and cannot provide a way forward. They are part of an old obsolete world that continually blocks the affirmation of human rights. This law or that law from this mainstream party or that mainstream party is not going to save the day. The cartel parties of the rich became irrelevant long ago.
We are in an even more violent and chaotic environment today that is yearning for a new and modern alternative that affirms the rights of all and prevents any individuals, governments, or corporations from depriving people of their rights. People themselves must be the decision-makers so that the wealth of society is put in the service of society. Constantly paying the rich more while gutting social programs and enterprises is a recipe for greater tragedies.
U.S. politics these days is all too often an Alice-through-the-looking-glass absurdity.
Over the last few weeks, at least five GOP-led states — Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee — embraced rule changes to their unemployment benefits systems to allow workers who were fired for refusing to abide by their employers’ vaccine requirements to claim unemployment. Many other GOP-led states are likely to follow suit. This despite the fact that workers who choose to leave their jobs, or who are fired for cause — because, for example, they break company rules, such as failing a drug test or refusing to abide by non-disclosure agreements — aren’t usually eligible for unemployment benefits.
Hypocrisy doesn’t even begin to describe this particular policy shift, which panders to the conspiratorial, anti-vaxxer wing of the Republican Party.
First off, what conceivable good comes of shaping public policy in a way designed to incentivize behavior that puts numerous other people at risk and threatens to overwhelm hospital systems from coast to coast?
An Associated Press analysis of COVID deaths in May of last year found that between 98 and 99 percent of these deaths were of people who weren’t vaccinated. More recently, as the Omicron variant has led to a vast wave of infections, states such as New York have detailed how hospitalization rates for the unvaccinated are 14 times higher than for those who have been fully vaccinated. In Republican counties and states, especially in the South, with higher numbers unvaccinated, hospitals have been swamped, leading to a fall-off in available beds and services for people with other ailments and diseases. Many of those states are the same ones that have needlessly undermined the health of their populations by refusing federal Affordable Care Act funds to expand Medicaid and that have, in consequence, a large percentage of their population already struggling to access even basic health care.
The Republican Party has perfected the art of political gymnastics, of doing 180-degree policy turns on a dime simply for short-term partisan advantage; it is a party that touts itself as upholding “law and order” while embracing the coup-plotting antics of Donald Trump and his murderous paramilitary henchmen; it is a party that refused to consider a Democratic nominee for the Supreme Court a year before the presidential election in 2016, but which rammed through Trump’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg just days before the 2020 election closed. However, even within this context, there’s something particularly bizarre about its handing out of welfare benefits specifically to the unvaccinated.
After all, this is the very same GOP that has been pillaging and plundering the safety net and social welfare programs for years — cutting benefits to the poor in order to free up money to provide tax cuts to the rich. It is the same GOP whose leaders have, over the decades, railed against “welfare queens.” It is the same GOP whose leaders have, in recent years, accused immigrants of draining benefit funds from the public system.
This is also the same GOP that has ended pandemic-era expanded unemployment and other benefits programs for the general public, saying that such benefits are discouraging workers from returning to the labor market. So, thanks to the GOP at the state level and its congressional representatives in D.C., if you choose not to work because your employer hasn’t put COVID protections in place and you’re fearful that you might bring home a deadly disease and infect an immunocompromised or elderly relative, you no longer qualify for unemployment. Similarly, if you’re a parent with young children, and your kids are repeatedly sent home from school because their classmates have contracted COVID, or you have preschoolers at home and can’t find an affordable, safe daycare center, and you choose to stop working so as to care for your children, well, thanks to the GOP, you also don’t qualify for unemployment.
Philosophically, the GOP’s embrace of a select group of unvaccinated workers to qualify for more expansive benefits if they resist employer mandates flies in the face of decades of political and legal posturing by conservatives in favor of expanding the rights of employers at the cost of protections for employees.
For years, the GOP has criticized social benefits programs as encouraging sloth. GOP legislators have attempted — though failed — to slash food stamp benefits over the past decade. They have championed welfare-to-work policies that include making Medicaid recipients work for their health benefits (though, to be fair, both parties have drunk from this noxious trough at times — it was Bill Clinton, a Democratic president, who oversaw the gutting of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, and its replacement with the far less munificent, more punitive, Temporary Aid to Needy Families). The GOP under Trump pushed the peculiarly sadistic public charge rules, designed to exclude millions of documented immigrants and their children from all parts of the social safety net, including access to emergency housing and health care assistance. This triggered a lengthy series of court cases, until, ultimately, the Biden administration rescinded the Trump-era regulatory changes.
Now, all of a sudden, the GOP has discovered the value of social programs — but only to protect its most extreme, most vaccine-resistant and most dangerous political wing. With more than 1,500 people a day currently dying in the U.S. of a disease most could be protected from simply by getting vaccinated, there’s nothing noble about encouraging anti-vaxxers to double down on their behavior. And, in a less extreme, less irrationalist political moment, it’s hard to imagine that one of the country’s two main political parties would want to so solidly align itself with such a destructive cultural and political movement. But this isn’t a calm moment; instead, it’s one increasingly defined by irrationality, rage and political gamesmanship.
In Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat talks of the day becoming the night and the sky becoming the sea. And in Through the Looking Glass, when Alice tries to convince the queen that, “One can’t believe impossible things,” the contrarian monarch responds by saying, “I daresay you haven’t had much practice. When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
That, I’m afraid, is where things stand in the U.S. today. The GOP panders to the fantasies of a faction, and, in doing so, it shreds notions of scientific truth and also locks into place the most counterproductive social policies imaginable.
The response to COVID-19 proved that the federal government is far more capable of managing the economy than many people thought. What happens now that Bidenomics faces rising headwinds?
The unemployment rate fell another 0.3 percentage points in December, bringing the unemployment rate down to 3.9 percent. This is lower than all but five months in the late 1990s boom and the period between May 2018 and the pandemic.
At the same time, the establishment survey showed a weaker than expected increase in 199,000 jobs; although the prior two months figures were revised upward by a total of 141,000. With the upward revisions, the average growth for the last three months was 365,000.
Overall employment is now down by 3.6 million, or 2.3 percent, from its pre-pandemic level. Private sector employment is down by 2.6 million, which is 2.0 percent below the pre-pandemic level.
It is important to note that omicron was not a factor in this report, since the strain first began to have significant spread after the reference week.
Wage Growth Remains Strong
There is little evidence that wage growth is slowing in this report. The annualized rate of growth in the average hourly wage for the last three months (October-December) compared with the prior three months (July-September) is 6.1 percent. That is up from 4.7 percent over the last year. The growth continues to be fastest at the bottom. The annualized rate of growth in the hourly wage for production and nonsupervisory workers is 6.9 percent, compared to 5.8 percent year-over-year. The annualized growth rate for workers in hotels was 9.6 percent, but this is down from a 15.8 percent year-over-year rise.
Manufacturing and Construction Continue to Have Strong Gains
Manufacturing added 26,000 jobs in December, while construction added 22,000. Manufacturing employment now stands 219,000 (1.7 percent) below its pre-pandemic level, while construction employment is 88,000 (1.2 percent) lower.
Low-Paying Sectors Still Struggle to Find Workers
Nursing and residential care facilities lost 6,100 jobs in December, while childcare lost 3,700 jobs. Employment in these sectors is now down by 12.4 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively from pre-pandemic levels.
Difficulty attracting workers is also a big factor in much of the leisure and hospitality sector. Hotels added 10,000 jobs in December, while restaurants added 42,600; but employment in both sectors is still far below pre-pandemic levels. Employment in restaurants is still 653,000, or 5.3 percent from pre-pandemic levels. Hotel employment is down 304,000, or 14.4 percent, from pre-pandemic levels. However, the length of the average workweek has increased by 1.9 percent in the sector, the equivalent of more than 250,000 jobs with an unchanged workweek.
Other Pandemic Affected Sectors Continue to Struggle
The movie industry, which has taken the biggest hit in the pandemic, lost 6,200 jobs in December, putting employment 22.9 percent below its pre-pandemic level. The arts and entertainment sector added back just 700 jobs, leaving it 265,000 jobs, or 10.6 percent below its pre-pandemic level.
State and Local Government Employment Continues to Fall
Jobs in state and local governments fell by another 10,000; although employment in education did rise by 3,200 in December. Employment in the state and local government sectors has been dropping since July. It now stands at 944,000, or 4.7 percent below its pre-pandemic level. The problem here is that these governments can not easily raise wages or offer hiring bonuses to compete with the private sector.
Unemployment Rates Fall for Most Groups
The picture in the household survey was overwhelmingly positive, with many disadvantaged groups seeing large improvements. The unemployment rate for workers with just a high school degree fell by 0.6 percentage points to 4.6 percent, 1.2 percentage points above its pre-pandemic low. The drop for workers without a high school degree was 0.3 percentage points to 5.2 percent, which is 0.3 percentage points above its pre-pandemic low. The unemployment rate for Hispanics fell by 0.3 percentage points to 4.9 percent, 0.9 percentage points above its pre-pandemic low.
Black Teen Unemployment Up From Summer Lows
The Black teen unemployment rate hit a record low of 9.9 percent in June and has risen in recent months. It was 21.0 percent in December, the second consecutive month it has been over 20 percent.
U-6 Measure of Labor Market Slack Falls
The Bureau of Labor Statistics U-6 measure of labor market slack (which adds in people working part-time who would like full-time unemployment, and workers who report wanting a job, but are not actively looking for work) fell 0.4 percentage points to 7.3 percent, a level not reached following the Great Recession until February 2019.
Self-Employment Remains High
The number of the unincorporated self-employed is 528,000 above the average for 2019. Earlier in the pandemic this rise may have been attributable to people being unable to find other work, but this is no longer plausibly the case.
Another Overwhelmingly Positive Report
The job growth reported for December was lower than expected, but given recent patterns, it is likely that it will be revised up in the later reports. In many sectors the reason we are not seeing more jobs is largely due to the supply side, with workers unwilling to work at jobs with low pay and bad conditions. However, the prime age (ages 25 to 54) employment-to-population ratio is still 1.5 percentage points below its pre-recession peak, so there is still some way to go before we have gotten back all the ground lost in the pandemic.
Wage growth continues to be very fast. This will be inflationary if there is not some slowing in future months.
Donald Trump thinks he’s still president according to no more reliable a source than Rachel Maddow on her February 5th show. This was confirmed in May by Vanity Fair. Right-wing conspiracy theorists echo this analysis as recently as this month. Left-liberals are smugly confident that Kamala Harris’s running mate is in the White House, snoozing in the presidential bedroom. Inquiring minds ask what is the evidence nearly a year into the alleged Biden presidency that there has been a change of guard in Washington?
+The Obama-Biden union card check proposal was not on Mr. Trump’s political horizon, nor is it on that of the current occupant in the White House.
+The current occupant is ramping up Trump’s unhinged Sino-phobic hallucinations, sanctioning 34 Chinese entities for development of “brain-control weaponry.” Not that the Chinese have been angels. In an egregious suppression of freedom of information, the inscrutable Orientals have made it more difficult for US spies to operate in their country.
+The current occupant nominally withdrew US troops from Afghanistan as negotiated by Mr. Trump, presumably reducing overall military costs. Yet, he continues the Trump-trajectory of lavishing billions of dollars more on the military than even the Pentagon requests.
+Given his priority to feed the war machine, the new occupant is having a hard time finding sufficient funds for Biden-promised student debt forgiveness. Ditto for making two years of community college tuition-free.
+ President Trump slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%; candidate Biden vowed to raise it to 28%; the current occupant proposed a further cut to 15%.
Biden, while campaigning in 2019, pledged to wealthy donors that “nothing would fundamentally change” if he’s elected. And nothing has changed despite recent drama in the Senate over Build Back Better. Trump’s $4.5 trillion corporate-investor tax cut still appears secure.
+Raising the federal minimum wage to $15-an-hour from $7.25, where it has languished since 2009, was a big selling point for the Biden campaign. Now it is on hold, while billionaire fortunes balloon, leaving the working class broke but woke under the current administration.
+The Obama-Biden nuclear deal with Iran was gutted by Trump. The current occupant, contrary to Biden’s campaign utterances, has not returned to the conditions of the JCPOA. Rather, he has continued Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy against Iran.
+Candidate Biden, calling for a foreign policy based on diplomacy, criticized Trump’s dangerous and erratic war mongering. Yet only a month after his inauguration, the new president capriciously bombed “Iranian-backed militias” in Syria who were fighting ISIS terrorists and posed no threat to the US.
The new president went on to authorize further “air strikes” on “targets” around the world such as Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Now, the undiscriminating reader might think these are acts of war. But war, according to the “rules-based order” of the new occupant, is best understood as a conflict where US lives are lost rather than those of seemingly more expendable swarthy-skinned foreigners.
+The Obama-Biden normalization of relations with Cuba and easing of restrictions were reversed by Trump. Presidential candidate Biden had signaled a return, but the current occupant has instead intensified the US hybrid war against Cuba.
+Candidate Biden pledged to review Trump’s policy of US sanctions against a third of humanity. The presumptive intention of the review was to ameliorate the human suffering caused by these unilateral coercive measures. Sanctions are a form of collective punishment considered illegal under international law. Following the review, the current occupant has instead tightened the screws, more effectively weaponizing the COVID crisis against countries such as Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela, while adding Ethiopia and Cambodia to the growing list of those sanctioned.
+Among Trump’s most ridiculous foreign policy stunts (and it’s a competitive field) was the recognition of Juan Guaidó as president of Venezuela in 2019. The then 35-year-old US security asset had never run for a nationwide office and was unknown to over 80% of the Venezuelans. Contrary to campaign trail inuendoes that Biden would dialogue with the democratically elected president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, the new guy in the White House has continued the embarrassing Guaidó charade.
+The current White House occupant has also continued and expanded on some of the worse anti-immigrant policies of the xenophobe who preceded him. Asylum seekers from Haiti and Central America – fleeing conditions in large part created by US interventions in their countries – have been sent packing. Within a month of assuming the presidency, migrant detention facilities for children were employed, contradicting statements made by candidate Biden who had deplored locking kids in cages.
+President Trump was a shameless global warming denier. Candidate Biden was a refreshing true believer, boldly calling for a ban on new oil and natural gas leasing on public land and water. But whoever is now in the Oval Office opened more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for fossil fuel drilling.
Perhaps the strongest evidence that Trump is practically still in office is the political practice of his left-liberal detractors who solemnly promised to “first dump Trump, then battle Biden.” However, these left-liberals are still obsessing about dumping Trump. Instead of battling Biden, they are fanning the dying embers of the fear of another January 6 insurrection, giving the Democrats a pass.
Of course, the Democrats occupy the executive branch along with holding majorities and both houses of Congress. Yet, despite campaign pledges and spin, the continuity from one administration to the next is overarching as the preceding quick review documented.
The partisan infighting theatrics of the “dysfunctional Congress” is in part a distraction from an underlying bedrock bipartisan consensus. Congress is dysfunctional by design on matters of social welfare for working Americans. It is ruthlessly functional for matters of concern for the ruling elites, such as the military spending, bank bailouts, corporate welfare, and an expansive surveillance state.
The Democrats offer an empty “we are not Trump” alternative. The bankrupt left-liberals no longer stand for substantial improvements to the living conditions of working people, a “peace dividend,” or respite from war without end. Instead, they use the scare tactic that they are the bulwark against a right popular insurgency; an insurgency fueled in the first place by the failure of the two-party system to speak to the material needs of its constituents.
Like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and other imperialist organizations, the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) recently announced that the forecast for global economic recovery will be revised downward in light of the Omicron virus variant that emerged a few weeks ago .1
Predictably, the OECD claimed that “a swifter roll-out of COVID vaccines” will improve the economy even though this has not stopped social and economic decline so far, and even though President Joe Biden, South African leaders, Governor Kathy Hochul of New York, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, and many others around the world, even Anthony Fauci have stressed that the Omicron variant generally causes mostly mild symptoms and does not warrant hysteria and panic. The OECD’s “the-vaccine-will-solve-all-economic-problems” narrative is evident in many news items and publications on its website.
The ruling elite and their media have been dogmatically insisting for 20 consecutive months that elusive economic recovery depends largely on giving everyone multiple vaccination shots with or without their consent—something that makes Big Pharma extremely happy.
But so far neither billions of vaccination shots nor top-down lockdowns have stopped the deepening economic and social crisis confronting the majority of humanity. Lockdowns have devastated the livelihoods of millions and increased poverty, debt, unemployment, inequality, misery, and depression worldwide. Millions of businesses have permanently disappeared in less than 20 months. How is this an effective response to a health crisis? Will more debt, poverty, inequality, unemployment, and insecurity improve people’s health and well-being? Do security and good health come from constant instability, fear, and uncertainty? Can an economy controlled and dominated by the top 0.1% even meet the needs of the people? Not surprisingly, a key feature of the “COVID Pandemic” has been even greater concentration of socially-produced wealth in fewer private hands, bringing inequality worldwide to even more barbaric levels. Currently, “the poorest half of the planet’s population owns about 2% of its riches”. In addition, high levels of inflation are spreading globally, thereby decreasing people’s purchasing power even further. Whatever wage or salary gains many people may be getting are being rapidly eaten up by rising inflation.
Nearly two years after the “COVID Pandemic” started economies around the world are plagued by many serious intractable economic problems. It has been a huge struggle for the rich and their political and media representatives to anchor themselves in any legitimacy, and given the chaotic, anarchic, and violent way everything is being approached by the rich and their entourage, more tragedies are in store.
The necessity for an economy, society, and institutions controlled by the people themselves has never been sharper and more urgent. The rich and their cheerleaders cannot offer a way forward. They are historically exhausted, unfit to rule, and determined to preserve obsolete arrangements that keep everyone marginalized and disempowered. They reject social responsibility and block any striving of the people for a better world. The all-sided crisis plaguing people everywhere can only be solved by people relying on themselves instead of the rich and their representatives.
Imperialist organizations like the OECD regularly over-project economic growth and thus they routinely revise their projections downwards several times a year, causing many to lose faith in their ability to accurately cognize economic realities and conditions.
Single mother Juanita McLaren never stops thinking about money, because she doesn’t have it.
“It’s the number one thing that is going on in your head at all times,” she says.
“If someone invites you to a job interview, your first thought is, ‘How am I going to afford to get in there? Do I have access to [the] internet?’
“It’s just relentless. You’re just constantly coordinating your unemployment basically.
“And it just goes on all day. And when you go to bed at night, you feel crap about yourself because you’re not doing as well as you’re supposed to be.”
But it hasn’t always been this way — and it might not have to be.
Tomorrow a conference called Basic Income after COVID-19 — Social Security, Work and Wealth will discuss the concept of giving a living wage to everyone who needs it.
Universal basic income (UBI) is the concept of providing a low payment to everyone, removing the stigma of welfare payments. Its trimmed-down cousin, basic income, sees an amount that covers living expenses provided to those who need it, such as the unemployed, the elderly and carers.
For conference organiser, Elise Klein, the economic crisis of 2020 proved the merit of the idea, as a $550 a fortnight coronavirus supplement essentially doubled the value of welfare payments such as JobSeeker and gave millions of people enough money to live on.
Elise Klein is one of the organisers of the basic income conference.
“This idea that if you just give people money, people do nothing, actually wasn’t the case at all,” she says.
“People are extremely busy, extremely productive. And we saw that with this natural experiment from the federal government that acted like a basic income.”
“People used the money. They didn’t have to ration food, ration medicine, they’re able to afford accommodation.
“The money made it easier for people to engage back into the labour market, people were able to afford a bike to get to job interviews … to take public transport, people were able to start study.”
COVID shock
The rapid spread of COVID-19 in early 2020 shocked the world.
Australia’s economy shuddered to a stop as concepts that then seemed far fetched — lockdowns, social distancing, working from home, travel bans — took hold.
Pressed by unions, employers and long queues outside Centrelink, the government announced two radical programs: the JobKeeper wage subsidy and the coronavirus supplement that virtually doubled existing payments for people on welfare.
By giving people an amount of money that put them above the poverty line, more than a million welfare recipients took part in a natural experiment.
For Ms McLaren, the mother of three boys, 2020 was a great year. Increased financial support allowed her family to eat regularly, pay down debt and it saw her better prepared for work.
“To get that supplement meant that I was able to go and get the vacuum cleaner fixed. I know that sounds ridiculous!” she says, laughing.
“It gave me something to live off. And so that in itself was great.
“And because I had three kids at home — all homeschooling — and I was either working or looking for work, it allowed me to just catch up on some of the expenses that I can’t normally meet.”
Billions in cost
The biggest barrier is the obvious one: cost.
There were more than 5.4 million people who received an income support payment in June this year, according to government data. People on the age pension make up 2.6 million of that figure.
Welfare services and payments equated to about $196 billion in 2019-20, or around a third of the overall federal budget.
“I think what we learned is that welfare can be very expensive,” says Simon Cowan, research director for conservative think tank The Centre for Independent Studies.
“I think there’s a lot more drawbacks than we saw positives.”
In 2017 he estimated a UBI where everyone over the age of 18 was given $10,000 a year, with a “top-up” for welfare recipients, would cost $103 billion per annum.
Simon Cowan says the COVID-19 payments showed “welfare can be very expensive”.
Mr Cowan is not alone in criticising the level and composition of the JobSeeker payment, previously called Newstart or, colloquially, the dole.
He sees it as lumping together disparate groups — the temporarily employed, single working parents, the long-term unemployed — who need different types of assistance.
“It was introduced at a time when unemployment was below 2 per cent,” he says.
“The idea of long-term unemployment — that someone that could go years, and even potentially decades, without having a job — was almost unknown.
“So it really wasn’t designed for the purpose that it serves.”
But he’s not sold on the idea of introducing a UBI, pointing to an academic’s summation: You can have a broad-based system, you can have a generous system, and you can have a system that’s affordable.
“However, you can only pick two of those things,” he warns.
Peter Burn, chief policy adviser for business lobby AI Group, makes the point that the exceptional nature of the COVID-19 crisis needs to be considered when weighing an issue like basic income.
He saw a disincentive to work come from the way some payments were made. The design of JobKeeper meant some part-time workers received more money for doing nothing than when they were working their previously scheduled hours.
“Their employer had said, ‘You can return to work. We now have work for you.’ And they didn’t do so. That was a frequent complaint,” Mr Burn says.
But that doesn’t mean it’s the full picture of the impact of a basic income. It’s a contested field.
“The academic literature is divided on it, as you might expect,” he says.
“Different academics coming from different perspectives, and certainly using different methodologies, don’t come down on a universal answer.
“And, sadly, that often matches the answer they want to get.”
Cost shifting
Susan Maury is a policy expert at Good Shepherd, an organisation that provides support for women suffering family violence, financial insecurity and disadvantage.
She says the coronavirus supplement acted as a pilot program for what a basic income could look like in Australia — and she was encouraged by the results.
Dr Susan Maury, policy and research specialist at Good Shepherd, says the welfare system is deliberately complex.
“The impact was phenomenal,” she says.
People surveyed for the report titled Social security and time use during COVID-19 said they used both the money and time well.
With mutual obligation programs like the Work For The Dole program suspended, respondents noted increasing physical and mental health, more time studying and preparing to work.
“It really had an incredible impact,” Dr Maury says
“People said it was actually a time of great peace with the family because the children also felt more relaxed knowing that there weren’t these financial pressures.”
The coronavirus supplement cost taxpayers $20 billion and supported nearly 3 million people (It was subsequently stepped down before ending in March 2021).
Dr Maury argues the money was well spent, and that without it the expenses would have been “pushed into other categories” like the social services which charities such as Good Shepherd provide.
“The way productivity tends to be measured currently is through employment, it’s through our economy,” she says.
“But with the basic income, and also with the coronavirus supplement, as it showed, it was much more supportive of a very holistic perspective on productivity.
“So people were more productive and looking after their children … in looking after their mental health, their physical health. It’s a much more a whole-of-life approach to what a productive life is.”
Political momentum
Tomorrow’s conference is hosted by the Australian Basic Income Lab, a research collaboration between the University of Sydney, Australian National University and Macquarie University.
It is being held just months before a federal election in which housing affordability and inequality are shaping up as key issues and after a period in which millions of people have been supported by the welfare system, many for the first time.
For people like Ms McLaren, who interviewed participants for Good Shepherd’s research, her lived experience and that of the women she spoke to is that the “hoop jumping” involved in getting help from Centrelink is as taxing as the low rate of support given.
Juanita McLaren says 60 per cent of her income and welfare payments is spent on rent.
“The system in itself keeps you in a state of constant poverty,” she says.
“You’re actually working virtually full time to be just trying to get the basic income that you deserve.”
Ms McLaren argues a basic income — providing enough to deal with soaring housing costs — would help people contribute more to society and move into paying work.
“It would just give you the opportunity to sell yourself (as an employee) and create the life you want, rather than being constantly reminded that you don’t fit in.”
The unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage points in November, even though the economy added just 210,000 jobs. The drop in the unemployment rate went along with an increase in the employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) of 0.4 percentage points, corresponding to a rise in employment of more than 1.1 million in the household survey. The unemployment rate had not fallen this low following the Great Recession until September 2017.
The 210,000 job growth in the establishment survey is slower than generally expected, but it is important to note that it went along with an increase in the average workweek. The index of aggregate hours in the private sector increased by 0.5 percent in November. This would be the equivalent of more than 630,000 new jobs, with no change in the workweek.
This fits a story where employers are increasing hours since they are unable to hire new workers. We are seeing a reshuffling of the labor market where workers are looking for better jobs and employers are competing to attract workers, especially in lower paying sectors.
Declines in Unemployment Largest for Disadvantaged Groups
Nearly every demographic group saw a drop in unemployment in November, but the falls were largest for the groups that face labor market discrimination. The unemployment rate for Blacks fell by 1.2 percentage points to 6.7 percent, a level not reached following the Great Recession until March 2018 and never prior to that time. For Hispanics, the decline was 0.7 percentage points to 5.2 percent.
The unemployment rate for workers without a high school degree fell by 1.7 percentage points to 5.7 percent. By contrast, the unemployment rate for college grads fell by just 0.1 percentage points to 2.3 percent, 0.4 percentage points above its pre-pandemic low. The 5.7 percent rate for workers without a high school degree is 0.7 percentage points above the pre-pandemic low, although the monthly data are highly erratic.
The unemployment rate for people with a disability fell by 1.4 percentage points to 7.7 percent, while the EPOP rose by 1.1 percentage points to 21.5 percent. The latter figure is almost 2.0 percentage points above pre-pandemic peaks, indicating that the pandemic may have created new opportunities for people with a disability.
Share of Long-Term Unemployment Edges Up
The share of workers reporting they have been unemployed more than 26 weeks edged up slightly to 32.1 percent. It had been falling rapidly from a peak of 43.4 percent in March. It was under 20.0 percent before the pandemic hit. On the plus side, the share of unemployment due to voluntary quits increased by 1.0 percentage points to 12.5 percent. This share is still low for a 4.2 percent unemployment rate, but the high share of long-term unemployed depresses the share attributable to quits.
Wage Growth Still Strong for Lower Paid Workers
The average hourly pay of production workers is up 5.9 percent year-over-year. It has risen at a 6.6 percent annual rate comparing the last three months (September to November) with the prior three months (June to August). For restaurant workers the gains have been even larger, with the average hourly wage for production workers up 13.4 percent year-over-year, although the annual rate of growth slowed to 5.7 percent comparing the last three months with prior three months. Wages for the lowest paid workers are far outpacing inflation.
Manufacturing and Construction Both Add 31,000 Jobs in November
This continues a pattern of strong job growth in these sectors. Employment in construction is now down 1.5 percent from pre-pandemic levels, while manufacturing employment is down 2.0 percent.
Employment Lagging in Hard-Hit Sectors
By contrast, employment is still lagging in the hardest hit sectors. The motion picture industry shed 3,400 jobs in November. It is now down 21.9 percent from pre-pandemic level.
Low-wage sectors are clearly having trouble attracting workers. Nursing and residential care facilities shed 11,000 jobs in November. Employment is now down 423,700 jobs (12.5 percent) from pre-recession level, accounting for most of the drop in health care employment. Childcare lost 2,100 in November, while home health care lost 300 jobs.
Retail lost 20,400 jobs in November. Employment in the sector is now down 1.1 percent from pre-pandemic levels; although the index of aggregate hours is up 1.1 percent.
Restaurants added just 11,000 workers, while hotels added 6,600. However, the index of aggregate hours for the leisure and hospitality sector (which comprises the two industries) rose 0.6 percent. This corresponds to a gain of almost 800,000 jobs with no change in the length of the workweek.
State and Local Governments Shed Another 27,000 Jobs
State and local government employment is now down 951,000, or 4.8 percent from pre-pandemic levels. This is almost certainly a supply side story, where these governments cannot easily raise pay to compete with the private sector in attracting workers.
Overwhelmingly Positive Report
This is another overwhelmingly positive report. The unemployment rate is more than a full percentage point lower than what CBO had projected before the passage of the American Recovery Plan. The most disadvantaged workers are seeing the greatest benefits in pay and employment opportunities. The economy looks to be very strong as long as another surge in the pandemic doesn’t derail it.
The “Great Resignation” refers to the millions of people who have quit their job over the past 20 months, “more than 4.4 million alone in September” which is about the same as the previous month. These are record numbers. For example, “10 years ago, in September 2011, 1.5m people quit their jobs”. Currently, “The U.S. has 10.4 million job openings, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. In November 2019, there were 6.8 million job openings”.
Burnout, years of poor working conditions, poor pay, poor benefits, poor treatment, fear of covid, pandemic stress, lack of daycare options, lack of job mobility, and autocratic employers are just some of the many reasons millions in the U.S. and elsewhere have left work in a short period of time. What makes the “Great Resignation” even more significant is the fact that during this short period, poverty, debt, hunger, homelessness, and inequality increased significantly at home and abroad. In other words, millions are quitting despite worsening social and economic conditions. Naturally, this large departure of many workers from work has disrupted thousands of businesses, causing many to operate more erratically and unreliably than before the start of the “COVID Pandemic.”
It is not a stretch to say that many workers have felt victimized for years at their job. Neoliberal austerity has been in full swing and wreaking havoc for more than 40 years at home and abroad. Living and working standards have been falling steadily while insecurity and instability have been growing. Even if there are some positive aspects to one’s work, there are usually many negative and intolerable features as well, and these often outweigh the positive aspects of work. For one thing, spending endless hours behind a screen every day is generally not considered the path to better health. The fact is many people dread going to work every day. Working conditions are so unsatisfactory that even with the end of special pandemic-related emergency programs in September in most places, millions of workers are still choosing not to return to work. Sign-on bonuses, higher wages, flexible work schedules, and other “incentives” have yet to make a big dent in things.
In this sense, there is no worker shortage, per se. There are plenty of people willing and able to work, but people need decent pay, benefits, and conditions. They also need a real say in things and real control over their working conditions; good pay and benefits are not enough. Most workers do not want to go to a job where the life is slowly sucked out of them every day and where they frequently have to do counterproductive things just because their superiors make them. Reflecting the sentiment of so many others, one worker in his early fifties put it this way: “I don’t really want to work anymore. I don’t want to have any meetings, no deadlines, no goals, no quarter, no seminar. I don’t want none of that stuff no more”. People are fed-up with the endless grind, stress, and hustle that seems to lead to nowhere.
Far too many, however, have no choice but to stay in jobs that are not gratifying and rewarding; they have to put up with all kinds of humiliation every day for inadequate pay, benefits, and control; they would love to quit their jobs and would if they could. It is not unusual to hear more people say things like “I wish I could retire.”
The severe all-sided wrecking and destruction wrought by the rich and their cartel political parties over the past 20 months has clearly changed the equation in many ways; there is a new and rapidly-evolving theater where many things are up for grabs, making it both a dangerous and exciting time to be alive.
The proper use of the abilities and talents of humans in any society, and the balanced healthy extended reproduction of society, cannot take place so long as the political and economic elite dominate all affairs in society and act irresponsibly. They are a huge block to alternative human-centered arrangements that empower people to decide how an economy and society should be run. The labor and production carnage that has unfolded over the past 20 months is spectacular and unprecedented, truly global in scale. Millions of livelihoods have been destroyed in a very short period of time. Working people find themselves in a new situation where they will have to develop new creative ways to deprive the rich of their ability to deprive every one of their rights.
Sadé Dozan of Caring Across Generations discusses the Build Back Better bill, which would put some $150 billion into Medicaid-supported homecare services.
How do you take industrial action when your workplace is your computer? In his new book, Phil Jones considers the millions of “microworkers” around the world who process data for digital platforms.
