Tampa, FL

9/7/2015 6:41:56 AM
condor_0000 Tampa, FL 58, joined Feb. 2013	For Most Americans, Wages Aren’t Just Stagnating — They’re Falling By David Dayen September 4, 2015 The Fiscal Times http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2015/09/04/Most-Americans-Wages-Aren-t-Just-Stagnating-They-re-Falling Obamacare health insurers seek double-digit rate hikes for 2016 By Kate Randall 7 September 2015 World Socialist Web Site http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/07/obam-j01.html Excerpt: The largest insurers are making the biggest premium hike requests for 2016. For example, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina proposed an overall rate hike of 26 percent in June, and then two months later raised the increase request to 35 percent. Rate hikes must be approved by insurance regulators. But if past practices are any indication of future action, the insurers have little to worry about. State regulators have generally approved the rate hike requests, either accepting them, marginally reducing them or in some cases approving increases in excess of the insurance companies’ requests. In Oregon, for example, Health Net requested rate increases averaging 9 percent and was granted hikes averaging 34.8 percent. Another insurer in the state, Health Co-op, requested a 5.3 percent increase and the state approved a 19.9 percent hike. In four states, insurance companies were requesting premium rate hikes in excess of 50 percent for one of their products. Alabama had the product with the largest proposed rate hike: 71 percent. This was followed by New Mexico, 65 percent; Pennsylvania, 58 percent; and New Hampshire, 51 percent. A study published last month on Jots.pub showed that from 2014 to 2015 the largest insurance companies in each of the states covered by HealthCare.gov had a 75 percent higher premium increase compared to other same-state insurers. The largest insurers hiked rates on average by 23.9 percent, while the other insurers raised rates by an average of 13.7 percent. Authors Eugene Wang and Grace Gee write: “Our findings suggest that even after the Affordable Care Act, the largest on-exchange issuers [insurance companies] may be in a better position to practice anti-competitive pricing compared to their same-state counterparts.” In other words, the ACA has emboldened the largest insurers to utilize their near-monopoly of the insurance market to raise premiums to unheard of levels. Both of the recent studies on insurance rate hikes are further demonstration that the Affordable Care Act has been crafted in the interests of the insurance companies to boost their profits. They expose the reality that that Obama’s signature legislation is aimed not at expanding the availability of affordable, quality health care for ordinary Americans, but at enriching the giant insurers while cutting costs for corporations and the government. Meet singles at DateHookup.dating, we're 100% free! Join now!
9/7/2015 7:53:46 AM	Tampa, FL
deneez Rochester, MI 56, joined Apr. 2012	Capitalism's Equation: Low Wages + Exorbitant Prices = Profits Low Wages + Cheap Prices + Cheap Products = we will get what we pay for and then some. Super-size it, have it your way, a bigger bang for your buck..to shoot yourself in the head. regarding the ACA, I liken it to Social Security..how many amendments to it have been added since it's inception? Many..At its inception you had people screaming "your not going to take my money out blah blah blah"...now the same ilk are screaming "no one better touch that"..and aren't interested in anyone running (EVEN those within their own party) that want to hike the age to utilize it. funny how that works isn't it? I want what I want and I want it right now. Same then, same now.
9/7/2015 8:01:29 AM	Tampa, FL
condor_0000 Tampa, FL 58, joined Feb. 2013	US home ownership rate hits lowest level in two decades By Andre Damon 25 June 2015 World Socialist Web Site https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/06/25/hous-j25.html Excerpts: The report attributed the continuous decline in homeownership to falling incomes, persistent long-term unemployment and a significant tightening of credit. As the report notes, “Despite steady job growth since 2010 and a drop in unemployment to less than 6 percent, the labor market recovery has yet to generate meaningful income gains. At last measure in 2013, median household income was $51,900—still 8 percent below the 2007 level in real terms and equivalent to 1995 levels.” In fact, the “steady job growth” is largely fictional, with the official drop in unemployment due mainly to the departure of hundreds of thousands of people from the labor force. This is itself a significant factor in the persistence of low wages and the decline in household income. Even as household incomes have been eroded, banks have severely tightened credit, particularly to those households who need it most. One survey covering the period between 2001 and 2013 found a 37 percent drop in home loans issued to borrowers with poor credit scores, compared with a 9 percent decrease among borrowers with higher scores. Lenders’ current tight-fisted lending practices are the polar opposite of their policies in the run-up to the 2008 financial crash. Between 2000 and 2008, Wall Street banks made billions of dollars suckering families into taking on mortgages for homes they could not afford, then selling off the worthless mortgages in the form of mortgage-backed securities. When this Ponzi scheme collapsed, the federal government handed the banks hundreds of billions in bailout funds. For working families, there was no bailout, and after more than 10 million foreclosures, about 13 percent of homes remain “underwater,” with owners paying mortgages for more than their homes are presently worth. The growing inability of families to afford their own homes had led to soaring demand for rental properties, and a corresponding increase in prices. Last year, rents rose at twice the pace of overall inflation. Growing housing costs add to the litany of other financial pressures facing younger households. The report notes, “The share of renters aged 25–34 with student loan debt jumped from 30 percent in 2004 to 41 percent in 2013, with the average amount of debt up 50 percent, to $30,700.”
9/7/2015 8:11:15 AM	Tampa, FL
deneez Rochester, MI 56, joined Apr. 2012	Old news condor, the people that have learned to live with less have actually been the happier for it. When a couple buys a half a million dollar home because they 'could' without a second thought of whether or not they 'should' then looses it when the market collapses..learns to live less in the area of wealth acquisition and are more about the business of simply living. But by all means, keep on thinking big.
9/7/2015 8:13:25 AM	Tampa, FL
txninnc Euless, TX 47, joined May. 2014
9/7/2015 8:25:07 AM	Tampa, FL
condor_0000 Tampa, FL 58, joined Feb. 2013	You know those $40 t-shirts and $60 sweatshirts they sell to the tourists at Disney World? ------------- Disney's Hell in Haiti Haiti Progres January 1996 http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/294.html Workers stitching clothing emblazoned with feel-good Disney characters are not even paid enough to feed themselves, let alone their families, charges the New York-based National Labor Committee Education Fund in Support of Worker and Human Rights in Central America (NLC). "Haitian contractors producing Mickey Mouse and Pocahontas pajamas for U.S. companies under license with the Walt Disney Corporation are in some cases paying workers as little as 15 gourdes (US$1) per day -- 12 cents an hour -- in clear violation of Haitian law," said the NLC. Along with starvation wages, Haitian workers making clothes for U.S. corporate giants face sexual harassment and exceedingly long hours of work. "Haiti does need economic development and Haitian workers do need jobs, but not at the price of violating workers' fundamental rights. Paying 11 cents an hour to sew dresses for Kmart is not development. It is crime," charged the NLC. Over the past two decades, U.S. State Department officials have consistently prescribed development of the "transformation industry" as the antidote to Haitian poverty. In the early 1980s, about 250 factories employed over 60,000 Haitian workers in Port- au-Prince. The minimum wage then was US$2.64 a day. But many sweat-shops fled Haiti after the fall of the dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986. Others left shortly after the election of Jean- Bertrand Aristide in 1990, who campaigned with nationalist rhetoric, and still more left after the 1991 coup d'etat. But Haiti's miserable condition today makes it an ideal "competitor" in the world labor market, say U.S. State Department officials, and the assembly zones are again at the heart of the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) for Haiti now being peddled by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Still, the recovery of the assembly zones remains weak. Only 72 assembly firms employing some 13,000 people had been re- established by September 1995, according to a Haitian government agency. International financial institutions argue that Haiti must lower the other costs of assembly production like port, telephone and electricity fees. Hence, the World Bank is pushing for U.S. companies to take control of these key sectors through the privatization of Haiti's publicly owned industries. Meanwhile, SAP strategists argue, wages must be kept low and "competitive." But the National Labor Committee (NLC), and Haitian workers, contend that the assembly zones in Haiti, like those in the rest of the Caribbean and Central America, are zones for slavery. "As Haitian factory owners and American corporations are profiting from the low wages, Haitian workers are struggling every day just to feed themselves and their families," noted the NLC report, entitled, "How to Get Rich on 11 Cents an Hour." In particular, the report notes how factory owners are trying to avoid paying Haiti's new minimum wage of 36 gourdes per day (US$2.40) and charges that more than half of the 40 textile assembly firms operating in Haiti at the time of the NLC's research in August 1995 were violating the minimum wage law. President Aristide raised the minimum wage last May from 15 to 36 gourdes per day. Although it was the first wage hike since 1984, the NLC notes that the new minimum wage "is worth less in real terms than the old minimum wage of 15 gourdes was worth in 1990... And since Oct. 1, 1980, when dictator Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier first set the minimum wage at 13.20 gourdes, the real value of the minimum wage has declined by almost 50%." In the 12-page report, the NLC saves some of its sharpest criticism for giant U.S. corporations, like Sears, Wal-Mart and Walt Disney Company, which contract out to U.S. and Haitian firms. At a Quality Garments factory, making Mickey Mouse pajamas, employees reported that last summer they had worked 50 days straight, up to 70 hours per week, without a day off. "One worker told the NLC that she was supposed to sew seams on 204 pairs of Mickey Mouse pajamas in a day for which she would be paid 40 gourdes ($2.67). But she was only able to complete 144 pairs for which she was paid 28 gourdes (US$1.87)," said the NLC. The report noted that Michael Eisner, the CEO of Disney, earned $203 million in 1993, about 325,000 times the salary of workers in Haiti. Overall, the NLC found a "pattern of abuses, including low wages, so low, in fact, that a factory owner told the NLC that, 'The workers can't work effectively because they don't eat enough.'" The report calculates that a family in Port-au-Prince must spend -- at the very least -- 363 gourdes, or $24.20, per week for food, shelter, and education. "But a minimum wage earner, working 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, takes home 216 gourdes per week, or less than 60% of a family's basic needs," said the report. The NLC lays much of the blame for the deteriorating conditions of Haitian workers at the doorstep of USAID, which committed $8 million of U.S. taxpayer money to promoting foreign investment in Haiti this past year. "The U.S. government has shown a commitment to aggressively court U.S. business to invest in Haiti, but it has shown no such commitment to the workers who produce for those U.S. companies," the NLC argues, noting that USAID has historically pressured the Haitian government to keep wages low.
9/7/2015 8:33:28 AM	Tampa, FL
naprinciple West Plains, MO 46, joined Feb. 2014	Solution: Don't buy their shit
9/7/2015 8:42:14 AM	Tampa, FL
condor_0000 Tampa, FL 58, joined Feb. 2013	Pew report: 84 percent of world population subsists on under $20 per day By Andre Damon 11 July 2015 World Socialist Web Site https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/07/11/poor-j11.html Socialism or barbarism? Saturday, August 2, 2008 By Ian Angus https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/40018 Excerpts: In 1848, in The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles ... that each time ended, either in the revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes." Marx many times described the two-sided nature of capitalist "progress". In 1853, writing about British rule in India, he described the "profound hypocrisy and inherent barbarism of bourgeois civilization [that] lies unveiled before our eyes, turning from its home, where it assumes respectable forms, to the colonies, where it goes naked." Capitalist progress, he said in The Future Results of British Rule in India, resembled a "hideous, pagan idol, who would not drink the nectar but from the skulls of the slain". Similarly, in a speech to radical workers in London in 1856, he said: "On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces, which no epoch of the former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman Empire."
9/7/2015 8:43:29 AM	Tampa, FL
groaner Oswego, IL 56, joined Apr. 2009	Quote from txninnc: The libtards don't like men like Andrew Carnegie or Cornelius Vanderbilt. Men who actually did something. They like a guy who wrote a book and sat on his azz. What I want to know is why. Why does corn dooky like commies so much?
9/7/2015 8:47:16 AM	Tampa, FL
naprinciple West Plains, MO 46, joined Feb. 2014	Quote from groaner: The libtards don't like men like Andrew Carnegie or Cornelius Vanderbilt. Men who actually did something. They like a guy who wrote a book and sat on his azz. What I want to know is why. Why does corn dooky like commies so much? I imagine he is paid to
9/7/2015 8:48:20 AM	Tampa, FL
condor_0000 Tampa, FL 58, joined Feb. 2013	Quote from naprinciple: Solution: Don't buy their shit And then what? How will that develop throughout society?
9/7/2015 8:53:35 AM	Tampa, FL
condor_0000 Tampa, FL 58, joined Feb. 2013	Quote from groaner: The libtards don't like men like Andrew Carnegie or Cornelius Vanderbilt. Men who actually did something. They like a guy who wrote a book and sat on his azz. What I want to know is why. Why does corn dooky like commies so much? The philanthropy of Warren Buffett By David Walsh 27 June 2006 World Socialist Web Site Excerpts: Buffett may not have directed the shooting down of workers, like his Robber Baron-philanthropist predecessors, such as Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, but he has been one of the human instruments by means of which the destruction of decent-paying jobs has taken place, with all the human suffering that implies. Carnegie and Frick also distributed millions (billions in contemporary dollars) to charities and good causes. Carnegie declared, “He who dies rich dies thus disgraced.” Frick was more unrepentant. He and Carnegie had a bitter falling out; when, years later, Carnegie proposed a meeting for the purposes of reconciling, Frick allegedly replied, “Tell him I’ll see him in Hell, where we both are going.” Deservedly, the pair are remembered more for their crimes than for their philanthropy.
9/7/2015 8:59:19 AM	Tampa, FL
testsignup Springfield, VA 62, joined Sep. 2009	It's not Capitalism that declares "Low Wages + Exorbitant Prices = Profits." Capitalism isn't that specific. It's the current ruling group of political capitalists who are stupidly promoting ideas such as that an economy can thrive with broke customers and zero taxes on the only people with money. The ACA was invented by Democrats trying to get Republicans to support a Health Care Plan of some kind. This naturally resulted in the ACA being fundamentally stupid, and being designed to generate profits for private companies. They even based it around a previous Republican idea, again, hoping that the GOP would support it. The Democrats greatest single act of stupidity in all that, was to look directly at the very loudly published vows made by the Republicans that they would blindly oppose ANYTHING the Democrats put out, even at the expense of National Security and International Financial Standings, and to actually imagine that flattery would alter that idiocy.
9/7/2015 9:06:57 AM	Tampa, FL
naprinciple West Plains, MO 46, joined Feb. 2014	Quote from condor_0000: And then what? How will that develop throughout society? Encourage local buying instead of multinationals.
9/7/2015 9:12:05 AM	Tampa, FL
progrocknic Mount Arlington, NJ 31, joined Dec. 2012	Quote from naprinciple: Encourage local buying instead of multinationals. You realize that not buying foriegn products means not buying just about anything right? There isn't a single piece of electronics that comes from this country and this country alone. That means no phones, no computers, no microwaves, no heaters, no cars..... and that's just the things with electronics. If we didn't get food from outside the country, we would have a shortage. There really isn't a choice, unless of course you're willing to live in the woods and fend for yourself. But that's illegal because you can't live free on government property. [Edited 9/7/2015 9:12:20 AM ]
9/7/2015 9:14:41 AM	Tampa, FL
condor_0000 Tampa, FL 58, joined Feb. 2013	Quote from testsignup: It's not Capitalism that declares "Low Wages + Exorbitant Prices = Profits." Capitalism isn't that specific. It's the current ruling group of political capitalists who are stupidly promoting ideas such as that an economy can thrive with broke customers and zero taxes on the only people with money. The ACA was invented by Democrats trying to get Republicans to support a Health Care Plan of some kind. This naturally resulted in the ACA being fundamentally stupid, and being designed to generate profits for private companies. They even based it around a previous Republican idea, again, hoping that the GOP would support it. The Democrats greatest single act of stupidity in all that, was to look directly at the very loudly published vows made by the Republicans that they would blindly oppose ANYTHING the Democrats put out, even at the expense of National Security and International Financial Standings, and to actually imagine that flattery would alter that idiocy. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are funded into power by super-rich capitalists. In fact, all the leading politicians of both parties are very wealthy capitalists. Additionally, every major policy passed by both the Democrats and the Republicans is always a boon to the super-rich capitalists and a total affront to the working class masses. Only a complete moron would fail to see the connection between capitalism, the ruling-class political parties and the royal fking over of the working class. --------------- Democrats Only Campaign Differently Than Republicans, not Govern Broken Promises & the Minimum Wage Wed, 11/13/2013 Bruce A. Dixon Black Agenda Report http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/progressive-sheepdogs-democrat-sheep-broken-promises-minimum-wage As a presidential candidate back in 2007 and 2008, Barack Obama promised to ram a hike in the minimum wage through Congress by 2011. Like the president's promises to renegotiate NAFTA and enact labor law reforms to make union organizing possible again, it wasn't one of those high profile pledges he repeated at every opportunity in front of every audience. He didn't have to, that's not the way it works. If you're a right-leaning Democrat nowadays, here's how it works: you make those kinds of promises before small audiences of labor and poor folks. From that point, it's the job of your sheepdogs, the Democrat “progressives” campaigning for you to keep the herd of your base voters in line by putting those words in your mouth a lot more often, and with a lot more emphasis than you actually place upon them. Promises are promises, after all, and promises made by the wealthy and powerful to the poor and powerless are worth exactly nothing. Inevitably, once in office the corporate Democrat (is there any other kind?) breaks his or her promise to his poor and apart from their votes which they've already given away, powerless constituents. At this point, his other sheepdogs, the “pragmatic” Democrats wisely bark at the herd about how naïve and foolish they are, that they don't really understand how politics works, that this one president or mayor or whatever can't save them or change the world, or do much anything really. With President Obama's popularity at an all time low, the president has rediscovered that something like 80% of the US favor not just a significantly higher minimum wage, but a minimum wage indexed to some kind of cost of living formula.** Even a big majority of Republican voters are in favor of this. So the president has muttered his traditional few words about the minimum wage, and from MSNBC to Huffington Post to labor and the nonprofits, the chorus of presidential sheepdogs are baying – the president cares, the Democrats care, they want to raise the minimum wage, but the evil Republicans will want to thwart them.... The problem with this of course, is that whenever Democrats are in charge of Congress, they never try to raise the minimum wage. It's a promise they make to get elected, and something you never hear about again until they're safely in the minority again and need something to blame the evil Republicans for blocking. Let's be clear, evil Republicans did not block efforts by President Obama or Congressional Democrats to raise the minimum wage in 2010 and 2011, when they controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. During that time, there were no bills introduced to raise the minimum wage. There were no presidential speeches or off the cuff presidential remarks mentioning raising the minimum wage. There was no pressure from the White House or Democrat leadership in the House or Senate to raise the minimum wage, despite the importance placed upon the president's promise by his sheepdogs, the “progressive” wing of the Democratic party. Leading Democrats have always known that overwhelming majorities of Democrat voters want an increase in the minimum wage. But it's a campaign issue, and Democrats only campaign differently than Republicans, not govern differently. [Edited 9/7/2015 9:15:11 AM ]
9/7/2015 9:21:09 AM	Tampa, FL
naprinciple West Plains, MO 46, joined Feb. 2014	Quote from progrocknic: Quote from naprinciple: Encourage local buying instead of multinationals. You realize that not buying foriegn products means not buying just about anything right? There isn't a single piece of electronics that comes from this country and this country alone. That means no phones, no computers, no microwaves, no heaters, no cars..... and that's just the things with electronics. If we didn't get food from outside the country, we would have a shortage. There really isn't a choice, unless of course you're willing to live in the woods and fend for yourself. But that's illegal because you can't live free on government property. I do live in the woods and mostly fend for my self, on MY LAND!....Well assuming I pay tribute to my local warlord
9/7/2015 9:23:17 AM	Tampa, FL
progrocknic Mount Arlington, NJ 31, joined Dec. 2012	Quote from naprinciple: I do live in the woods and mostly fend for my self, on MY LAND!....Well assuming I pay tribute to my local warlord That tribute goes to foriegn investments. In reality, no one has a choice. Well.... I guess there's always moving out of the country.
9/7/2015 9:29:30 AM	Tampa, FL
groaner Oswego, IL 56, joined Apr. 2009	Quote from condor_0000: The philanthropy of Warren Buffett By David Walsh 27 June 2006 World Socialist Web Site Excerpts: Buffett may not have directed the shooting down of workers, like his Robber Baron-philanthropist predecessors, such as Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, but he has been one of the human instruments by means of which the destruction of decent-paying jobs has taken place, with all the human suffering that implies. Carnegie and Frick also distributed millions (billions in contemporary dollars) to charities and good causes. Carnegie declared, “He who dies rich dies thus disgraced.” Frick was more unrepentant. He and Carnegie had a bitter falling out; when, years later, Carnegie proposed a meeting for the purposes of reconciling, Frick allegedly replied, “Tell him I’ll see him in Hell, where we both are going.” Deservedly, the pair are remembered more for their crimes than for their philanthropy. So you admit that Carnegie was a philanthropist and gave much of his money to charities and good causes. There's capitalism at work for you. Lots of resources that benefit society.
9/7/2015 10:02:47 AM	Tampa, FL
nat_now Ocala, FL 56, joined Jul. 2013	Health insurance companies say rates are increasing due to a variety of factors, increased utilization of health care, rising health care costs, the failure of Medicaid and Medicare to reimburse the full cost of care, forcing hospitals to shift the difference onto private insurers, and utilization of new, more expensive technology. Enrollment in the Marketplace reopens on Nov. 15. “We stress that consumers shop around and compare rates and metal levels,” said Farmer. While the number of individuals who have gained coverage for no-cost preventive services is large, public awareness of the preventive services requirement is relatively low. In March 2014, three and half years after the rule took effect, less than half the population (43%) reported they were aware that the ACA eliminated out-of-pocket expenses for preventive services.19 As awareness of the benefit grows and the share of people in grandfathered plans reduces, very few privately insured individuals will have financial barriers to clinical preventive care. In addition, federal rules regarding contraceptive coverage specifically exempt or accommodate certain employers who believe that the requirement violates their religious rights.17 , religious institutions defined as “houses of worship” are exempt from the requirement. Women covered by these plans do not receive contraceptive coverage. Religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations and closely held for profit employers that object to contraceptives are eligible for an accommodation, and do not have to pay for contraceptive coverage offered by their employer-sponsored plans. In these cases, the insurer or third party administrator of these plans must pay for the cost of coverage, assuring that women covered by these plans receive contraceptive coverage.
9/7/2015 10:04:27 AM	Tampa, FL
deneez Rochester, MI 56, joined Apr. 2012	I bought a vacuum called a 'Simplicity' from a local in Rochester...best darn vacuum I've ever owned, servicing came with the contract. yah! buying local is not a pie in the sky idea, I'm looking right now at computer history on-line, American ingenuity was it's inception, was it not? from what I can see, American made computers, (American made 'anything') is more than possible...stop buying from China, bring the jobs home.
9/7/2015 10:17:02 AM	Tampa, FL
nat_now Ocala, FL 56, joined Jul. 2013	SC now makes flat screens. Not sure if entire tv. Nikki Haleys speech at press club last week..catch it. *** Imagine a person who initially spends $50 on food out of his own pocket, but then receives another $50 in food stamps. He could spend the full $100 on food, but he might take advantage of his slightly richer situation to spend some of the first $50 on other things. If he ends up spending $70 on food and $30 on other goods, the provision of food stamps will have “crowded-out” $30 of private spending on food. Here we see the unintended consequences of government spending: the food stamp program has essentially paid for things which might be completely unrelated to food.
9/7/2015 10:33:03 AM	Tampa, FL
deneez Rochester, MI 56, joined Apr. 2012	Quote from progrocknic: Quote from naprinciple: Encourage local buying instead of multinationals. You realize that not buying foriegn products means not buying just about anything right? There isn't a single piece of electronics that comes from this country and this country alone. That means no phones, no computers, no microwaves, no heaters, no cars..... and that's just the things with electronics. If we didn't get food from outside the country, we would have a shortage. There really isn't a choice, unless of course you're willing to live in the woods and fend for yourself. But that's illegal because you can't live free on government property. You are correct regarding the phone's..wow, I guess I'll keep my 15 dollar model... think of the jobs that it would generate...
9/7/2015 10:34:36 AM	Tampa, FL
Chairman__Darth North York, ON 45, joined Jul. 2015	comrade condorkovsky. Again with the half truths. For Most Americans, Wages Aren’t Just Stagnating — They’re Falling By David Dayen . Well of course you failed to read that its mostly LOWER PAID jobs, let me ask you this Comrade, who is the largest employer in the United States? How come the article doesn't mention "union paid jobs"? hmmmmmmmmmmm. __________________________________________________________________________________ US home ownership rate hits lowest level in two decades By Andre Damon . Well comrade, when Clinton and Bush encouraged home-ownership, the subprime stuff came in, and then people like you demanded the government do something and they bailed out their ahole buddies and imposed tighter lending restrictions. People who can afford to buy can buy and those that cant afford to Cannot buy, it's pretty simple, but no aholes like you whine no matter what. _____________________________________________________________________________ Disney's Hell in Haiti . I love how you post an article from 1996 . You are aware that it's 2015 now right? ____________________________________________________________________________________ Pew report: 84 percent of world population subsists on under $20 per day By Andre Damon . Comrade is still complaining? you're like the ahole uncle at thanksgiving complaining that there is no Garlic bread and cheese at dinner even though there is fresh rolls, turkey, fresh veggies, pumpkin pie, wine and enough food to feed a village in Mexico Asshole, 15 years ago the poor in 3rd world countries was living on less than a $1.25 per day, you've even posted about it, now its $20.00. its called "progress", poverty cannot be abolished overnight but at least its heading in the right direction. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Socialism or barbarism? . what does the above have to do with low wages, exorbitant prices and profit? British rule in India? radical workers in London in 1856, did any of these ahole radical workers in London in 1856 start a company? _______________________________________________________________________________________ The philanthropy of Warren Buffett By David Walsh . An article from 2006. Of course you dont want to mention that Carnagie,Vanderbuilt,Morgan and many other "robber barons" were philanthropic? you didnt mention that Buffett, Gates and many other billionaires are also philanthropic, you unions thugs have selected memories. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are funded into power by super-rich capitalists. In fact, all the leading politicians of both parties are very wealthy capitalists. Additionally, every major policy passed by both the Democrats and the Republicans is always a boon to the super-rich capitalists and a total affront to the working class masses. Only a complete moron would fail to see the connection between capitalism, the ruling-class political parties and the royal fking over of the working class. Of course you're the only ahole that sees it that way, there is something out there called the "truth" something marxist union scum is allergic to. Scum bag union marxist like you comrade dont see that Unions helped Obama and according to you " the greatest right wing gangster capitalist" to occupy the white house. Unions helped Sanders get elected and funding his campaign, the same unions that funded Obama Only a moron cant see the connection between unions and government and crony capitalism . [Edited 9/7/2015 10:36:03 AM ]
9/7/2015 12:11:12 PM	Tampa, FL
condor_0000 Tampa, FL 58, joined Feb. 2013	Quote from Chairman__Darth: Only a moron cant see the connection between unions and government and crony capitalism . Indeed! And that moron would be you. The connection is that the unions are capitalist (i.e., right-wing) entities, as is the government, all the politicians, the ruling-class, and every member of the super-rich. ----------------- UAW President Bob King on Wall Street By Jerry White 19 November 2010 World Socialist Web Site https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/11/uaws-n19.html Standing directly behind General Motors CEO Dan Akerson as he rang the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning was United Auto Workers President Bob King. As trading on GM stock began, the UAW leader could be seen enthusiastically applauding and exchanging congratulations with investment bankers and corporate board members assembled on a large stage adorned with GM logos. The event was a small but telling demonstration of the character of the UAW—an organization completely hostile to the interests of the workers. No leader of a workers’ organization could have taken part in such an event, or even contemplated it. After all, the assembled crowd was salivating over GM’s profits, which have been attained chiefly through a brutal assault on jobs and living standards. King reveled in the atmosphere, telling the Detroit News that it was an historic day, and that he welcomed a high opening price for GM shares. “Today is the birth of a new General Motors,” he said, adding, “It's a dramatically different company poised to be successful.” And just how did this new GM emerge? In a prospectus circulated to global investors, the company explained that it had gotten its North American “cost structure in line.” It reads: “We accomplished this through brand rationalization, manufacturing footprint reduction, ongoing dealer network optimization, salaried and hourly headcount reductions, labor agreement restructuring and transfer of hourly retiree healthcare obligations to the new VEBA.” It added, “Approximately 43% of our vehicles are manufactured in regions we believe to be low-cost locations, such as China, Mexico, Eastern Europe, India and Russia, with all-in active labor costs of less than $15 per hour.” None of this could have been accomplished without the active collaboration of the UAW, which has suppressed all opposition by auto workers to the dictates of Wall Street, the auto bosses and the Obama administration. The UAW agreed to the sweeping concessions, including imposing a $14 an hour wage on all new workers—a key part of corporate-government strategy to close the wage gap between American workers and their brutally exploited counterparts in Asia and Latin America. King took time on Thursday to praise Obama, saying the president had “invested in an American company and American workers.” In fact, the government invested in the UAW, handing the union executives millions of GM shares as a payoff for its services. For King and the UAW, the IPO was a great success. The UAW sold 102 million GM shares from its VEBA retiree health care trust fund, netting an estimated $3.5 billion dollars. Overnight, the UAW executives more than quadrupled their assets. The windfall of cash for the UAW no doubt sent waves of excitement throughout the organization’s Detroit Solidarity House headquarters, its regional and local union offices. There was nothing to celebrate, however, for the 20,000 UAW members who lost their jobs in the corporate restructuring. Nor was the IPO considered a success in the dozens of working class communities in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and other states which have been devastated by plant closings, layoffs and the shutdown of dealerships. Watching King cheering alongside the auto bosses and financial speculators, one GM worker—who fought against the 50 percent wage cut the UAW sought to impose on Indianapolis metal stamping workers—told the WSWS, “King is ecstatic about making his own money.” There is no doubt that the UAW executives will become wealthy. This only underscores the class chasm between rank-and-file workers and the upper middle class entrepreneurs and aspiring capitalists who run the UAW. Even after its stock sale, the UAW will retain a 13 percent stake in GM and a seat on the company’s board of directors. This gives the company agents in the UAW a continued direct financial incentive to collaborate with the automaker in cutting labor costs. King’s appearance was a signal to Wall Street that the “New UAW” will do everything to increase the competitiveness and profits of the auto bosses. King previously said the 21st century UAW no longer sees the car companies as “adversaries and enemies but as partners in innovation and quality.” As for the workers, he declared in Lansing, Michigan last month: “We know it’s pretty hard to support a family and everything on a $15 an hour wage, but we also know that we have to keep General Motors and Ford and Chrysler competitive.” King’s Wall Street extravaganza underscores the fact that the UAW is not accountable to its members in any shape or form. It exposes all of those—including the pseudo-lefts and phony “union dissidents”—who claim that the UAW can be reformed through pressure from below. Auto workers can only begin to conduct a struggle to defend their jobs and living standards by breaking once and for all from this rotten organization. New organizations of struggle—rank-and-file committees democratically controlled by the workers themselves—must be set up independently of and in opposition to the UAW. These struggles must be guided by a new perspective that relies on the unity and initiative of the working class and rejects the UAW’s alliance with the Democrats, its economic nationalism and its undying defense of the capitalist system. SEE ALSO: UAW bids to set up company union at Tennessee Volkswagen plant By Jerry White 5 November 2013 World Socialist Web Site https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/11/05/tenn-n05.html
9/7/2015 12:16:42 PM	Tampa, FL
Chairman__Darth North York, ON 45, joined Jul. 2015	You are a union thug comrade condorkovsky, when the good people of Chattanooga TN rejected the union for their auto workers you went on a tirade condemning the people. Now you're saying unions are right wing? You marxist union boys are a bunch of retards.
9/7/2015 12:26:37 PM	Tampa, FL
condor_0000 Tampa, FL 58, joined Feb. 2013	Quote from Chairman__Darth: You are a union thug comrade condorkovsky, when the good people of Chattanooga TN rejected the union for their auto workers you went on a tirade condemning the people. Now you're saying unions are right wing? You marxist union boys are a bunch of retards. You know I'm not a union supporter, as does everybody else on this forum whose read my postings. So, why do you continue to just make up silly, ridiculous, ad-hominem crap that everybody knows isn't true? Answer: Because you're getting your tiny, little, capitalist brains beat in by an average, everyday socialist and you're becoming increasingly desperate. You've simply got nothing else to fall back on.
9/7/2015 12:34:39 PM	Tampa, FL
Chairman__Darth North York, ON 45, joined Jul. 2015	You are a union supporting marxist thug comrade condorkovsky. Everyone knows that. why were you upset when the good folks in Chattanooga TN rejected joining a union?
9/7/2015 12:43:14 PM	Tampa, FL
Chairman__Darth North York, ON 45, joined Jul. 2015	Why are you posting articles from a right wing group ( unions) from a socialist website? UAW President Bob King on Wall Street. kind of an oxymoron no? that is like Obama posting about honesty and constitution and how he follows it.
9/8/2015 2:10:16 AM	Tampa, FL
condor_0000 Tampa, FL 58, joined Feb. 2013	Report documents rising cost of living in California By Norisa Diaz 8 September 2015 World Socialist Web Site http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/08/cali-s08.html Excerpts: Over 3.2 million families in California, one of every three households, struggle every month to meet basic needs. The state’s economy would be considered the world’s eighth largest if it were a country, with a GDP of $2.312 trillion. Although they create this massive amount of social wealth through their labor, workers in the state find themselves in desperate living conditions, as they are squeezed out of housing in one of the country’s most inflated markets. Especially inflated were rents in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and San Jose—cities with some of the highest costs of living in the country. These are some of the many staggering findings presented in a recent report by the charitable organization United Ways of California. Struggling to Get By: The Real Cost Measure in California, documents the scope of poverty in California compared to the Federal Poverty Line, which does not take into account rising cost-of-living and greatly underreported financial need. The report introduces what it refers to as a Real Cost Measure, which accounts for the basic needs of families by calculating the budgets of households considering the cost of housing, transportation, childcare, health care, and taxes in different cities, to determine if household incomes meet this minimum threshold to provide basic necessities. Of the 3.2 million households below the Real Cost Measure, “87 percent have at least one working adult, and 76 percent of those are working 48 weeks per year or more,” according to the report. While the majority of those who earn below the Real Cost Measure pay at least half of their income on rent each month, the United Way’s report found that the poorest among them, those living below the Federal Poverty Level, spent an astonishing 80 percent of their monthly income on housing. Rising housing costs, coupled with low and stagnant wages, have resulted in some of the lowest home ownership rates in recent history, reported the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) of California. The LOA notes that “a typical California home cost[s] $437,000, more than double the typical US home ($179,000). California renters also face higher costs. In 2013, median monthly rent in California was $1,240, nearly 50 percent more than the national average.” The average rent for a two-bedroom residence in San Francisco and San Mateo counties is $1,900. According to the California Housing Partnership, the average Los Angeles County apartment rental price is $1,716. In order to afford this and meet basic needs, a full-time worker would need to make at least $33 an hour ($68,640/year). The average rental in San Diego is $1,575, an increase of nearly nine percent compared to 2014, according to Marketpointe Realty Advisors. Currently, the California minimum wage is $9 an hour ($18,720/year). A $13.25 hourly wage would amount to $27,560 annually, while raising it to $15 an hour would equal $30,000. These figures expose as completely inadequate the demand of a $15/hour minimum wage by a section of the Democratic Party and the trade unions. The “Fight for 15” doesn’t even meet the Real Cost Measure , and cannot ensure that even the most basic needs for families are met. It is becoming increasingly impossible to live in California’s high-cost large cities. The LAO report notes that the state’s residents are forced to commute 10 percent further to work every day than elsewhere. “People are having to cut back on food, medication, providing their children clothes to go to school,” Larry Gross, executive director of the nonprofit Coalition for Economic Survival, told NBC’s Southern California affiliate. “All the other essentials of life people have are being squeezed in order to maintain the roof over their heads.” The roots of the current demand and inflated pricing can be traced to the 2008 financial crash. The US government bailed out the financial elite and big banks, which benefited directly from predatory lending, putting families into foreclosures while buying up foreclosed homes at a fraction of the cost. At its peak in 2010, the number of home foreclosures reached 2.9 million. Many of the families who lost their homes as a result of the crisis now find themselves permanent renters, increasing the housing demand. Additionally, the dismal job market created by the financial crisis has had an overwhelmingly detrimental effect on young people, who find themselves unable to afford to live on their own, while life events such as marriage and starting a family move further out of reach. Coupled with massive college debt and few prospects, the number of youth living at home is at an all-time high. According to the United States Census Bureau, more than 20 million adults between the ages of 18 and 34—nearly one in three—continue to live with their parents or family members, as they are unable to afford to live on their own. This figure has increased by three million since the recession. In California, 1.6 million people ages 18-29 have returned home. The high cost of living and inflated rental situation facing households in California are taking an enormous physical and mental toll on millions of families throughout the state. Access to affordable housing, where adults and children have privacy, quiet personal space, and the ability to flourish mentally and physically, is a social right, which can only be fought for on the basis of a socialist perspective. The author also recommends: Wages for California workers continue to decline http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/07/15/cali-j15.html [15 July 2015]
9/8/2015 10:19:14 AM	Tampa, FL
lobo_corazon Orleans, ON 46, joined May. 2008	Quote from naprinciple: Solution: Don't buy their shit Unfortunately it takes a lot more than turning a blind eye to solve the problem of worker exploitation. We have to go after the real problem - Consumerism/Capitalism. The capitalist response is "Yeah, it's sad that those workers have it hard (at our hands). But don't you like your $40 Mickey Mouse sweatshirts? If they were made in the US, you would have to pay $50 instead, and nobody wants that right?" [Edited 9/8/2015 10:21:16 AM ]
9/8/2015 10:55:45 AM	Tampa, FL
lobo_corazon Orleans, ON 46, joined May. 2008	Quote from groaner: So you admit that Carnegie was a philanthropist and gave much of his money to charities and good causes. There's capitalism at work for you. Lots of resources that benefit society. lol no.
9/8/2015 10:58:11 AM	Tampa, FL
lobo_corazon Orleans, ON 46, joined May. 2008	Quote from nat_now: Imagine a person who initially spends $50 on food out of his own pocket, but then receives another $50 in food stamps. He could spend the full $100 on food, but he might take advantage of his slightly richer situation to spend some of the first $50 on other things. If he ends up spending $70 on food and $30 on other goods, the provision of food stamps will have “crowded-out” $30 of private spending on food. Here we see the unintended consequences of government spending: the food stamp program has essentially paid for things which might be completely unrelated to food. Sure, like utilities, rent, etc. People need more than just food to survive.
9/8/2015 11:01:54 AM	Tampa, FL
naprinciple West Plains, MO 46, joined Feb. 2014	Quote from lobo_corazon: Unfortunately it takes a lot more than turning a blind eye to solve the problem of worker exploitation. We have to go after the real problem - Consumerism/Capitalism. The capitalist response is "Yeah, it's sad that those workers have it hard (at our hands). But don't you like your $40 Mickey Mouse sweatshirts? If they were made in the US, you would have to pay $50 instead, and nobody wants that right?" Don't buy the Mickey Mouse sweatshirt at all Americans truly don't have a clue about the difference between needs and wants. Advertising works all too well
9/8/2015 3:41:10 PM	Tampa, FL
hunter12gauge Bellaire, OH 52, joined Apr. 2008	Quote from naprinciple: Encourage local buying instead of multinationals. Anti-global market Economy I see. Maybe there is hope for you afterall. But I doubt it.

condor_0000 - Tampa, FL

megapersona

rubmaps forum

megapersona

rubmaps forum

Capitalism's Equation: Low Wages + Exorbitant Prices = Profits

Tampa, FL