The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    A NEW LOOK AT THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM

    By Richard Day on Wed, 07/31/2013 - 11:48pm |

    LAMAR ALEXANDER

     

    THE NEW JOB PROGRAM

    I have an idea that will really create jobs in this country.

    I have studied this issue for decades.

    And I have finally found the answer.

    Today the national medium income is:

    Okay, so we have 314,000,000 people in this country.

    The medium household annual income is: $50,000.

    (Well maybe we must discuss this issue further!)

    Okay, so now I have an ANNUAL 'average' wage of $46,000.00.

    Okay, so five year-olds usually do not bring that much moolah into a family of four (unless one is talking about kiddy porn girls with tiaras and such), and so we are discussing 16 year-olds and 60 year-olds!

    Just think; what if the average 'wage' was $36,000.00?

    Hell, those folks could party at McDonald's every single day and our patricians could party with an extra hundred million bucks a piece every frickin year!

    So how many 'adults' are we talking about in America today?

    In 2006 we are supposed to get the answer that 201,000,000 folks are over 20 years of age?

    Anyway, do the math and I think the repubs have a point.

    Get rid of the minimum wage and all unions.

    Yeah!

    Just abolish all union rights and minimum wage laws.

    I mean what we got now sure the hell aint workin!

    Rand Paul:

    PAUL: It's not a question of whether they can or canot. I think that's decided. I think the question you have to ask is whether or not when you set the minimum wage it may cause
    unemployment.

    Lamar:

    Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the ranking Republican on the Senate's labor committee, said in a hearing Tuesday that he would prefer to see the minimum wage abolished.

     

    Frankly, some repubs just hate poor people on principle; which is logical when you think about it:

    Steve King:

    United States of America borrows money and hands it to people and tells them, you don’t have to work for this. You don’t have to produce anything for this. We just want you to spend it. That’s your patriotic duty, to take the money that we borrowed from the Chinese, and the debt burden we put on our grandchildren, and put it in people’s hands and say it’s a patriotic thing, take your food stamps and take your rent subsidy and heat subsidy and your unemployment check, and go engage in commerce, that’s patriotic. Um, no? What’s patriotic is, carry your own weight. I mean, John Smith said clear back then in the 1600s, No work, no eat. That also’s part of the New Testament, where he lifted that from I believe is Galatians, He who would not work would also not not eat..."

    See, every time we attempt to help those farther down the ladder (so to speak) we are simply helping the Chinese and those with cantaloupes for legs.

    Well, some would say that he who would work for $3.00/hr will starve anyway....or at the least freeze to death in the winter! (And that is not as bad as it might sound because folks are starving to death and freezing to death on $7/hr anyway!)

    Enough of that!

    Look, we get rid of unions and the minimum wage and welfare and housing subsidies and food stamps and health care subsidies (like Medicaid and Medicare) and we further rid ourselves of child care subsidies and preschool contributions and ….

    Well you might see where this kind of thinking is taking us.

    We would have 2% unemployment within months.

    Our employment situation would be fixed immediately.

    We could make great leaps forward in our quest for full employment in such a short time!

    Health care costs would drop through the floor. (Does that metaphor really work?)

    Because more folks would be dead!

    The more dead folks, the less we have to worry about sick folks.

    I mean, think about it for a minute. There would be so many worthless live folks who would simply wish to be dead!

    It all makes sense when you think about it rationally.

    Now if we could just get more people to neuter their children; what a wonderful world it could be!

    WE HAVE TOO MANY PEOPLE TO WORRY ABOUT IN THIS COUNTRY!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUqp09N44Q

     

     

    The next time the Super Bowl comes around everyone (and I mean everyone) can go!

    But that does not mean we have to kill them all!

    Just fix the system so that the worthless folks kill themselves!

    Hell, we can even supply the guns for free to finish the deal!

    That's the ticket folks.

    I am beginning to see the truth for the first time!

    Next time I am voting repub and without any guilt whatsoever!

     

    I must add a little moment of hope.

    Not that there is any hope left, but

     

     


     

    Comments

    Walmarts in my area are under a hiring freeze right now and may make people who have 20 years service go to part time.  Sales have slumped off.  I have been finding fantastic meat bargains at the grocery store the past month.  As you know, I know when the butcher does his mark downs and try to get there early.  That means people are buying less meat and cheaper cuts. I have never had such wonderful selection of mark down meats before.  So what is going on here?  Is it the sequester?  Is retirees not moving to Florida any more?  We are told that unemployment has gone down but no one around here has found a new job?  I don't think getting rid of minimum wage is going to improve anything.  Just like the sequester has not improved anything.  The falling national debt just means that government is pulling more money out of the consumers hands.  The less people buy the less jobs there is.  Slave wages will not increase jobs.   It will only bring people into the streets and refuse to work in a national strike. 


    by trkingmomoe on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 12:59am

    Momo, I have no idea why 'they' act like this except per computer software!

    There is a falling national debt. That is a FACT!

    There is growth, whatever the hell that means.

    There is ideology and there is corporate ruthlessness, that is for sure.

    LET US PRAY, BUT LET US VOTE!

    The vote is all we got, along with petitions and I do not put down those attempts at petitions!

    Just keep on keepin on!


    by Richard Day on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 1:15am

    They are neo-birchers that are bought and paid for by the Koch Bros.  They don't believe any of the crap they say.  It is a good gravy train.  I don't know how they sleep at night. 


    by trkingmomoe on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 1:32am

    Unemployment effects are definitely regional. We had a minor bump here in Charlottesville and then things rebounded quite quickly. Then there's Detroit…


    by Verified Atheist on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 7:07pm

    Minor bump?

    hahahahahah

    Okay, so kids are now working for $3/hr. hahahahahah

    Then there's Detroit!

    All righty then! hahahahah

    I dunno, the comment caught me off-guard or something. hahahahah

    Wellfare or wheelfare I guess.

    I dunno.

    I really feel so bad for those residents of Detroit.

    The auto capitol of the world for chrissakes!

    A sad, sad situation indeed.


    by Richard Day on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 7:20pm

    I realized I was just talking from my limited experience in C'ville, so decided to see how "minor" our bump actually was. Turns out, not so minor! Although unemployment in C'ville was only 4.7% in April (the last month I see data for), it was as high as 8.4% in January of 2010, compared to previous seasonal highs of 4.1% (January 2008). The 4.7% is a seasonal low, so it's also not true that even Charlottesville has recovered yet.


    by Verified Atheist on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 7:34pm

    Funny how the Republicans never seem to connect the dots about the job situation.  If we hadn't been shipping jobs overseas by the millions we might still have a booming workforce.  If we hadn't made that zany decision to stop manufacturing in this country, we might still be making things we could then buy from ourselves--and even. . .holy moly, export.

    Manufacturers were reluctantly okay with the unions for many years when it was clear that higher wages made for better consumers.  When we stopped making things we could consume they stopped pretending they were okay with the unions.

    All the way around it was lose-lose.  So obvious to the less greedy, but what could we do, even knowing it?  They were going to do what they were going to do and they held all the cards.  Once the jobs went overseas the unions had no more bargaining power.  Threatening to strike only gave the owners more reason to send those jobs on the next boat to China.  And India.  And Bangladesh.  Anywhere but here.


    by Ramona on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 7:35am

    Yeah, what exactly happened to the unions anyway?

    Oh unions were corrupt, just look at Jimmy Hoffa!

    Yeah, but compare that corruption to Wall Street?

    Maybe we just sold the idea wrong; I mean we had a Meany head our country's finest union! ha

    I still cannot get over that picture in my brain where Mitt visited one of his over seas sweat houses!


    by Richard Day on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 4:46pm

    Y'know how much Republicans love the idea of a flat tax?  Why not a flat salary? If the median income in America is $50,000, fine.  Pay every worker $50,000 a year.  Period.  If the median income goes up, then workers' salaries go up.   It's so simple ... and totally consistent with Republican values.  

     


    by MrSmith1 on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 8:01am

    Now that sounds like a communism!

    I am not saying you are a communism Smith; just sayin.

    hahahahah


    by Richard Day on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 4:47pm


    Me? A Communism? DD, I have not now nor have I ever been a Communism ... I do like listening to the Weavers and reading Arthur Miller and Clifford Odets and watching Dalton Trumbo movies, but never mind that ...  My late mom, God bless her, did admit to me once that she must be a Socialist because she believed in Social Security.  Does that count? laugh


    by MrSmith1 on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 6:22pm

    I just finished watching some HBO special with Louis CK and Chris Rock and Seinfeld and one of them was talking about some joke from some other comic stuck in their minds.

    And I immediately thought of old Burl Ives; for some reason.

    Burl always resounds in my mind.

    A guy threatened for his communist sympathies who ended up in big films in the 50's for Christsakes! But I never saw him as a turn coat, as they say!

    His records were wonderful.

    He wished to keep the old culture and cultural values alive.

    I just loved this guy.

    Anyway, here is a communism from old Burl:

     


    by Richard Day on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 6:37pm

    So you admit that you've had a long term, decades at least, relationship with a self confessed socialist.

    If we are to accept your word, and your word alone, that you aren't a communist we would have to assume you wanted to help, out of your love for American democracy, us uncover the communist plots threatening out nation.

    What other information can you give us on other communists and socialists you know or have met? Names, communist activities, details of their personal lives, anything that could help us identify these enemies to our American way of life.


    by ocean-kat on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 6:58pm

    Okay, so there was trigger, I mean that is what we used to call him!

    Trigger would say things like:

    Hey, why are the Adams eating from tuna fish cans and we get to eat crab legs with Steve King?

    I dunno.

    I wondered about things like this.

    Then I said:

    To hell with it.

    I am a commie.

    hahahahahah

    the end


    by Richard Day on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 7:11pm

    Hmm ... Well, let's see, besides Mom, there was Apple Pie ... no, not the delicious dessert,  this "Apple Pie" (not her real name) was a two-bit stripper at an after-hours club in lower Manhattan. She often worked with Whipped Cream, if you get the picture  ... and yes, Whipped Cream was another stripper (and yes, Whipped Cream was her real name).  But never mind that.

    The point is, Apple Pie really knew how to subvert Democracy, if you get my drift ... She could run your patriotic duty up a flag pole until everyone in the place saluted, if you know what I'm talkin' about ... She had a pair of Communisms on her that would make Uncle Sam scream, "Manifesto!" ... Know what I mean?  Anyway, uh, ... I think I plead the fifth dimension.  If I don't say anything else, you don't have dimension the whole thing.


    by MrSmith1 on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 11:48pm

    Republicans and the Tea Party actually hate the fact that government jobs are associated with pensions, health care and a living wage. These benefits are viewed as theft from the public. Government jobs are not considered real jobs., but fast food jobs that pay low wages and require that a person has a second job just for survival are "real" jobs. 


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 9:21am

    I just had to watch that pizza jackass, the one who dissed My President last year.

    The real joke is that Papa's makes more money selling soft drinks and added courses than it does making pizza with worker's making the absolute minimum; at least the drivers get tips!

    See, I am already getting mad again!


    by Richard Day on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 4:50pm

    Damn it... Dick . . .

    You just had to bring my cousin Lamar up ... Eh?

    Oh and... thanks for the Dylan/Dead tune... April 1988 at Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ... I worked that tour. I was real young then, only forty-two.

    hahahahahaha

    ~OGD~


    by oldenGoldenDecoy on Fri, 08/02/2013 - 1:56pm

    How ya doin Ducky! 

    Good to see you again.

    I envy your memories though.

    Every time I read something about the minimum wage I think of that huge parking lot in the cities where groups of men are just standing around hoping to get a temp gig for the day. Just hopelessness.

    And Lamar would take away their minimum wage?

    Oh well.

    The Dead can take away those terrible thoughts!


    by Richard Day on Fri, 08/02/2013 - 4:04pm

    I'm doing fine... Dick . . .


    When I think of those GOP dummies on the Hill screwing the people I get this picture in my mind.


     

    I'm off to go sailing...


    ~OGD~


    by oldenGoldenDecoy on Fri, 08/02/2013 - 5:13pm