Post by jeffolie on Jul 8, 2013 9:01:56 GMT -6
temp work stage in US capitalism
" ... Jobs are much less permanent .... Now unions have been largely emasculated, and America is returning to Gilded Age standards of income inequality. That's no coincidence. (And capitalism, it should be noted, also thrived in America when unions were at their most powerful.) ... temporary work "insulates the host companies from workers' compensation claims, unemployment taxes, union drives and the duty to ensure that their workers are citizens or legal immigrants." And don't forget health insurance! Companies such as Applebee's, Denny's, Papa John's Pizza, and Darden Restaurants (which owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster) have all announced they would cut hours to avoid the employer-mandates under the woefully misnamed Affordable Care Act.
Slowly dying US Economy, No inflation for 2 years
The median income can not support a strong US Economy now and unless a significant change happens the current trend will continue. Debating the numbers and meaning of the numbers remains a political game unlikely to change until external events change such as the end of the EU most likely in 2014.
For now one can pick and chose number that please one's point of view.
my jeffolie view: the most common American continues to suffer in a large 'secular bear market' since 1999 creating a 'regular depression' while the upper 20% prosper ... this will most likely continue for 2013 and 2014 in America and then rapidly get worse into a bottom of 2016 period beginning.
The FED's words mean little as do any politician's promises.
The FED's actions mean a significant amount.
my jeffolie view: the FED's actions remained unchanged because the FED's money flow or transactions remained unchanged at about $85B per month ... despite the words, the money stagnations from the FED, the federal govt and private enterprises remain the same.
No inflationary pressure for 2 YEARS: the FED's little changed actions transacting the same amount of $85B per month did nothing to put money into the hands of consumers nor bid up prices by consumers. Without clear inflationary wage push inflationary pressure the general population of American are not manicly seeking get inflation protection such as o buying gold or silver beyond those already doing so .... no additional buying of metals seems likely Until the Dollar might be questioned.
============================================
Are Americans doomed to a 'temporary' economy? RedBlue America
07/06/2013
Jobs are much less permanent than they used to be. A recent investigation by the nonprofit journalism group ProPublica finds that for millions of Americans, "temporary work has become a mainstay of the economy." Are recent job trends temporary or a more permanent feature of the U.S. economy? Can policymakers do anything to help long-term employment and economic growth?
A symptom of bad policy
Traditionally, a sharp increase in "temporary" hires has led to more permanent hiring in the private sector. But if we've learned anything from the Great Recession, this recovery -- the most anemic in U.S. history -- is anything but traditional. Terrible public policy made the recession "great." And terrible policy is making the recovery lame.
ProPublica's special report on the robust growth of the temporary job sector reveals a great deal more, perhaps, than its authors intended. The story focuses on "temp towns," which are "often dense Latino neighborhoods teeming with temp agencies." That's an interesting detail, coming at a time when a bipartisan group of U.S. senators voted to greatly expand the number of foreign workers from Mexico and Latin America.
Evidently, the "jobs Americans won't do" now include manufacturing, warehouse work and retail sales.
The ProPublica story also points out how the burgeoning world of temporary work "insulates the host companies from workers' compensation claims, unemployment taxes, union drives and the duty to ensure that their workers are citizens or legal immigrants." And don't forget health insurance! Companies such as Applebee's, Denny's, Papa John's Pizza, and Darden Restaurants (which owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster) have all announced they would cut hours to avoid the employer-mandates under the woefully misnamed Affordable Care Act.
An explosion of temporary hires, in short, is a symptom and a consequence of bad policy. For a few years now, Republican lawmakers claimed that "regulatory uncertainty" was holding down job growth. Clearly, that's not the case. The problem the U.S. economy faces today isn't uncertainty, but rather the certainty of Obamacare to raise insurance rates; the certainty of the Dodd-Frank law's unaccountable and overreaching "consumer protection" rules to raise compliance costs; the certainty of the Environmental Protection Agency's "war on coal" to raise energy prices; and on and on. So it's no mystery why temporary hiring is way up. The real mystery is why Congress and the administration continue their anti-growth policies -- and why Americans still tolerate them.
-- Ben Boychuk
A need for strong unions
For as long as capitalism has existed, there's been one surefire way to maximize profits: Keep worker compensation as low as humanly possible. Money you don't pay employees, after all, is money you can keep in your own pockets.
Republicans would have you believe that the emergence of millions of super-low-paying temporary jobs is the fault of government -- of requirements that companies do unfair, anti-growth things like "pay a fair wage" and "not kill their employees."
You'd almost think that American history wasn't full of examples from the pre-regulatory era of (for example) mine owners treating miners as virtual slaves, keeping them isolated in company towns and in debt to the company store. And you'd think that -- even now -- Wall Street didn't regularly respond to a company's workforce reductions with an increase in stock price. You'd think that CEOs, trained to maximize profits and stock prices, wouldn't respond to such incentives by cutting, cutting, cutting wherever they can. "Do more with less" isn't just a pithy slogan: It's capitalism's organizing principle.
Is there a policy failure here? Sure. For more then 30 years, it's been the policy of Republicans to undercut and undermine unions wherever they exist. American workers were, collectively, at their most prosperous when unions were at their strongest -- because unions offered workers a counterweight against the relentless forces of downsizing-to-maximize profit. Now unions have been largely emasculated, and America is returning to Gilded Age standards of income inequality. That's no coincidence. (And capitalism, it should be noted, also thrived in America when unions were at their most powerful.)
So there are two rational responses to the rise of the "temp economy." Increase regulations and the safety net so that employees can actually survive on the compensation offered by such work. Or officials can choose to unleash unions again and let them face off against CEOs on roughly equal terms.
The "temp economy" isn't an accident: It's the obvious next stage in American capitalism. But it's a lousy stage. And getting rid of regulations isn't the answer.
-- Joel Mathis
www.presstelegram.com/opinions/ci_23610821/are-americans-doomed-temporary-economy-redblue-america
" ... Jobs are much less permanent .... Now unions have been largely emasculated, and America is returning to Gilded Age standards of income inequality. That's no coincidence. (And capitalism, it should be noted, also thrived in America when unions were at their most powerful.) ... temporary work "insulates the host companies from workers' compensation claims, unemployment taxes, union drives and the duty to ensure that their workers are citizens or legal immigrants." And don't forget health insurance! Companies such as Applebee's, Denny's, Papa John's Pizza, and Darden Restaurants (which owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster) have all announced they would cut hours to avoid the employer-mandates under the woefully misnamed Affordable Care Act.
Slowly dying US Economy, No inflation for 2 years
The median income can not support a strong US Economy now and unless a significant change happens the current trend will continue. Debating the numbers and meaning of the numbers remains a political game unlikely to change until external events change such as the end of the EU most likely in 2014.
For now one can pick and chose number that please one's point of view.
my jeffolie view: the most common American continues to suffer in a large 'secular bear market' since 1999 creating a 'regular depression' while the upper 20% prosper ... this will most likely continue for 2013 and 2014 in America and then rapidly get worse into a bottom of 2016 period beginning.
The FED's words mean little as do any politician's promises.
The FED's actions mean a significant amount.
my jeffolie view: the FED's actions remained unchanged because the FED's money flow or transactions remained unchanged at about $85B per month ... despite the words, the money stagnations from the FED, the federal govt and private enterprises remain the same.
No inflationary pressure for 2 YEARS: the FED's little changed actions transacting the same amount of $85B per month did nothing to put money into the hands of consumers nor bid up prices by consumers. Without clear inflationary wage push inflationary pressure the general population of American are not manicly seeking get inflation protection such as o buying gold or silver beyond those already doing so .... no additional buying of metals seems likely Until the Dollar might be questioned.
============================================
Are Americans doomed to a 'temporary' economy? RedBlue America
07/06/2013
Jobs are much less permanent than they used to be. A recent investigation by the nonprofit journalism group ProPublica finds that for millions of Americans, "temporary work has become a mainstay of the economy." Are recent job trends temporary or a more permanent feature of the U.S. economy? Can policymakers do anything to help long-term employment and economic growth?
A symptom of bad policy
Traditionally, a sharp increase in "temporary" hires has led to more permanent hiring in the private sector. But if we've learned anything from the Great Recession, this recovery -- the most anemic in U.S. history -- is anything but traditional. Terrible public policy made the recession "great." And terrible policy is making the recovery lame.
ProPublica's special report on the robust growth of the temporary job sector reveals a great deal more, perhaps, than its authors intended. The story focuses on "temp towns," which are "often dense Latino neighborhoods teeming with temp agencies." That's an interesting detail, coming at a time when a bipartisan group of U.S. senators voted to greatly expand the number of foreign workers from Mexico and Latin America.
Evidently, the "jobs Americans won't do" now include manufacturing, warehouse work and retail sales.
The ProPublica story also points out how the burgeoning world of temporary work "insulates the host companies from workers' compensation claims, unemployment taxes, union drives and the duty to ensure that their workers are citizens or legal immigrants." And don't forget health insurance! Companies such as Applebee's, Denny's, Papa John's Pizza, and Darden Restaurants (which owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster) have all announced they would cut hours to avoid the employer-mandates under the woefully misnamed Affordable Care Act.
An explosion of temporary hires, in short, is a symptom and a consequence of bad policy. For a few years now, Republican lawmakers claimed that "regulatory uncertainty" was holding down job growth. Clearly, that's not the case. The problem the U.S. economy faces today isn't uncertainty, but rather the certainty of Obamacare to raise insurance rates; the certainty of the Dodd-Frank law's unaccountable and overreaching "consumer protection" rules to raise compliance costs; the certainty of the Environmental Protection Agency's "war on coal" to raise energy prices; and on and on. So it's no mystery why temporary hiring is way up. The real mystery is why Congress and the administration continue their anti-growth policies -- and why Americans still tolerate them.
-- Ben Boychuk
A need for strong unions
For as long as capitalism has existed, there's been one surefire way to maximize profits: Keep worker compensation as low as humanly possible. Money you don't pay employees, after all, is money you can keep in your own pockets.
Republicans would have you believe that the emergence of millions of super-low-paying temporary jobs is the fault of government -- of requirements that companies do unfair, anti-growth things like "pay a fair wage" and "not kill their employees."
You'd almost think that American history wasn't full of examples from the pre-regulatory era of (for example) mine owners treating miners as virtual slaves, keeping them isolated in company towns and in debt to the company store. And you'd think that -- even now -- Wall Street didn't regularly respond to a company's workforce reductions with an increase in stock price. You'd think that CEOs, trained to maximize profits and stock prices, wouldn't respond to such incentives by cutting, cutting, cutting wherever they can. "Do more with less" isn't just a pithy slogan: It's capitalism's organizing principle.
Is there a policy failure here? Sure. For more then 30 years, it's been the policy of Republicans to undercut and undermine unions wherever they exist. American workers were, collectively, at their most prosperous when unions were at their strongest -- because unions offered workers a counterweight against the relentless forces of downsizing-to-maximize profit. Now unions have been largely emasculated, and America is returning to Gilded Age standards of income inequality. That's no coincidence. (And capitalism, it should be noted, also thrived in America when unions were at their most powerful.)
So there are two rational responses to the rise of the "temp economy." Increase regulations and the safety net so that employees can actually survive on the compensation offered by such work. Or officials can choose to unleash unions again and let them face off against CEOs on roughly equal terms.
The "temp economy" isn't an accident: It's the obvious next stage in American capitalism. But it's a lousy stage. And getting rid of regulations isn't the answer.
-- Joel Mathis
www.presstelegram.com/opinions/ci_23610821/are-americans-doomed-temporary-economy-redblue-america