Fun With Your Clothes On: Meet Andrew Puzder, Anti-Labor Secretary In Waiting

<The Daily Beast:>

 <"I Want You...To Wear Scanty Outfits And
Help Me Make More In A Day Than You Make In A Year">

Andrew Puzder, Donald Trump's Labor Secretary nominee, epitomizes that old line: "If he didn't exist, you'd have to invent him." Bulging bottom line? Check. Defensive to criticism? Double-check. Ethically challenged? Triple-check. Hostility to those below him, or his department's mission? Quadruple check. Tin-eared to any notion that he, well, crosses a line or two? Quintuple check...you get the idea. Supposedly, America will get its first in-depth look at him during his initial confirmation hearing on Thursday, one that's already been called off four times. We'll see how that one works out.

Although American CEOs, by and large, are hardly a warm and fuzzy bunch, Puzder's public posture suggests an extreme caricature of the tone-deaf prick at the top of the pyramid. His demeanor resembles that of a "Batman" TV villain like, say, Mr. Freeze, who can't fathom why nobody fancies being turned into a human Popsicle. Unlike his relentlessly manic colleagues -- like, say, Joker, Riddler, or Penguin -- Mr. Freeze, er, Puzder, doesn't exude the sense that he's actually enjoying himself.

Unless, of course, he's sticking it to the rest of us. Like most of his tribe, the CEO of CKE Restaurants -- the corporate daddy for the Carl's Jr. and Hardees restaurant chains -- sees nothing hypocritical letting taxpayers pick up the slack for his fast food empire, whether it's forcing his (largely part-time) army of underpaid workers to go on food stamps and Medicaid, while they forgo little things like health insurance, pensions, and savings. (For an analysis of how much this, ahem, slight inconsistency costs the taxpayer, read the National Employment Law Project link below.) But that doesn't stop him from putting his foot in his mouth, all the same.

Don't believe us? Take this Ramen Noodle Nation economy tour of Mr. Puzder's wackier, less nuanced statements, and judge them for himself. There's a saying in the business world that describes the situation perfectly: "Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior." For further snapshots of life in Puzder-land, read the links below, make up your own mind...and then, run like hell.

<I've got the world on a string, sittin' on a rainbow

Got the string around my finger

What a world, what a life, I'm in love!

I've got a song that I sing

I can make the rain go, anytime I move my finger

Lucky me, can't you see, I'm in love

Life is a beautiful thing, as long as I hold the string

I'd be a silly so and so, if I should ever let go>
"I've Got The World On A String"

1. Bye-Bye, Pesky Workers, Hello, Machines: "They're always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case." (Puzder to Business Insider on his dream of pursuing a totally automated restaurant) 

2. Closet Michael Moore Fans, Unite (It's Only Entertainment): "If you were buying products or going to movies based upon the politics of the people involved, well, I probably couldn't go to half the movies I go to."

3. Guess My Talent Tool Got A Little Polluted: "In fast food, you sort of compete for the best of the worst. In other words, you're not getting the Microsoft guys. At Hardee's we were getting the worst of the worst. Nobody wanted to work at Hardee's." (Puzder's summary of his talent search troubles in a speech at California State University, as reported in CNN Money)

4. It's Those Horny Young Guys, Stupid: "I like our ads. I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it's very American." (Puzder's response to his infamous ad campaigns that featured scantily-clad women hosing themselves with water and riding mechanical bulls in peddling his burgers)

5. Lighten Up, Folks, It's Only A TV Commercial: "We believe in putting hot models in our commercials, because ugly ones don't sell burgers." (CKE's corporate rationale behind its advertising, as outlined in its press release)

6. Look, Parting With A Nickel Of My Bottom Line Would Only Hurt You: "This is the problem with Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton, and progressives who push very hard to raise the minimum wage. Does it really help if Sally makes $3 more an hour if Suzie has no job?"

7. McJobs Are Just That...McJobs:  "I started out scooping ice cream at Baskin-Robbins at a dollar an hour. I learned a lot about inventory and customer service ... but there's no way in the world that scooping ice cream is worth $15 an hour, and no one ever intended it would ever be something that a person could support a family on. ... Those jobs just don't produce that kind of value like a construction job or a manufacturing job does." (Puzder reflecting, to the LA Times, on his rise to the top of the fast food heap 

8. Oh, That's Why You Want This Gig: "I think it would be ... the most fun you could have with your clothes on." (Puzder's response to FOX Business in November, on whether he'd want a Cabinet position)

9. Scrooge McDuck Says (Stay Away From My Money Bins): "Low-skill jobs are important because that’s what gives you access to the high-level job. If you focus on redistributing income, you’re not going to create growth.”

10. Trust Me (I've Been Around The Block On This One): "It sounds good to say we're going to give everybody a raise, but I don't think people think about the implications of that. If the business community doesn't speak up, the politicians who garner votes by making those claims and passing this legislation are just going to keep saying things that just aren't accurate. It's important to speak up, so I did."


UPDATE (1/15): Unhandy Andy withdrew his nomination today, apparently after a growing number of the Republican herd in the Senate couldn't stand the stench that never stopped swirling around him...proof positive, depending on your theological orientation, that a) there is a God, or b) if there is, His sense of the absurd is no less attuned than our own. However, we couldn't allow Unhandy Andy to exit the stage, without one posting more goofy quote to his credit (or discredit):

Oh, That's Why Apu Mans The 7-11 Counter 24/7: "They're very hard-working, dedicated, creative people that really appreciate the fact that they have a job. Whereas in other parts of the country, you often get people that are saying, 'I can't believe I have to work this job,' with the immigrant population, you have the 'thank God I have this job' kind of attitude." (Puzder, apparently waxing lyrical on why immigrants make ideal fast food employees -- versus those ungrateful, underpaid natives)

Links To Go (Hurry, Before Andy Hoses You Down):
National Employment Law Project:
Bilked: How Trump's Labor Secretary Pick
Costs Taxpayers $250 Million Per Year:
http://www.nelp.org/publication/bilked-how-trump-labor-secretary-pick-costs-taxpayers-250-million-year/

The Washington Post: Andrew Puzder
Will Be A Disaster For Workers: I Know He Was For Me:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/02/07/andy-puzder-will-be-a-disaster-for-workers-i-know-he-was-for-me/?utm_term=.e1e478563a72

U.S. News & World Report:
Andrew Puzder Won't Work For Women:
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/civil-wars/articles/2017-02-08/donald-trumps-labor-pick-andrew-puzder-is-bad-news-for-women

Life's Little Injustices (Take IX): I Work Two Jobs (But Have No Money)

<That familiar sinking feeling...?>
<Picture: http://advice.careerbuilder.com/posts/8-tips-for-juggling-parttime-jobs>

Like many of these rough snapshots, this one starts simply enough. There's a gas station on the corner that I patronize semi-regularly for my pop, whenever I'm traipsing back from my latest assignment. It's also a good opportunity to check whatever stories might have run already.

Eventually, on Sunday and Monday nights, I notice a different type of cashier working there: a burly, graying gent with black horn-rimmed glasses...I'll call him Rick, whose presence here is something of a surprise. Here, you're most likely to see teen and twentysomething women -- minority, more than often not -- manning the register. By contrast, I've only seen three guys treading these particular boards. Including Rick.

Bit by bit, I get into little sidebar conversations with Rick, who doesn't seem to mind. (Anything to move the minute hand, right? Been there, done that.) More often than not, our talks focus on the election. We bond over something simple: Rick hates Clinton and Trump, and isn't voting for either of them. As I've explained here, neither do I.

Tonight, though, the talk shifts elsewhere. I pick up a paper, crack a joke about "Breaking Bad," and get ready to pay for my latest pop. "Not too sure about that one -- I watched it a few times, didn't do much for me," Rick volunteers. "I like 'Bones,' though. 'Body Of Proof,' stuff like that. That's really good."

I reach for three singles. "Well, maybe you check out 'Better Call Saul,'" I suggest. "I've been watching it three years now, and it seems well on its way to surpassing 'Breaking Bad,' since we're seeing most of those characters before the drug world overtook them."

"Yeah, now that you mention it..." Rick's fingers dance over the cash register, like they've done a million times before, always one step away from a permanent flirtation with carpal tunnel syndrome.  "I did see the first episode of that, on demand. Seemed pretty good."

"Caught any since? I know it's on Monday night, and that's when you're here, so I could see where that's a problem."

"Well, actually..." Rick curls his lower lip into a sheepish smile. "It's because I can't always keep the TV on."

I don't know how to respond, at first. Then it dawns on me: oh, shit, he means the cable TV, not the regular TV. Rick finishes ringing me up, and pushes my two two-liters over to me. "I work two jobs, but have no money," he shrugs.

I fumble for something incisive to say, but can't muster more than, "I'm sorry to hear it. Hope your situation gets better."

But that's not likely to happen in the short run, for Rick and too many millions of others like him. His fiftysomething face is one that I increasingly see at jobs like these, at church food pantries and community dinners, free dental clinics and sliding scale health care programs, the face of resignation that signals -- when you stand by them in line -- life wasn't supposed to end like this. 

As for me, I'm paddling as best as I can. What infuriates me, though, is seeing more and more graying faces lining up with me, for food, medical care and all those other necessities you can't exactly think of going without. They didn't ask to roll these crap-laden dice that have condemned them to running harder and harder in place, yet falling further and further behind.

They didn't want to play the heavily-stacked hand that sent them tumbling down the rabbit holes of disappearing jobs, steep cuts in social benefits, or the smoldering wreckage of a pension plan gone haywire. They knew what ruin lay around the corner when some higher authority punched a calculator of his own -- remember, it's usually a "he' that makes such decisions -- and punched them a ticket to permanent employment oblivion.

No, the Ricks of the world didn't expect -- nor ask for -- any of these things. But for the next four years, no matter who wins, that's exactly what they'll be expected to do. And that's what aggravates me the most. --The Reckoner

Links To Go: Click Now (Before You Need A Fifth Job):
CNN Money: I Work Four Jobs And I'm Still Struggling:
http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/12/news/economy/4-low-wage-part-time-jobs/

CNN Money: Sick Days: A Luxury
Many Hourly Workers Don't Have:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/06/news/new-york-sick-days/index.html?iid=EL

U.S. News & World Report: The Part-Time Recovery:
http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/08/23/the-part-time-economic-recovery

The Real Unemployment Rate: In 20% of All Families, Everyone is Unemployed

The Real Unemployment Rate: In 20% Of American Families, Everyone Is Unemployed

According to shocking new numbers that were just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of American families do not have a single person that is working.  So when someone tries to tell you that the unemployment rate in the United States is about 7 percent, you should just laugh.

The "official" unemployment rates are a joke---The Squawker

Some Tabloid Headlines We'd Like To See...

2008 Bank Bailout Revoked!

Newly-Uncovered Accounting Error

Returns $875B Back To U.S. Taxpayers

Bankers Sent To Federal Detention Hearings:

"It's Only Temporary," US Attorney Claims

*********************************************

White House Calls Special Joint Session 

To Overhaul Affordable Care Act Morass 

Prez: "Should Have Kept Public Option Alive:
What The Hell Was I Thinking, 

Subsidizing All These Insurance Giants?"

********************************************

Radical New Fix Unveiled to Cure 

Stubborn Unemployment Rate:

Disgraced Mortgage Barons

Now Clean Floors,Dig Ditches,Pull Weeds:

White House Puts Corporate Welfare To Work

********************************************

Mysterious Peruvian Megavirus

Blasts Content Mills And Temp Agencies

Offline, And Into Oblivion:

Ex-Contractors Chuckle:

"The Temp Nation Giveth, 

And The Temp Nation Taketh Away"

********************************************
Fast Food Workers
Arrest Ronald McDonald At Wage Protest

McDonald's Forced Employees 
To Work Without AC On Hottest Day Ever:
Groundswell Grows In Oxaca Vs. The Clown
********************************************

So Much For The 1 Percent:

Mega-Rich SUVs, Luxury Cars

Melted, Sold To Fund Nationwide Food Bank

Billionaires Bitch About Riding Subways:

Poor Hail End Of Week-Old Birthday Cake,

Stale Mac And Cheese, Tunafish Cans

And Other Crappy Food Pantry Castoffs

********************************************

So Funny You Forgot To Laugh Dept.: With so many genuine sociopolitical absurdities out there to laugh about, why did the fabled supermarket tabloids of '70s and '80s yore spend so much time -- and precious newsprint -- on the usual faded parade of two-headed babies, defrocked B- and C-list celebs, closet cross-dressing Senators, and other fabled conceits of the tabloid business?

We're not quite sure ourselves, exactly, so we decided to strike a balance in the "right" direction -- with some headlines appropriate for our times.  Now, here's the kicker...amid all these displays of banner-typed absurdity, (1) headline is totally true, and (1) headline is partially true (we've slipped in a qualifying "kicker" phrase to throw your nose off the scent -- that's how editors do it, y'know).

Give us the right answers by midnight Saturday, and you'll get a special prize of our choosing...(3) punk rock collage postcards, plus a packet of press clippings suited for our ever-so-desperate times. If not, we'll announce the results, updated right here....over the weekend.

As in Britain, "first past the post" wins -- in case of any confusion, we'll use email timestamps as the tie-breaker.  We can't make you rich and famous, but we can make you laugh, and make you a micro-celebrity here.  Surely that's worth something in these blighted times, right? --The Reckoner

UPDATE (3/30/13): Well, as it turns out, we may need to wave a few bob around next time...perhaps. It's the end of the month at Reckoner Towers, so we'll have to time our next little competition a bit differently. 

At any rate, the correct headline was #5: "Fast Food Workers Arrest Ronald McDonald At Wage Protest."  The partially correct headline was "McDonald's Forced Employees To Work Without AC On Hottest Day Ever" -- which we, shall we say, "found" somewhere -- but, to the best of our knowledge, there's no revolution brewing against McDonalds in Mexico ("Groundswell Grows In Oxaca Vs. The Clown"). 

However, the photo of Ronald brandishing the automatic weapon does hail from Mexico -- so, perhaps, something's happening that we don't know about yet. At any rate...we'll come up with another little artdisplay/competition down the road. --The Reckoner

Could You Live On A Fast Food Wage? Take The Test!

I'm (Not) Lovin It...

...And Neither Should You!

The original inspiration for this post came from surfing the web, and doing an image search for "Evil Ronald McDonald".  I laughed aloud at seeing how many images popped up, particularly of the pornographic variety...suffice to say, the distance between Ronald and Pennywise (above) is only a click or two apart.

That point aside, it's interesting to see the same tired stereotypes getting recycled in the current debate about raising the minimum wage. The Republicans, per usual, dredge up the old "pimply-faced-teens-working-for-Friday-night-pin-money" chestnut as their reason for not parting with any pennies for the cause...when they (and others like them) aren't spinning that other favorite yarn of theirs: "But...it's...a...job...killer."

Yes, plenty of jobs have gotten shot, stopped cold, frozen dead in their tracks -- the good paying ones, that is, as The New Yorker ("The Pay Is Too Damn Low," 8/12/13) points out ("five of the six fastest-growing job categories today pay less than the median wage"). A generation ago, as books like Fast Food Nation observed, the industry resembled a portrait from Bugsy Malone...that of children pretending to be adults.

Today, however, the face of many fast food restaurants, discount retail stores and similar sorts of low-wage jobs is closer to that of Happy Days's jolly father figure, Howard Cunningham -- a senior citizen (remember, that's anybody 50 and up) -- and, often, a minority -- trying to stitch together several part-time jobs for the privilege of existing another month...watching whatever dreams that they formerly entertained for themselves dying one burger flip at a time, fizzling with each fry that pops in a deep fryer.

What's even more shocking, though, is how these corporate behemoths effectively force the public to subsidize their operations. How so?  Start with the National Employment Law Project's October 2013 data brief, "Super-Sizing Public Costs: How Low Wages at Top Fast-Food Chains Leave Taxpayers Footing The Bill."  As far as I'm concerned, the following paragraph on page 3 says it all:

"According to a study by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley, more than 
half (52 percent) of front-line fast-food workers must rely on at least one public assistance program to support their families. As a result, the fast-food-industry business model of low wages, non-existent benefits, and limited work hours costs taxpayers an average of nearly $7 billion every year." [Bold emphasis: yours truly]

Once you've digested that disconcerting little nugget, scroll down to the next page and study the outsized compensation packages that (quite naturally) only go to those topping the pyramid.  McDonalds CEO, Donald Thompson, far outpaces his rivals -- with an annual salary of $13.7 million, plus $5.5 billion in dividends and stock buybacks.

Indeed, there's no frown turning upside down on the face of this particular clown, especially when you see where his nearest rival (Burger King CEO Bernardo Hees) fares in those sweepstakes, at $6.4 billion and $14.4 million, respectively. By any standard, these are astonishing figures -- enough to make even Gilded Age robber barons like Jay Gould spin with sheer giddy jealousy in their graves.

What's even more interesting, if you read the UC Berkeley study (see below), is that working full-time in these types of jobs makes no real difference.  According to the study's executive summary, roughly half of families of fast food workers pulling down 40 or more hours per week were enrolled in public assistance programs.  A staggering 87 percent don't receive any benefits from their employers, forcing social programs like Medicare -- and, ultimately, the taxpayers -- to pick up the tab.

In recent years, I haven't found myself darkening The Clown's doorstep, let alone of those of his rivals, except to use the bathroom -- and for good reason, if these studies are any indication. It's easy to rationalize away these imbalances as the price of progress, the natural outcome of a frenzied commitment to globalism that cannot be postponed for a moment.

And then, I think of the people occupying these places, all wedged together like so many matchsticks behind the fryer -- young blacks, and the odd Hispanic...single women, struggling to wring every last drop from their twenties, before those good memories slip out the back door for good...right beside their middle-aged mothers and fathers, cousins, friends and relations, who've finally grubbed their way up the management ladder to an uncertain future...praying that those extra few pennies per hour will hold off real life just a bit longer.

You've probably seen similar faces behind the fast food counter in your town, toiling for the privilege of that $8.69 per median wage noted in the UC Berkeley study...pressing their noses to the grindstone, hoping against hope that this particular clock-punching gig might actually just work out...even as they just stand on their feet, getting a little bit older, and a little bit wearier, as the air continues to hiss out of their particular balloon.

Think about them, the next time you hear all those old, excuses for continuing that grimy, grasping, back-scratching realpolitik that makes no measurable difference in the average person's life -- the song and dance of backroom dealmaking, or "Kuhhandel" ("cattle trading"), as Weimar Republic-era politicians scornfully called it.

Take the Mother Jones wage calculator (below), and then, ask yourself: could you live on what The Clown pays?  If that happens to be your situation, how are you managing that feat? And if we're really so concerned about an economic recovery, shouldn't we worry about the quality of jobs, as well as the quantity?  --The Reckoner

LINKS TO GO...AS IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH 
SODDING, STOMACH-TURNING,  DEPRESSING NEWS TO DIGEST ALREADY:
Mother Jones (August 2013: "Could You Survive On Fast Food Wages? Try Our Calculator):
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/calculator-fast-food-worker-income-wages-comparison

The National Employment Law Project (October 2013 Data Brief: "Super-Sizing Public Costs: How Low Wages at Top Fast-Food Chains Leave Taxpayers Footing The Bill")
http://www.nelp.org/page/-/rtmw/uploads/NELP-Super-Sizing-Public-Costs-Fast-Food-Report.pdf?nocdn=1

The New Yorker (August 2013: "The Pay Is Too Damn Low"):
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2013/08/12/130812ta_talk_surowiecki

UC Berkeley ("Fast Food, Poverty Wages: The Public Cost Of Low-Wage Jobs In The Fast-Food Industry"): 
http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/publiccosts/fastfoodpovertywages.shtml

Forever A Bum To Your Own Family

                                         [picture from drphil.com]


Remember those old Dr. Phil shows where he would yell at the "mooches"?

I often thought I wonder how many of them are mooches by choice. Sure some of them probably were lazy, "didn't want to work", spent their days hooked up to a meth pipe or pot bong, and playing Warcraft or something...

but what about the ones who simply could not get a decent jobs that would pay for a decent enough apartment, car and life?

While the economy implodes and our newcasters lie about the actual employment rates, how is it to be the person whose family has done well and they have not due to a variety of reasons?

It can be hell on earth.

Many do not understand.

Among some narcissists and some baby boomer types who never suffered, your own lack of financial success is always laid at the foot of your own shortcomings, even if you went to college and worked hard for years at jobs only to be laid off or had your health implode, such things do not matter if the dollars never poured in.

Poor people with better off families are told they are "no good" often for years. You can get a college degree, whip up the resumes, move to seek to improve the almighty career, and then when you are left holding an empty bag, realize those old time social connections aren't there either anymore.

I really worry about young people today who may have had parents do well, and then they go out into a work world that simply doesn't want to know. I went through the same thing but at least I could get a job to pay for a rented room, ramen noodles and milk crates. If there is no job though at all, one is in trouble and can't even manage that.

You're the bum, the elephant in the room no one wants to see or exist. To some of these people they got their first job about of school at the age of 18 and never faced the unemployment line. Maybe they have the right personality, right "look" for modern American. Maybe they did work hard but they also were given the opportunity and pay-out for their hard work.

It disturbs me how if one ends up in "throw-away" status in America, today it's not just the human resources manager looking at you with a jaundiced eye at your cheap suit or dulled shoes but your cruise taking, shopaholic family that definitely sees you as an "embarrassment" too. It can be emotionally devastating. Some people may have kind relatives who want to help them who care, but one thing I have noticed about some within the upper middle class world is they only want to keep company with their own kind. Your concerns are off their radar.

There's too many people out there who realized they became too poor even to be accepted, included or loved by their families, but then that one comes from the moral decay in America, and from the prevalent narcissism that is in many ways collapsing the economy from the top tiers to begin with.

Your lack of money is seen as a personal failing and if it lasts too long you are resented, hated and rejected.

In America today there are these class divisions between families. To the liberals who yell "First World problems" at poor or working class people in America who dare speak of their problems, sometimes the Third World sounds like a better deal, at least you are not hated or rejected for things that are beyond your control, your kinfolk are in the same boat with you. Many of the immigrants are smart because they share resources, there's no such thing as Mama or Sis living in a McMansion while their disabled or poor adult child lives in a broken down trailer with no running water or in a cardboard box in the street.

Even if you have a family that may have helped you years ago, there's a pound of flesh to be extracted. As the merciless employers rip out the carpet beneath you or your husband, rejection often comes from the family too. You are not a source of pride but someone to be ignored and hidden away. They help you with a car repair to keep you from the streets and their front stoop and their resentment grows and your self-respect dies. There is never enough money, only shame. Another job lay-off and the invitations dry up. These types who will tell you "We worked hard!" when you tell them not to be so down on the poor, will tell you straight to your face, people are poor because they deserve it. They will tell you that you are "entitled" if you desire a job that will keep a roof over your head and a car to get there.

                                          [picture source]

And that is a horrible fact of modern American life, rich relatives aren't so nice to the poor ones. Your Tea-Party loving shark uncle will write that all poor people are losers, as he is brainwashed by the elite to blame the victims of the economy while paying homage to the bankers and multinational corporations outsourcing all the jobs. Your mother who never went to college and got her good job via nepotism, and who won the insurance Lotto, will roll her eyes with disgust at you for years as she shops til she drops and buys a second home in Florida. Your sister will tell you that your 800 square foot working class apartment [even in a decent area] is "too small" for a visit and look down on you from turned up nose for eons. She was C and D student but because she married a six-figure executive...so she rose up the ranks in the family forever more.

                                         [from Zero Hedge]

Younger people forced to move home, sometimes will deal with the parents who will say "When are you going to move out?" as they struggle to get a job or an affordable apartment. Often the families are as merciless as the bosses who cut hours or wages. Older people face the middle life crisis of realizing they will never make their parents proud, they will be the family "bum" and that success has eluded for far too long. Hope taken away as one remembers one's old life where opportunity at least seemed to reigned supreme and one seemed to have a good future. Sad faced regretful 40-somethings living with disgusted elderly mothers. 20-somethings with heads hanging down low trudging down the basement stairs coming home from low-paid jobs telemarketing or doing day-care or filling out job applications with their father screaming "Mooch! Loser! Bum!" So many left unaware of what awaits them as they exit the college world into the you're just another number in line unless you have connections. One ponders how did some relatives do so well? Doors opened to them with ease, as the padlock on yours seemed to grow bigger.

Years of knowing you never could afford decent presents for nieces or nephews or vacations to see anyone. Knowing that you are forever a bum to even your own family because the jobs were as disloyal as they were.

Poverty is a scythe that cuts into relationships.  DNA doesn't always cross the class barrier.---The Squawker

Dead Stores

As the American way of life dies out, and we become a Third World country, one's childhood memories of stores can be pretty intense in seeing so much closed down. Many remember going shopping at some of the stores above, and now they are all gone. Some try to blame the internet for the defunct retail store but that is not the whole story by any means. Jobs disappeared and so did expendable income, and thusly, so did shopping, except for bare necessities. Say goodbye to a thriving retail market!

What other stores could be added to this list?

Blockbuster
Borders Books
Frank's Nursery & Crafts

Radio Shack has been struggling.
Sears is having major problems.
JC Penny has had to lay off many people.
K-Mart is on the way out

Here's a far more comprehensive list:

DEFUNCT RETAILERS IN THE USA

Here's a video about dead malls in America:



America is becoming a waste land of empty store fronts. We have the closed stores here in our local area and a zombie mall, where a church rented one of the old big department stores and only a few stores remain open--The Squawker.

Poverty Rates Surge in the Suburbs

The first woman is fortunate to be able to live with a relative, imagine where she would be living on $19,000 a year or $1,400 a month? The jobs are paying far less. For a job I made $11 an hour in the mid 1990s before I was disabled; they now pay people only $8 an hour and still expect some education.

Many people who grew up in the suburbs with parents that did well, are now facing the fact they cannot get jobs like their parents held or make anywhere near the money they did and maintain the same lifestyles.. However, the mother that this lady lives with is working two jobs to keep expensive property taxes paid on a small two bedroom house.  One thing I am glad the video points out, is that many of these poor people are WORKING and just not making enough to pay for food and other necessities. They talk about Suffolk County, where the cost of living is higher. That applies to a lot of places now.

Many futurists have written that the suburbs will be the ghettoes of tomorrow.---The Squawker

Where Did The Good Jobs Go?

                                [link]


Where Did The Good Jobs Go? Globalization, Free Trade And The Demise Of America’s Middle Class

“I might be doing the work of three people due to under-staffing,” McDonald’s employee Kareem Starks, a 30-year-old former Parks Department employee, told Salon. “It’s been hard trying to live off the minimum wage, $7.25, and support my two kids plus pay rent.”

Many of the older fast food workers are well-educated, with 42 percent of employees over the age of 25 having least some college education, including 753,000 with a bachelor’s degree or higher."

 

Globalization is destroying the USA economy. Honestly when young people ask me what should they do for a living or study it's hard coming up with a secure answer. Notice the number of the college degreed flipping burgers now for The Clown. ---The Squawker

Just Who Is The Five O'Clock Hero? (Not The Political & Professional Classes: They Still HAVE Jobs)

"Hello, darlin', I'm home again

                        Covered in shit and aches and pains

Too knackered to think, so give me time to come round

                                                                   Just gimme the living room beat to the TV sound"

("Just Who Is The Five O'Clock Hero?")

In our previous post ("Going Underground: Five Signs That We're Marching Backwards In Time"), we cited five essential statistics that document the continual unraveling of America's social fabric.

Now comes another sign that America's unwillingness to put a stake through its never-ending voodoo economic experiment isn't paying off -- in this case, via the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' unemployment summary for September, which showed the economy adding a mere 148,000 jobs.

And what did we learn about the "official" unemployment rate? At 7.2 percent, it's largely unchanged. 

Number of long-term unemployed (27 weeks or more)? At 4.1 million, largely unchanged. Labor force participation rate? At 63.2 percent, largely unchanged. 

Number of people forced to work part-time, for purely economic reasons? At 7.9 million, largely unchanged. 

If this sounds like your definition of success...you need to have your head examined. For the rest of the story, go here: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

"My hard earned dough goes in bills and the larder
                            And that Prince Philip tells us we gotta work harder

It seems a constant struggle just to exist

Scrimping and saving and crossing of lists"

When I saw the bureau's release, I immediately thought of this slow-burning lament to the common man, if you like, written by Paul Weller in tribute to the "real heroes" of Britain -- "the ordinary geezer or girl...who works 9 till 5 keeping the country going by working in [a] food shop or clothes factory..." (Mike Nicholls: About The Young Idea: The Story Of The Jam 1972-1982, p. 102).

Mind you, the common man has proven all too easy to lionize in contemporary pop culture -- as numerous second- and third-division street punk bands have shown -- but the lyrics quoted throughout this post ring all too true today. In just two minutes and 15 seconds, Weller lays bare the dilemma that all too many of us are now experiencing, of "scrimping and saving, and crossing off lists." 

Originally imported from Holland, the song reached #8 on the UK charts in the summer of 1982, and became a standby of the band's subsequent "Trans-Global Unity Express" tour. It's heartening to hear that Weller has recently begun performing the song again on his own, albeit at a slower-burning pace than the original tempo. 

The mood and lyrics remind me of an equally timely observation from University of Michigan economist Sheldon Danziger: "Many Americans continue to think that a rising tide lifts all boats. But the bad news is that given the way economic growth trickles down now, the number of poor and disadvantaged will remain high unless we do more to help those in need." 

Perhaps he was thinking about the number of Americans living in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's own dismal figures for September: at 46.5 million, largely unchanged.

"From this window I've seen the whole world pass
                  From dawn to dusk I've heard the last laugh laughed

I've seen enough tears to wash away this street

I've heard wedding bells chime and a funeral march"

Now that the U.S. government shutdown finally ran its course -- after 16 slash 'n' burning days -- what's even more striking is the utter lack of ideas on display.

Republicans remain firmly wedded to their supply-side gospel, which is repeated as devoutly as the rosary; most of their Democratic peers cling to an equally moth-eaten mantra of "rising-tides-lift-all-boats"...even though the yacht, figuratively speaking, has long pulled out of the harbor (and left everyone else to drown in the resulting wake).

Before the shutdown flared up, 34 percent of participants in a CBS/New York Times poll identified jobs and the economy as "the most important problem facing the country today". By contrast, just 8 percent mentioned health care, and 6 percent, the deficit -- the two issues that defined President Obama's latest steel-cage encounter with his equally clueless antagonists. Can we say disconnect, anyone?

"When as one life finishes another one starts
             Alright then, love, so I'll be off now
                         It's back to the lunch box and worker-management rows

There's gotta be more to this old life then this

Scrimping and saving and crossing of lists"

As the above poll suggests, the people below have already figured out what the decision-makers above seem unwilling to grasp. Yes, the deficit is a major problem, but if you haven't worked in awhile, or can't get past part-time or temp status, you're unlikely to break out the confetti, if Congress cooks up a "grand bargain" that's proven elusive (at best) and wishful thinking (at worst).

An entire generation is being lost, written off and consigned to the margins of oblivion, while the political class diddles and fiddles, dithers and slithers, fritters and twitters, stumbles and fumbles, all too accustomed to the contours of tailored "power" suits, lifetime benefits and never-ending perks and privileges. Recall how they kept their own paychecks going during the shutdown, while the statisticians responsible for tracking the social train wrecks that they let loose were sitting idle at home. The irony needs no elaboration.

And so it goes, on and on and on and on and on, without a hint of change in the air...but if we don't take it upon ourselves to put pressure on those who need it most, we all know how this particular movie will end. -- The Reckoner

Global Free Trade is a Myth!

Sometimes I think today's leaders of companies and mega-corporations have to be among the most stupid people in the world. Whose going to afford their products when everyone is broke? It isn't the guy making 20 cents an hour in Bangladesh! --The Squawker

Going Underground: Five Signs That We're Marching Backwards In Time

Some people might say my life is in a rut, 

But I'm quite happy with what I got 

People might say that I should strive for more, 

But I'm so happy I can't see the point. 

Somethings happening here today 

A show of strength with your boy's brigade and, 

I'm so happy and you're so kind 

You want more money - of course I don't mind

 To buy nuclear textbooks for atomic crimes

--The Jam ("Going Underground")

As the old saying goes, the only certainty of history is that it always repeats itself. What goes around, comes around. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior...and so on. If I had a nickel for every time I'd heard all these cliches, I'd be living in a mansion somewhere in the south of France.

Even so, there's no going around the fact that we're living in some of the most regressive times since the 1980s...a feeling that's hammered home by five negative social trends that keep the commentators' tongues wagging. Without further ado, shall we roll the credits, then?

1. This Just In (America Has Officially Joined The Hamburglar Nation): Doubt persists about whether we've finally spent our way out of our economic doldrums, though some of the usual established voices have apparently decided that's so ("Slow U.S. Economic Recovery Is Gaining Momentum": Wall Street Journal, 6/24/13).

However, the number of part-time jobs (read: 35 hours or less) has grown by 2.8 million since the Great Recession officially kicked off in December 2007, according to The New York Times. By contrast, the number of full-time jobs has fallen by 5.8 million.

Also, if you add two significant subgroups -- those who want full-time work, but have to settle for part-time, and those workers who have up looking -- the official unemployment rate effectively doubles, from 7.7 to 14.3 percent.  Get the rest of this cheery memo here:

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/the-rise-of-part-time-work/

2. Permanent Fiesta For The 1 Percent Department.: Most analysts agree that those pesky little 1 percenters have enjoyed quite a party since the 1980s, when everybody seemed to strut around with oversized portable phones, and sweaters stuffed with big shoulder pads, waiting for their share of the wealth to trickle down their direction...today, the crickets keep on chirping, and they're still waiting.

How one-sided the party became isn't always apparent, though, until you read the Economic Policy Institute's May 2012 report, "CEO Pay And The Top 1 Percent," which states that U.S. workers' compensation grew by just 5.7 percent between 1978 and 2011. By contrast, CEO compensation swelled by more than 725 percent during the same period.

When stock options are included, the overall CEO-to-worker compensation ratio grew from 18.3-1 in 1965, to 411.3-1 in 2000, and presently sits at 209.4-1 in 2011 (a reflection, presumably, of the backlash that greeted such fripperies, once the economy flew south). Read the remainder of the bad news for yourself here:

http://www.epi.org/publication/ib331-ceo-pay-top-1-percent/

I'm going underground, (going underground) 

Well the brass bands play and feet start to pound 

Going underground, (going underground) 

Well let the boys all sing and the boys all shout for tomorrow 

3. At Least Keith Partridge Had Something To Fall Back On: The One-Paycheck Household has faded into a relic of "The Partridge Family" era...when the widowed bandleader (Shirley Jones)  could sleep soundly, knowing that she and her velvet-clad pop combo could cover all their monthly bills, plus Keith's college education tab, and have a few shekels left over for the occasional meal out.

Nowadays, however, Shirley and company would have to whore themselves out on the fast food or retail McJob Circuit, because their concert guarantees wouldn't keep up with the runaway cost of living.  This phenomenon is well-documented in The Two-Income Trap (Why Middle-Class Mothers & Fathers Are Going Broke).

As the authors note, married couples with children are twice as likely to file bankruptcy as their childless counterparts, and about 75 percent more likely to fall in foreclosure: "The problem is that so many fixed costs are rising -- health care, child care, finding a good home -- that two-income families today actually have less discretionary money left over than those single-earner families did." Keith Partridge, eat yer heart out!  For the rest of the story, go to this link:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2004/11/two-income-trap

4. Your Wallet (In The College Industrial Complex's Crosshairs): As even our mainstream media friends have finally acknowledged, educational debt has reached astronomical levels in this country, to the tune of $1 trillion, with roughly $180 billion in some kind of default or others. We've actually reached the point of generational debt, which promises to keep future lenders out of the cold, and off the street corner.

"Wait a minute," you say, "didn't President Obama and his minions sign some type of law regulating interest rates on student loans?"  Well -- as USA Today makes clear -- even with the changes, the feds stand to pocket $175 billion in profit from students over the next decade. As Ogden Nash once remarked: "Professional men, they have no cares/Whatever happens, they get theirs":

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/25/student-loan-rates-will-feed-fed-profits/2696241/

5. Read My Lips, Bud, The Needle Hasn't Moved A Millimeter Around Here: As of 2009, an estimated 50.0 million nonelderly Americans lacked health insurance. According to the Employee Benefit Institute, the figure represents about 18.9 percent of the populace. Except for dips in 2004 and 2007, the number and percentage of the uninsured ranks has continued to climb, making the Clinton-to-Bush-era transitional low point (15.6 percent, in 2000) seem awfully quaint, indeed. You can find additional interesting information about this topic here:

http://www.ebri.org/publications/benfaq/index.cfm?fa=hlthfaq10

What you see is what you get 

You've made your bed, you better lie in it 

You choose your leaders and place your trust 

As their lies wash you down and their promises rust 

You'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns 

And the public wants what the public gets 

But I don't get what this society wants 

I'm going underground, (going underground) 

Released in March 1980, "Going Underground" marked the first of three instant chart-toppers for the Jam, and still stands up as one of the most potent blasts of social commentary that Paul Weller ever unleashed.  What kind of society, no matter how prosperous, allows the scenario of "kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns" to occur, again and again?  In short, this song is all about prosperity versus priorities, with the average person falling considerably short of the finish line -- then, and now.

For yours truly, "Going Underground" became one of the handiest songs to blow off some steam, and a marker of hope that -- some day, somehow, somewhere -- the majority (whoever they were) would finally wake up, and shake the cobwebs off their brains...once the hangover of failing to get rich quick set in.  That never happened, of course.

As even many conventional Democrats are loath to admit, the Clinton era set dizzying new standards for go-go finance that would have made Reagan-era fixtures like junk bond king Michael Milken -- or his silver screen counterpart, Gordon Gekko -- wet their knickers with joy. Realpolitik, in it all its grimy, joyless variations, was the order of the day.

Whenever anyone dared to ask, "Isn't all this go-go business gospel getting slightly out of hand?", they'd hear the Status Quo Police respond: "Shut up! As long as we can print more money, it shouldn't be a problem." Other times, you might hear something like this: "Shut up! For most folks, debt's a way of life now. As long as they can buy their latest toys on credit, it shouldn't be a problem."

One common denominator ties all these statistics together: they represent snapshots of the choices that American society -- at its leanest, meanest, most mindlessly Darwinistic, and socially regressive -- forces citizens to make on a constant basis, whether it's food versus medicine, or child care versus earning a living wage...and so on, and so on, and so on.

This is a situation that makes no bones about community, with no other ethic laid out on the table beyond survival of the fittest. How the average person navigates this dog-eat-dog maze, of course, is strictly up to them...but, as these figures suggest, they're continuing to lose the battle...and don't even think about attempting to win the war.  --The Reckoner