Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans Have High Unemployment Rates
From the article—
“The economic downturn is hitting Iraq and Afghanistan veterans harder than other workers — one in nine are now out of work — and may be encouraging some troops to remain in the service, according to Labor Department records and military officials.
The 11.2% jobless rate for veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and who are 18 and older rose 4 percentage points in the past year. That’s significantly higher than the corresponding 8.8% rate for non-veterans in the same age group, says Labor Department economist Jim Walker.”
This high unemployment is the thanks we offer as a nation for the service these veterans have offered.
Whether it be children, old folks, or veterans, the widespread expression of public sentiment in our society for any group of people is often the kiss of death.
We often despise people who remind us of our potential weakness as individuals and who remind us of our obligations to others.
Reading About The Panic Of 1873 In Front Of The Enron Building
This video is called Reading About The Panic of 1873 While In Front Of The Former Enron Building. It is the second video on the blog. This video is about three minutes long.
Please click here to see the first video on this blog.
I view the ability for average person to make a video as an updated kind of folk art. Here are various definitions of folk art. One idea of folk art is people without any artistic training creating something with the tools they have at hand.
All people are able to express themselves in some creative way.
Here is information about the impact of the Panic of 1873 in New York. This article discusses what the 1873 crisis had in common with the current economic distress.
There were issues of banks and credit and greedy speculation.
Here is a good essay about the impact of the Panic of 1873 in Illinois.
Here is the Panic of 1873 for kids from PBS.
The book I read from in the video is The Age of Lincoln by Orville Burton.
Here is a chronology of Enron events from USA Today.
Here are a series of articles about Enron from the Houston Chronicle.
Here is a history of Enron from the Canadian Broadcasting Company.
In the video, the sun is partially on my big head while the other portion of my head is in shadow. This makes my head somewhat like this drawing of the Earth—Part light and part dark. Here is an explanation of daylight. Here is an explanation of night time on the Earth.
Thanks for reading Texas Liberal. Please feel free to offer a comment. If you like the blog, please forward the link. A blog grows one reader at a time.
Recession Is Like A Hurricane That Goes On For Months And Has No Evacuation Route
More jobs cuts today. It seems that big job cuts take place every day.
This recession is like hurricane that goes on day after day and month after month. There is no evacuation route. You can’t just stock up on food and water and wait for it to pass.
What will be left after it passes? It is hard to imagine at this point that the damage will not be significant.
In Support Of Loans For The American Auto Industry
I support the extension of loans by the United States government to help save the American auto industry. What the auto companies are looking for are loans and not handouts.
The United Auto Workers union has agreed to major concessions to help the big three car makers and to help gain approval in Congress to pass the loan package.
Republicans in Congress would love to see the UAW go away as payback for its support of Democratic candidates. Revenge is not a suitable justification for endangering the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people.
One poll suggests the American people are currently opposed to what is being termed–incorrectly–as a “bailout.”
One can understand the fatigue with government money for private concerns. But where are we going to work in this country? How are we going to live? Where are decent jobs going to be found?
I think most people understand–on some level they understand–that what is at issue in this current economic downturn is not simply “when will it end” or “how will I get by for the next few months.”
Rather, the issue is that when the recession has passed as determined by the so-called economic experts, will we as individuals, as families, as members of a community, have viable economic futures? What jobs will be left with salaries and benefits able to sustain us?
I’m not going to oppose this loan package because of private jets, or political calculations, or pointless resentment over what UAW workers are earning. Instead, I’m going to support the future well-being of American workers.
By advocating for other working people, we are advocating for ourselves. By supporting this temporary assistance to the American Auto industry, we are backing the long term economic prospects of all Americans.
Robert Reich’s Views On The Economy & Income Inequailty
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich recently wrote an opinion column in the New York Times about the current recession. He said Americans have over the last three decades sent women into the work place, worked longer hours and borrowed against their homes to make up for an ongoing decline in wages and buying power.
Mr. Reich suggests that this has all finally caught up with us and that steps must be taken now to address permanent declines in wages and purchasing power.
Here is Mr. Reich’s home page.
Mr. Reich proposes changes in the tax code to assist moderate and low income Americans, stronger unions, and better education as possible solutions to these problems.
Here as some excerpts from the column. You can click the link at the top for the full piece—
WE’RE sliding into recession… and Washington is turning to the normal remedies for economic downturns. But the normal remedies are not likely to work this time, because this isn’t a normal downturn.
The problem lies deeper. It is the culmination of three decades during which American consumers have spent beyond their means….
The only lasting remedy, other than for Americans to accept a lower standard of living…, is to give middle- and lower-income Americans more buying power…..
Much of the current debate is irrelevant. Even with more tax breaks for business… companies won’t invest in more factories or equipment when demand is dropping ….temporary fixes like a stimulus package that would give households a one-time cash infusion won’t get consumers back to the malls, because consumers know the assistance is temporary. The problems most consumers face are permanent…
The underlying problem has been building for decades. America’s median hourly wage is barely higher than it was 35 years ago, adjusted for inflation. … Most of what’s been earned in America since then has gone to the richest 5 percent.
The problem has been masked for years as middle- and lower-income Americans found ways to live beyond their paychecks. But now they have run out of ways.
The first way was to send more women into paid work. Most women streamed into the work force in the 1970s less because new professional opportunities opened up to them than because they had to prop up family incomes.
So Americans turned to a second way of spending beyond their hourly wages. They worked more hours…
But there’s.. a limit to how many hours Americans can put into work, so Americans turned to a third way of spending beyond their wages. They began to borrow….they turned their homes into piggy banks by refinancing home mortgages and taking out home-equity loans…. .
The binge seems to be over. We’re finally reaping the whirlwind of widening inequality and ever more concentrated wealth.
The only way to keep the economy going over the long run is to increase the wages of the bottom two-thirds of Americans. The answer is not to protect jobs through trade protection. That would only drive up the prices of everything purchased from abroad. Most routine jobs are being automated anyway.
A larger earned-income tax credit, financed by a higher marginal income tax on top earners, is required. The tax credit functions like a reverse income tax. Enlarging it would mean giving workers at the bottom a bigger wage supplement, as well as phasing it out at a higher wage.
We also need stronger unions, especially in the local service sector that’s sheltered from global competition. Employees should be able to form a union without the current protracted certification process that gives employers too much opportunity to intimidate or coerce them.
Over the longer term, inequality can be reversed only through better schools for children in lower- and moderate-income communities. This will require, at the least, good preschools, fewer students per classroom and better pay for teachers in such schools, in order to attract the teaching talent these students need.
These measures are necessary to give Americans enough buying power to keep the American economy going. They are also needed to overcome widening inequality, and thereby keep America in one piece.