1/2 of people in the US now Poor or Low-Income!

Unemployment Realities - 12/05/11

Last weeks news reported that employment in the US is lower. There are problems with this report. One is that there is an under-count in unemployment and also poverty.

The under-counts are in groups such as Chicanas and Chicanos, African Americans, Native Americans, and others. Elders are also under-counted. Importantly youth are under-counted. All of these people can be considered invisible Americans.

One thing that we don't talk about in the US is the health impact of unemployment. Being laid off is unhealthy, being under-employed is unhealthy, and being unemployed for a long time is unhealthy. Being a young person without work for a long time is also unhealthy. In England, Sir Marmot calls is a public health crisis.

Unemployment Kills

It has been known since the 1800s. Yet we allow government and corporations to promote the idea that there is a need for unemployment, that it - like poverty - is inevitable. Neither poverty nor unemployment is a natural phenomenon. They are created by policies and actions of those in power.

In the US we talk about nearing a 10% unemployment without talking about the people who have been hidden. In the 1980s President Reagan took out the "discouraged worker" (those who have given up looking for work) from the number of unemployed. Some estimates are that these workers are another 10%. So in reality close to 1 in 5 workers is unemployed.

That is why full employment policies are good for health. Full employment policies are good for families. And Full employment policies are good for the economy.

It is working people who drive the economy. They don't make enough to hoard money away like the rich, so their income goes into products and services that keep people working. That's a reality that our corporate news doesn't promote. Unemployment kills - literally.

American Dream?

There are many ideas about how the United States is doing. One important sample is the idea of the "American Dream." Apparently it is on the decline. Many people have felt that they never had a real chance at the American Dream - now others are catching up to that unfortunate reality.

Immigration Reform 5/12/10

If we want real comprehensive immigration reform we'd have to deal with:

Repealing NAFTA;

Closing down employers who hire people illegally;

Promoting that other countries enforce strong labor standards and protections;

Deal with universal medical and social services;

Eliminate exemptions for minimum wage in farm work and domestic services;

Ensure a living wage;

Create a rational pathway for citizenship;

and deal with racism in a very real way as a country!

Employee Free Choice Act Poll Results

This poll shows that people in the US are behind the Employee Free Choice Act.

Improving Health (3/17/09)

There are places where social inequalities have been reduced and the health of the population improved. Two of these regions have been studied extensively because they are a region within a country and not the entire country. Mostly showing how inequality reduction supports public health.

These areas are the state of Kerala India and the northeastern regions of Italy. Over the last 40 or so years these areas have improved the health of the population and reduced social inequalities for their regions. What they have in common? They have parties that intentionally implement policies of equity.

Because we often have such a negative view of parties and politicians in the US we lose sight of this. This is not to say that the corporate friendly parties that we have in charge don't disappoint. In fact, in almost all countries people's expectations of parties and politicians lead to a lack of engagement.

Political parties are important because they the policies they implement when in government determine the level of equalities and inequalities in a society and relates to the health of the population as a whole. If you look at the social democratic countries (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Austria) the labor movements and their related parties have been very strong.

What does this look like? Social democratic parties are in power at least half the time. The percentage of people in unions is about 60-80%. In the US? About 13% Social security expenditures are high, taxes are higher, public employment in health, education, and welfare are higher. And importantly women's participation in the workforce are higher.

Besides the fact that it pays to be union, parties can make a difference as well. Worker oriented parties also work at full-employment policies. This leads to lower unemployment. Universal social policies. Things like universal health care, paid time off for all workers, and childcare available for all families. These fit together very well also.

One quick example. For universal health care to work there would need to be an increase in health care workers. This would require increasing support for education to build the work force needed. And that requires more teachers to train the work force. By expanding the work force in a wide variety of ways more people are employed in general and also more women.

There is so much more. But really quickly let's look at the reasons for inequalities in a country. Three major areas of policy are involved. One is the amount of money that goes to capital versus labor. Even our stimulus has gone mainly to corporations and focused on credit versus wages. A second the wage disparities within the labor force. Again worker friendly governments have the lowest wage disparities within the work force. The distributive effect of state interventions. Changes in disposable income as a result of taxation system.

We can easily see in the US that these three policies which work in "corporate friendly" countries are most corporate friendly here. How can we change this? Only through a lot of hard work done by all of us. We have to take the caring we have and the responsibilities that come with it to form a strong stand for the entire population. Our government has been serving mainly the top 5% for a long time.

Working together we can change that. Working together can make the incremental changes that will lead toward strong communities. We can have freedom from want, freedom from intrusion, and freedom to thrive by taking a strong and caring stand together!

Cheap Labor Trap (12/04/08)

There is a myth of economic freedom in this country. One important thing to ask ourselves is "who is left out of this story?" The conservative economic freedom story leaves out about 45 million people. Who are they?

Conservative myth telling leaves out the forty-five million people working hard for a living but cannot afford health care. People who are too old or sick to work are left out. The millions of working class people whose wages have not gone up over the last thirty years while prices have risen, while profits go to stockholders, and while CEOs get paid more and more each year!

We need those jobs done - picking fruit and vegetables, flipping burgers, day laborers in construction - those jobs that are absolutely necessary to our current lifestyles. Let's include Educational Assistants, Child Care workers, and school food service employees - it shows how little we care about children. These people are left out of the myth and they are caught in a cheap labor trap.

Their trap is to hold up all of our lifestyles. A living wage would help, but we need more than that. Imagine if all of the employees without health care went on strike?

The beginning of the solution is to develop labor policies, health care policies, business and tax policies from the moral principle of fairness.

Yes, better wages is key - people deserve fair compensation for work done. Our current market is unfair in this area. It is time for working people to be fairly compensated for the profits that they bring to employers.

Regardless of the imperfections of the early USA there are important principles to build from. It is very wise to collect our common wealth for the common good in order to provide the infrastructure that everyone can access for their fulfillment. That's the positive of taxes. Without taxes we don't have highways, the Internet, public education, parks, and so much more. Without a common wealth there is no common good.

We need policies that hold up our highest ideals, our moral responsibilities for freedom. If you work for a living, you should earn a living. Work is a contribution to society at large, and fair compensation is the right thing to do. The cheap labor trap is immoral and we need to eliminate it.

We need a quality educational system that serves ALL children. We need to end and reverse the huge transfers of wealth from ordinary taxpayers to the rich. We need to create expectations for ethical business. Corporations impose themselves in ways similar to governments, we need to make them accountable to the public well being.

All institutions that govern our lives should be accountable to the people. Privatization removes the accountability - the same as "taxation without representation." The civil justice system needs to be protected in order for it to protect the people. Public education and the diversity of Albuquerque are what will be the great engine of wealth - if we remove the barriers. Markets are not "natural" and we need to ensure that they serve the public good.

This will be the transformation necessary to turn around the economy and many of the problems we've been dealing with for decades, and in some cases centuries. We are all in this together and all of us working together will make the biggest difference.