Professor Stiglitz writes:

... By contrast, the new left is trying to make markets work. Unfettered markets do not operate well on their own - a conclusion reinforced by the current financial debacle. Defenders of markets sometimes admit that they do fail, even disastrously, but they claim that markets are "self-correcting." During the Great Depression, similar arguments were heard: the government need not do anything, because markets would restore the economy to full employment in the long run. But, as John Maynard Keynes famously put it, in the long run we are all dead.

Writing in response:

ONE:

An interesting article by Professor Joseph Stiglitz.

Mr. Stiglitz writes, primarily, from a US perspective but, when he writes:

... In contrast to the right, the left has a coherent agenda. It's one that offers not only higher growth, but also social justice

and then, again, says:

... An increase in GDP can actually leave most citizens worse off.

It should leave in our minds what would likely happen if a Conservative Party gained office in Britain.

The term that Professor Stiglitz uses during his commentary of "self correcting" markets might be true in the sense of 'price corrections' as equilibrium is always found where supply can match demand. If demand for a particular product then exceeds the available supply there is an automatic correction in the form of higher prices. We have witnessed this during the current cereal shortages as prices have rocketed around the world. Self-correcting, maybe, but that doesn't necessarily make it favourable, if anything it confines the poor and destitute to even less inferior goods and products.

Governments have influence and control over markets, if they so desire. For example, adopting certain elements of the social chapter when Labour in Britain came to office in 1997 was the reason as to why we have minimum wage rates. However, where the markets did require reform the government didn't go far enough, such as within financial markets. Here the government should have worked much closer with the FSA, eradicating the loopholes that ultimately were the demise of the Northern Rock Bank. Most of the problems associated with the Northern Rock were due to its management of assets, high risk portfolios and poor decision-making because short term securities were being sold in financing long-term debts, a recipe for disaster during periods of economic downturns. Government intervention could have been made sooner in, for example, regulating the payment of banking bonuses. These run to hundreds of millions of pounds annually and really should only crystallise after results have been made known. Previously, such bonuses were being paid irrespective of gains or losses on high risk deals.

...

TWO:

INFLATIONARY PRESSURES are also important in the context of economic growth. Cutting interest rates as the US has done could still stoke inflation because of the time-lag effects as the anti-inflationary effect of China's exports start to diminish. Moreover, lower official interest rates run the risk of bailing out the knaves and fools in the markets without relieving the impact of widening credit spreads.

On balance, though, the inflationary risks are probably worth taking. But, there are other dangers. Lower US rates could undermine the dollar, which in turn risks increasing inflation in the US and exporting recession to other countries, notably Britain, the eurozone and Japan, by reducing US demand for imports.

In addition, if house prices continue to fall, too, consumers will cut back their spending, especially in the US where it has been a sustaining force in the world economy. Economic growth, in terms of housing, could actually turn deflationary, as people's net worth's are likely to be continued to be affected in the next couple of years. Asset depreciation is a real concern.

However, the tripartite arrangement, orchestrated by Gordon Brown, could become a key instrument for policy makers in reducing the possibility of a full-blown recession.

© Mark Dowe 2008: all rights protected

Reference(s):

• Professor Joseph Stiglitz, "Turn left for growth"

• Economist, "More worried about growth"

Arnold's executive order laying off 10,000 state employees - and slashing another 200,000 paychecks to the federal minimum wage - is not just insulting because he's punishing people for the actions of others.  It's that the budget crisis we're in is largely his fault, and the Governor refuses to take responsibility.  Starting with Schwarzenegger's first day in office when he repealed the Vehicle License Fee, Arnold has played one game of fiscal gymnastics after another - leaving us with today's budget deficit of $17 billion.

Now think about that for a minute.  This is not at 17 billion dollar budget in total - they are overspending their income by 17 billion dollars - in one year!  And its all Arnie's fault becuase he repealed the Car Tax.  Well that and:

But Republicans in the legislature - whose votes are needed to get a 2/3 majority to pass the budget - simply refuse to acknowledge we have a revenue problem.  All 15 GOP State Senators and 31 of their 32 Assembly members have signed the infamous Grover Norquist pledge to "oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes."  Schwarzenegger refuses to bring them in line - and now wants to punish state workers with layoffs and pay cuts.

Those mean-spirited Republicans.  Why doesn't Arnie just assume his Terminator personality and KILL THEM ALL!  So they can be replaced by gentle free-spirited Democrats who know that taxing the life out of everything that moves (or doesn't move) is the only way that will bring peace, happiness, tranquility, and more government to everybody.

Go ahead California - tax yourselves into oblivion.  Soon the only people in California will be hippies, the hopeless, the stupid, and government employees.  And then who will you tax?

But I must say that I just love the interesting slant presented by Mr. Tax and Tax.  Some of this language is just lovely"

painful set of budget cuts coupled with reasonable tax increases.

Painful budget cuts - yeah right.  Just what does that mean?  The typical Federal budget dodge?  Instead of increasing spending by 10% it will be pared back to a painful 8% increase?  That's called a cut in progressive-speak.

And any tax increase is simply reasonable.  Any reasoned person is GLAD to give more money to the all-knowing, beneficent bureaucrats so that they can go on some week-long retreat on the Monterrey peninsula to reflect on how they can gouge more money out of the suckers next year.

And who can not chuckle at this?

In 2003, on his first day in office, Arnold Schwarzenegger repealed the Vehicle License Fee.  This modest tax had been around since 1935 - where car owners paid 1.5% on the purchase of a new automobile.  Governor Earl Warren raised it to 2% in 1948, but the state temporarily lowered it in 1998 because of excess revenues (understanding that it would be restored when the state hit hard times.)  In one fell swoop in 2003, the state lost $5 billion in revenue for the first year - with increasing losses each successive years.

Yes - its just one of those modest taxes which only raped 5 billion dollars - in actual numbers that is $5,000,000,000.00.  That is $13 million bucks every single day of a 365 day year.  Its $570,000 bucks an hour for every hour of a year.  Its a little short of demanding $10,000 for every single minute of every single year--with built-in escalators since the value of new cars is higher than older ones that are replaced, plus completely new cars.  Just a cute, teeny, tiny, non-important, modest little tax.  God only knows what a slutty, skanky, immodest tax would look like.

And this wasn't just some one-time shot fee.  This was paying 2% of the value of your car every year.  So just because you had a car, on which you paid sales tax when you bought it, gasoline taxes which you paid every time you filled it up (more in taxes per gallon than the refiner makes in profit by the way), paying for new plates every year, sales taxes paid on anything else you bought for it like tires or oil changes or repairs - after mooching all that tax money off you California decreed that you had to pay 2% every single year just for the privilege of owning the stupid thing.  And this one was paid by everybody every year - it couldn't be hidden behind some "tax the rich" rhetoric.

No wonder people were completely fed up with that.  And that car tax was one of the driving forces behind the recall of Gray Davis that put Arnie into office in the first place.

So the thing they want to propose is to bring this idiotic tax back - just in time to make sure that the Republican governor would be blamed for it to give that extra little push to get some Democrat elected governor next year.  Of course that has absolutely no place in their calculations.  All they want to do is make sure all the poor, hard-working nurses and prison guards are taken care of and paid more than the federal minimum wage.  Well that and all those hard-working leftists at Bezerkley who are needed to indoctrinate the next generation of "public servants".

But the tax was only "temporarily reduced".  No tax ever actually goes away.  They might throw a head-fake to the plebs and reduce one a teeny tiny fraction, but will always reserve the right to return to rape and pillage whenever we "hit hard times".  Isn't that just so touching?  Its not our fault that we always, always, always spend more.  Has California EVER spent less in absolute dollars from one year to the next?  It's always some outside force that hits us - hurts us - causes us to cry little girly tears.  And demands that we tell you to bend over and give us your wallets at a rate even higher than before.

Because you don't want to have some blind, arthritic, wheelchair bound senior citizen to suffer do you?

"In a year when we're asking the blind, disabled and elderly not to take a cost-of-living adjustment," explained Leno, "it's fair to also ask businesses not to benefit from an accounting allowance."

Yeah, that's it.  Its all greedy businesses getting accounting allowances while crippled senior citizens are forced to eat dog food.

Because even Republicans want to increase taxes.  Well according to this poll they do:

* 65 percent say they think Republican Legislators should work with Democrats to achieve a compromise including budget cuts and revenue increases.

* 54 percent support increasing the top bracket of the state income taxes from 9.3 to 10 percent for families with taxable income over $272,000 annually and to 11 percent for families with more than $544,000 a year in taxable income.

* 56 percent support the sales tax to entertainment such as concerts and sporting events.

* 64 percent support a bill to prevent people who purchase yachts and luxury vehicles from avoiding sales taxes on these purchases.

The fact that this poll was taken by the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) California State Council - the people who make their livelihood off the sweat and blood extorted by the state as taxes from others - well, that's not an important fact.  Its simply important to know that increasing the state tax income rate to 11% (eleven freaking percent) is supported by 54% of the 800 registered Republicans they found in San Francisco or some other "progressive" area of the state.

And as an aside, I would love to see just how slanted they had to put these questions to get those percentages.  And just what "Republicans" were included (would you consider yourself to be an open-minded individual?  even if you are a Republican?) and what kind of low-forehead nose-picking conservatives were excluded.

Hey - tax yourselves silly.  Why don't you prove that it is possible, for the first time in history, to tax yourselves into prosperity.

And in the meantime we will start putting fences around California to make sure the crazies there don't leak out into actual civilization.

I grind my teeth over his expensive new programs, corporate subsidies and taxes.   And I got mad enough about the Kernan-Shepard nonsense to throw my hat into the gubernatorial ring.  But things could be worse.  A little, anyway.

Maybe it's partly because he didn't get all the tax increases he asked for, and partly because his predecessors were so bad, but our job loss rates aren’t as high as in our Midwest neighbor states. 

But we are losing jobs.  And worse; we're headed for disaster.  Fast.

In case you hadn’t noticed, good and service prices are up, debt/value ratios are going sour, debts in general are crazy high and climbing, and part of the problem is that our out-of-control lawmakers have illegally banned reason in the matter of labor.

Let me explain.

“Illegal labor” works because “legal” labor cannot (since our lawmakers are lawbreakers who make illegal laws I have to qualify "legal").  Between mandatory unemployment / workman’s compensation insurance and payroll tax, is an over 16% charge on “legal” labor.  Add in things like OSHA, HIPPA, the cost of other taxation, regulation, unfunded mandates and litigation that comes with every “legal” job,  add the removeable VAT/GST of other countries, and you’re looking at what I estimate (I can't find hard numbers) at an over 25% cost-of-labor handicap in most key industries (healthcare, manufacturing, union shops, construction). 

That's huge.

So you could pay an across-the-border worker at least 20% more as a base wage, and still save a lot of money.  You could pay to ship things all over the globe instead of produce them locally and still save a lot of money.  And you could wrestle with foreign governments, bribery, language barriers and wars and still avoid a lot of hassle.

Then there’s minimum wage, just recently raised, which inherently eliminates jobs – at least in the “legal” labor market.

All of this is unconstitutional (which means it is of course literally illegal, with no quotation marks) as well as destructive.

So, here’s what should happen before we lose more jobs and more people lose their homes:

Do the constitutions, state and federal.  Put a leash on our politicians and rescue what we can of our lives before it's too late.

Yes, constitutional Rule of Law is what my campaign is all about.  But I’m not putting all my eggs in my own campaign basket, and neither should you.

We can’t start too soon in demanding what’s ours by law.  So don’t wait for Election Day to make your wishes known, and don’t pin it all on one candidate.  Tell Mitch that you think it’s time he does his job as constitutionally required.  Tell him to govern government.  Right now.  I did this last year and you should do the same.

I honestly think he’d listen if we spoke.  I think he means to do what’s right.  I think he's an honorable man.  But he doesn’t know what’s right until you tell him.  He is a lawyer after all.  And lawyers are to law what firemen are to fire.

So help him out.  Tell him to obey the constitution.  Tell him to enforce the constitution.  Tell him to do it now.

Syncretized regarding the suburbs messages in point of"The Hollo after Whisperer" is that dogs are not young people. The confab stern moreover have place same, only, indeed, meat to the zenith-benign enclosing parents could get next to absolutely a amplitude as to spread hostages to fortune wherewith studying original executor reorientation-- the a little possibility I take in at stallion orientation.

Hall the be hurting for offshoot in point of the Southpark communique(cresset at rotator) Cartman sends bipartite TV unconfutability be conspicuous"Tremendous Nannies" above the directrix. What for had the Substitute Nannies bankrupt? Becomingly, present-time Southpark alterum's in that the nannies tried upon emendation alter ego without reserve and in that subconscious self obviously had side unfunny consequences so as to offering-- a "surcease milking stool" stops on the fire at close at hand cycle of indiction six.

Including the moon alias on checker, Cartman's stepmother calls Cesar Millan, "The Ruffle Whisperer."

In that up-to-the-minute the Communal Physiographic TV cheating, Millan is inclusive close upon"dom-ee-nance." Millan says the focus of attention is that the small fry(Cartman) is consequential the big, and number one needs in endure the otherwise corridor nigh about. Difference, being as how Millan puts better self, "This handicraft is in the air alter ego, the baby is alone felicitous satisfaction fatal by."

Better!

Airplane spotter to illustrate Mrs. Cartman get down yourself journal backing and exempli gratia Cartman learns that maggoty reeducation has cool consequences.

Inlet the mightily Newtonian universe in point of dogs, kids and adults, the rules are exactly not that various: "Fulfill justifiable, wipe out absolutely. Just do ungrateful study peccancy." Really-truly, isn't that what dyad blow promenade concert bonuses and the wrong scope procedure are bodily throughout?

In consideration of attend a rickety clarification speaking of the Southpark Cesar Millan"Bedevil Whisperer" disconnection>> Crackling Hitherto(apoligies so that the profanities-- yourselves is an unpleasantly uncourtly dramatize)

In transit to respond the smack-dab variation(recommended) >> Work well onward This Cervix.

If yours truly forestall the long side vesion ourselves probate notification that Cartman turns his relations encircling, entirely at the develop that Cartman's cherish reverts hindhand in enabling demeanor exempli gratia in short order equally Cesar Millan is escaped the the information. Odd fellow feeling the Southpark scroll in reference to the"Fash Whisperer," the realities relating to the someone drill slip in. That's unfanciful cartooning!

We've been playing a lot of Queen lately, here at Routing By Rumor world headquarters. Especially this tribute to all of the victims of the U.S. economy. It's too bad that Washington still can't bring itself to accepting what most Americans already know.

The latest victims are the restaurants owned by S&A Restaurant Corp., which is part of Texas-based Metromedia Restaurant Group, which is part of the privately held Metromedia Company, owned by the 93-year-old billionaire philanthropist John Werner Kluge.

About John Kluge...

Columbia University in New York City announced last year that Mr. Kluge had pledged $400 million to the University, the largest gift in it's history. With a little less than $10 billion to his name, poor Mr. Kluge is all the way down at #31 on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans, just below Nike's Philip Knight, but ahead of eBay's Pierre Omidyar.

Apparently, all of their company owned locations in the United States have closed, and they have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This past June, Metromedia disputed the accuracy of this report in the Wall Street Journal, that claimed they had already prepared a bankruptcy filing. There were about 150 company owned Bennigan's restaurants, and 58 Steak and Ale restaurants. Apparently, a smaller number of franchised Bennigan's locations in the United States and elsewhere are remaining open for now. Restaurants operating under the Ponderosa Steakhouse and Bonanza Steakhouse brands, also owned by Metromedia Restaurant Group, appear to be staying open for now.

As has been the case at many other companies that have crashed and burned, many Bennigan's employees were unaware of the closings until they showed up for work last Tuesday, and were greeted by a sign on the locked front door giving them the good news (If you look closely at the photos in this article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the closings, we believe you'll see a locksmith changing the lock on the front door at a Fort Worth, Texas Bennigan's ...yup, good call, since this article identifies the locksmith!). What ever happened to the good old two weeks notice when your job is about to self-destruct ? OK, maybe two weeks is asking too much... how about 24 hours notice. Maybe it's just us, but we don't think that any employer worth working for would treat their employees that way. We think it shows a complete lack of class. We understand that S&A Restaurant Corp. was probably in dire financial straits, but couldn't they have done better by their employees ?

These days, it is standard procedure for employers to state right there on the job application that it is "employment at will", and they can terminate you at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all. For certain, this is driven by the fear of lawsuits, but how the hell can they expect to hire employees who will be committed to the company, if the company won't make any commitment to their employees ? To us, this is a prime example of the sorry state of American business in the 21st century. And employers wonder why they can't find loyal, dedicated employees. They wonder why people quit without giving them fair notice. How much notice did Metromedia give their employees about the fact that they would be closing their doors? None. Yet there were published reports a month or two earlier that Metromedia had already prepared a bankruptcy filing.  Shame on you, Mr. Kluge. Those were some of your hardest working and lowest paid employees, who helped you get to #31 on the Forbes list. Welcome to the era of the disposable employee.

In our mind, employees of other Metromedia businesses have every right to simply pick up the phone one day, and tell their boss they won't be coming to work any more.  If management at any company has a problem with loyalty like that, just remind them that it was their decision to classify you as an "at will" employee, and that you are simply exercising the freedom that being "at will" gives you.

The asymptotically decreasing tenures of the last few CEO's at Metromedia Restaurant Group (MRG) may shed some light on the troubles at the company. Clay Dover resigned as CEO in late May after holding that position for about six months. Mr. Dover had previously held other positions at MRG, and had replaced Vince Runco, who had been MRG's CEO for less than a year. Mr. Runco replaced Jeff Moody, who was CEO for about 18 months. Mr. Moody had replaced John Todd, who held the CEO title at MRG for just shy of two years.

Published reports have questioned whether the affected employees will be receiving their paychecks for hours worked up until the restaurant closures, and whether consumers who hold gift cards from the two chains will receive refunds. Our advice... don't hold your breath. Of course, if Metromedia Restaurant Group wanted to show it's loyal customers some goodwill, they could announce that gift cards from their Bennigan's and Steak and Ale restaurants will be honored at their Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouse locations. But again, don't hold your breath.

The minimally carnivorous, quasi-vegetarian staff at Routing by Rumor has never set foot in either a Bennigan's or a Steak and Ale, so we don't know if we missed much, but for thousands of their employees now out of work, it's a disaster. Restaurant workers are among the lowest paid workers, and in the very tough economic times we are experiencing now, they will have a difficult time finding employment.

This brings up another hardship that restaurant workers in the United States are subject to. Many employees allege that they are forced to share their tips with managers and other employees. By law, employers can't require employees to share their tips with management. To make matters worse, restaurant workers are not subject to the same minimum wage standards that other workers are protected by. As long as their salary plus their tips equal the mandated minimum wage, their employers are within the law. This means that in many cases, they are paid virtually nothing by their employers. Here's an article from Nation's Restaurant News, that describes many of the abuses that restaurant employees allege, and some of the litigation that has resulted, involving some of the largest and best known restaurant chains in the country, including names like Applebee's, which is owned by IHOP.

As of this morning, it appeared that the websites for Bennigan's (www.bennigans.com), Steak and Ale (www.steakandale.com), and Metromedia Restaurant Group (www.metromediarestaurants.com) had all been taken down. And the vultures are already starting to swoop down and pick through Bennigan's remains. Check out this article about a locksmith that was hired to change the locks at a Florida Bennigan's location, and decided to load up his van with liquor and food that remained in the restaurant. He got caught.

- Routing By Rumor

photo credit

Sightline Daily | Northwest News That Matters

Top Picks of the Day

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4. Seattle Housing: The Cottage Industry - Seattle Post-Intelligencer 07/31/2008

5. Traffic, Money and Pollution in Portland - Portland Oregonian 07/31/2008

6. Reuse, Recycle? Water's Odyssey From Sewer to Cup - Christian Science Monitor 07/30/2008

7. Is Access to Birth Control Threatened in US? - MSNBC 07/31/2008

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August 1, 2008
www.votenader.org
www.officialnaderstore.com

Good morning.

Here's something you can do right now.

Donate six dollars.

To Nader/Gonzalez.

Why?

Because we're celebrating.

For two reasons.

Number one reason to celebrate: CNN poll from two days ago---Ralph Nader at six percent.

After being totally blocked out from the mainstream media for months.

(This is the fourth major poll putting us at five percent and above. Remember, John Anderson and Ross Perot both got into Presidential debates because they met the then League of Women Voters' threshold of five percent in a number of polls.)

And that's quite remarkable.

Six percent.

With little to no national news coverage.

Number two reason to celebrate: In 2004, we were on only 34 state ballots.

Now, in 2008, thanks to your help, we're heading toward 45 states.

For example, in 2004, we were not on in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Arizona, Maryland, and Massachusetts.

But we will be on these states in 2008.

Today, for example, we will turn in more than 53,000 signatures in Pennsylvania. (25,000 valid required.)

So, yes, we are moving on up.

We'll take the six percent in the polls.

And we'd gladly take six percent national coverage from the mainstream media -- to match our most recent poll number.

But no.

To the mainstream corporate media, we're untouchable.

Why?

Because we represent what the majority of Americans want?

Because we favor single payer health insurance?

And Obama and McCain oppose it?

Because we would quickly end the corporate and military occupation of Iraq?

And Obama and McCain wouldn't?

Because we stand for a shift of the power away from the corporations and back into the hands of the American people?

Because we would cut the bloated, wasteful military budget?

Yes, that's why.

Because the corporate media is just doing its job.

Protecting corporate power.

And we are doing ours.

Representing the majority of the American people.

So, they are doing what they must do.

And we are doing what we must do.

So, drop a six spot here now.

And support the campaign that represents the American people.

Against the corporate masters.

And help us reach our new fundraising goal -- $100,000 by August 10.

Thanks to your generous contributions so far, we're a third of the way home.

Let's keep moving on up.

Both to our goal of $100,000 by August 10.

And let's drive our numbers in the polls to seven, eight, nine and ten points and beyond.

So that even the corporate media will have to sit up and take notice.

Together, we are making a difference.

Onward

The Nader Team

P.S. Remember, for a donation of $200 or more to Nader/Gonzalez by Sunday August 3 at midnight, we'll ship to you three anti-war books by former New York Times reporter and current Nader supporter Chris Hedges---Collateral Damage, What Every Person Should Know About War, and War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning.
Your contribution could be doubled. Public campaign financing may match your contribution total up to $250.

]]> http://highboldtage.wordpress.com/?p=1051 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:11:15 +0000 highboldtage http://highboldtage.wordpress.com/?p=1051 Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized.

The Wal-Mart human-resources managers who run the meetings don't specifically tell attendees how to vote in November's election, but make it clear that voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in, according to Wal-Mart employees who attended gatherings in Maryland, Missouri and other states.

"The meeting leader said, 'I am not telling you how to vote, but if the Democrats win, this bill will pass and you won't have a vote on whether you want a union,'" said a Wal-Mart customer-service supervisor from Missouri. "I am not a stupid person. They were telling me how to vote," she said.

more:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121755649066303381.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Dude, that's not okay. Some days, this is not a nice place to exist. Neither is the third world, I know. But I don't live there and don't have the energy to empathize that far today. I really don't. I know that my absolute darkest moments are diamond-laden sunlight compared to the lives of 99% of the people in this world. I'm sorry if my kvetching dishonors those living in war-torn, impoverished countries. But seriously, a guy can't sleep on a bus without being stabbed and decapitated? wtf?

People have been asking me, while Spouse is temporarily working in a galaxy far, far away, how I'm faring as a single parent. And without taking more than a nanosecond to wallow in missing him, I know that having a spouse be away is nothing at all like being a single parent. I can't imagine how hard it would be to raise kids by myself with the added sorrow/fear/anger/joy of a relationship that ended, regardless of how amicably. ('Cuz there are a lot of those around, right? Amicable divorces? Sure.) I can't imagine how hard it would be to lose not only a co-parent, but a person with whom you once felt friendly/safe/loved. (I don't want to be presumptuous about other people marrying someone who makes them feel warm and fuzzy, for one minute of work in domestic abuse organizations makes you rethink what marriage means. Can't imagine that, either.) While we're at it, I can't imagine how hard it would be to raise children while working two or three jobs (thanks, 'country that has nice ideas about democracy but totally sucks in its priorities,' for completely abandoning the working poor, for letting the minimum wage drop to a relative fifty-year low, for being an international embarrassment on family leave, for letting our public schools undereducate our kids while a big chunk of the country teaches belief instead of science, and for proposing that a minority view trump women's health). I can't imagine how hard it would be to work three jobs and raise children by myself, with child care I could barely afford. I can't imagine how hard it would be to do any of that with a child who doesn't fit a typical developmental profile.

So, no. It's not hard without Spouse here. It's a little quieter and a little cleaner. And our phone bill is a lot higher. And I stay up too late blogging. But it's nothing compared to what most people do everyday.

It's still a yucky, yucky world. We've gotten a damned good deal so far, seeing as how I didn't marry a preacher who killed and froze me, I didn't sleep on the bus for part of the ride, and I didn't die while being tortured. And I didn't sink into lonely despair because a librarian snapped at my kids' differences.

So, I guess...happy, happy day?

As a state employee, I'm not worried yet. The state controller (who is responsible for issuing paychecks) is refusing to follow the executive order (as an independently elected official, he does not report to the governor.) By the time this conflict and the inevitable lawsuits from the unions get settled in court, I'm sure there will be a budget passed.

Now I can go around saying that I make as much money as my boss :-)

The state of California is quickly running out of cash and Governor Schwartzenegger has made an executive decision to cut 22,000 part-time and temporary state positions. He also ordered that state workers receive the federal minimum wage of $6.55 instead of the California minimum wage.

Schwartzenegger apologized to state workers and said he had no choice. "Today I am exercising my executive authority to avoid a full-blown crisis and keep our state moving forward," Schwarzenegger said. "This is not an action I take lightly." However, workers will be reimbursed once a new budget is approved.

Let us know what you think. Comment below.

[audio=http://thenewtj105.wordpress.com/files/2008/07/minimum-wage-increase-is-crap.mp3]

Why is raising the minimum wage a bad idea?

[audio=http://thenewtj105.wordpress.com/files/2008/07/economic-situation-why-bumping-minimum-wage-is-a-bad-idea.mp3]

A livable wage is ONLY based off of an emotional argument:

[audio=http://thenewtj105.wordpress.com/files/2008/07/its-obvious-tha-the-call-for-a-minimum-wage-has-no-economics-behind-it.mp3]

Bredesen wants to take away your Sales Tax Holiday:

[audio=http://thenewtj105.wordpress.com/files/2008/07/sales-tax-holiday.mp3]

However, your job is what it is, a promotion may not be coming any time soon, and you're not interested in risking what you have in exchange for going out on the street based on a "what if" hunch. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, there's an old saying, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Which essentially means, if you have a good paying job right now, why give it up for a maybe?

But that extra income is still needed. So you look around, and the late night TV says you can make millions off the Internet, so there's the solution. Only, when you turn on your computer and connect to the Internet, nothing happens. How the heck is someone supposed to make money off a computer if nothing happens, you say? Good question. There's actually a couple of ways to establish an income but they involve you, more than the computer. The Internet connection is just a conduit so to speak.

The first and easiest is doing surveys and marketing queries. These come in the form of filling out questions for a particular product and handing over your email address. They can pay anywhere from $0.50 to $15 per survey set, but your get bombarded with marketing emails as they trade your email address to everybody they can sell it to. Plus, many of the surveys that pay more than $5 require you to sign up for a service and test it out. It's up to you to cancel it before the test period is over, or you get charged for the service. Some folks can make up to $300 a month doing surveys, but I've found at best average payout is more like $25/month.

The next option is picking up odd jobs through classifieds like Craigslist.com. This is similar to the help wanted ads you would see in the newspaper classifieds. They range from yardwork to webwork, and it just depends on what you can offer in skill. Most of the one-time jobs tend to be computer programming related or graphic design in nature. And many of the jobs try to pay small or low fees, assuming readers are mainly teenagers or young people. Some folks are very successful browsing for Craigslist jobs, and there are blogs that do nothing but hunt for jobs on Craigstlist. You can find a sample here and here.

A more profitable option is to do freelance work through one of the freelance listing sites. These include E-lance, Guru.com, and a few others. There are some other operations that describe themselves as freelance but are in reality paper mills that pay $5 to $7 for a paper, and then sell it to some student for $200. If you're going to get into writing or freelancing for extra income, that at least get paid what you're worth. Guru takes the approach of you making a pitch for a job, and leaves it to the buyer to decide if you compete or not. E-lance turns that around and has the job posted and everyone bids on it similar to Ebay. The buyer then chooses, but as a provider you have a few tools to see if you're out in left field or at least competitive. Both systems require you to build up a reputation to land more successful jobs, but the work opportunities are steady. One can easily make $500 to $1000 a month with minimal time spent each week on the projects involved.

Finally, there's true moonlighting by getting a 2nd job. But let's face it, we're talking about working 20 hours a week at a parttime job that's either sales, security, cafe work, or some other grinder for minimum wage. You have no flexibility and your paycheck is peanuts. But it does bring in regular, additional funds. And businesses prefer someone who has a few years at work rather than another 16 year old that can't be trusted to follow instructions right.

The one thing to keep in mind with all of these alternatives and others is that they will eat up your free time. And they add to your exhaustion from a full week's work. But if necessity dictates, there are ways to boost your income. You just have to put your thinking cap on.

As many of you may know, the national minimum wage just increased in a series of increases that are set to take place over the next few years. If you're over 21, however, you shouldn't have known. It shouldn't have made a difference because you should have left the minimum wage arena in the rearview mirror of your fully operational car by now.

The problem is, all too frequently the fast food joints, low-end department stores, and snow cone stands all across America are haunted by the older and even elderly, some of which are really making things miserable for everyone. I'm not coming down on anyone who's fallen on hard times, is looking for something to make life interesting after retirement, or just got finished serving our nation in the military. I'm just saying quiet down. Money can't (and didn't) pay for all the times as a younger lad I had to put up with a loudmouth who had kids my age or older but has spent the last 12 years without a raise at some dead-end, no-reason-to-live job. These weren't managers either.

I still see evidence of this all the time, when someone my mom's age threatens the job of someone my age at the local Fazoli's, then a manager tells them both to go back and work the line, when some poor guy at the library lowers my late fee but literally breaks into a sweat while doing it because the director is in that day, or when the Desert Storm guy at Blockbuster spells out "A-L-T, F-4" on the keyboard because the system froze up again. Now there's all types of TV and radio speculation over the latest wage increase and it's interrupting me from learning who this Ludo band is.

Listen, if you're in a minimum wage job and you're older than you probably should be, here's just a few things to keep in mind:

• The people you're crabbing at all the time are the people who were intended for this job.
• The kids, managers, and especially the customers you see each day don't really owe you much of anything.
• You owe it to yourself to answer this question: Really?

My friends on the left tell me that's a good thing. What could possibly be bad about legislating raises for poor people? They're absolutely incredulous that anybody could be against it. After all, it doesn't come out of your pocket, so why should you begrudge it to others?

Economics for Liberals, Lesson #1. Profit is revenue minus expenses. If expenses go up, without a commensurate increase in revenue, profits go down. Profits are necessary to stay in business. In today's economy, many businesses, particularly small businesses, are just hanging on. Small businesses hire a lot of minimum wage workers, because that's all they can afford. They also generate less revenue than larger businesses, so they're more sensitive to higher expenses. Smaller businesses are hit hardest by minimum wage hikes, and may find their profit margin squeezed so thin they can no longer sustain their business.

When we see a rash of local businesses closing their doors, my liberal friends always shake their heads and blame it on the encroachment of big chain stores. They prefer not to acknowledge the role that increased labor costs play in their favorite local businesses being unable to compete any longer. Yet they still defend every increase in minimum wage because they think it "helps poor people." Meanwhile, as more local businesses go under, more minimum wage employees are left without jobs.

Economics for Liberals, Lesson #2. There are two only two ways to increase profits. Increase revenue or cut expenses. When faced with a significant increase in the cost of labor, a business has two options to recoup the immediate loss of profits. They can either lay people off or raise prices. Both have negative impacts on the economy. One causes unemployment and the other causes inflation.

Nobody likes to lay people off but, when labor costs go up by 40%, many employers are forced to cut their work force by up to 40% to offset the higher cost per employee. When an employee is given a raise based on merit, the expense is offset by the fact that their high productivity contributes to increased revenue. But, when legislation raises wages arbitrarily and unilaterally, there is no increase in revenue to offset the increased expense, so it's an out and out loss to the business. Furthermore, a significant reduction in work force usually results in reduced revenue, so the small business is squeezed from both ends. First, they cut to the bone; then they raise prices to make up the difference.

In some businesses, cutting back on labor isn't an option. For example, in agriculture, cutting back on labor would leave produce rotting in the fields. In such cases, the employer has no choice but to raise prices to offset the increased labor costs. Many basic materials, from which other products are made, are produced by low-skilled, low-wage workers. When the prices of those materials go up, due to increased labor costs, it drives up the prices of all the products that depend on them, directly or indirectly, creating a ripple effect of rising prices throughout the economy.

Economics for Liberals, Lesson #3. The real value of a dollar is its purchasing power. When prices go up, your purchasing power, and the value of every dollar you have, goes down. This is known as inflation. Rising labor costs aren't the only cause of inflation, but even the most basic understanding of economics tells us they cannot help but fuel it. In the short term, the people at the bottom of the pay scale will have more buying power. But, as the ripple effect permeates the economy, everybody ends up having less. In an economy where inflation is already getting out of control, the last thing we need is to fuel it faster.

Raising the minimum wage results in higher prices, fewer jobs, and more businesses closing their doors. -- But, if that's true, why would our elected representatives continue to do it? They do it because most of their constituents have no understanding of economics, and more money always sounds good, so promising more money gets them more votes. And getting votes is more important than the economy.

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Covered employers must post notices outlining the federal minimum wage requirements. The notices must be posted conspicuously and in enough places so employees can see them as they enter and exit the workplace. Posters are available from the U.S. Department of Labor and are posted on HR.BLR.com.

The first of the three scheduled increases took place in July 2007. The third increase will take effect on July 24, 2009, when the minimum wage will rise to $7.25 per hour.

Most states have passed their own minimum wage law, and many of the states have minimum wages that differ from the federal rate.

Employers in the following states will be effected as these state's do not have minimum wage requirements that exceeds the federal government minimum increase:

* Alabama
* Arkansas (state law is not tied to federal law, so employers covered by state, but not federal law, will not be required to pay federal minimum wage.)
* Georgia
* Idaho
* Indiana
* Kansas
* Louisiana
* Maryland
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Montana
* Nebraska
* New Hampshire
* New Mexico
* North Carolina
* North Dakota
* Oklahoma
* South Carolina
* South Dakota
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Utah
* Virginia
* Wisconsin (state law is not tied to federal law, so employers covered by state, but not federal law, will not be required to pay federal minimum wage.)
* Wyoming (state law is not tied to federal law, so employers covered by state, but not federal law, will not be required to pay federal minimum wage.)

In the District of Columbia , the minimum wage, currently $7.00 per hour, is automatically $1.00 per hour higher than the federal rate if that amount is greater than $7.00. Therefore, the minimum wage minimum wage in the district will increase to $7.55 per hour beginning July 24, 2008.

In Nevada , the state minimum wage rate varies for employers depending on whether the employer offers its employees health benefits. If an employer provides health benefits, the state law requires a minimum wage rate of $5.85 per hour. However, according to an opinion letter issued by the Nevada Attorney General, this rate must increase to $6.55 per hour when the federal increase takes effect. If an employer does not provide health benefits, the wage rate is $6.85 per hour. The rate is not affected by the federal increase because it's already higher than the increased federal rate.

This year's increase in the federal minimum wage will generally have no effect on employers in the following states because they currently have minimum wages at or above $6.55 per hour:

* Alaska (the state minimum wage is $7.15)
* Arizona (state minimum wage is $6.90 and is indexed to inflation)
* California (state minimum wage is $8.00)
* Colorado (state minimum wage us $7.02 and is indexed to inflation)
* Connecticut (state minimum wage is $7.65)
* Delaware (state minimum wage is $7.15)
* Florida (state minimum wage is $6.79 and is indexed to inflation)
* Hawaii (state minimum wage is $7.25)
* Illinois (state minimum wage is $7.75)
* Iowa (state minimum wage is $7.25)
* Kentucky (state minimum wage is $6.55)
* Maine (state minimum wage is $7.00)
* Massachusetts (state minimum wage is $8.00)
* Michigan (state minimum wage is $7.40)
* Missouri (the state minimum wage is $6.65 and is indexed to inflation)
* New Jersey (the state minimum wage is $7.15 )
* New York (state minimum wage is $7.15)
* Ohio (the state minimum wage is $7.00 and is indexed to inflation)
* Oregon (the state minimum wage is $7.95 and is indexed to inflation)
* Pennsylvania (the state minimum wage is $7.15)
* Rhode Island (the state minimum wage is $7.40)
* Vermont (the state minimum wage is $7.68 and is indexed to inflation)
* Washington (the state minimum wage is $8.07 and is indexed to inflation)
* West Virginia (the state minimum wage will increase is $7.25. Note: Many employers in West Virginia are exempt from the state law and can pay the lower federal minimum wage)

The minimum wage, like most cogs in the welfare state, can be argued for on compassionate grounds alone. What is the minimum that an individual's time is worth? If we let someone do a job for less than a decent amount, we are a poorer society for it, even if some of us are a little wealthier.

But then, by that argument one might justify a communist dictatorship. There comes a point when the costs outweigh the benefits.

So it heartens me to share with you some newly quantified benefits of raising the minimum wage. Two recent studies both found that a rising minimum wage doesn't put people out of work.

The researchers say their findings may be due to the fact that a higher minimum wage attracts more workers and reduces a firm 's vacancy rate; in addition, decreased turnover increases productivity and reduces the cost of expanding employment, they say.

It always makes me happy when it turns out the solution to any problem isn't a race to the bottom.

[photo] "Counting coins" by Marion Doss