Tom Toles for October 28, 2013

Is this the laser focus on jobs we were promised? 20% of bridges in the USA need repair, and of those, 20% have one component, that if it fails, will make the bridge unsafe for use.The power grid has already been shown to be vulnerable, and that is without terrorists attacking it. There are unfunded plans to address these problems but no will to act on them.US CEOs and the Military say our young people still in school do not have the skill sets necessary to perform the high tech jobs needed for business to function and the military to defend us, but we are firing teachers nationwide and increasing the size of classrooms.Then there’s my personal favorite idea of a national water pipeline to pipe water from flooded areas or desalination plants along the coast to drought striken areas in order to prevent crop loss, enable more efficient fire fighting in forests, and prevent damage from floods along rivers and lakes.How many of you can come up with some other job ideas for the job creators and the government to create?Respectfully,C.

There is no unemployment problem among people at the top. Profits are good. The unemployment rate among college grads is well under 4%. Unions are all but dead. There is no threat of working class revolt. With the minimum wage lower (relative to prices) than it has been in 50 years, high unemployment means an abundance of part-time (benefitless) workers at low wages. The only disadvantage is a dearth of customers with money to spend: but the solution to that is easy: produce high-end luxury goods for the folks who are doing well. A rising tide raises all boats they say, but the tide has been rising for a dozen years (with a couple years ebb, 2008-2010) and while the big boats have been lifted, the rest have been swamped. Raising the minimum wage is problematic. Some employers make hiring and staffing decisions based on it. When labor costs more, they can afford less of it. Some jobs are intended for teenagers after school, not for struggles family bread-winners. Part-time, low-wage jobs have their place. But the bill of goods sold to the American people long ago was this business of the rising tide. Or trickle-down economics. Increases productivity result in improvements for everyone! The more the few benefit, the more everyone benefits. The reality has been quite different. If the minimum wage of 1960 had risen relative to inflation, it would now stand close to $11. If the minimum wage had risen relative to productivity, it would now stand at $21. All the benefits of increased productivity have gone to a (relatively) few people, while everyone else have seen income stagnate or decrease, job security decrease, and healthcare costs skyrocket. There is no doubt that those who do not have college degrees are actually worse off than a few decades ago, and their children now have a much much harder time getting college degrees. The simple fact of the matter is that the national wealth have been moving, for thirty years, from the hands of the many to the hands of the few. There has been a huge redistribution of wealth in this country, and it has been accomplished (at least in part) by government policies determined largely by the GOP since the time of Reagan. I do not believe this was ever the intention of rank-and-file Republicans, but the unintended consequences of policies that looked “fair” to them, but failed to take into account larger realities. And those who really command the affairs of the country are not, at present, hurting enough to actually want to do anything about it. Inequality is necessary and good in its place. But when it gets out of hand and becomes to extreme, when the rising tide swamps all but a few boats, it is not a tide, but a flood, and a destructive one at that. Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, October 18, 1785:“But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property … [ One ] means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise.”

Just a little info on minimum wage workers: 88% are over 20, 36% are over 40, their average age is 35, about 56% are women, and 28% of those women have children at home. Most of them work full-time. On average, the minimum age worker earns half of her family’s income. How many people reading this would like to try to live on less than $15,000 a year?

Thank you Mr. Obama!

This is the first time in U.S. history that the response to a recession was austerity. It doesn’t work, and no one ever thought it would. We need more government spending, and we need the middle class to earn more so that they can buy stuff. The GOP thought austerity would hurt Obama, and hurting America in order to hurt Obama is the only plan they’ve got in their playbook.

“Everyone in America is standing in the welfare line waiting for their handout because they don’t have employable skills”Some are there because their jobs moved to another state or country and they couldn’t leave a house they couldn’t sell. Some lost their pensions when the banks responsible for them mishandled them. Others lost their jobs because they were close to retirement or had health problems and ‘reasons’ were found to release them from employment before the cost of a pension or higher insurance premiums cut into profits. The examples are endless.^“How many of those minimum wage earners are drug addicts?” Fewer than the ones working without healthcare to pay for doctor visits and medicines for them and their families.^“How many of them spend most of their income on booze and cigs?” Fewer than those who spend it on food, clothes, & school materials for their children.^“How many didn’t make it through high school because they were ‘smarter’ than their teachers?” Not as many as the ones who were too hungry to concentrate; the ones to bullied to care; the ones in overcrowded classrooms with little or no supplies; the ones with uncaring teacher and/or parents who told them how worthless and stupid they were; the ones who saw their parents working two jobs and barely surviving and wondered, why bother trying.“How many are happy they have a job?” All of them who were hired by companies offering a living wage with a real opportunity for advancement and a shot at the American dream. All of them who didn’t have to take that job as a desperate grasp to survive after losing everything they had for reasons over which they had no control.“How many of them are getting an education so they can get a better job?” More than you might imagine, IF they have time, money to afford classes and books, childcare if they need it, healthcare if they need it, and only ONE job that leaves them time to do homework.“How many are African-Americans?” How many are white? How many are latino or asian? How many are over 35?

I know a person who graduated valedictorian in her school. There were thirty people in her school. You comment about the top 1% is a false equivalency. The same can be said for your reply on minimum wage workers. If you realize how many working for minimum wage are over 35, talking about the invincibles, those between 19 and 35 not on their parents’ insurance, ignores the context of my content. You could learn from Enoki in the way you reply in defense of your ‘side’.Tiredly,C.

hairy reid and a shovel

“The goal of the GOP is based on demonizing those who are voiceless”.The Dems that you seem to agree with KILL the most INNOCENT of the voiceless via abortion.

TTM there’s a lot there to reply to. I’ll try to get an answer out if I can. Thanks for your understanding on that.

None that I would ever call friends, OR conservatives.

libs [ ex margaret sanger] thinks there are too many broen and black babies and must be reduced to provide lebensraum

Lebensraum: a motive behind Hitler’s megalomania. And citing Sanger, after consistently criticizing libs for criticizing Bush, shows your ignorance of how an organization or country can change. Why didn’t you criticize out liberal founding fathers for allowing slavery, since you care so much about the blacks and browns. (NOT!)

When I reply to a writer, Freethinkerz, I always use their name. I replied to questions asked by one others read and to whom others often respond because I saw the questions as an opportunity to make statements which I hoped would advance the debate. I noticed later that I failed to do this with Harley and regret that omission. Harley, like Ansonia, is a patriot to a view but is willing to present an entire thought rather than just offer a verbal jab.Perhaps if the ghost of Christmas yet to come visits the one of whom you speak, they will see a future they did not expect and through that lesson, open their heart and/or mind.We need more freethinkers, neighbor.Thank you for your reply,C.