Fortune 500 companies tripled their profits to $391 billion in 2009.

Cutting employment could save money, but was that all it took for them to TRIPLE their profits? It’s bizarre such a thing could happen. Were their profits that small to begin with? Are they really the Unfortunate 500?

Let’s get the international firms to bring more of their profits back home, so they can show off how profitable they really are…and pay some taxes.

Financial firms went from big losses to profits.

Obviously Obama’s fault.

The mental toddler has arrived.

Hey, sign me up for a job. I mean, it’s great my UI benefits are going to come back but I’d much rather have a job than be constantly sweating bullets.

But but but, the wingnuts think you don’t want to work because of your generous UI benefits. You obviously don’t know your own mind. /s

Alas, for the long term unemployed the present efforts are meaningless, as we/they don’t QUALIFY for Unemployment Insurance. And there’s a lot of us/them out here.

12.6% latest CA Unemployment Figure.

And that don’t count long term or chronic umemployed going back to ’03.

I’d double that figure, without stats to back it up. At LEAST raise it to 18% or more.

Ah! But since I’m a knee jerk liberal, I reflexively do EXACTLY the opposite of what they think I should, even if it means giving up my generous UI benefits and my life of leisure. Just gotta wait until that yacht gets delivered….

A jobs bill is wrongheaded. It’s a Republican idea.

We don’t need to create useless jobs. That’s trickle-down economics. We need to leverage money by force of law out of the hands of the rich. We need to help labor in their fight against capital. When workers have enough money in the bank and enough for start-up capital, they’ll start their own businesses and create jobs in ACTUAL SMALL BUSINESSES; not BIG ones. That is what we need. Otherwise businesses are just going to get bigger and bigger until they’re too big to fail and then they’ll collude with the government and we’ll just become an unabashed fascist nation.

A strong labor movement, a strong welfare state, and more small businesses; that is what we need.

A lot of pain out there Larue and they don’t even count… One problem in the metric sadly… More should be done to get the true figure..

Yeah, anything to thwart those right-headed (/s) ideas of wingnuts, even if it is not in your own self-interest. (/s)

KO is reading Thurber fables. I just caught the first one out of the corner of my ear. I think it went that Little Red Riding Hood shot the wolf. Moral: It’s not so easy to fool girls these days.

And how do you suggest that get done?

but but the violence of it all…

It helps if your labor force actually has jobs. There are many useful jobs that could be done now in education, greening the country, rebuilding aging infrastructure, improving community planning and layout, gigabyte speed internet backbone, smart grid, high speed commuter rail, inner city trolleys, renewalable power sources, retrofitting housing, etc.

I think the part I didn’t catch might have been something about self-defense, which is probably why the mods let the comment go thru. *g*

Well, we could end the Bush tax cuts, put Andy Stern on the NLRB, change the rules governing labor relations so it’s easier for workers to unionize (I don’t know the specifics of how that would be done), increase grants for individuals starting their own businesses… the list goes on. Or, best yet, make a switch to the Ghent system.

What good is a jobs bill going to do? Wouldn’t it just be more tax breaks for business owners with no enforcement mechanism? We have to end trickle-down economics. I’d rather just give it to the people directly.

You know (that’s rhetorical as I’m sure you do) that it’s not that difficult to figure out which jobs would be productive from a central planning POV. Look at what the U.S. did to gear up during WWII, all centrally planned. And it wasn’t just military hardware & the draft. The USG was smart enough to know that metals were also required, and oil & all the secondary & tertiary materials. (Imagine that!) Ditto your list today. It’s no secret what falls short in the U.S. economy, and therefore what stim should go into. Not suggesting that as the normal process, but certainly appropriate under current circumstances.

Not that it would ever happen because the ‘free market’ is doing such a great job as providing medical care, internet, infrastructure, etc, etc.

As if O and the corporately owned congress would go for any of the ideas you suggest. Yes, many of them are good, as are Hugh’s ideas, which also won’t be done.

All that’s great but all of those are essentially temp work, not careers.

It helps if your labor force actually has jobs.

It helps what if your labor force actually has jobs?

Oh geez, Rachel points out that the U.S. is still paying private U.S. corps (Dynecorp, now Xe) to train Afghan police, after 8 years. They still can’t shoot straight. Not that the Afghans have ever been known to be unable to fight. *ripping hair out*

Not that it would ever happen because the ‘free market’ is doing such a great job as providing medical care, internet, infrastructure, etc, etc.

Cough Cough..
At least not unless than can make 50% or More Profit and then charge fee for usage..

Coming to think of it, no wonder! Last I remember, it took one U.S. troop something like 250,000 bullets to kill one enemy. So the problem would seem to be that the Afghan police simply don’t have enough ammo.

Only a 50% profit? Such a modest reward for providing essential services.

This makes me think it is progressives who should be ranting and raving about government’s wasteful spending. Namely, shit like that. There are so many instances of government wasting money aiding corporations in the war business. It’s kind of a lie that progressives don’t care about spending. We do. We just want it spent domestically.

NEW AGENDA: cut wasteful defense spending, the “fair market” knows best!

essentially temp work, not careers.

Huh? Building infrastructure is temp work, including education? Guess you expect the U.S. pop to stop having kids, or stop needing higher ed to compete globally, and computer engineers? Well I guess if you think it’s cheaper to replace them all by overeducated people from India.

Again, clearly Obama’s fault

Oh stop deliberately misinterpreting what I typed. You perfectly well know I was making a general comment about the ability of central govt to figure out what is needed under specific circumstances, using WWII as an illustration, and not advocating war.

All that’s great but all of those are essentially temp work, not careers

That is simply untrue. Apparently you think the country can be effectively re-industrialized in 6 months. Good luck with that. What are your small businesses going to produce by the way Barbie doll knockoffs? How will that help the country?

I don’t understand your terminology either. I am a Keynesian but I believe that it is important to increase aggregate demand in a more directed manner. There is nothing trickle down about this. Trickle down is about directing resources into an investor class and hoping that whatever investments this class makes will eventually result in jobs. We have seen for 30 years this is not the case. But please clarify your terms because they aren’t clear and are really the opposite of normal usage.

Gosh, maybe something we can agree on. It was the GI bill that provided the education for all of those accountants, economists, physicians, scientists, and yes, lawyers, that enabled the US to become the economic and military power we are today. Money for education is the cornerstone for continued progress.

Again, clearly Obama’s fault

Harry Truman had two sayings:

The buck stops here.

and

If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

Your view re Obama seems to be along the lines of the buck never stops with Obama and if he can’t stand the heat, it is obviously the kitchen’s fault. Explains a lot about why the country is in the mess it is in.

Building infrastructure is temp work, including education?

All that’s great but [most] of those are essentially temp work, not careers. Happy?

it is obviously the kitchen’s fault.

I knew there was an explanation. In fact, now that I’m trying to expand my cooking skills, my kitchen seems to have accumulated more faults than I can count.

Oh stop deliberately misinterpreting what I typed. You perfectly well know I was making a general comment about the ability of central govt to figure out what is needed under specific circumstances, using WWII as an illustration, and not advocating war.

The irony here is that you misinterpreted what I typed, though I imagine it wasn’t deliberate (because why the fuck would someone do that?). I was being real. I was implying we should change our mantra, as progressives. I wasn’t implying you were advocating war and I have no earthly idea how you came to that conclusion. LOL

Um, no. Hugh’s point: how long would it take to bring U.S. infrastructure up to developed European standards, including broadband? How many years behind is the U.S.? And do you think the multi-year process of doing that would not create any secondary jobs, aka multiplier effect? And, as for the primary infrastructure jobs, esp in broadband, do you think that bringing U.S. infrastructure up to world standards is a static process, that will stop when that standard is reached? Not even close to being a realistic view.

Obviously he is doing f*ck all to help it, now is he? What will it take for Obamabots to wake the f*ck up? Does he have to come to your house and sh*t on your head? Seriously, there have got to be IQ tests required to vote.

It could have been this sentence that led me ‘astray.’

NEW AGENDA: cut wasteful defense spending, the “fair market” knows best!

Jonathan Turley is on Rachel being naive as hell, accusing Rs of torpedoing Dawn Johnson nomination when it was O who did it.

the big zeee-R-0 IS taking care of his constituents.

look at table 689 2007 money income

appx. 185,000,000 UNDER 50k a year,
appx. 214,000,000 UNDER 75k a year,
appx. 24,000,000 OVER 75k a year,
appx. 13,000,000 OVER 100k a year,
appx. 4,700,000 OVER 150k a year.

for 30 of the last 32 years I’ve been a serf living in boston or seattle.

for us chumps under 50k there have been endless excuses for failure to defeat lying stealing fascists, AND, there has been endless fear mongering against the lying stealing fascists, AND – those over 75 and over 100 and over 150k people have done o.k. writing fucking memos and NOT making much of anything work well… except for their own employment.

2000 pages of accountant & consultant & lawyer bullshit instead of healthcare, AND

now ‘tax credits’ for small businesses? WHO the fuck can hire 100 tax-law jerk offs to take ‘advantage’ of these asshole programs?

I’m so done voting sell out cuz … we’ll get fascists !! … who cares. I’m going to vote for myself.

rmm.

Obama wants the American people to be patient for 3-5 years so the market can work it’s magic in creating jobs. Until then he’ll dole out crumbs to keep the unemployed from starving.

Can’t. Watch. Anymore. Rachel at one time stood for an alternative honest media. Now she is nothing more than the Democratic Party’s bitch. Wonder how that feels to her, or if she even realizes or cares.

You mean till he’s re-elected right? Ya, that’s the stuff! Re-elect these sad sack sacks of shite.

I’ve always been a bit suspicious of Turley. His comments validate my suspicions.

Well, I fired off an informative email to her fwiw. (That with a subway card worth $2.25 allows me one ride around NYC.)

The last thing you need when climbing the ladder is self-reflection.

So far, my evaluation of him is naive. That is the highest grade I can give. I stand receptive to a downward revision.

For anyone to say it was in fact O who torpedo Johnson, or opposed a strong public option, or opposed the importation of pharmaceuticals would be about the same as saying the emperor has no clothes.

But but but, he’s ‘saved’ 2 million jobs. /s

Eye candy!

My suspicions date to Clinton’s impeachment when Turley was everywhere on the tube dignifying and validating the high tech lynching by the Republican Party. Naivete is nothing more than the consequence of living in the very rarefied air of the Beltway Bubble.

Aha. I was not aware of Turley during that process. I bow to your superior evaluation, and that is not a snark.

You act like it’s a given that re-industrialization should be the priority. Why would you do that? I don’t even know what you mean by that. You mean using the glorified slave labor of the underclass to build a bunch of nice, pretty shit that none of them will be able to afford to use? How about we end classism?

As a green syndicalist, industrialism isn’t something I’m all that fond of. I definitely don’t think production should be increased arbitrarily, just so people can have jobs. To me, jobs are things that exist whether someone is doing them or not. A spill on the floor that needs cleaning up is a job for someone to do, for instance. If there’s nothing that needs doing, there’s no reason a person should have to do work. I also think hierarchical civilization is killing the planet, so capitalism must be abolished. My hope is that small businesses will be more egalitarian, less bureaucratic, less dehumanizing, and less about profit and more about people. The power (economic and political) needs to be put back in the hands of the people. I doubt they would produce Barbie doll knockoffs. They would innovate, because they are the ones with all the good ideas.

I’m humbled. OT, I regret that I missed your book salon. A prior engagement prevented me from dropping by but from what I hear it was a great success. A belated congratulation.

Well, he’s not wearing much, when you consider all of those together.

900 pages, as passed. If you cared to actually look it up.

Wow. So much packed into your comment. I’ll respond only to your

small businesses will be more egalitarian

Can’t think of anything less likely to be realistic. Small biz is just as likely to be control freakish because the owner’s (think of that: there is a single OWNER) livelihood depends on it.

There was a diary over at dKos, on the ‘smart grid’, which said that it will require several hundred thousand people to get it going. Think of all the people who could work on that – not just the people being trained, but the trainers and those setting up the program. They wouldn’t have to be only the under-40s, either.

Thanks. It was a lot of work, but I hope worth it.

Thanks for the specific illustration to the general point I was trying to make.

Clearly you’ve never met anyone who’s gone from temp to perm – I know several who have. And a bunch more who have gone from temp to semi-perm (direct contract, rather than through an outside agency).

Jobs will create income for savings and spending. Jobs create real value. The financial industry needs to take a hiatus for a decade from ripping of value without earning it. This administration has no intention of that. The deal was set by outgoing BUSHCO feed Wall Street and shrink income and home values. Obama gave the two trillion, let the perps walk and continued deregulation of the markets. The piper will be paid.

Not true at all. Small businesses tend to pay more, value their workers more, and treat them more like human beings. But again, we need a strong welfare state, and strong unions. These mitigate, to some extent, the inherent flaws of the private feudal business model. Ultimately, I think businesses need to be democratic.

Jobs change all the time – where I work, they’re in the process of going from CAD (and hardcopy maps) to GIS; the people who have been drawing the maps will have to change jobs or learn the new program.

Small businesses tend to pay more, value their workers more, and treat them more like human beings.

Links? As near as I know, small biz are largely retail est like bodegas, which pay very little. And don’t value their workers much.

Anyhow, your link to green syndacalist in 52 indicates you are a true believer. And that is not a compliment.

I’ve been temp for a year and a half now. Doesn’t make sense, does it? And this is a company who contracts with the Texas government. And I’ve gone from temp to permanent many times in previous jobs. What I’m saying is that the actual work that needs doing is only temporary. If you build a light rail system (which definitely needs doing, no doubt about that), that’s going to give people much-needed jobs, but when are they ever going to use those skills again? How many light rails need building (in their area or elsewhere)? “Light-rail builder” is not a career.

Small businesses tend to pay less to employees. (Been there, done that.) They may be faster paying their suppliers, but that’s because they’re more dependent on them.

MAINTENANCE.
Haven’t you ever noticed that all that new construction ahs to be taken care of?

thanks for proving my point about the complete cluelessness of the leading class AND the suck up class – which class do you fall into?

OR, are you 1 of those who don’t even know what class you’re part of?

900 pages or 19 pages – how many lawyers can I afford?

rmm.

My late friend, owner of a ‘small’ mfg biz in N. VT. took me on a tour of his plant in about 2007 and explained all the diffs. His corp (which continues after his death with partners he brought in to continue to biz) mfgrs ceramic insulators for high-tech applications. It was fascinating to tour the factory floor. (His uncle started it in the late-1900s to mfg ceramic tips for gas lights.) Among the more mundane ‘technological’ innovations was to place various grinding machines on wheels. Imagine that! They produced to order, not assembly line, a distinction I didn’t appreciate until I saw the factory. So when they got an order, they often had to rearrange the machinery, and they finally figured out that much could be placed on wheels. That was in addition to all the technology, like CAD-CAM, that allowed them to produce to much finer tolerances every year. And as much of the product had to be fired in a kiln, mitigating energy costs were paramount. Not to mention all the environmental costs imposed by VT. Truly impressive operation for small biz (less than 100 employees) to cope with.

Heh. As the owner of an historic house, let me assure you that it is a pile of stones & bricks into which I pour $$ every year.

Worker-owned cooperatives are springing up around the company, begun with seed money from philanthropies and large individual donors. In Cleveland, this is being done on a very large scale:

The Evergreen Cooperative Laundry (ECL)–a worker-owned, industrial-size, thoroughly “green” operation–opened its doors late last fall in Glenville, a neighborhood with a median income hovering around $18,000. It’s the first of ten major enterprises in the works in Cleveland, where the poverty rate is more than 30 percent and the population has declined from 900,000 to less than 450,000 since 1950.

The exciting thing about the cooperatives is that this is not the “job creation” that goodkind criticizes, with some justification. And the workers own their own company and can directly create the conditions under which they work.
New ways of organizing economic activity that are more egalitarian and self-sustaining are possible. Not just possible but highly desirable.

Here we go again thinking that Obama, and the Congress that really caused the economic distruction of the the Country, and the loss of all those jobs is going to create any jobs.

Obama trusts the Congress to come up with these bills, when the congress is like the fox who killed all the hens, and He keeps asking them if they want to visit another hen house.

Here we are as a people having to trust a Congress and the people in it who have caused every problem this country has by their actions or inaction. Yes to trust the very people who caused our problems to fix them.

We blame Bush for the wars, tax cuts for the rich, the torture and spying, and yes even the run up of the debt, yet He could not have done any of it without the Congress.

Now we are blaming Obama when He is up against the same problem of settling for what the Congress does.

We are the blame for voting in all those people of both parties, and then re-electing most of them time and time again.

This Country is what it’s voters give us, and until we admit they fucked up big time, and will keep fucking up in the next elections, we are doomed to be fucked over somemore by the people and parties they voted in.

Thank you. :)

The Corporatist have removed our jobs and now they will remove what’s left of the safety net. They want as much poverty as possible out here. It’s easier from their perspective to control an impoverished horde then deal with a demanding and uppity middle class. Hungry desperate people are easily herded around and intimidated.

I’ve been working temporary jobs for 3 1/2 years now–and in my area, temp-to-perm is just a come-on in ads from temporary agencies. Most large corps are using temporary workers for years on end because they don’t have to pay them benefits or give them raises. That applies particularly to those like me who are over 55. Direct contracts are not often used unless you are incorporated, as I was years ago when I did IT consulting–large corps got into trouble in the 80′s and early 90′s over 1099 workers, and at least in my area, largely stopped using them. I’m grateful that I can at least get some income from temp work, and it helps keep my skills current, but by and large it’s not a path to full-time employment.

An industry where there are a glut of the unemployed, which is just about every industry outside of healthcare, will generally not do temp to perm. They make out very well with temps. My husband is in IT management and lost his job of 17 years three months ago. The few responses he’s getting to his resume are temp to perm positions. Your comment makes me wonder if these are really pathways to permanent jobs or just permanent temp jobs.

I’m convinced we need to outlaw permanent temp jobs. The concept is nonsensical anyway. How is it temporary if it’s permanent? It’s just creating a new paradigm of no worker’s rights and no benefits for the entire labor market. Soon, no one will have rights or benefits. Everyone will be permanent temps.