uawchild
uawchild's JournalThe 7 most dangerous myths about a $15 minimum wage
"Conservatives insist it will cost the country jobs and raise unemployment. They're wrong on both accounts"
by HANNA BROOKS OLSEN, THE DAILY DOT, via Salon
"What was once a fringe movement led largely by far left liberals has become a major media story and trending topic on Twitter: Workers, politicians, and even business owners are fighting for a higher minimum wage. In some areas, they’re even winning. The White House has recommended a federal minimum wage of $10.10, but cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle have raised the bar, passing legalization to raise the minimum wage to $15. (In most places, the transition will take place over the next five to seven years).
And despite these successes, myths about what increased wages mean for America’s economy and workers continue to prevail, making the rounds in Facebook memes and even real news reports. There’s so much misinformation on the subject that the Department of Labor even has a “mythbusting” page.
But these myths are just that: They’re myths. And there’s plenty of data to debunk them.
1) Myth: The minimum wage was never supposed to be a living wage
This is probably one of the most dangerous—and easy to debunk—myths about the minimum wage, which was championed by Franklin D. Roosevelt beginning in 1933. During an address FDR gave about one of his many economic salvation packages, he explained that “no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.”
At the time, Roosevelt’s Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938—passed as part of New Deal legislation—set minimum wage at 25 cents. Roosevelt intended this rate to be “more than a bare subsistence level.” The minimum wage was created expressly to ensure that people of all skill-levels, if they worked, could “earn a decent living” off those wages—thus, a living wage.
2) Myth: An increase in the minimum wage won’t help anyone if all other costs go up, too
One assumption about increasing the minimum wage is that it will force to the cost of living to increase at the same rate, and in doing so, we’d really just be speeding up inflation.
This isn’t really how economics works. A 2013 study by the Chicago Fed found that increasing the minimum wage even just to $9 would increase consumer spending by $28 billion. When spending—i.e. demand—increases, manufacturers and other purveyors of goods and services can actually charge less or at least avoid increasing their prices, because they’re increasing overall revenue.
While increasing minimum wage, thus, benefits the economy, there are hidden costs of low-wage work which impact everyone. Working full-time at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 means employees make just about $165 per month above the federal poverty level. If they have even one child, they are well below it, which means they are dependent on social services to the tune of about$152.8 billion in taxpayer money per year.
..."
http://www.salon.com/2015/08/04/the_7_most_dangerous_myths_about_the_fight_for_a_15_minimum_wage_partner/
“A turning point for Obama”: How the president learned to love the national security state
"NYT reporter Charlie Savage tells Salon the real reason why Obama has broken less from Bush than many hoped"
by ELIAS ISQUITH, Salon
"One of the great mysteries — and ongoing controversies — of the Barack Obama presidency has to do with his record on civil liberties and counter-terrorism. In fact, for many former supporters of the president, it’s the alleged continuities between the anti-terror policies of Obama and Bush that first caused them to rescind their support for the former. Charges that Obama is worse than Bush, because he legitimized and gave bipartisan cover to that which was once seen as radical and divisive, are not uncommon.
So now that Obama is about to entire his final year in the White House, and now that attention is increasingly turning away from him and toward his would-be successors, it seems like an opportune moment to reassess the past seven years and figure out why, exactly, Obama’s record on counter-terrorism issues has been so controversial — and mixed. Which is where “Power Wars: Inside Obama’s Post-9/11 Presidency,” the new book from the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Charlie Savage, comes in.
Recently, Salon spoke over the phone with Savage about his book, which is both a deeply reported history of the Obama administration and a look at how bureaucracy, chance, politics and technology have so profoundly shaped its legacy. Alongside discussing what Obama really promised on the campaign trail in 2008, we also talk about the outsized influence of late-2009’s failed “underwear bomber,” and why the president has less control over the prosecution of leaks from his administration than you may suspect."
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/07/a_turning_point_for_obama_how_the_president_learned_to_love_the_national_security_state/
"Ukraine Pins Hopes for Change on Fresh-Faced Police Recruits"
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR, The New York Times
"LVIV, Ukraine — When officers of the new patrol police recently arrested a young, unemployed actor named Vladimir for a drunken midday nap on Market Square — the leafy center of this picturesque, cobblestoned city in western Ukraine — two giggling friends asked to snap a selfie with the detainee.
A fit, fresh-faced police officer consented, allowing them to clamber into the back seat of his white Toyota Prius patrol car while the disheveled Vladimir soon began flirting with the female battalion commander. The scene was a marked contrast with the old police force, an all-male preserve whose officers regularly punched first and then asked questions.
“Soft,” pronounced Sgt. Mykola Lozynsky, a veteran at the station where Vladimir, 26, was taken for booking. “They don’t know how to work.” It is a common appraisal by members of the old police force, known as the militia, of the thousands of novice officers deployed in major Ukrainian cities starting last July. There should be at least 10,000 new officers by the end of the year in a country where a patchwork of law enforcement agencies has about 140,000 uniformed officers.
Much is riding on the neophyte force, which is often praised as the only tangible sign of change 20 months after protests toppled the government."
...
To their myriad fans, the new officers embody the right kind of change: idealistic, helpful, diverse, clean and drilled endlessly that public service is their main task.
To skeptics, they represent what is fundamentally wrong with the current attempt to overhaul Ukraine: a superficial change to the patina of urban life while venality and incompetence endure behind every government facade."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/world/europe/ukraine-pins-hopes-for-change-on-fresh-faced-police-recruits.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
"The TPP has been released and our concerns have been vindicated"
By Kyla Tienhaara, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
"A treaty that placed the needs and rights of citizens on an equal footing with those of corporations would be much more deserving of the 'gold standard' label so frequently bestowed upon the TPP, writes Kyla Tienhaara.
After a month of speculation about the content of the deal reached in Atlanta, the 6,000+ pages of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) were finally released on Thursday night.
We already knew from the limited information provided on the DFAT website in early October that Australia has abandoned its opposition to investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in the agreement. Big corporations use ISDS to challenge government measures, such as Australia's plain packaging legislation.
The release of the text allows us to scrutinise the Government's claims that the inclusion of ISDS in the TPP is not a threat to Australian public policy.
As has been widely reported, the TPP allows countries to exclude challenges made over tobacco-control measures from ISDS. As such, we won't see another Philip Morris case under the TPP. States are still permitted to bring cases against each other over tobacco-related trade disputes.
What about the claim that "there is explicit recognition that TPP Parties have an inherent right to regulate to protect public welfare, including in the areas of health and the environment"?
There is mention of a "right to regulate" in the preamble of the whole agreement, but this is not legally enforceable. In the investment chapter itself, a provision indicates that parties can maintain and enforce environmental and health measures that are "otherwise consistent" with the agreement. Translation: environmental and health measures (other than those related to tobacco control) can still be challenged under ISDS."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-06/tienhaara-ttp-investment/6918810
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Once again, the devil's in the details -- the Australian perspective on the TPP.
Taipei, Beijing negotiate ‘one China’ principle
"DIFFERENCE OF OPINION:The MAC minister said whether the ‘one China’ principle is to be a point of consensus at the meeting would be made known today"
By Tzou Jiing-wen and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer / Taipei Times
"The Chinese government strongly desires that the “one China” principle be made one of the points of “consensus” to be announced after a historic meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九
and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平 in Singapore today.
However, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) officials said that they would prefer the meeting to be based on the so-called “1992 consensus.”
As of press time last night, the two sides were still negotiating the issue.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
The meeting is the first of its kind since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949 and retreated to Taiwan and its outlying islands.
Ma said the meeting with Xi would not result in any accords, or promises to sign accords of any sort, nor a joint declaration, adding that a press conference would be held after the meeting to highlight the points on which both sides had reached a consensus."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2015/11/07/2003631874
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Nice to see cold war tensions between China and Taiwan subsiding.
As China continues to modernize socially, perhaps it can follow Taiwan's political development from authoritarianism to liberal democracy, making eventual political unification between the two possible.
Egypt says foreign powers ignored calls to fight terrorism
Source: Reuters
Egypt criticized its foreign partners on Saturday for ignoring calls to work harder to combat terrorism, after Western intelligence sources said there were signs Islamist militants may have bombed the Russian plane which crashed in Sinai.
An Islamic State affiliate has claimed responsibility for the crash of the Airbus A321 operated by a Russian carrier that was bringing holidaymakers home from the Sinai Peninsula resort of Sharm al-Sheikh one week ago.
All 224 people on board were killed in what the militants described as revenge for Russian air strikes against Islamist fighters in Syria. Russia, Turkey and several European countries have suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh and the United States has imposed new air travel security requirements in the wake of the crash.
Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, speaking hours before authorities were due to make an announcement about their investigations so far, said it would be wrong to speculate on the cause until findings were delivered. But he said Cairo was not ruling out any possibility, and suggested countries now flagging the likelihood that militants were behind the crash should have heeded Egypt's repeated calls for coordination to combat militants.
"The spread of terrorism, which we have for a long time called on our partners to tackle more seriously, did not get through to many of the parties which are now exposed and which are currently working for the interests of their citizens to face this danger," Shoukry told a news conference.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/07/us-egypt-crash-idUSKCN0SV22R20151107#atY6V093R4X5lsH0.97
"The spread of terrorism, which we have for a long time called on our partners to tackle more seriously, did not get through to many of the parties which are now exposed..."
Hum, go figure. It's almost like he's saying no one was really fighting ISIS...
Get to know a NATO member: Estonia
"NATO’s essential purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means.
POLITICAL - NATO promotes democratic values and encourages consultation and cooperation on defence and security issues to build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.
MILITARY - NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military capacity needed to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty - NATO’s founding treaty - or under a UN mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organizations."
http://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/
Let's take a look at what Amnesty International has to say about the state of democracy in some of the newer NATO member states, today's member -- Estonia.
"Estonia Human Rights
Discrimination – linguistic minorities
Members of the Russian-speaking minority faced discrimination. Non-Estonian speakers, mainly from the Russian-speaking minority, were denied employment due to official language requirements for various professions in the private sector and almost all professions in the public sector. Most did not have access to affordable language training that would enable them to qualify for employment.
In January, the Equal Treatment Act entered into force, prohibiting discrimination on grounds of ethnic origin, race and colour in areas such as employment, education, and social and health care. However, the measure has limited effect with regard to public sector employment, because amendments to the Public Service Act established that unequal treatment of state and municipal officials based on official language requirements should not be considered as discrimination.
Human rights defenders
In its report published in April, the Security Police Board continued to attempt to discredit the Legal Information Centre for Human Rights (LICHR), an NGO promoting and defending the rights of linguistic minorities. The report stated that Aleksei Semjonov, the LICHR director, would be a pro-Russia candidate at the 2009 European Parliamentary elections, that he was a member of the pro-minority Constitutional Party, and that he carried out activities financed and directed by the Russian authorities.
However, Aleksei Semjonov had stated publicly on 20 March that he would not take part in the European Parliamentary elections. Official information available on the internet showed that he was not a Constitutional Party member and that he did not register as an independent or party candidate for the European elections.
Freedom of expression and assembly
On 15 October, Parliament approved the so-called "Bronze Night" package (Bill N.416UE), a set of amendments to the Penal Code, the Public Service Act and the Aliens' Act. The amendments expand the definition of "an offence committed during mass disorder", which might now include acts of nonviolent disobedience during peaceful demonstrations. They also provide for non-nationals, including long term residents and those born in Estonia, to have their residence permit revoked for these offences and for other "intentional crimes against the state". This could include non-violent acts such as the symbolic destruction of national flags or those of foreign states or international organizations."
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/countries/europe/estonia
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"NATO promotes democratic values". Well, OK, Estonia remains a work in progress then.
They all fear real questions. Problem is, a gutless media isn’t asking them
"The Republicans wage war on a straw man: Our political debates are frozen, and so is our democracy"
by BILL CURRY
("Bill Curry was White House counselor to President Clinton and a two-time Democratic nominee for governor of Connecticut. He is at work on a book on President Obama and the politics of populism."
If you made a conscious decision to miss the Republican presidential debate, congratulations, you made the right call.
A point worth pondering isn’t how this debate was worse than all the others but how it was like them. I don’t just mean other 2016 presidential debates. I mean all recent political debate. We face hard choices we don’t know how to discuss, let alone make. This incapacity threatens our survival as much as the cancer of corruption consuming the body politic, so we must talk about it even if it means reliving Wednesday’s unpleasantness.
Republicans accuse CNBC of bias and bad behavior. Reading the transcript one is struck by the deference of most questions and the weakness of the follow-ups. John Harwood was snarky. So was Becky Quick, though less egregiously and less often. But no panelist was as rude to the candidates as the candidates were to one another. The candidates were even ruder to the panel, but Republicans don’t think reporters deserve respect. Whenever a candidate abused a reporter, everybody cheered.
The tone was set at the opening bell. Asked to cite a weakness, John Kasich said it was a great question, but not one he planned on answering. He instead attacked Carson and Trump, saying the party was “on the verge perhaps of picking someone who can’t do the job.” Naturally, Trump returned fire with a howitzer:
He was such a nice guy… but then his poll numbers tanked… that is why he is on the end… and he got nasty… nasty… So you know what? You can have him.
...
The CNBC debate never got close to what ails our economy. As I tell education reformers who are out to turn our children into better worker bees, it’s our democracy that’s broken, not our economy. If Congress had stayed out of Iraq, done a public option, raised the minimum wage, modernized public transit and led a transition to renewable energy — then the economy would be going gangbusters. Pass a few reforms and the middle class could even see some dough. We’re good workers. We need to be better citizens. And we need a better debate. It’s where good choices begin."
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/03/they_all_fear_real_questions_problem_is_a_gutless_media_isnt_asking_them/
MSF details hospital bombing
Source: Taipei Times (Taiwan)
HARROWING REPORT:The charity’s review of the US attack on the trauma center describes patients burning in their beds and medical staff decapitated by shrapnel
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Thursday released chilling details from a devastating US bombing of an Afghan hospital, saying staff and patients had been decapitated, and lost their limbs, with some gunned down from the air.
The raid on Oct. 3 in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz killed at least 30 people, sparking an avalanche of global condemnation and forcing the French-founded charity to close the trauma center.
An AC-130 gunship repeatedly bombed the hospital for about an hour even as MSF staff sent out harrowing messages to officials in Kabul and Washington, informing them of heavy casualties, the charity said in an internal review of the air strike.
The review described patients burning in their beds, medical staff decapitated by shrapnel and a nurse who suffered a “traumatic amputation” in the attack.
People were shot at, apparently from the plane, as they tried to flee the burning building, with some eyewitnesses cited in the report saying the shooting appeared to follow those on the run.
Read more: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2015/11/07/2003631914
"People were shot at, apparently from the plane, as they tried to flee the burning building, with some eyewitnesses cited in the report saying the shooting appeared to follow those on the run."
Good f-ing Lord.
So, was this just to deny hospital use to the Taliban, is that our "real politic" justification of this -- or are we sticking to the line that it was all an accident?
This is truly sickening and was done in our name.
Canada Is No Longer The U.S.'s Largest Trading Partner
"If the Obama administration’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline didn’t bring this point home enough, here’s more evidence Canada is becoming less relevant to the United States: We have lost our long-standing status as the U.S.’s largest trading partner.
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, China overtook Canada in the first nine months of this year to become America’s number-one trading partner.
The U.S.-Chinese trade relationship was worth US$441.6 billion in the first nine months of this year, compared to US$438.1 billion traded between the U.S. and Canada." But it’s not because Canada is selling less to the U.S. — it’s because the collapse in oil prices means what we sell to the U.S. is worth less than it used to be.
...
Still, many experts say that — with rapid growth in emerging-market economies, particularly in Asia — Canada will have to accept a different role in the global trade environment than it’s been used to."
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/11/06/canada-us-largest-trading-partner-china_n_8491278.html
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"Canada will have to accept a different role in the global trade environment than it’s been used to."
You mean kiss your middle class good bye, eh? There's a lot of that going around here in the US too.
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