Writing Unions Out of the Story on Fighting Poverty

[Disir]

The NYT has no idea.

The New York Times (6/4/14) took a look at one of the economic puzzles of the last few decades: If growth has been strong, why aren't we seeing a greater reduction in poverty? Interestingly, the research the Times is relying on offers some explanations–ones the paper doesn't see fit to mention.

Writing Unions Out of the Story on Fighting Poverty

Yes..........tell me again how they represent the left.

 

[blastoff]

Represent? I dunno, seems like a strange word to use IMO.

How about 'support' instead? Support in the sense that unions have been the largest donors to dimocrats for many many years.

 

[Disir]

Represent? I dunno, seems like a strange word to use IMO.

How about 'support' instead? Support in the sense that unions have been the largest donors to dimocrats for many many years.

The NYT.

 

[waltky]

Is Poverty The Fault Of The Poor?...

Poll: Fewer Americans Blame Poverty on the Poor
June 20th 2014, As millions of Americans continue to struggle in a sluggish economy, a growing portion of the country says that poverty is caused by circumstances beyond individual control, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

The poll shows a significant shift in American opinion on the causes of poverty since the last time the question was asked, nearly 20 years ago. In 1995, in the midst of a raging political debate about welfare and poverty, less than a third of poll respondents said people were in poverty because of issues beyond their control. At that time, a majority said that poverty was caused by "people not doing enough." Now, nearly half of respondents, 47 percent, attribute poverty to factors other than individual initiative. “In hard economic times, people become more sympathetic to the poor,” says Martin Gilens, Ph.D., a political scientist at Princeton University. “In 1995, we were in a period of economic expansion. Even the less well-off benefitted considerably. Now we’re in the most visible period of dire economic circumstances for Americans. If you look around and you see that there’s high unemployment and a generally poor economy, you’re more likely to explain poverty through those factors.”

Meg York, 41, a Democrat in rural northern Maine, runs sales for a family farm. As a single mother making her money on a small farm, she says she can “understand the feeling of not being able to afford things.” “As a teenager,” York says, “I thought if you work hard enough in the United States of America, then it’s your own fault you’re poor. I adopted the conservative view around here. But my view has definitely morphed and changed over the years, and I see a bigger picture.” Though opinion shifts on the causes of poverty cross demographic lines, major divides remain. More than 60 percent of Democrats said forces outside of an individual’s control are the most significant cause of poverty. The same was true of just 27 percent of Republicans. Men and women were also split: over half of women said poverty is structural, compared to just under forty percent of men.

A slight majority of white respondents still said that poverty was mainly a result of individual failings. But the number of whites who believe poverty is primarily caused by outside forces rose from 27 percent to 44 percent between 1995 and 2014. Among black respondents, 59 percent said poverty is caused in greater part by factors other than personal choice, compared to 45 percent in 1995. Southerners as well as Americans without college degrees also logged dramatic shifts in the same direction. Even among white Republican men, who are still more likely to believe that poverty is mostly a result of individual failure to try hard enough (38 percent percent of white men and 27 percent of Republicans said poverty was caused by factors outside individual control), the poll reveals a softening of opinion.

Mike Vergere, 61, a Republican marketing manager in medical manufacturing company in the suburbs of St. Louis, says, “the first issue is that there are not enough jobs in this country that pay enough money so that people can live at the bare minimum to be able to make what we’d consider a living.” Other recent polling shows similar trends. A survey released last week by the Pew Center for People and the Press finds that Americans are now significantly more likely than they were in the mid-90s to say that life is hard for the poor because government benefits do not go far enough to help people live a decent life. The 90s were marked by economic growth and relative prosperity. Coupled with a Washington consensus that welfare was broken, Americans in large numbers flocked to the idea that the poor simply needed to work harder to achieve the American dream.

MORE

 

[Moonglow]

Represent? I dunno, seems like a strange word to use IMO.

How about 'support' instead? Support in the sense that unions have been the largest donors to dimocrats for many many years.

Yes, get rid of those darn unions of the police and firemen...

 

[blastoff]

Represent? I dunno, seems like a strange word to use IMO.

How about 'support' instead? Support in the sense that unions have been the largest donors to dimocrats for many many years.

Yes, get rid of those darn unions of the police and firemen...

Be a darn good start.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

Support in the sense that unions have been the largest donors to dimocrats for many many years.

Yeah no shit, they aren't going to donate to the party trying to destroy them, are they?

 

[blastoff]

Support in the sense that unions have been the largest donors to dimocrats for many many years.

Yeah no shit, they aren't going to donate to the party trying to destroy them, are they?

Being low info dimocarats I wouldn't put anything past them.

 

[midcan5]

We drive a mobile add for the American worker and the nation, what do you drive.

"With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed." Clarence Darrow

"Corporate propaganda directed outwards, that is, to the public at large, has two main objectives: to identify the free enterprise system in popular consciousness with every cherished value, and to identify interventionist governments and strong unions (the only agencies capable of checking a complete domination of society by corporations) with tyranny, oppression and even subversion. The techniques used to achieve these results are variously called 'public relations', 'corporate communications' and 'economic education'." Alex Carey 'Taking the Risk out of Democracy' [see also Home | MIT Video ]


Imagine if Walmart workers made just a bit more. "[T]he new welfare queens are even bigger, richer and less deserving of taxpayer support. The two biggest welfare queens in America today are Wal-Mart and McDonald's." How McDonald's and Wal-Mart Became Welfare Queens - Bloomberg


"UAW members work at more than two dozen major automotive suppliers at locations across the United States. The downturn in auto sales which took place in 2008 and 2009 has caused a great deal of economic hardship among workers in the auto supply industry. UAW members in this sector, through their collective bargaining power, have had much greater success in protecting jobs, income, health care and pensions than workers at non-union suppliers.

To assist workers in the auto supply industry and related manufacturing companies in maintaining the highest possible standard of wages and benefits, the UAW Competitive Shops/Independents, Parts and Suppliers (CS/IPS) Department assists local union negotiators in bargaining national agreements with parts and supplier companies, which typically cover agreements at multiple facilities of the same employer." Parts workers: A key part of UAW?s future | UAW

http://www.uaw.org/sites/default/files/2014vehicles.pdf
Buy Union


I realize your loyalty is with your native countries, Japan, Korea, and Germany, but for the Japanese posters above, Toyota was tops the last few years. Listen guys I understand your love of country, we Americans love ours too and try our best to build and buy and support fellow Americans. I also think it great you support the unions in Japan Korea and Germany, Germany union workers make twice as much as Americans so you Germans must be very proud.

"For the second year in a row, Toyota led the nation with the most vehicles recalled: nearly 5.3 million in 2013.

The cars and trucks from Toyota and its Lexus brand were among the almost 22 million vehicles recalled last year in 632 recalls, according to figures released on Monday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That figure compares with nearly 16.4 million vehicles recalled in 2012 in 581 actions and is the highest number since 2004, when recalled vehicles hit 30.8 million."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/a...ays-22-million-vehicles-recalled-in-2013.html

How Germany Builds Twice As Many Cars As The U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice As Much - Forbes

"In every society, manufacturing builds the lower middle class. If you give up manufacturing, you end up with haves and have-nots and you get social polarization. The whole lower middle class sinks." Vaclav Smil

'Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing' Vaclav Smil [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Made-USA-Retreat-American-Manufacturing/dp/0262019388/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing: Vaclav Smil: 9780262019385: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]


For those who want to learn.

'The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives' Sasha Abramsky
'The Betrayal of the American Dream Hardcover' Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele
'The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America' George Packer
'To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise' Bethany Moreton
'Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal' Kim Phillips-Fein
'Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming' Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. M. Conway
'The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy' Albert O. Hirschman
'The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin' Corey Robin
'Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West' by John Ralston Saul


Buy American - we drive an ad for America what do you drive? The Level Field Institute

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[Luddly Neddite]

 

[Luddly Neddite]

 

[blastoff]

Neener...neener...neeeener! Some of us have earned more money than others, and isn't that just too bad for them. Envy...jealousy...just wallow in it you dopes because your only hope is to win a friggin' lottery some day.

 

[jasonnfree]

You will of course be called a jealous leftard by the right wing, and if you worked as hard and as smart as this walmart guy, you'd be a multibillionaire also. They'll forget to add that it helps a little bit to inherit a few billion.

 

[jasonnfree]

Neener...neener...neeeener! Some of us have earned more money than others, and isn't that just too bad for them. Envy...jealousy...just wallow in it you dopes because your only hope is to win a friggin' lottery some day.

Right on cue with a programmed response.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

The NYT has no idea.

The New York Times (6/4/14) took a look at one of the economic puzzles of the last few decades: If growth has been strong, why aren't we seeing a greater reduction in poverty? Interestingly, the research the Times is relying on offers some explanations–ones the paper doesn't see fit to mention.

Writing Unions Out of the Story on Fighting Poverty

Yes..........tell me again how they represent the left.

Democrat American Dream: When you're not unemployed, you can work for Minimum wage

 

[Manonthestreet]

Unions might be in better shape if they actually represented theiir workers instead of themselves....just like govt is disconnected from the people same with unions.