It's about Jobs that create the Standard of Living

Only losers, apologists, and excuse makers don't get this. We've been on this road to nowhere for far too long.

If we create more jobs, then the issue will focus on the supply and availability of labor versus now where it focuses on the supply and availability of jobs. When you create more jobs income naturally rises. And I am not talking about servant sector jobs. I am talking about production/creation.

It is that simple. These arguments that the problems in this country center on overregulation are overstated. The issues of overregulation are affected by fear of law suits. We need Torte Reform. We have needed that for decades. I don't see anyone making a move to bring that about, because most of the people running this country are lawyers.

We have to have regulations, because the corporate culture has not worked in the interest of America. We cannot deregulate our economy to mimic Developing Nation economies. Do you want our environment to be like that of a Third World country? Will our economic fortunes rise, if our wages match those of China and India and other developing nations? We have to demand that their standards match ours or we don't let their products in the country if they compete against our labor force and they are cutting corners.

I see these statistics about college graduates finding work versus high school and lower attainment not finding jobs. What those stats never delve into is underemployment. College graduates with degrees that are doing menial labor and who are qualified to do much more technical work. And I have shown you articles and stats that show retirees staying in the workforce and staying in management positions. They say the younger generations aren't qualified. Well, it's hard to be qualified when you aren't given the opportunity to move up the ladder.

The piousness and self sanctification of so many of the Baby Boomers does more than frustrate the younger generations. We hold our grandparents and great grandparents in high esteem. They fought their way through Depressions and World Wars to bring this country into its Golden years and the Boomers have frittered it into an Economic Depression and they are in a drunken stupor of denial about what it is going to take to get us out of it.

It is going to take people really working together and looking out for one another in a spiritually meaningful way to move forward. Dog eat Dog and I've got mine, you get yours are what have brought us to the point that we are at today. That is not what this country was built on.

Take heed, no one man is going to be able to change the country. For far too long we have seen big blown soliloquies  that never develop into fruitful endeavors. We see politicians looking out for their own interests instead of those of the people. Whomever is elected to the next term of the Presidency and all of the other offices near and far, big and small, it takes working together in a meaningful way to make things happen. It takes working together for the people you are supposed to represent to move things forward. It takes courage to make things happen. It takes more than words to make things happen. It takes action to make things happen.

Don't talk about it be about it!

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- November 4, 2012

Job Creation Under Barack Obama: Less Than Meets The Eye? - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden November 3, 2012 - In the aftermath of yesterday's better than expected jobs number there have been many analyses in the media on both sides of the aisle, either attacking or defending Obama's track record in creating jobs. All have come up with arguments which according to their authors, are solid and defensible. There is one analysis, however, which is missing, and that is a follow up of what we showed yesterday in "Chart Of The Day: America's Geriatric Work F(a)rce."  In it we demonstrated the very much "under the radar" schism of America's workforce since the NBER-defined official end of the recession in June 2009 into the "haves", or those above 55, who have been able to get a job since the end of the recession, and the "have nots", or all those in the labor force who have not been able to find a job. So how does this data look when extended to the beginning of Obama's term, or the 46 full months starting with his inauguration in January 2009, and continuing through the latest, October 2012 data point. The chart is presented below; you decide.                      In summary: while those in the 55-69 age group have gained nearly 4 million jobs under President Obama, everyone else has lost just over 2.5 million.              In other words, those aged 55 and over should be scrambling for "4 more years." Everyone esle... perhaps not so much.

Chart Of The Day: America's Geriatric Work F(a)rce - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden - November 2, 2012 -The traditional excuse apologists for America's collapsing labor force participation rate use every month is that due to "demographics" and retiring baby boomers, increasingly more old workers are no longer counted by the BLS and as a result, are skewing the labor force. That's where they leave it because digging into details is not really anyone's forte anymore. This would be great if it was true. It isn't.                            A month ago in "55 And Under? No Job For You" we presented visually and quite simply that of the 3.3 million jobs "created" (updated for October's data), a gasp-inducing 3.8 million has gone to workers aged 55 and over, or the one cohort that according to conventional wisdom is retiring, and actively leaving the workforce. How can America's elderly workers account for more than the total? Simple: workers in the young (16-19) and prime (25-54) cohorts have cumulatively lost a whopping 1.3 million, with just the 25-54 age group losing 842,000 jobs (don't believe us: spot check it right here courtesy of the Fed).                           In other words, America's edlerly are not only not in a rush to retire, they are reentering the workforce (thanks to the Chairman's genocidal savings policy which has just rendered the value of all future deposits worthless thanks to ZIRP), and in doing so preventing younger workers, in their prime years, from generating incremental jobs.                                 And nowhere is this more visible than in today's jobs report. On the surface, the US generated a whopping 413,000 jobs (after generating a massive 873,000 last month) according to the Household Survey in October. That's great, unfortunately breaking down this cumulative addition by age cohort confirms precisely what we have said: all the jobs are going to old workers, who have zero wage bargaining leverage (as they just want to have a day to day paycheck). To wit: when broken down by age group, the total October increase shows that of the new jobs, 10.7% went to those aged 16-19 (source), 11.6% went to those aged 20-24 (source), a tiny 9.8% went to the prime agr group: 25-54 (source), and a massive 67.8% went to America's baby boomers: those aged 55 and over (source), and who refuse to leave the workforce and make way for others.

Food Stamp Growth 75X Greater than Job Creation - The Weekly Standard - Daniel Halper - November 2, 2012 - With the latest jobs report, it is now the case that "Under Obama, Food Stamp Growth [Is] 75 Times Greater Than Job Creation," according to statistics compiled by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee. "For Every Person Added to Jobs Rolls Since January 2009, 75 People Added To Food Stamp Rolls." Here's a chart detailing the growth:

October Jobs Report Shows Incomes Continuing to Decline - Newsbusters.org - Noel Sheppard - November 02, 2012 - One of the negative features of the current economic recovery has been declining incomes of average Americans. This trend continued in October.                      The Labor Department reported Friday that despite 171,000 jobs being added to nonfarm payrolls in October, average hourly earnings for such employees edged down by 1 cent to $23.58.
Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees also dropped by 1 cent to $19.79.                        This continues a trend reported by the Census Bureau in August finding that since the recovery began in June 2009, median household incomes have fallen 4.8 percent adjusted for inflation.                    Also of note, the manufacturing workweek edged down by 0.1 hour to 40.5 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls also edged down by 0.1 hour to 33.6 hours.                 As such, despite the positive headline numbers in this report, this is by no means a strong jobs market this far into an economic recovery.             



America's best job creators are slowing down - Fortune through CNN Money - Nin-Hai Tseng - October 31, 2012 - We're only halfway through earnings season, but it's clear corporate America is struggling. After seeing remarkable growth amid a shaky economy, U.S. companies expect a decline in year-over-year earnings for the first time in three years. And Sandy's economic toll certainly won't help most companies.                             As big companies brace for tougher times ahead, the niche market of mid-sized firms expect trouble, too, as a blast of tax hikes and spending cuts threaten to weigh on earnings, according to a survey by the National Centre for the Middle Market at Ohio State University. This suggests another piece of bad news for the job market, given that in the years following the Great Recession, mid-sized companies created more jobs than most other companies. 


Without Electricity, New Yorkers on Food Stamps Can’t Pay for Food - Color Lines - Jorge Rivas - Thursday, November 1 2012 - It’s been more than three days since power went out in many parts of New York City, including the Lower East Side where multi-story public housing complexes like the La Guardia Houses don’t have electricity, heat or water.                    Many of the residents are also without food.                 Many of the low-income residents receive cash and supplemental nutritional assistance from the state electronically through what the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance calls Electronic Benefit Cards (EBT.)                      Recipients buying eligible foods are suppose to swipe their EBT cards like any other credit card for their purchases but since Hurricane Sandy hit, most Lower East Side stores don’t have electricity to run credit card transactions and are only accepting cash. Leaving many people on EBT with empty wallets, empty refrigerators and no access to food.                   “The supermarkets don’t even really want to sell anything. They’re open but if you don’t have cash, you messed up. And everybody in these projects, they take EBT…food stamps,” a La Guardia Houses resident told WNYC’s Marianne McCune.                 Listen to Marianne McCune from the La Guardia Houses below and visit WNYC.org to read her story.
 

Save the Bees

 

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) - (Wikipedia) - is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear. While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, the term colony collapse disorder was first applied to a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006.^[1] Colony collapse is significant economically because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by bees; and ecologically, because of the major role that bees play in the reproduction of plant communities in the wild.                 European beekeepers observed similar phenomena in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain,^[2] and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree^[3] while the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%.^[4]                Multiple possible causes of CCD have been identified. In 2007, some authorities attributed the problem to biotic factors such as Varroa mites and insect diseases (i.e., pathogens^[5] including Nosema apis and Israel acute paralysis virus).^[6][7] Other proposed causes include environmental change-related stresses,^[8] malnutrition, pesticides (e.g.. neonicotinoids such as clothianidin and imidacloprid^[9][10][11]), and migratory beekeeping. More speculative possibilities have included both cell phone radiation^[12][13] and genetically modified (GM) crops with pest control characteristics.^[14][15]


Controversy Deepens Over Pesticides and Bee Collapse - Wired Magazine - Brandon KeimEmail - April 6, 2012 -         controversial new study of honeybee deaths has deepened a bitter dispute over whether the developed world’s most popular pesticides are causing an ecological catastrophe.                     Researchers led by biologist Chensheng Lu of Harvard University report a direct link between hive health and dietary exposure to imidacloprid, a so-called neonicotinoid pesticide linked to colony collapse disorder, the mysterious and massive die-off of bees across North America and Europe.                          The study isn’t without critics, who say doses used in the study may be unrealistically high. But the level of a realistic dose is also a matter of controversy, and even critics say the findings are troubling.                  “Our result replicates colony collapse disorder as a result of pesticide exposures,” said Lu, who specializes in environmental exposures to pesticides. “We need to look at our agriculture policy and see if what we’re doing now is sustainable.”                   Developed in the 1990s as a relatively less-toxic alternative to pesticides that seriously harmed human health, neonicotinoids soon became the world’s fastest-growing pesticide class and an integral part of industrial agricultural strategy. In the United States alone, neonicotinoid-treated corn now covers a total area slightly smaller than the state of Montana.                         Like earlier pesticides, neonicotinoids disrupt insects’ central nervous systems. But unlike earlier pesticides, which affected insects during and immediately after spraying, neonicotinoids spread through the vascular tissues of plants. They’re toxic through entire growing seasons, including flowering times when bees consume their pollen.


Bees Colony Collapse Disorder - Google Articles

Richard Garrison speaks about his Mother's Passing and Grace Hospital

Richard Garrison needed an outlet to speak about his mother's death and the dealings he had with Grace Hospital, in Morganton, in relation to their billing practice in lieu of her passing. I am passing this story along to you and I hope that Grace Hospital will rethink such a practice, and its propriety, during a man's time of mourning.

After a recent experience involving Grace Hospital in Morganton, I am left with dissatisfaction and the loss both of my mom and my ability to grieve that loss. My mom was transported from our home on May 5th, 2012, to Grace Hospital where she was treated for about two hours. Mom later passed away at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.

CMC sent a "regular" bill for the leftover amount due after mom was treated, and DID NOT contact the Mecklenburg County Clerk of Court, if anyone had the reason to they did, but CMC acted in a compassionate manner, as well as sending a sympathy card to me for the grief I was going through.

Grace Hospital wasn't HAPPY with over 9-thousand dollars, they really needed the additional 3-hundred dollars by whatever means they had to get it. Grace Hospital billed Medicare and State Health Plan more than $9500.00 dollars, and received over $9200.00 dollars. Without taking a breath, Grace Hospital FORGOT to send an ordinary, regular bill for what they say was an amount due of $320.31. Instead they ran down to the Burke County Clerk of Court's office and obtained a "claim" against my mom's estate.

The "official" document was delivered to me during the time I was dealing with the loss, mom had been gone only a short period then, and I was trying to organize affairs. I was forced to "STOP" thinking about the loss of my mom, and deal with this issue and when I did, I was further
surprised when an employee at Grace Hospital told me by phone that "She had placed a LIEN against the estate, and I could not close it until the balance was paid" I told her this was not true, and she was stating incorrect information. I confirmed what I told her was true with the local clerk of court the next day.

Since Grace Hospital has a 'KNOWN' reputation of 'selling out' debts to bill collecters before the ink has dried, I went to the hospital and asked to pay the balance. I realize this was not my debt; but I didn't want any additional unnecessary embarrassment. I was told by a cashier that the balance was ONLY $248.61 which is even LESS IMPORTANT than the $320.31 - OR - the loss of a mom or a dad.

I have filed this with the NC Attorney General's Consumer Protection, and I received a response from Grace Hospital by Associate Counsel David Pope, in which he states "this is our policy" The Attorney General's Office says it cannot help me, so now I ask, How can anyone, especially
a community non-profit hospital, act in such a careless and reckless manner, and then justify what they are doing as being acceptable ? On the surface, from a common sense standpoint, is this anywhere near fair, when considering that Grace Hospital is a non-profit community hospital ?

Ode to the Good Ole Boys of NC

Set to the theme of the Dukes of Hazzard - Good Ol' Boys - Waylon Jennings

Just them good ol' boys,
Don't care who they harm,
Beats all you've never saw, been finaglin' with the law since the day they was born.

Helpin themselves,
Laughin' at the shills.
Someday karma might get 'em, but the law never will.

Makin' their way,
The only way they know how,
That's even a little bit more than the law will allow.

You know what it's about,
It's like milk and honey,
Sellin' their soul to the Devil for the love of money,

Just the good ol' boys,
Wouldn't change if they could,
Breakin the system like we knew eventually they would