Sunday, June 01, 2014

Reagan was wrong. Hating the Middle Class supported by union wages is completely wrong.

Reagan was the turning point in the USA. Reagan was the paradigm shift that stood American values on it's head. He said, Labor is getting away with exploitation of every Corporation in this country. 

The came the China invasion and the Bushes pushed the American laborer out of the way. 

The USA economy has always been built most successfully from the bottom up. The minimum wage supports Middle Class incomes by raising the wage standard. It increases circulating capital, increases the wealth of Americans.

The American Minimum Wage raises all boats and strands none.

The best American economy leading to a diminishing impoverishment of the people and increased quality of life is when the Middle Class flourishes and commands the American Dream. The only way to successfully reduce the national debt and deficit is to increase the income of Americans, thus increasing the tax base. The USA economy grows when the majority of Americans do well.

Reagan was completely wrong. Once the money goes to the top it stays there and poverty grows.

The poverty line. When do Americans draw the line on political corruption?

January 1, 1981 increased the minimum wage to all Americans to $3.35.

In 1982 Americans defined poverty of a family of four as $9,300 annually.

Ronald Reagan was took office January 20, 1982. The world for the Middle Class was about to change and for the next eight years, workers rights were under attack. Ronald Reagan was a Wall Street President and the exploitation of cuts to labor, taxes, increased defense spending and deregulation of natural resources made Reagonomics look as if there was a real answer to economic boom.

The minimum wage would not see another increase until he left office and on April Fools Day of 1990 it would be increased to $3.80.

Ronald Reagan taught the USA millionaires that government can be harnessed to create multi-millionaires and billionaires. Today, their are fewer and fewer controlling the global wealth. 

April 1991 - $4.25

October 1, 1996 - $4.75

September 1, 1997 - $5.15

January 2006 - US House receives a majority of Democratic seats.

July 24, 2007 - $5.85

July 24, 2008 - $6.55

July 24, 2009 - $7.25

The US Federal Minimum Wage has not moved for nearly five years and the poverty level in 2014 is $23,850 for a family of four. Wall Street is cleaning out the USA Treasury with food stamps and medicaid and the US Congress does nothing but drop more and more Americans at the doorstep of the USA Treasury. This is the first time in USA history Congress has acted to enrich the Plutocracy and impoverish a vast amount of Americans.

Why didn't the oil crisises of the 1970s crash the US economy?

January 1, 1975 Tier 1 and 2 and Tier 3 non-farm workers would receiver another dime increase in the minimum wage and Tier three farm income would receive 20 cents. Getting the idea the Farm laborers would be meeting equity with all other labor in the country?

Those increases would continue until January 1, 1978 when all laborers were receiving the same minimum wage of $2.65 per hour.

Why was it necessary in the 1970s to pay attention to the nation's minimum wage?

Oil prices.

1973 was the oil embargo among Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) and in 1979 energy crisis began with the Iranian Revolution. Basically, the changes in global availability drove the price up. The automobile was vital to most laborers and the car industry was the backbone of the American economy. So, while the costs of oil rose, the American minimum wage tried to keep pace so people weren't falling behind in their income and wealth. It also kept the American economy from crashing.

All, be darn. There were Congresses that actually put the American people ahead of drastically high Wall Street profits.

And how did Congress ever forget the farm workers?

The farm and non-farm labor wage would depart company on February 1, 1970 when non-farm labor moved from $1.30 per hour to $1.45 per hour. 

Non-farm labor under the third tier of laws would continue until February 1, 1970 when it reached $1.60 and farm labor remained at $1.30 per hour. 

The US economy was still sluggish in the early 1970s. Oddly, that was the time of Nixon. The Vietnam War. The Draft. Nixon didn't resign until August 9, 1974. So, the USA was engaged in this raging war in southeast Asia and the economy was still sluggish. Go figure, huh?

May 1, 1974 Congress threw down the gauntlet and raised all three tiers of people including farm income. Tier 1 and 2 went from $1.60 to $2.00. Tier 3 non-farm income went to $1.90 and farm income went to $1.60 per hour.

Less than a year later Congress would do that again. January 1, 1975 everyone received an 10 cents per hour, except, farm labor would receive 20 cents per hour more.  


The Presidential Medal of Freedom, Jefferson Awards for Public Service and Pacem in Terris Award recipient would already be effecting the lives of Farm Workers. Cesar Chavez found his footing in the mid-1960s and would be in full swing into Texas by 1975,



And the story continues....

See, the amendments of 1961 resulted in the addition of MORE AMERICANS under the minimum wage standard. 

So, while Congress didn't want to continue to raise the minimum wage they did believe an increase in 'circulating capital' would boost the economy. So, they added people to under the law and increased the circulating capital. 

Well, look at that. The 1960s hummed.

September 3, 1963 while President Kennedy was still running the show and demanding civil rights for our minorities the minimum wage for those covered by the original law increased to $1.25 per hour.

September 3, 1964 the minimum wage increased for those Americans covered under the amendments of 1961 to $1.15 per hour. But, you'll guess what happened next. They same folks received another raise on September 3, 1965. No lie. It increased to $1.25 per hour. And look at that graph. True blue. Isn't that the darnest thing.

The War on Poverty is on it's way, but, not quite engaged yet.

There was a war though. Yeah, Vietnam. But, you know, I thought we all had to sacrifice for war, right? "W"rong.

On February 1, 1967 Congress got tired of the different groups of folks so they brought everyone under the same hour wage of $1.40. They would receive another raise on February 1, 1968 to $1.60 an hour. Amazing.

There was another tier of minimum wage laws in 1966. Sure enough. The 1961 expansion of the amendments worked so well, Congress kept right on goin'. The minimum wage laws would now extended coverage to State and local government employees of hospitals, nursing homes, and schools, and to laundries, dry cleaners, and large hotels, motels, restaurants, and farms. 
February of 1967 would bring them a minimum wage of $1.00 per hour. February of 1968 saw a minimum wage to farm and non-farm labor of $1.15 per hour.

Eventually, more amendments extended to the remaining Federal, State and local government employees who were not protected in 1966, to certain workers in retail and service trades previously exempted, and to certain domestic workers in private household employment.

I'll be darn the whole flyin' country was not covered by minimum wage labor laws. Wow. And the economy grew. It must have been that circulating capital stuff, huh?

And the distribution of 'income' continued and the USA continued to respond with growth.

There is that recession in the late 1940s. Hm. 

January 25, 1950 minimum wage increased to 75 cents per hour.

But, there is a war. The Korean War would begin June 25, 1950. It would continue until July 27, 1953. 

Another dip in the economy followed the end of the war. 

Guess what? Increase in minimum wage on March 1, 1956 to $1.00 per hour. The economy would return to the blue lines and it would once again begin to flounder in 1958.

Hm. 

September 3, 1961 the minimum wage law would receive attention. There would be two standards now  

The 1938 Act applied to employees engaged in interstate commerce or in the production of goods for interstate commerce. Those minimum wages would increase to $1.15 per hour.
 

The 1961 Amendments extended coverage primarily to employees in large retail and service enterprises as well as to local transit, construction, and gasoline service station employees. These new additions to the law would begin at $1.00 per hour.

Take a good look now.

What happened to the USA economy after the minimum wage was set?

Well, look at that, it went from red to blue. I'll be darn. All that spending to improve the country and a minimum wage to be sure the majority of the nation was eating. Wow.

There was a war though.

November 1940
Franklin Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented third term as president, defeating Wendell Willkie. FDR's victory is seen as proof of the nation's support of his war policies. Roosevelt lobbies Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act, which will aid Britain in its struggle to fend off Germany.
In little over a year, following Japan's December 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. will enter the war in the Pacific and in Europe. The war effort will jump-start U.S. industry and effectively end the Great Depression.

War, OMG. We have to sacrifice and the country needs all the money in the treasury and Wall Street has to flourish to keep all those war machines coming.

February 4, 1939 - Yalta Conference - Post war Germany was handled by the allies and Russia would join the war with Japan.

October 24, 1939 - Minimum wage increased to 30 cents per hour.

Japan surrenders to USA September 2, 1945.

October 24, 1945 - Minimum wage increased to 40 cents per hour.

When did the mimium wage begin?

By Jonathan Grossman

On Saturday, June 25, 1938, to avoid pocket (click here) vetoes 9 days after Congress had adjourned, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 121 bills. Among these bills was a landmark law in the Nation's social and economic development -- Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). Against a history of judicial opposition, the depression-born FLSA had survived, not unscathed, more than a year of Congressional altercation. In its final form, the act applied to industries whose combined employment represented only about one-fifth of the labor force. In these industries, it banned oppressive child labor and set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents, and the maximum workweek at 44 hours...

1938? That is crazy. It was one of the worst economic times in USA history.

The first minimum wage was set on October 24, 1938 at 25 cents per hour.  Poverty level at that time was still not known. The War on Poverty because the definition of what poverty in the USA looked like and that wasn't until the 1960s.

FDR asks Congress to authorize $3.75 billion in federal spending to stimulate the sagging economy. Economic indicators respond favorably over the next few months. Still, unemployment will remain high and is predicted to stay that way for some time.

Reagan the hatchet man.

This graph (click here) is not in perspective, but, it clearly illustrates what Wall Street was doing over the last century.

Interestingly, at the time in the late 1970s when median family income fell and poverty increased the Dow Jones began to launch into hyperspace.

It was after Reagan entered office and he deregulated everything the DOW rose over 1000. It was called Reagonomics. It was not much more than standard Republican economics. Raiding natural resources and calling it an economy. Cutting taxes and calling it economic progress. But, the real Reagan 'kicker' to the economy was massive amounts of spending on "peace time defense spending." Reagan's "Peace through Strength" increased military spending by 40%.

Wall Street loved the guy. At the same time Reagan assaulted unions with the Air Controllers Strike and the USA wage started it's stagnation and decline. The Middle Class was under assault, but, it didn't feel like it yet. 

The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the1,000 mark yesterday (click here) for the first time in history.
It finished at 1,003.16 for a gain of 6.09 points in what many Wall Streeters consider the equivalent of the initial breaking of the four-minute mile.
"This thing has an obvious psychological effect," declared one brokerage-house partner. "It's a hell of a news item. As for the perminence of it -- well, I just don't know."
Last Friday, the Dow surpassed 1,000 during the course of a day's trading, but it fell back below the landmark figure by thew end of the session....

When the USA determines poverty level, they are definately poverty.


















In 1963, food was the beginnings of the definition of poverty. The poverty threshold was defined by the minimum food diet. 

Today, that is still viewed as a valid perspective, but, applied with today's dollars. Basically the CPI (consumer price index) helps define poverty.

There is also a second level of measurement in the USA beginning in 2009 called the SPM (The Supplemental Poverty Measure). It is somewhat more realistic in that more needs are applied. 

Before Conservatives get all bent out of shape and try to say the government is being robbed by carpetbaggers, this is an additional measure. It does nothing to determining the poverty threshold.

The SPM started to look at the fact labor, wages and poverty were all related. It takes labor and wages to raise people out of poverty. So, poverty doesn't happen in a bubble and isolated from the rest of society. 2008 saw the largest recession in USA history. We were on the verge of a depression and quite possible an irretrievable. By incorporating many aspects of economics and poverty, the storm could be headed off.

In 2010, an Interagency Technical Working Group (click here) (which included representatives from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Census Bureau, the Economics and Statistics Administration, the Council of Economic Advisers, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and OMB) issued a series of suggestions to the Census Bureau and BLS on how to develop a Supplemental Poverty Measure. Their suggestions drew on the recommendations of a 1995 National Academy of Science report and the extensive research on poverty measurement conducted over the past 15 years. The official poverty measure, which has been in use since the 1960s, estimates poverty rates by looking at a family's or an individual's cash income. The new measure will be a more complex statistic incorporating additional items such as tax payments and work expenses in its family resource estimates. Thresholds used in the new measure will be derived from Consumer Expenditure Survey expenditure data on basic necessities (food, shelter, clothing and utilities) and will be adjusted for geographic differences in the cost of housing. Unlike the official poverty thresholds, the new thresholds are not intended to assess eligibility for government programs. Instead, the new measure will serve as an additional indicator of economic well-being and will provide a deeper understanding of economic conditions and policy effects.

The Poverty Threshold

The poverty thresholds are the original version of the federal poverty measure, which was developed by Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration in the 1960s. Updated each year by the Census Bureau, the thresholds are used mainly for statistical purposes–for example, preparing the estimates of the number of Americans in poverty for each year's poverty report. The measure was devised to define and quantify poverty in America, and thereby provide a yardstick for progress or regress in antipoverty efforts, and in that sense has served the nation well.

The 1960s "War on Poverty" was real. It was a serious attempt by the USA government to bring poverty to a near end. This is Mollie. She was an economist. Her responsibility was to determine what is poverty and what is not poverty.

The War on Poverty was not a rhetorical political slogan. It was real. 

Mollie died in 2006 when the poverty rate was 12.3 percent. 

Following the War on Poverty a couple of things happened. Median Household Income rose and the poverty rate fell. The poverty rate fell and then leveled off until the late 1970s. Oddly enough at the very same time poverty increased the median household income declined.

The late 70s was after the end of the Nixon era and the close of the Vietnam War. Does an economy justify war? I would hope not. 

Returning GIs, far fewer orders to Bell Helicopter for machines, but, racism was still a reality in the USA.
 

C.R.E.A.M. is the reality they understand. The real question is was it a choice?

 Oh, this graph? You don't know it? Really? The USA GDP from 1923 to 2008.

It is like the Hockey Stick graph; after a while it is recognizable and you know exactly what worked and what didn't work during all this time. I mean every economist understands all this, right? The life and times and what changed everything. No? Ah, come on, every Larry Summers who can't find his way to Main Street if his paycheck depended on it knows this.
It's Sunday Night

Most of the Wu-Tang have FBI files, right?

"C.R.E.A.M." by Wu-Tang Clan (click here)

(Cash Rules Everything Around Me C.R.E.A.M. get...)

Yeah, check this ol fly shit out
Word up

(Cash Rules Everything Around Me)

Take you on a natural joint

(C.R.E.A.M. get the money)

Here we here we go (dolla dolla bill y'all)

 Check this shit, yo! 

[Verse One: Raekwon the Chef]

I grew up on the crime side, the New York Times side
Staying alive was no jive
Had second hands, moms bounced on old man
So then we moved to Shaolin land
A young youth, yo rockin the gold tooth, 'Lo goose
Only way, I begin to G' off was drug loot
And let's start it like this son, rollin with this one
And that one, pullin out gats for fun
But it was just a dream for the teen, who was a fiend
Started smokin woolies at sixteen
And running up in gates, and doing hits for high stakes
Making my way on fire escapes
No question I would speed, for cracks and weed
The combination made my eyes bleed
No question I would flow off, and try to get the dough off
Sticking up white boys in ball courts
My life got no better, same damn 'Lo sweater
Times is rough and tough like leather
Figured out I went the wrong route
So I got with a sick tight clique and went all out
Catchin keys from across seas
Rollin in MPV's, every week we made forty G's
Yo brothas respect mine, or anger the tech nine
Ch-POW! Move from the gate now 

[Chorus (2X): Method Man] 

Cash Rules Everything Around Me
C.R.E.A.M.
Get the money
Dollar, dollar bill y'all 

[Verse Two: Inspectah Deck] 

It's been 22 long hard years and still strugglin
 Survival got me buggin, but I'm alive on arrival
I peep at the shape of the streets
And stay awake to the ways of the world cause shit is deep
A man with a dream with plans to make C.R.E.A.M.
Which failed; I went to jail at the age of 15
A young buck sellin drugs and such who never had much
Trying to get a clutch at what I could not touch
The court played me short, now I face incarceration
Pacin', going up state's my destination
Handcuffed in back of a bus, 40 of us
Life as a shorty shouldn't be so rough
But as the world turns I learned life is Hell
Living in the world, no different from a cell
Everyday I escape from Jakes givin chase, sellin base
Smokin bones in the staircase
Though I don't know why I chose to smoke sess
I guess that's the time when I'm not depressed
But I'm still depressed, and I ask what's it worth?
Ready to give up so I seek the Old Earth
Who explained working hard may help you maintain
to learn to overcome the heartaches and pain
We got stickup kids, corrupt cops, and crack rocks
and stray shots, all on the block that stays hot
Leave it up to me while I be living proof
To kick the truth to the young black youth
But shorty's running wild, smokin sess, drinkin beer
And ain't trying to hear what I'm kickin in his ear
Neglected for now, but yo, it gots to be accepted
That what? That life is hected 

[Chorus - 3X] 

Cash Rules Everything Around Me
C.R.E.A.M.
get the money
Dolla dolla bill y'aauhhhaaaauhhhhahhhauhhhhll, YEAH

The Governor vs The Beetle

Boston—Monday, May 12, 2014
Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary 

Patrick Administration Declares Asian Long Horn Beetle Eradicated in Boston (click here)

Rick Sullivan joined Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Commissioner Jack Murray and officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to announce the eradication of the invasive
Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) in Boston. Boston is only the sixth area in the United States to have an ALB infestation eradicated.... 

Detecting Signs and Symptoms of Asian Longhorned Beetle Injury Training Guide (click here)

This is not good. People of all ages need to be physically active with cardiovascular health.

May 28, 2014
By Nancy Shute 

If you think that teenagers are becoming weaklings, you're right. (click here)
Less than half of youths ages 12 to 15 are even close to being aerobically fit, according to data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That's down from 52 percent of youths in 1999 to 2000, the last time this survey was conducted. It measures "adequate" levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, which children need not only for sports but for good health.
And that was true regardless of a child's race and family income....

Every woman beautiful and every man dashing. (click here)

True story. I was raised to accept people as they are and not as some image of them 'should' be. I had a very rich life because of it and never lost an opportunity to make friends and expand my life experiences.

Ready for this? My best friend at High School graduation was the Valedictorian of our class. We had fun. We also had great boyfriends and never missed a minute of happiness. My boyfriend was on the track team and her's was a musician.

Me? Equestrian. No whips, spurs and rode to fences. My four legged friend was an athlete. He had other four legged friends. His name was "Oat Scoot." Quarter Horse registry. Retired race horse at the age of seven years old. Her? Gymnastics. Uneven parallels. We were busy people and had a ton of friends. No drugs.

No excuses for men and women of any body shape or size. Americans are great at being spectators. Whatever happened to the seventh inning stretch?

The 7th Inning Stretch - A Historical Perspective by Michael Aubrecht (click here)



 ...The first (and more popular) retort that has been presented by countless baseball historians gives sole credit to the 27th President of the United States, William Howard Taft. One of America's less memorable leaders, Taft was an obese man, tipping the scales at over 300 pounds, and probably spent more fervor on following his favorite game of baseball than he did on running the country. Also credited with being the first U.S. President to throw out the first pitch, Taft attended the Opening Day game against the Washington Senators and Philadelphia Athletics on April 14, 1910 at Griffith Stadium.
 
   According to reports, as the game continued to drag on, the six-foot-two president grew increasingly uncomfortable in the small wooden chair that was no doubt weaning under the weight of its presidential patron. By the middle of the seventh-inning, Taft was unable to bear the pain any longer and stood up to stretch his aching legs. In those days, the leader of the free world commanded a tremendous amount of reverence and as his fellow spectators noticed him rising, they followed his lead as a sign of respect. A few minutes later, Taft returned to his seat and the game resumed.


  Thus the Seventh-Inning Stretch was born! True? Maybe - maybe not. As often happens with the constant research and rewriting of history, experts sometimes come upon less romantic tales that may be more accurate, but ultimately less entertaining....


A homeless and aged photojournalist needs help.


We have gotten a few resources to Scott, (click here) which have helped for immediate needs. Everything is moving in positive directions, which is why we are now asking for your help.
  1. Scott needs a place to stay, a place to sleep out of the cold. We are looking at SRO availability in the city.
  2. He has not had dental work done in quite awhile and needs extensive dental work done.
  3. He needs a therapist to start helping him deal with his losses and get back to feeling worthwhile, until we can get his medicaid set up.
  4. He needs a small budget so he is assured of a meal each day.
We are hoping with your help, we can make those plans a reality. Scott is even optimistic about getting back into his photography work. We will keep you posted as we move along.
            

He did not say this.

While helping rally support for Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst (you know, the woman who "grew up castrating hogs"), the Des Moines Register reports that Mitt Romney said: "She didn't just sit at home needle-pointing, as you know, she was doing some work on the farm — squealing work on the farm."

We know what the squealing reference was about. And, of course, Romney said a lot of other stuff that won't make any headlines. But some in the press seized on the needle-pointing line, and it's worth asking why....

TheNational NeedleArts Association (TNNA) (click here) and Hart Business Research presented awards and prizes to the winners of the 4th annual TNNA Business Innovation Awards on May 3, 2014. The judges evaluated applications based upon measurable or forecast impact of the initiative and usefulness of application as a case study for others. The judges awarded over $12,000 in prizes in four categories.