Working Life

I’ve always avoided those self-checkout machines because those machines basically cost people their jobs — and it always distresses me that those people who still have jobs in those retail stores encourage people to use the self-checkout lines without perhaps realizing what might happen to their job as a result. And now comes the other job killer: phone apps.

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Maybe this falls under the rubric of “don’t blame children for the sins of their parents” and maybe I’m just a wee bit cynical BUT…the president couldn’t find another qualified woman to runs his numbers as his budget chief besides someone who headed up the Wal-Mart Foundation?

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Detroit is about to be savaged — not by the industrial woes that have plagued the city for too many years. Nope, now riding into the city with an axe is an “emergency manager.” And let’s be clear: workers are the target.

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Oh, pity those poor bankers in Europe. Capping their bonuses? What’s next? Having to be honest?

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One of the enduring feats that always amazes me is the way in which liars, fools and manipulators, who are proven to be such, still manage to occupy some space in the public debate and rise from the dead. You remember Arthur Laffer, the man who peddled the phony and discredited “Laffer curve” arguing for lower taxes? Well, he’s baaccck…with another pile of manure to sell.

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Yet another truly foolish installment in the games played by political leaders is playing out with the sequester dance. Please, c’mon, to quote John McEnroe “You can’t be serious.” But, apparently they are.

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Banks and elites will wring their hands. How can those Italians just stick a thumb in our eyes, they’ll say. Well, because real people don’t like austerity — especially when it’s imposed by the very people who made a mess of the economy.

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Just a quick reminder that while it is true that union organizers in many countries are fighting anti-labor laws, not everyone ends up in jail just for being a union organizer. Like Said Elhairech who has now been tossed into jail by the pathetic Moroccan legal system.

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God, the idiots never shut up. Back they come — Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles — with their self-appointed roles as public scolds, trying to sell the public the phony debt and deficit scam. And this time their new “plan” brings in less money which means more cuts.

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I have written over the years about the way in which a lot of government statistics tell us very little about how real people are doing in the economy. To wit: some talking heads and political leaders keep talking talking about a “recovery”. But, that means very little to most people — except, surprise, if you are rich.

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