Working Life

If you ever read the real estate section of The New York Times, there’s a section on page 2 called “Big Ticket”…it’s the place where you can read about the most expensive sale of the week, and that usually means something around $30-$40 million. Well, then, no wonder the gap between rich and poor in Manhattan is tops in the country.

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When do we get to the point when the obvious–DUH–doesn’t come as some surprise or revelation to the elites? Probably never when it comes to inequality because they can’t see because they don’t live it. Last week, I wrote about a “Duh”–the G20 being told that higher wages will lift the global economy. Today, it’s the dopes over at Standard & Poor’s who wake up from a slumber–or self-imposed denial.

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I’m all for change happening through action in the streets. But, it doesn’t hurt to send a little tremor into the world of the elites in other ways. And that’s exactly what the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CALPERS) has just done.

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Ok, so, most sane people don’t buy into the idiotic idea that corporations should have the same standing as people. But, right now, thanks to a majority of morons on the Supreme Court, that’s the law. So, fine, then, while we try to close the loopholes on tax inversions, let’s apply a similar standard: the […]

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Just keep in mind this point: every time your favorite consumer company, the one with that very friendly logo, rolls out a new product, its internal corporate machine is getting ready to dodge taxes.

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The other day I wrote about a campaign by the International Trade Union Confederation to push the G20 to make hiking wages the cornerstone of any policy to create a sustained and healthy global economy. The Economist agrees.

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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Burger King’s tax inversion strategy–you know, the clever tax dodge strategy that’s all the rage among the corporate elite because it funnels hundreds of billions of dollars overseas and outside the reach of the IRS. Well, that apparently isn’t the half of it. Burger King has a two-pronged approach to screwing the country–at the waistline and at the bottom line.

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It never ceases to amaze me how, either because they are intentionally trying to mislead people or because they are just dumb/incompetent, “analysts” or public commentators and/or politicians profess to be flummoxed by the weak economy, the stop-and-go nature of growth and economic activity. Well, this isn’t rocket science: when you have an economy powered mostly by consumer spending and people don’t have money to spend, shit won’t get bought…is this not obvious? And that’s the message–the correct one–being delivered this week to the G20.

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Certain things I get no pleasure being right about. Like the lack of jobs. But, hey, I said back in July no one should be celebrating short-term hype on the economy. Sure enough…

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Today, as many people know, fast food workers went on strike, marched and some participated in acts of civil disobedience in support of a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Here are some pics from New York. PLEASE ADD YOUR OWN–EITHER FROM NYC OR OTHER PLACES!   Going to jail for justice Signs of the times: McDonald’s needs […]

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