Working Life

Just hours ago, 25,000 teachers and their supporters massed in Portland, Oregon to demand a fully-funded education system—it’s another moment in the incredible teacher organizing that has swept the country over the past year. With the energy of thousands of revved up teachers pulsing in the background, I chat at the rally with teacher/union leaders, […]

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So true. The country where politicians run around talking about “family values” and never miss a chance to be photographed with a child–while too many of them cut health care for kids and vote for illegal, immoral wars that bankrupt the country and send kids to war (though their own kids never serve–they just give speeches for five-figures in which they say nothing).

Bernie pegs it. And wants to at least create 1 million jobs for young people over the next two years.

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Last week, I posted a piece, suggesting that the current crisis was really about us and the lack of a movement, not about Obama. A number of people reacted, in emails to me, particularly about the Three Grand Myths–and, over the weekend, I heard yet more nonsense on the Three Grand Myths theme. So, I […]

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   I have a good friend who is always sputtering about "how terrible our educational system is because how can people think this?", whatever the preposterous "this" of the moment is. But, I see it differently. Sure, the stupid, mindless invective streaming from FOX News and much of the traditional press is central to framing […]

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    I happened on this one during my Sunday morning check of the West Coast weather (since I have to head out there this week–beach weather? Baseball weather?). California is often cited as the place where national trends start. True or not–here’s some good news: Californians are ready to have taxes raised to preserve a […]

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   Every so-called "free trade" deal that has shimmied its way through Congress has been greased with legalized bribery, starting with NAFTA in 1993, which was the king of all "what will buy your vote" deals. But, the biggest scam, in my opinion, is the "retraining" workers are offered in return for…sacrificing their middle-class livelihood […]

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The jobs crisis is really devastating. We all know the numbers on how many people are out of work. But, the truth is that just calling for more jobs is not enough–because what we lack in the country is GOOD-PAYING JOBS. And wages are not coming back.   The Wall Street Journal reports what many […]

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   I’ve never been sold on the notion of education as the saving grace of this unholy economic system. The problem in the country–and the world–is not that people are not smart enough or that they need to go to college. It’s that we have a system that drives down wages no matter how smart […]

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 My refrain, whenever I hear about the "deficits", is very simple: we have plenty of money. We are the richest nation in human history. The problem is our priorities. And this week it boils down to this: do we want war or do we want teachers who will make our kids ready for the future? […]

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   Three trillion dollars. Think about all the state budgets that could be helped with that money. The teachers, firemen, police officers whose jobs could be preserved. The millions of people we could put back to work during the greatest economic crisis we have faced in generations. Not to mention the lives that could be […]

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