Entropy strikes dying empire: "exhaustion"

[cyborg]

"Something's going on in the workforce that hasn't happened before and its making people sick," she says.

We discuss the probable causes: a move to a 24/7 work culture, more time spent at our desks due to over-reliance on email and a more contract based, short term work force that feel insecure in the workplace -- and thus less likely to take breaks.

"Everyone's also a lot more exhausted," she says.

Social change is easy to recognize in retrospect but in the thick of this revolution of how we work, it's hard to know what the fall out will be. Globalization, new technology and the relaxation of lab our laws have lead to changes in how we work. These changes in turn impact on our health and not always for the best.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/05/21/exhuastion.main/index.html

Orienting life around money and popularity makes most of us sick.

[Macrobius]

American work culture has seen the growth of 'upper management' lifestyle downwards into the tech sector. It used to be you had to live that lifestyle (the sort that caused mid-level execs to keel in their 50s) only if you were desperately ambitious to reach the top. Now you have to do that if you wish to be employed (or keep your two-income house). What's not to understand? Conditions for maintaining the American 'middle class lifestyle' even on two incomes are hostile and the middle class is approaching a choice of desperate effort or collapse to an inferior status. Since most people are ambitious enough to try to maintain their living level, but not adventurous enough to strike out in new directions, the net result is not unlike a slow motion famine -- increase in health problems, falling life expectancies as to duration and quality, followed, if no relief occurs, by collapse and die-off. The only long term solution for the middle class is the hard one: 'to not do that'.

Eventually the only option will be change -- internal migration, change of lifestyle. Oil prices will probably be the driving factor in the short term, as the money to be extracted from the suburban commuting lifestyle is very sensitive to it. Expect government subsidies in covert or overt form, not unlike farming supports. The other direction of response is the 'Edge City' phenomenon, which is of long standing -- the development of short commutes to sub-centers, usually located around the bypass of an urban area.

[cyborg]

Americans are working harder than ever before. The dogged pursuit of
the paycheck coupled with a 24/7 economy has thrust many of us onto a
never-ending treadmill. But of workaholism’s growing wounded, its
greatest casualty has been practically ignored — the planet.

“We now seem more determined than ever to work harder and produce more
stuff, which creates a bizarre paradox: We are proudly breaking our
backs to decrease the carrying capacity of the planet,” says Conrad
Schmidt, an internationally known social activist and founder of the
Work Less Party, a Vancouver-based initiative aimed at moving to a
32-hour work week — a radical departure from the in early, out late
cycle we’ve grown accustomed to. “Choosing to work less is the biggest
environmental issue no one’s talking about.”

http://www.relocalize.net/why_working_less_is_better_for_the_globe

Loss of biodiversity, increased scarcity and rising prices makes most of us sick.

[omni]

I was just thinking about this before. There is an absurd emphasis on productivity in American life, where everything is like a big "to-do" list that goes on forever. This is also dangerous coupled with consumerism which tells people that they can never have enough; so you get a bunch of individuals running around and working as many hours as it takes to support their lifestyle, then likely running around and spending money on useless junk whenever they get some free time. It's a vicious cycle that will consume you entirely if you're not careful. There used to at least be a "rest day" on Sunday because it coincided with the Christian Sabbath, now you have stores open later on Sundays, so more people are having to work then and people are coming in to buy things on the weekends because that's when they usually have more time. The economic sphere is growing, while the public sphere has virutally disappeared because everyone is so busy producing, then locking themselves inside with their toys (plenty of forms of personal escapism are available) in the few free hours they have.

[cyborg]

This is an interesting article that claims that any new business in a town only increases the unemployment because it brings in more people than the available work and the costs of development affect the local population. Suppose the equilibrium unemployment rate in a community and across the country is 5%. A company comes into the community, builds a factory, and starts hiring people. This reduces the local unemployment rate to, say, 3%. Then people from the outside move into the community to take jobs so that the unemployment rate is returned to its equilibrium value of 5%. But because the population of the community has grown, the number of unemployed people is now 5% of the larger population. When the equilibrium unemployment rate is restored, more people are out of work in the community than before. If creating jobs reduced unemployment in cities with a growing population, then each of these cities should now have an unemployment rate that is less than zero. In fact, the unemployment rate in these cities is never far from the national average unemployment rate. Environmental destruction, congestion, crowding and increased taxes result from the increased growth, so contrary to what the promoters say, the growth never pays for itself. David Brower said something like: "Promoting population growth is simply a sophisticated way of stealing from our children." In a city that had a population about 75,000 at the time, a company promised to create 525 new jobs. 60,000 people showed up for the interview! Many of the thousands who came and were not hired stayed in town anyway and were added to the unemployment roles. April 15, 2006 Albert A. Bartlett

http://www.overpopulation.org/

[cyborg]

American men in their 30s earn less than their fathers' generation did at the same age, potentially reversing longtime assumptions that each successive generation will be better off than their predecessors, according to a study released Friday.

Family incomes of thirtysomething men have continued to rise in recent decades, but mostly because more of their wives are working, the study's authors said. Yet even with the addition of women's paychecks, the rate of family income growth has slowed.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-men26may26,0,752934.story?coll=la-home-center

Progress?

[Petr]

Recessional

1897

by Rudyard Kipling

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GOD of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart;
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire;
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard—
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!

[cyborg]

The economy nearly stalled in the first quarter with growth slowing to a pace of just 0.6 percent. That was the worst three-month showing in over four years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070531/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy

We have about six years of approximately the same performance with no end in sight. We can't blame this on the Clinton internet economy bubble like our "conservative" administration attempted in past years. This is the negative output of many persistent effects at work.

[Macrobius]

American men in their 30s earn less than their fathers' generation did at the same age, potentially reversing longtime assumptions that each successive generation will be better off than their predecessors, according to a study released Friday.

Family incomes of thirtysomething men have continued to rise in recent decades, but mostly because more of their wives are working, the study's authors said. Yet even with the addition of women's paychecks, the rate of family income growth has slowed.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-men26may26,0,752934.story?coll=la-home-center

Progress?

One assumption omitted in many analyses is that the US will continue to be a closed economy. An open economy (typical of small countries with many trading partners, or internal administrative districts such as states and municipalities) -- has different macro properties from a closed one.

The US can hardly be considered entirely closed, even as an approximation. China intends to hold 1 Trillion USD (Treasury debt) in a pension fund for its workers. This implies that the two countries will continue to have coordinated economies indefinitely, and that there will never be a 'day of reckoning' in which the dollar gets devalued -- obviously the bondholders would rather have the US a going concern.

Since Treasury Debt is effectively a tax farming operation, it means that the workers who retire in China in 30 years will do so on the backs of workers in America, who will be recycling that debt. This will be an entirely *internal* arrangement -- just like bondholders today tend to be older and more likely to retire on their income. If you hold multiple 10,000 USD T-bills and such (or shares of a mutual fund or pension that invest in them), you tend to be rich, or at least better off than your children. :)

If you thought the Baby Boom retiring was going to put a strain on government obligations and the public debt, just imagine what happens when China does. We didn't have enough babies, so we went and bought ourselves some workers and some boomers. The boomers are in Asia and the workers were just given amnesty. Bush moves to Paraguay and Cheney to Dubai. Get the picture? They're outta Dodge.

[cyborg]

U.S. home foreclosures in May jumped 90% from a year earlier, reflecting a poor spring housing market and foreshadowing even higher levels later in 2007, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Tuesday.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/19193611

Now we are in the "rebounding economy" post-bubble implosion phase like 1999 all over again. We have a rebounding economy every 3-4 months. So did the Soviets.

[Thinker]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070613/bs_afp/useconomybankrate;_ylt=AuNgbOUtDZRrUY72DYe8VBKyBhIF

Fed sees some areas of acceleration in US economy
Wed Jun 13, 3:18 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Some segments of the US economy are picking up strength after a soft patch early this year, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book report Wednesday.

The report, to be used by the central bank at its June 27-28 monetary policy meeting, had a more upbeat tone than those of the past few months of sluggish US economic activity.

The report also suggested inflation is holding in check, with the higher growth pace having little impact on price pressures.

While most of the 12 Federal Reserve district banks reported "modest or moderate" growth, a few suggested slightly better conditions.

The Dallas Fed reported growth as "moderately strong," while Philadelphia reported that growth was "somewhat faster than in recent months," the Beige Book said. The Boston Fed characterized activity as "generally positive."

The Beige Book appeared to confirm most projections that the economy is gaining momentum after the tepid 0.6 percent growth rate in the first quarter.

Many economists see the second-quarter expansion pace accelerating to 3.0 percent and some say 3.5 percent is possible. Wednesday's report showing a 1.4 percent increase in May retail sales added to that optimism, since consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of economic activity.

The Beige Book said its survey showed consumer spending generally stronger in late April and May, but that the results varied considerably by region. Auto sales were relatively steady.

Manufacturing, a weak spot in recent months for the economy, appeared to show some improvement, the Fed said.

In real estate, the main drag on economic activity over the past year, weakness in the residential sector was partly offset by improvement in commercial real estate.

"No district reported an increase in new home construction," the report said, adding that some real estate professionals in the east "anticipate that the weakness in the housing market will last several more months at least."

On the inflation front, the Fed said that overall price pressures remained steady despite higher energy costs.

Aside from other scattered cost increases, "district reports generally did not indicate an increase in overall price pressures," the report said.

The report could ease fears of accelerating inflation that could induce the Fed to tighten monetary policy. Absent any higher inflation, most economists expect the central bank to maintain its federal funds rate of 5.25 percent, where it has been for the past 12 months.

[cyborg]

Prices up, wages down four times in a row is Ministry of Truth's economy acceleration.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumer prices shot up at the fastest pace in 20 months in May, fueled by a surge in gas prices, although inflation pressures were moderate in most other areas.

The Labor Department reported that its closely watched Consumer Price Index registered a 0.7 percent increase last month, the biggest advance since Hurricane Katrina shut down Gulf Coast oil production in the fall of 2005.


The increases in overall inflation have cut into consumers' buying power. The weekly earnings of nonsupervisory workers fell by 0.2 percent in May, after adjusting for inflation, the fourth decline this year.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070615/economy.html?.v=12

[Sulla the Dictator]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/19193611

Now we are in the "rebounding economy" post-bubble implosion phase like 1999 all over again. We have a rebounding economy every 3-4 months. So did the Soviets.

Hmmm.....the problem with that analogy being I didn't spend four hours waiting in line for toilet paper.

[cyborg]

http://www.jessetree.net/images/FoodFair/jtLine-4.jpg

America's destitute millions wait in food lines like this one. There are no jobs and all hope is lost.

[Thinker]

Meanwhile, the biggest health problem in America is actually obesity, not starvation, and your typical American tends to live in a house like this.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5325/stlouis21mt8.jpg

[cyborg]

The most profound health problem in America is found in mind (http://thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3284), not body.

Herd mentality gets us suburbia, a passive reaction to uninhabitable inner city rot, encouraging a cancerous lateral sprawl effect all over the countryside.

Lack of character (http://thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=25450) and discipline get us millions of overweight people who create an needless drag on health care.

Greed gets us cheap toxic crap in our food and drink (http://thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=24910) which destroys our health and kills fertility (http://thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=23548) leading to a needless influx (http://thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=25449) of Third World immigrants.

Absence of all sense of reverence gets us a street thug pop culture (http://thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?p=388300#post388300), thousands of extinct species and a dying natural world.

American modernity is a catastrophe in the making.

[cyborg]

Commerce > Culture = Americans today may make more money than our parents did, but we have fewer friends and are in fact less happy.

Reuters reports on a study presented this week in Italy that “Americans are less happy today than they were 30 years ago thanks to longer working hours and a deterioration in the quality of their relationships with friends and neighbors.” The study found two primary indicators of happiness �" high income and good social relationships. Based on that, “a person with no friends or social relations with neighbors would have to earn $320,000 more each year than someone who did to enjoy the same level of happiness.”

Despite the rise in our salaries over the past 30 years, Americans are now more lonely and mistrusting of others. As a result, we have less social contacts and fewer relationships with our families, friends and neighbors. Our long work hours have also contributed to the social decline, as we become so absorbed by work that we have less time and energy for relationships.

http://pine-magazine.com/content.php?id=822

[omni]

Despite the rise in our salaries over the past 30 years, Americans are now more lonely and mistrusting of others. As a result, we have less social contacts and fewer relationships with our families, friends and neighbors. Our long work hours have also contributed to the social decline, as we become so absorbed by work that we have less time and energy for relationships.

You can also blame the "multicultural" emphasis for this one. Most of us now have little to nothing in common with many of the people living in close proximity to us, therefore there's little reason to form social relationships with them. People now seem to mostly socialize based on where they feel their "identity" falls on the consumer spectrum; similar product choices will allow for social interaction, but there's little reason beyond that...

[Niko Bellic]

Everyone in this thread that's bitching about economic life in America needs to travel the world.

THERE IS NO POVERTY IN AMERICA

[cyborg]

THERE IS NO POVERTY IN AMERICA

There is no end to America's existential poverty (http://thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?p=389357#post389357).

[Warka]

Everyone in this thread that's bitching about economic life in America needs to travel the world.

THERE IS NO POVERTY IN AMERICA

Hogwash. From: http://www.povertyinamerica.psu.edu/2007/02/26/the-nation-we%e2%80%99ve-become/


The Nation We’ve Become

February 26th, 2007 by Dr. Amy K. Glasmeier

For years now, as a nation we have been debating whether the poor are truly poor given their access to material goods such as housing, washing machines, televisions, and cars. In reality, the nature of life for the truly poor is about “not enough”, as in not enough income to eat properly, little access to basic goods such as adequate clothing or shelter and heat. We have finally reached a time when we can all agree that the poor are truly, truly poor. And their numbers are growing rapidly.

Recent Census estimates reveal that the population percentage considered severely poor has reached a 32-year high. Between 2000 and 2005, the percent living at half of poverty-level income increased by 26%. The descent into destitution spares no community or group in society. America’s urban, suburban and rural communities are all witnesses to the growth of what adds up to the “abject poor.”

The abjectly poor in America are individuals living on $5,250 a year. For a family of three, two adults and a child, the level of income is $6,922; for a family of four, $10,222. This level of poverty in comparative terms is only slightly above the poverty line originally set in the 1960s and affords a person little more than food and shelter.

The $5,250 for an abjectly poor individual means a bare bones budget of$437/month. Of that total, no more than $50 is available per week for food, or $7.14 day––about two big Macs and a drink, or 1200-1600 calories a day and 120 grams of fat. The residual income supports a housing expenditure in the same range of $200/month, which in most places in the country yields a bed in a group home, leaving about $37 for incidentals.

Even more sobering is the fact that the number of severely poor is growing rapidly. In 1975 the severely poor were 30% of the population in poverty. Today a dismaying 43% of persons in poverty are severely poor by national standards. But more embarrassing than the share of the poverty population truly poor is the increase in the number of persons descending into severe poverty. While the rate of new entrants moving into poverty is somewhat stable, those who are becoming truly poor are increasing at a rate 56% higher than the growth rate of new entrants into poverty.

No demographic is immune to its reach. The severely poor are more likely to be of working age than young or old, though a large share of the truly poor are children under seventeen. The largest number of abjectly poor are white (two times as many as blacks), but blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately likely to be most affected. Women, the prime target of welfare reform, on a proportionate basis are one third more likely to face deep poverty than men.

No region is untouched by this growth in the number of truly poor. The 15.89 million abjectly poor Americans live predominantly in the South (6.5 million) followed by the West and the Midwest (3.5 and 3.1 million, respectively). States with the highest share of abjectly poor have historically had high poverty levels (e.g., the Delta, Appalachia and the U.S.-Mexico Border). The largest totals are, not surprisingly, in the biggest states, although Georgia and North Carolina are also a part of this august group. States with the fastest rate of growth are some unlikely places––Minnesota, New Hampshire, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin. Previously these states escaped the ranks of the worst in terms of social ills due to progressive policies, investments in education, and tolerant societies. Now even they must question their own policies toward the poor.

Is this evidence of welfare reform gone drastically off course? Are we seeing the consequences of low taxes for high-income individuals and the resulting growth in income inequality? Are we harvesting the seeds planted twenty years ago in the minds of the nation’s citizens that government is the cause rather than the cure for economic insecurity? According to this view, government is the reason that people are poor. Its programs allow them to choose not to work, when in fact programs should be fostering self-sufficiency for all. Like everything associated with poverty, I guess it depends on your point-of-view.

Photographs of Detroit neighborhoods, not 3rd world nations. People live in these areas. There are similar such areas all across America.

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/5227/ham2531vi5.jpg

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/5329/hamgaragejn4.jpg

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/2883/jk7ko9.jpg

This is not poverty?

Photo credits to Andy at http://hotfudgedetroit.com

[Ratatoskur]

Detroit.
Reminds me of:
http://www.macgamer.com/previews/fallout/falloutheader.jpg

[cyborg]

Photographs of Detroit neighborhoods, not 3rd world nations. People live in these areas. There are similar such areas all across America.

Unlike Thinker's fantasy about "most Americans" living a middle class suburbia lifestyle, most Americans now live within urban spaces in various states of decay up to and exceeding what Prac has shown.

In fact, according to a months-old U.N. report, from this year forward, the lives most people in the world will increasingly be contained within the expanding decay of inner city dystopias.

[Niko Bellic]

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/5227/ham2531vi5.jpg

This is not poverty?


That is not poverty. Poverty is when the homes and infrastructure don't even exist, not when it's destroyed by spoiled brat Americans(probably niggers in the case of Detroit) who think more and more should be handed to them by the gummint without any additional effort of their own. If the people there don't like it, they should MOVE. I've made cross country moves twice because of job loss, it sucks, but I have no sympathy for "people" who are content to sit in their own filth while begging for a handout.

The two Polish friends I have were born in Detroit, but their parents moved to Nashville when things went downhill in the old neighborhood, it can be done.

For years now, as a nation we have been debating whether the poor are truly poor given their access to material goods such as housing, washing machines, televisions, and cars. In reality, the nature of life for the truly poor is about “not enough”, as in not enough income to eat properly, little access to basic goods such as adequate clothing or shelter and heat. We have finally reached a time when we can all agree that the poor are truly, truly poor. And their numbers are growing rapidly.

By Dr. Amy Glasmeier.

What country does this bitch live in? When people are that bad off, all they have to do is fill out some paper work and they have all those things provided to them, courtesy of the rest of us who pay taxes.

The abjectly poor in America are individuals living on $5,250 a year. For a family of three, two adults and a child, the level of income is $6,922; for a family of four, $10,222. This level of poverty in comparative terms is only slightly above the poverty line originally set in the 1960s and affords a person little more than food and shelter.

The $5,250 for an abjectly poor individual means a bare bones budget of$437/month. Of that total, no more than $50 is available per week for food, or $7.14 day––about two big Macs and a drink, or 1200-1600 calories a day and 120 grams of fat. The residual income supports a housing expenditure in the same range of $200/month, which in most places in the country yields a bed in a group home, leaving about $37 for incidentals.

I'm curious where these stats come from. Are they counting the income of teenagers who work part time and live with parents? Are they counting college students who work part time to supplement their scholarship and loan money? The only adults who work for a living at such low levels are illegal immigrants who come from places that have REAL poverty, and even this represents a step up for them. Everyone else who is that far down the economic ladder gets gummint assistance, and based on the numbers that are being thrown around here, I have to wonder if that is even being taken into account, or is this just what they might make from odd jobs without counting the welfare benefits as income.

No demographic is immune to its reach. The severely poor are more likely to be of working age than young or old, though a large share of the truly poor are children under seventeen. The largest number of abjectly poor are white (two times as many as blacks), but blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately likely to be most affected. Women, the prime target of welfare reform, on a proportionate basis are one third more likely to face deep poverty than men.

Somehow I glossed over that the first time I read the article. She answers one of my questions.

No region is untouched by this growth in the number of truly poor. The 15.89 million abjectly poor Americans live predominantly in the South (6.5 million) followed by the West and the Midwest (3.5 and 3.1 million, respectively). States with the highest share of abjectly poor have historically had high poverty levels (e.g., the Delta, Appalachia and the U.S.-Mexico Border). The largest totals are, not surprisingly, in the biggest states,

:nopity:

although Georgia and North Carolina are also a part of this august group.

Illegal spics

Minnesota

Somaliscum

New Hampshire

Not sure about that one. Anyone from New Hampshire here?

Idaho,

Illegal spics

Maine

Somaliscum

Michigan

Lazy niggers, and lazy laid off auto workers who actually believe that being a gear shift knob screwer-oner is worth $30/hour with a pension and health care for life, and won't take any job that doesn't promise the same.

Sorry Prac, that's just the way I see it, and I've worked on auto assembly lines. It obviously doesn't apply to you because you got off your ass and are doing something about your situation.

Nevada

Illegal spics

Wisconsin.

Drunk indians who don't have a casino sending them a check every month.

Previously these states escaped the ranks of the worst in terms of social ills due to progressive policies, investments in education, and tolerant societies. Now even they must question their own policies toward the poor.

Ahhhh, don't you just love the price that has to be paid when you have a "tolerant society"?

Is this evidence of welfare reform gone drastically off course? Are we seeing the consequences of low taxes for high-income individuals and the resulting growth in income inequality? Are we harvesting the seeds planted twenty years ago in the minds of the nation’s citizens that government is the cause rather than the cure for economic insecurity? According to this view, government is the reason that people are poor. Its programs allow them to choose not to work, when in fact programs should be fostering self-sufficiency for all. Like everything associated with poverty, I guess it depends on your point-of-view.

Yep, and I like my own point of view better than some pointy headed liberal at Penn State University whose job security already depends on an ever increasing pile of cash being thrown at institutions of higher learning because of the filthy, corrupt NEA, which of all the unions in America, most deserves to have it's back broken, painfully.

[Thinker]

Hogwash. From: http://www.povertyinamerica.psu.edu/2007/02/26/the-nation-we%e2%80%99ve-become/




Photographs of Detroit neighborhoods, not 3rd world nations. People live in these areas. There are similar such areas all across America.

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/5227/ham2531vi5.jpg

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/5329/hamgaragejn4.jpg

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/2883/jk7ko9.jpg

This is not poverty?

Photo credits to Andy at http://hotfudgedetroit.com
That isn't poverty, that's . . . abandoned.

There are no poor people living in those houses - there aren't any people living in those houses at all!

Or at least, not very many.

[Warka]

That isn't poverty, that's . . . abandoned.

There are no poor people living in those houses - there aren't any people living in those houses at all!

Or at least, not very many.

I won't bother arguing with The Ugly American because technically poverty is a relative concept and the debate boils down to semantics (and using his comparison logic I could be just as ridiculous and claim no rich people live in America just because I can point to people in foreign countries who live more extravagantly :rolleyes: ) but I will let you know that people indeed live in such dwellings/conditions as pictured. I'd venture an educated guess that at least 1/4 of Detroit proper looks like that. One can drive for miles seeing nothing but neighborhood after neighborhood like that.

Perhaps you should get outside your shelter and see how "the other half" lives some time- it might provide you with some perspective.

[Warka]

Unlike Thinker's fantasy about "most Americans" living a middle class suburbia lifestyle, most Americans now live within urban spaces in various states of decay up to and exceeding what Prac has shown.

Indeed. The fact that he cannot fathom people living in the conditions I displayed demonstrates how out of touch with reality the cornucopian neo-conservative viewpoint is. The blinders are firmly attached.

[Thinker]

Unlike Thinker's fantasy about "most Americans" living a middle class suburbia lifestyle, most Americans now live within urban spaces in various states of decay up to and exceeding what Prac has shown.

In fact, according to a months-old U.N. report, from this year forward, the lives most people in the world will increasingly be contained within the expanding decay of inner city dystopias.
LOL!!!! That would be funny if it weren't so ignorant and sad.

Why don't you click on some of these links and see how most Americans *really* live. Yes, that's most. Once you start looking at aerials of American cities as much as I have, you realize how truly small the rundown areas are in comparison to the immense amounts of nice, tidy suburbs.

South Houston suburbs (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showpost.php?p=101409&postcount=1)
West, east and north Houston suburbs (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showpost.php?p=139504&postcount=2)
St Louis (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6999)
Birmingham (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6998)
Orlando (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4884)
Miami (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6997)
North Denver suburbs (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showpost.php?p=101401&postcount=1)
South Denver suburbs (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showpost.php?p=108589&postcount=2)
East Denver suburbs (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showpost.php?p=139499&postcount=3)
Memphis (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6996)
East Bay, California (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6995)
Cincinnati (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6994)
Sacramento (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6993)
Tampa (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6992)
Detroit west suburbs (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6991)
San Antonio (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5932)
El Paso (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5907)
Columbus, Ohio (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5903)
Milwaukee (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5558)
Bergen and Passaic Counties, New Jersey (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5277)
Orange County, California (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5251)
Riverside County, California (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5012)
Dallas - Fort Worth (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4880)
Broward County, Florida (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4915)
Buffalo (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4914)
Boston (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4892)
Jacksonville (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4891)
Long Island (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4890)
Indianapolis (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4889)
Atlanta, north suburbs (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4888)
Cleveland (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4886)
Northern Virginia/DC (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4885)
Tucson (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4883)
Philadelphia (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4882)
Minneapolis (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4881)
Kansas City (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4878)
Las Vegas (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4877)
Seattle (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4876)
Albuquerque (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4875)
Phoenix - West (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4870)
Phoenix - South (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4869)
Phoenix - North (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4868)
Phoenix - East (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4867)
San Diego, north county (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4866)
San Diego, south county (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4865)
San Bernardino County, California (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4864)
Los Angeles (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4863)
Silicon Valley (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4862)
Portland, Oregon (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4861)

[Kodos]

I don't generally like Thinker's everything is hunk dory economically, but showing those shanties plays into his hands.

[OVERWATCH]

"Something's going on in the workforce that hasn't happened before and its making people sick," she says.

We discuss the probable causes: a move to a 24/7 work culture, more time spent at our desks due to over-reliance on email and a more contract based, short term work force that feel insecure in the workplace -- and thus less likely to take breaks.

"Everyone's also a lot more exhausted," she says.

Social change is easy to recognize in retrospect but in the thick of this revolution of how we work, it's hard to know what the fall out will be. Globalization, new technology and the relaxation of lab our laws have lead to changes in how we work. These changes in turn impact on our health and not always for the best.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/05/21/exhuastion.main/index.html

Orienting life around money and popularity makes most of us sick.

This is the phenomenon known as burnout, but in subtle form. Short-sighted production-oriented Americanism equals demands from upper echelons of management for workers to grind away at ever increasingly boring and unfulfilling jobs during overtime and weekends.

Eschewing American work-you-till-you're-ground-to-a-bloody-nub ethics, other countries such as France have discovered that paid vacations and less hours-per-week equals increased productivity per hour.

Although many Americans do recieve paid vacations, many are afraid to take them, and many Americans are afraid to refuse overtime or weekend labour as well, since doing so is not conducive to "being part of the team", and will get one passed up for promotions, or even get one laid off.

[cyborg]

I have traveled to or lived in about a quarter of those cities Thinker has listed from "pretty picture" marketing sources.

Most residences therein are not the upper middle class suburbia shown in Thinker's previous photo, as if that fantasy land passivity in itself indicates anything other than a decadent stagnation parallel to inner city decay.

This marketed notion of progress in everyone's mind will go down in future history as a slow decline. We do not need to travel this path and we can certainly do better than a slow asphyxiation while pretending everything is dandy.

[Warka]

I don't generally like Thinker's everything is hunk dory economically, but showing those shanties plays into his hands.

I don't know. I'll put actual ground-level photos of areas I've seen with my own eyes up to his aerial views he's never laid an eyeball on in reality in any argument any day. Perhaps there's a reason he prefers the distant view where the details can't be seen.

[OVERWATCH]

I have traveled to or lived in about a quarter of those cities Thinker has listed from "pretty picture" marketing sources.

Most residences therein are not the upper middle class suburbia shown in Thinker's previous photo, as if that fantasy land passivity in itself indicates anything other than a decadent stagnation parallel to inner city decay.

This marketed notion of progress in everyone's mind will go down in future history as a slow decline. We do not need to travel this path and we can certainly do better than a slow asphyxiation while pretending everything is dandy.

Just as yesteryear's suburbs are today's slums and ghettoes, today's suburbs will follow the same path.

Urban sprawl and unchecked population expansion is a metastatic stage IV cancer effecting the relationship of humankind with the Earth it draws sustenance from. Such are the wages of the production-centered, maniacal obsession with economic growth.

[Warka]

The scam:

From the list Thinker posted above we find this photo represented as the nondescript "Detroit west suburbs".

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/1900/detroit26ms7iq5.jpg

Now, what isn't found out unless you read closely and look at a map is that this is actually in the Novi/Farmington Hills area a full 30+ miles and 3 or more cities away from the Detroit border. The casual observer isn't going to bother doing any of this, though- he just sees the words "Detroit suburbs" and assumes this is close to Detroit and therefore representative of the greater metro area when the reality is that this is an affluent area some distance away and may as well be in another galaxy compared to Detroit and its closer neighbors on some sides.

Interestingly enough, Thinker titled this particular capture "More lakes and wetlands", another deception as those are not lakes at all but small man-made reservoirs developed as "added value" for the expensive housing developments ringing them- fake prefabbed waterfront property. No fish or other wildlife, other than transient Canada Geese or sea gulls perhaps, exist in such bodies of water and many end up polluted over time as the ecosystem that keeps natural systems clean isn't present (nothing in place to consume or covert all the goose and gull shit, for example). As for what are generally considered wetlands, I'm afraid I'm not seeing evidence of that at all. :(

[Niko Bellic]

I won't bother arguing with The Ugly American because technically poverty is a relative concept and the debate boils down to semantics.

That's the point I'm trying to make, poverty is relative, and I don't have much patience with Americans bitching about how bad it is.

This is the phenomenon known as burnout, but in subtle form. Short-sighted production-oriented Americanism equals demands from upper echelons of management for workers to grind away at ever increasingly boring and unfulfilling jobs during overtime and weekends.

Eschewing American work-you-till-you're-ground-to-a-bloody-nub ethics, other countries such as France have discovered that paid vacations and less hours-per-week equals increased productivity per hour.

Although many Americans do recieve paid vacations, many are afraid to take them, and many Americans are afraid to refuse overtime or weekend labour as well, since doing so is not conducive to "being part of the team", and will get one passed up for promotions, or even get one laid off.

Yes, dammit! It's so awful here that the Republican party is tearing itself apart over building a wall to keep out the brown horde that is willing to risk death walking across the desert to get here.

[Thinker]

The scam:

From the list Thinker posted above we find this photo represented as the nondescript "Detroit west suburbs".

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/1900/detroit26ms7iq5.jpg

Now, what isn't found out unless you read closely and look at a map is that this is actually in the Novi/Farmington Hills area a full 30+ miles and 3 or more cities away from the Detroit border. The casual observer isn't going to bother doing any of this, though- he just sees the words "Detroit suburbs" and assumes this is close to Detroit and therefore representative of the greater metro area when the reality is that this is an affluent area some distance away and may as well be in another galaxy compared to Detroit and its closer neighbors on some sides.

Interestingly enough, Thinker titled this particular capture "More lakes and wetlands", another deception as those are not lakes at all but small man-made reservoirs developed as "added value" for the expensive housing developments ringing them- fake prefabbed waterfront property. No fish or other wildlife, other than transient Canada Geese or sea gulls perhaps, exist in such bodies of water and many end up polluted over time as the ecosystem that keeps natural systems clean isn't present (nothing in place to consume or covert all the goose and gull shit, for example). As for what are generally considered wetlands, I'm afraid I'm not seeing evidence of that at all. :(
PS, the reason why I got those particular locations is because those were the only locations in the metro Detroit suburbs that Windows Live Local (http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=r29zmj818gyx&style=o&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=5618204&encType=1
) had coverage of. Sorry, not my fault. I actually collected all those pics for threads on another forum, whose main purpose was to show sprawl from the air. But, having looked over all these cities via WLL, I'm sorry to tell you that, yes, development like that *is* the rule, not the exception. This might be less true of Detroit metro than other metros, but on the whole, it *is* true of the majority of US cities.

At the outset of the thread, I also said, "These, as with all the others, are mostly the suburbs. Later on I might add some pics of central Detroit." As I said, I created them to mostly show the sprawl.

As for the lakes and wetlands, well sorry, they *are* lakes and wetland, even if they're man-made ones. :bitchfight:

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/3128/detroit26ms7.jpg

Incidentally, lakes and wetlands like that are made to store stormwater runoff and because the ground there naturally has very high water content (don't want to build on a swamp, now do we). You can see extreme examples of this in some of the Florida ones:

Broward County, Florida (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4915)
Orlando (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4884)
Tampa (http://www.mootsf.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6992)

[Thinker]

Also, contrary to your protestations, I *did* get some closer-in suburbs:

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/9625/detroit10rq4.jpg

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/761/detroit23fb5.jpg

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/6629/detroit30kt7.jpg

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2656/detroit40qq3.jpg

And some more, too.

[Warka]

As for the lakes and wetlands, well sorry, they *are* lakes and wetland, even if they're man-made ones.

Technically, you can call them lakes but we all know they're nothing like what most consider lakes. Why all the marketing wordplay? Be honest and straightforward and call a man-made pond a man-made pond.

As for wetlands, the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency jointly define wetlands as: Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetlands

There is no evidence of anything like that at all in your photo.

Wetland:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/images/es/fep-handbook/chap4-wetland.jpg

[OVERWATCH]

Yes, dammit! It's so awful here that the Republican party is tearing itself apart over building a wall to keep out the brown horde that is willing to risk death walking across the desert to get here.

Working under a slavedriving boss in the USA is preferable to living in abject poverty in Mexico, but why should we be forced to settle for the lesser of two evils?

We need to look to building a better world for ourselves, instead of accepting the status quo , attempting to justify it by citing how much worse things could be. That is not forward-thinking, that's stagnation.

[Thinker]

Technically, you can call them lakes but we all know they're nothing like what most consider lakes. Why all the marketing wordplay? Be honest and straightforward and call a man-made pond a man-made pond.

As for wetlands, the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency jointly define wetlands as: Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetlands

There is no evidence of anything like that at all in your photo.

Wetland:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/images/es/fep-handbook/chap4-wetland.jpg
Actually, the two (technically, three) little lakes at the very bottom of this photo *do* look like natural lakes/wetlands. Though to be sure, the three at the center of the photo are man-made.

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/3128/detroit26ms7.jpg

[Kodos]

Working under a slavedriving boss in the USA is preferable to living in abject poverty in Mexico, but why should we be forced to settle for the lesser of two evils?

We need to look to building a better world for ourselves, instead of accepting the status quo , attempting to justify it by citing how much worse things could be. That is not forward-thinking, that's stagnation.

Nothing good has ever come of utopianism, and nothing ever will.

Technology might eventually be able to somewhat allievate the basic problem of economics... but until that day most must toil for their living. The things that have made it harder on US workers then in the past are.

1) The entry of women into the workforce in large numbers (they don't do much useful but they get a certain % of job slots or the Fedgov comes after you).

2) The near doubling of the US population since WWII (see 4)

3) Increased lifespan of the elderly (this gets more press in Japan), makes it hard to move up in existing corporate hierarchies.

4) Immigration / Insourcing

5) Rise in energy cost as a % of GDP and the average consumers spending

6) Increase in the fiscal burden of the lawyer and bureaucrat parasite class.

7) US debt...

8) Since 9/11 terrorism fears have tended to steer money towards safe investments or international assets (as does the US debt).

9) Overseas competition (outsourcing) is last.

[omni]

Nothing good has ever come of utopianism, and nothing ever will.

Technology might eventually be able to somewhat allievate the basic problem of economics... but until that day most must toil for their living. The things that have made it harder on US workers then in the past are.




There's nothing "utopian" about the post you are quoting. You need to make a distinction between what situations are being discussed. He said that currently what we are doing is choosing situation A over situation B because A is slightly better for now, even though we know the basic problems that forced us to choose this situation are still present. In a few years we will have to choose situation C over situation D because C is the lesser of evils, even though both are worse than the previous ones described in A and B. What this does is allow us to gradually make concessions to avoid total collapse, even though things are in fact getting worse (on a somewhat slower scale). Instead of continually doing this and causing more irreversible damage to ourselves and our environment we could be more "forward thinking" and come up with a system of society and government that is concerned with more than the bottom line, while pretending that all social and quality of life issues will be resolved as long as there is enough money to do so and allow for more perfect implementation of our current principles (without questioning those principles themselves).

[cyborg]

More than 600 million people worldwide work excessively long hours, with Peruvians topping the list and Britons the worst offenders amongst rich nations, the International Labour Organisation reported on Thursday.

In a report on working trends in 50 countries, the United Nations agency said progress towards a maximum 48-hour week was still uneven nearly 100 years after the standard was agreed by ILO members.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070607/ts_nm/employment_ilo_hours_dc_1

Centuries of Judeo-Christian wage slavery goes global.

[Macrobius]

More ruminations on Empire, Entropy, and what the underlying nature of the System might be that exhibits Entropy, etc. as a property or feature:

http://www.thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=25665

Recapitulating the top part of the new thread. For the full article, see the thread itself.


All current empire-building entities will have to deal with their failure, using their existing economic structures, to comprehend the importance of COMPUTING RESOURCES with respect to Economics. This failure will lead to significant miscalculation by all potential players, and also provides an opportunity for new players who understand the game to either dominate existing players, or to enter the game.

First of all it must be understood that economic behaviour in general is automatic, mechanical, and emergent. That is, any system with tokens that have the requisite properties (including actors who make choices, a medium of exchange, a store of value, etc.) will exhibit phenomena *analogous* to the economic phenomena of current Nation-States, as previously of households, firms, and individuals.

Computing resources (notably, CPU-minutes, though one must not forget disk space and network or i/o bandwidth in the analysis) have all the properties needed to be the monetary basis ('gold') in an economy. This is not 'Software Economics' as normally considered -- looking on software production as an economic function in its own terms -- but as self-referential. CPU-minutes are the unit of productivity, in the same sense that the Physiocrats held 'Solar power' and 'Labour' to be fundamental to Nation-State economies.

The economic development (or if you prefer para-economic but that is a meaningless distinction) of CPU resources has already resulted in the invention of 'fractional reserve banking' (multitasking operating systems) and 'foreign trade' (networking and more ominously *the* internet), i.e., an articulated and fractal-like collection of micro and macro economic systems, with well-defined emergent properties.

We are presently at the stage of the accumulation of capital (previously defined as the virtual labour stored in an operating system, but now newly mobile)

It should be recognised that CPU-minutes are now *themselves* the new currency, and that the legacy economy, important as it is as a sector of the New Economy, is by no means the totality or dominating portion of it. The 'old economy' serves the same purpose as the Agricultural Sector in the 19th and 20th centuries. Necessary of course, but also undergoing a dissolution and transformation that both the Agriculturalists and the Nation-States that dominated them failed to understand -- vide the Depression for what I mean by lack of understanding.

The most important missed factor, in terms of its Legacy Economic impact, is the possibility of capital transfers between Nation-State sized economies ('Outsourcing'). Outsourcing is currently analysed entirely in terms of gold-backed or fiat-backed currency transfers -- i.e., in terms of the wrong Capital. In terms of real capital, it amounts to the possibility that the consumption of CPU-minutes will take place in India, while the production of them takes place in Data Centers in the US. It should be obvious that this analysis I am opening up is a *class* of economic theories, not a single one. There could be a Marxian analysis, a Classical, a Distributist, and so forth.

CPU-minutes are not only *like* money, they *are* money, since without CPU minutes there is no way to store value in a modern economic system, so that strictly speaking all the other currencies are secondary abstractions relative to the primary one of Machines-doing-work.

The failure to omit such a critical factor in modern Economics -- e.g., the fraction reserve nature of Financial Banking, the bubble-like nature of joint-stock companies, the importance of Gold and Silver discovery to Empire building, or indeed any other significant factor, allows one to PREDICT IN ADVANCE the failures of Nation-States. There is *no* Nation-State or governmental or business entity that will *knowingly* credit CPU-minutes as intrinsic economic phenomena. They will *only* be valued in trade in the mercantile sense of the old economy. We are in the phase of Capitalism before Adam Smith, in other words, in which economic players might, randomly or by intuition, act correctly, but without actual knowledge or understanding, they will just as often miscalculate.

Anyway, here is my original post on 'Networked Distributism' from OD:

http://www.originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2980

[cyborg]

By David Moberg, In These Times. Posted June 23, 2007.

America is the richest country in the world — so why does this country deny its workers mandated paid vacations and sick days?

Last year Mary Lou Eckart took her first vacation in five years, a trip
from her home in Decatur, Ill., to see her grandchildren in Florida. But
the Illinois state government, which pays her to care for a severely
disabled teenage girl, provides her no paid vacation time. So Eckart took
the girl — and her work — with her.

She faces a similar bind if she gets sick. “I just had an incident two
weeks ago,” she says. “I had an inner ear infection that I didn’t know
about, and I passed out. My 17-year-old daughter covered for me while I
recovered. I get no paid vacation, no time off, no sick leave. But if they
put these clients in a nursing home, I know that is very expensive. I’d
love to have a vacation. I’d love to be able to get away. I’d love to have
someone fill in for me. I feel like we deserve more than what we’re getting.”

Eckart’s story is all too common: Nearly one-fourth of American workers
have no paid vacation or holidays, according to a recent study from the
D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), and nearly half
of all private sector workers have no paid sick days. But if Eckart were
living in any other industrialized country, she would be legally guaranteed
at least two weeks paid vacation and — in 136 countries — from seven to
more than 30 paid sick days. The United States is the only rich country
that does not mandate paid vacations and paid sick days, and Americans who
are afforded such benefits enjoy far less time off than workers in other
wealthy nations.

Americans now work more every year, on average, than workers in any other
industrialized country (except for a virtual tie with New Zealand). With
women working longer hours each year, the average annual work time for a
married couple is growing steadily, and family time — including the
crucial bonding experience of vacations — has suffered. Full-time workers
in much of Europe typically take seven to eight weeks of vacation and
holidays each year — that’s double the American average for full-time workers.

Overall, the average private sector worker in the United States gets about
nine paid vacation days and six paid holidays each year. Low-paid,
part-time or small-business workers typically get far fewer, sometimes
none. The same holds for paid sick leave: 72 percent of the highest-paid
quarter of private sector workers get paid sick days compared to only 21
percent of workers in the lowest-paid quarter.

Intercontinental disparity

Why do workers in other rich countries have more paid time off? Mainly
because laws demand employers provide it. The European Union requires its
members to set a minimum standard of four weeks paid vacation (covering
part-time workers as well). Finland and France require six weeks paid
vacation, plus additional paid holidays.

Most countries require workers to take the time off and employers to give
them vacation at convenient times. Some governments even require employers
to pay bonuses so workers can afford to do more than sit at home on
vacation. On top of that, unions in Europe and other rich industrialized
countries — whose contracts cover up to 90 percent of the workforce —
typically negotiate additional time off. Meanwhile, the standard workweek
is slightly shorter in many European countries, and workers retire earlier
with better public pensions.

Until the early ’70s, European and American workers logged similar hours.
But the pattern then drastically diverged, with Europeans getting more
vacation time, around the same time that U.S. income inequality began
growing. In the United States, corporations gained the upper hand against
workers and their declining unions, and the Democratic Party started
shifting away from working class concerns.

In Europe, stronger unions and left political parties pushed for shorter
work hours. In some cases, as jobs were lost when traditional industries
restructured or work was outsourced, unions saw reduced work time as a way
to share work.

But more often, unions were continuing the battle to share wealth in the
form of more leisure, which had started a century earlier with the movement
for an eight-hour day — the goal of Chicago protestors in May, 1886, that
ended in the Haymarket Massacre, repression of the labor movement, and
creation of May 1 as the international workers’ holiday.

The difference in work hours between the United States and most industrial
countries “is exactly a manifestation of the same forces driving broader
inequality,” says CEPR economist John Schmitt, pointing to deterioration of
the minimum wage, pensions, public services, health insurance and wages
under pressure from globalization, deregulation, privatization and attacks
on unions. “Workers haven’t been able to translate higher productivity
gains into higher pay or benefits, and they’ve been unable to address the
time crunch.”

“People in the United States don’t even understand what could be possible
on this issue [of paid time off],” Schmitt says. “This is one of the most
important ideological victories of the right in the last 30 years — to
persuade us we aren’t rich enough to treat workers well. We’re incredibly
rich, getting richer every year, and we have plenty of resources to pay
adequate wages, pensions, health insurance and vacations, but we’ve chosen
to give that money to the top five percent.”

European and other industrialized countries have divided their growing
ability to produce differently. For example, Europe has nearly caught up
with — and many countries have pulled ahead of — the United States in
labor productivity (the output from each hour of work), the key measure of
an economy’s potential.

In recent years, however, American workers have rapidly increased the
amount of goods and services they produce each year, in comparison to
Europe. These two measurements have largely diverged because Europeans have
been enjoying more time away from the job, just as they’ve been enjoying a
more egalitarian society.

According to Harvard economist Alberto Alesina, Europeans are happier, and
have less stress and insecurity, which is good for health and longevity.
Studies in the United States, for example, indicate that taking vacations
cuts in half the risk of heart attacks for men. Longer, mandated vacations
haven’t undercut the competitiveness of other rich countries, and there’s
evidence that they increase labor productivity.

Plus, recent increases in the U.S. gross domestic product haven’t
significantly helped most Americans: The super-rich have captured most of
the income gains.

An accurate calculation of the gross domestic product — subtracting such
costs as crime, environmental depredations, militarism and declining social
trust — would actually show that growth in economic output has brought
few, if any, real gains in welfare for American society. Indeed, CEPR
economists David Rosnick and Mark Weisbrot argue that Europe’s shorter work
hours help the environment by reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Taking back time

Most Americans would be better off with more paid vacation and leave, but
inequality, insecurity and the competitive rat race drives people to work
even harder, often just to keep their heads above water. It’s very
difficult for individuals to demand more time, even if the limited polling
available suggests it would be popular.

Major gains will only come from an organized movement and changed laws. One
organization, Take Back Your Time, founded by writer and documentary
filmmaker John de Graaf, is trying to persuade presidential candidates to
support its proposal for mandating three weeks of paid vacation for all
workers. “I think the political figure who would pick up on this issue
would find great resonance,” De Graaf says, but so far nobody has.

At this point, more modest proposals have a better chance to succeed. Sen.
Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have introduced the
Healthy Families Act, which would guarantee seven days of paid leave for
all workers to deal with their own or a family member’s illness. Beyond the
obvious help to the individuals who need care, such legislation would help
businesses economically.

Rather than putting in an unproductive day at work spreading communicable
diseases (or sending their sick child to spread illness at a child care
center), workers could just stay at home, and it would reduce the employee
turnover that results from workers taking off unauthorized, unpaid sick days.

Five states have mandatory temporary disability insurance programs to cover
income losses from short illnesses, and last November, San Francisco voters
approved the first mandated paid sick days in the United States. The
Working Families Party in New York is now campaigning for paid leave for
new parents and adults caring for ailing relatives, a protection California
passed in 2004 (thus strengthening the unpaid family and medical leave
federal law provides).

Mandated paid sick days would help workers like Elnora Collins, a home care
worker in Chicago. “If you get sick, you go to work sick. If you show up
for work, you endanger your patients. If you don’t show up for work, you
get no pay. I recently lost a whole day’s pay, because I ended up in a
hospital for an overnight stay. It was an anxiety attack, like a heart
attack. It’s very frightening. And then, when you look at that paycheck,
you really cry.”

Compare the work time and leisure in the United States to that in other
rich countries, and we all have good reason to share in her tears.


http://www.thecivicplatform.com/2007/06/24/hey-dude-wheres-my-vacation/

[Thinker]

America is the richest country in the world — so why does this country deny its workers mandated paid vacations and sick days?
We're the richest country is the world BECAUSE we WORK more than anyone in any developed nation (except maybe the Japanese AFAIK), and take LESS vacation.

Duh! :rolleyes:

[omni]

Major gains will only come from an organized movement and changed laws. One
organization, Take Back Your Time, founded by writer and documentary
filmmaker John de Graaf, is trying to persuade presidential candidates to
support its proposal for mandating three weeks of paid vacation for all
workers. “I think the political figure who would pick up on this issue
would find great resonance,” De Graaf says, but so far nobody has.

At this point, more modest proposals have a better chance to succeed. Sen.
Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have introduced the
Healthy Families Act, which would guarantee seven days of paid leave for
all workers to deal with their own or a family member’s illness. Beyond the
obvious help to the individuals who need care, such legislation would help
businesses economically.


I don't really like this idea of "more modest proposals". It would be very easy to copy something close to the EU model discussed earlier in the article and enact the appropriate legislation, but too many large corporations might lose some money in the process. Thus, we have to be optimistic about modest proposals where we can maybe look forward to a few more paid days off 10 years down the road.

As I said earlier, we're just going to choose a lesser of evils and be satisfied by reminding ourselves of how bad it could be.