Green New Deal

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

WTF??

White House Urges OPEC to Boost Oil Output Amid Covid-19 Economic Recovery

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said recent planned production increases by OPEC would “not fully offset previous production cuts.”

www.wsj.com

How about "urging" more renewable energy?
How about "urging" more domestic production if renewables are not enough?
How about "urging" a pipeline to Canada - an ally - if domestic sources are not enough?

What happened to "Made in America"? "Good paying union jobs"? "We all live on one planet"? "National Security?"

All I can think of is Biden is under pressure from his war lobbyists to continue the world's dependence on middle east and Russian oil. Or maybe Hunter has something going on with OPEC.

It was just a polite way to point out their shift from their previous dumping to kill US fracking, to squeezing production to try to price-fix again.
It's what happens next that matters.

 

[mspohr]

Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom rental

About one in seven Americans fell behind on rent payments as housing costs continued to increase during the pandemic

www.theguardian.com

 

[mspohr]

Trump 2017 tax cut wasn't just designed for wealthy, it was customized for specific billionaires

In the very first year of Trump’s tax cut, just 82 households pocketed over $1 billion in savings. That’s because the bill provided those with 10-digit wealth with a “diverse menu of options” to avoid paying taxes. Even the deep cuts in rates for both corporations and individuals was deceptive, because the real design of the bill generated exactly what resulted: massive corporations and the wealthiest people on the planet paying no taxes at all.

 

[mspohr]

The problem isn’t ‘inflation’. It’s that most Americans aren’t paid enough | Robert Reich

The real worry is the gap between what the country produces and what average folks can afford to consume. Inequality is eating our economy

Recall that 70% of the US economy depends on consumer spending. So if the economy is to function well, Americans need to spend enough money to buy most of the goods and services they’re capable of producing. But incomes haven’t nearly kept pace with productivity. Over the past 40 years, most people’s wages have basically stagnated, while worker productivity has soared. Most economic gains have gone to the wealthy – who now own more of America than at any time since the 1920s.Recall that 70% of the US economy depends on consumer spending. So if the economy is to function well, Americans need to spend enough money to buy most of the goods and services they’re capable of producing. But incomes haven’t nearly kept pace with productivity. Over the past 40 years, most people’s wages have basically stagnated, while worker productivity has soared. Most economic gains have gone to the wealthy – who now own more of America than at any time since the 1920s.

Years ago, Marriner Eccles, chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1934 to 1948, explained that the Great Depression occurred because the buying power of most Americans fell far short of what the economy was producing.

 

[Big Dog]

maybe we need a new thread: 'we must face facts -- weed is the (new) problem'.

An inconvenient truth (about weed)

Federal laws bar cannabis from crossing state lines, driving up the cost — and the emissions — of an industry using indoor grow operations.

www.politico.com

 

[mspohr]

maybe we need a new thread: 'we must face facts -- weed is the (new) problem'.

An inconvenient truth (about weed)

Federal laws bar cannabis from crossing state lines, driving up the cost — and the emissions — of an industry using indoor grow operations.

www.politico.com

The plants themselves are weeds and are quite tolerant of dry conditions. However, "modern cannabis agriculture" of course requires indoor cultivation, heating, lighting and lots of water.

 

[JRP3]

I'm surprised more greenhouses aren't being used, especially in more northern states. The lower cost should offset the reduction in yield compared to using artificial lighting and grow houses.

 

[jerry33]

I'm surprised more greenhouses aren't being used, especially in more northern states. The lower cost should offset the reduction in yield compared to using artificial lighting and grow houses.

Aren't the artificial lighting and grow houses just reused equipment left over from when you had to grow in secret?

 

[JRP3]

Probably some, I don't know how many are new operations since legalization.

 

[mspohr]

Laura Ingraham Confronts the Core Problem for Capitalists

And workers should thank her for that.

theintercept.com

Thursday night on Fox News, Laura Ingraham straightforwardly expressed the key challenge for capitalism: How can bosses get people to do awful, degrading jobs for little pay in order to make other people rich?

“The government is literally putting anvils, in many ways, on people’s shoulders, either through the mandates, regulations, and now through free money,” Ingraham said to her guest, reality TV host Jon Taffer. “If we are not causing people to be hungry to work, then we’re providing them with all the meals they need sitting at home,” Taffer agreed. “These benefits make absolutely no sense to us.”

Capitalism has been grappling with this problem for hundreds of years, but as history and Ingraham show, the answer now is the same as it’s always been: The laboring classes must be forced into circumstances in which they must work or starve.

It is also true that for an economy to function, there is a ton of work that has to be done. But what’s needed to make this happen depends on what you believe about human nature. Conservatives think people are fundamentally greedy and lazy, and so they must be forced to work by the lash of hunger. Ingraham once dated Larry Summers, treasury secretary during the Clinton administration and a director of the National Economic Council for President Barack Obama, who recently explained that it would be bad to allow people to work less because they’ll just use it to drink beer and watch TV. They clearly see humans the same way.

By contrast, progressives believe that people, under the right circumstances, are fundamentally creative and reasonable and will do the work with the correct incentives.

Crucially, these incentives aren’t just about money and the length of the work week. It’s true that capitalism’s bad jobs tend to require long hours and are underpaid. But what makes bad jobs bad is as much or more the lack of control that employees have over working conditions and hence their lives in general.

 

[h2ofun]

Laura Ingraham Confronts the Core Problem for Capitalists

And workers should thank her for that.

theintercept.com

Thursday night on Fox News, Laura Ingraham straightforwardly expressed the key challenge for capitalism: How can bosses get people to do awful, degrading jobs for little pay in order to make other people rich?

“The government is literally putting anvils, in many ways, on people’s shoulders, either through the mandates, regulations, and now through free money,” Ingraham said to her guest, reality TV host Jon Taffer. “If we are not causing people to be hungry to work, then we’re providing them with all the meals they need sitting at home,” Taffer agreed. “These benefits make absolutely no sense to us.”

Capitalism has been grappling with this problem for hundreds of years, but as history and Ingraham show, the answer now is the same as it’s always been: The laboring classes must be forced into circumstances in which they must work or starve.

It is also true that for an economy to function, there is a ton of work that has to be done. But what’s needed to make this happen depends on what you believe about human nature. Conservatives think people are fundamentally greedy and lazy, and so they must be forced to work by the lash of hunger. Ingraham once dated Larry Summers, treasury secretary during the Clinton administration and a director of the National Economic Council for President Barack Obama, who recently explained that it would be bad to allow people to work less because they’ll just use it to drink beer and watch TV. They clearly see humans the same way.

By contrast, progressives believe that people, under the right circumstances, are fundamentally creative and reasonable and will do the work with the correct incentives.

Crucially, these incentives aren’t just about money and the length of the work week. It’s true that capitalism’s bad jobs tend to require long hours and are underpaid. But what makes bad jobs bad is as much or more the lack of control that employees have over working conditions and hence their lives in general.

No one makes a person take a job. No one makes a person live in a high cost area. Just watch the impacts on folks as inflation goes nut with all this but you have to may a living wage. That is socialism!!!! If you do not something, get off your butt and change it! For many, this is leaving such high cost areas some seem to feel they have the "right" to. I hope folks like paying 10 bucks for a gallon of gas. That really is going to help low income folks. But wait, the system is going to give them all free EV cars, then EV panels, then, ....

 

[mspohr]

No one makes a person take a job. No one makes a person live in a high cost area. Just watch the impacts on folks as inflation goes nut with all this but you have to may a living wage. That is socialism!!!! If you do not something, get off your butt and change it! For many, this is leaving such high cost areas some seem to feel they have the "right" to. I hope folks like paying 10 bucks for a gallon of gas. That really is going to help low income folks. But wait, the system is going to give them all free EV cars, then EV panels, then, ....

No one makes a person take a job.

They don't call it a living wage for nothing.

 

[h2ofun]

They don't call it a living wage for nothing.

I need a living wage so I can buy multiple teslas and live in black hawk in a 10,000 sq foot home. Who has to define what a "living" wage is. Socialism

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I need a living wage so I can buy multiple teslas and live in black hawk in a 10,000 sq foot home. Who has to define what a "living" wage is. Socialism

The definition doesn't require any intervention.

Socialism doesn't have to define it, because it can use other means to meet needs. The idea of the living wage is less interventionist than many socialist ideas.

 

[MontyFloyd]

Trump 2017 tax cut wasn't just designed for wealthy, it was customized for specific billionaires

In the very first year of Trump’s tax cut, just 82 households pocketed over $1 billion in savings. That’s because the bill provided those with 10-digit wealth with a “diverse menu of options” to avoid paying taxes. Even the deep cuts in rates for both corporations and individuals was deceptive, because the real design of the bill generated exactly what resulted: massive corporations and the wealthiest people on the planet paying no taxes at all.

Aaaaand would not surprise me if most of those enjoying the tax cut is funding this "Big Lie" challenge, people like mike lindell.

 

[MontyFloyd]

That is socialism!!!!

Incorrect, that is Communism: ( all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs)

Socialism: a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. There is many freedoms, like movement, speech, ownership, etc.
News flash: USA has a good deal of socialism in its system.

 

[mspohr]

I need a living wage so I can buy multiple teslas and live in black hawk in a 10,000 sq foot home. Who has to define what a "living" wage is. Socialism

‘We work non-stop’: LA garment workers toil for top brands and earn paltry rate

Thousands of garment workers in Los Angeles who make pants, shirts, blouses and other clothing for a variety of well-known fashion labels are paid less than minimum wage through a piece-rate payment system that compensates workers just a few cents per article of clothing. Works say they typically work from 7am to 6pm Monday through Friday, and an additional five hours on Saturday – about 60 hours a week with no overtime pay, which results in overall wages at $5 an hour or less, far below California’s statewide minimum wage of $14 an hour for companies with more than 26 employees.

 

[mspohr]

American CEOs make 351 times more than workers. In 1965 it was 15 to one | Indigo Olivier

CEO compensation outpacing that of the 0.1% is a clear indication that this growth is not the product of a competitive race for skills or increased productivity, the EPI report explains, so much as the “power of CEOs to extract concessions. Consequently, if CEOs earned less or were taxed more, there would be no adverse impact on the economy’s output or on employment,” the report concludes.

 

[mspohr]

A Minimum Wage Can Create Jobs Opinion | A Minimum Wage Can Create Jobs

If the minimum wage is chosen well, the employer will keep on hiring right up to the point where workers are fully paid for the value they create. So higher wages, more jobs. You can find a clever explanation of this at Khan Academy, with diagrams.

 

[h2ofun]

‘We work non-stop’: LA garment workers toil for top brands and earn paltry rate

Thousands of garment workers in Los Angeles who make pants, shirts, blouses and other clothing for a variety of well-known fashion labels are paid less than minimum wage through a piece-rate payment system that compensates workers just a few cents per article of clothing. Works say they typically work from 7am to 6pm Monday through Friday, and an additional five hours on Saturday – about 60 hours a week with no overtime pay, which results in overall wages at $5 an hour or less, far below California’s statewide minimum wage of $14 an hour for companies with more than 26 employees.

There choice