Political Discussion

RenegadeMonster said:
Mexico is making progress. Texas is taking two steps backwards.

www.cnn.com

Mexico Supreme Court rules criminalizing abortion is unconstitutional

Mexico's Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that penalizing abortion is unconstitutional, in a decision expected to set precedent for the legal status of abortion nationwide.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com
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We already have people crossing the border to find cheaper pharmaceuticals. I guess abortions in Mexico will be the next trend in medical tourism.
 
Jan said:
mondediplo.com

Trump announces 2024 run

Subscribers // by Thomas Frank (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, August 2021)
mondediplo.com
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The anti-Trump thinkers I have quoted know that the society over which they and their friends preside is not a healthy one. They know that millions of ordinary Americans despise the well educated elite.

Why? Look at the opioid epidemic that raged through middle America in the years before 2016 — a gift of Big Pharma and the medical profession. Look at the deindustrialisation that afflicted the same geographic areas — a product of our brilliant free trade deals. Look at the global financial crisis and the bailouts — the deeds of America’s greatest maths and financial geniuses, who faced almost no consequences for their actions. Look at the Iraq War — the toast of the foreign policy establishment. Look at the incredible fact that American life expectancy was actually declining in the years before 2017 rather than increasing.

Trump did nothing to solve any of these problems. But everyone knows they exist. One side talks, lectures, scolds and instructs, and the other side — silent by definition these days — seethes with resentment. Everyone knows this awful dynamic had a role in elevating the racist demagogue Trump to the presidency. Everyone also knows this country is primed to explode. ‘Cultural symbols, produced and manufactured by coastal elites, are pumped out over the airwaves to Flyover Country,’ writes essayist Anusar Farooqui, who is known online as the Policy Tensor. ‘Since this is a one-way traffic, you have this deep structure where the working class watches, from its redoubts in the countryside and distant exurbs, its culture ridiculed in sullen, enforced silence. This is the constantly churning motor that has reliably reproduced, indeed enhanced, class resentment...’

^^^If you want to know why there are anti-vaxers and covid denialist, this is why. Neoliberal globalization killed factories in the US, and that killed our working class. The only thing most of us in fly over states see is deep corruption that at best is trying to rob us and at worst is coming to kill us with a host of toxic chemicals pumped into consumer products. The problem is that all we see is the Sacklers getting away with starting an epidemic that killed millions of Americans with barely even financial penalty (Analysis: The worst drug dealers in history are getting away with billions). This is the effect of record setting inequality, and since the ruling class doesn't listen (because that channel into flyover country only goes one way), it will get much worse before it gets better. We learned how to ignore and belittle instead of engage and this is the outcome.
 
I had a interesting talk with one of my step dads brothers over the weekend.

He works as a boiler operator at a manufacturing plant. Before working at the manufacturing plant, he was a boiler operator of a nuclear power plant until they ceased operations and closed 20 years ago so he has lots of experience. In Massachusetts you also have to be licensed to operate a boiler, and that license is costly and needs to be renewed every 2 years.

In 2019 the company he works for was bought out by a much larger company out of North Carolina. And that company thought the boiler operators salaries were out of whack. One of the first things they did was adjust salaires, and people took pay cuts to avoid being laid off. One of the other boiler operators at the company quit rather than taking a pay cut.

It's been 2 years now and they have been unable to fill that boiler operator position. And the reason being is salary. My step father's brother said the starting salary of a Burger King employee is higher than what they want to pay for a boiler operator at $15.83 an hour! He's told them over and over you are not going to find anyone willing to work for that rate, especially when they are responsible for paying for their own license. He kept telling them this is what the same job pays at other locations in MA. After 2 years of getting nowhere with them they finally listened to reason and upped the salary. And guess what. They filled the position in less than a week!

I just don't get. Why do so many companies not want to pay living wages and are so stubborn on budging.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
I just don't get. Why do so many companies not want to pay living wages and are so stubborn on budging.
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TenderLovingKiller® said:
Greed.
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The prime directive of business from about the 1980's on is to enhance share price. Michael Isner was one of the first CEOs to request that he be compensated with large amounts of stock, and since then, CEOs have followed a similar playbook for compensation--thus reducing their tax liability, smaller salaries (or income) with large stock gifts that are taxed at a capital gains rate. The problem with focusing solely on quarterly stock market dividends, is that it makes business decisions extremely short sighted--because quarterly earnings are more important than a comprehensive, years long, business plan. So you end up with a scenario where the fox is watching the hen house, and in schemes like the Toys R Us closing all the stores because private equity was trying to displace their debt for other things, are unsurprising. Labor costs are some of the highest costs (as they should be) for many businesses, so paying them more means that you must reduce dividend payout. Billionaires don't like pay cuts.
 
nolalady said:
The prime directive of business from about the 1980's on is to enhance share price. Michael Isner was one of the first CEOs to request that he be compensated with large amounts of stock, and since then, CEOs have followed a similar playbook for compensation--thus reducing their tax liability, smaller salaries (or income) with large stock gifts that are taxed at a capital gains rate. The problem with focusing solely on quarterly stock market dividends, is that it makes business decisions extremely short sighted--because quarterly earnings are more important than a comprehensive, years long, business plan. So you end up with a scenario where the fox is watching the hen house, and in schemes like the Toys R Us closing all the stores because private equity was trying to displace their debt for other things, are unsurprising. Labor costs are some of the highest costs (as they should be) for many businesses, so paying them more means that you must reduce dividend payout. Billionaires don't like pay cuts.
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But is it really a pay cut for billionaires when they say salaries are out of whack and make pay cuts after acquiring a business. I get that it is if they increase wages. But it looks like they are trying to reduce labor costs to give billionaires raises more than anything else.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
But is it really a pay cut for billionaires when they say salaries are out of whack and make pay cuts after acquiring a business. I get that it is if they increase wages. But it looks like they are trying to reduce labor costs to give billionaires raises more than anything else.
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Any outflow that impacts stock dividends will impact how much money those people that live off of stock dividends (i.e. any person that lives off of investment income such as billionaires--retirees also live off of dividends but most people's retirement involve a selling off of stocks as well). Most people with large amounts of wealth live off of dividends. This is why it was so genius of Isner to ask for a lower salary with stock benefits. He reduces his income tax rate (which is right around 37%) and displaces that with a 15% capital gains tax, which gives dividend earnings every quarter. Other CEOs followed suit, so when you hear about the CEO that took $1 salary for a year, it's actually a clever way to avoid paying income tax by displacing a salary with stock options.
 
nolalady said:
Any outflow that impacts stock dividends will impact how much money those people that live off of stock dividends (i.e. any person that lives off of investment income such as billionaires--retirees also live off of dividends but most people's retirement involve a selling off of stocks as well). Most people with large amounts of wealth live off of dividends. This is why it was so genius of Isner to ask for a lower salary with stock benefits. He reduces his income tax rate (which is right around 37%) and displaces that with a 15% capital gains tax, which gives dividend earnings every quarter. Other CEOs followed suit, so when you hear about the CEO that took $1 salary for a year, it's actually a clever way to avoid paying income tax by displacing a salary with stock options.
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Captial Gains desperately needs to be taxed as income. Not that our currently political structure will ever allow that ☹️
 
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