Along With Layoffs, Recession’s Cost Can Be Seen in Pay Cuts - NYTimes.com

Along
With Layoffs, Recession’s Cost Can Be Seen in Pay Cuts - NYTimes.com

:

"The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not track pay cuts, but it suggests
they are reflected in the steep decline of another statistic: total weekly pay
for production workers, pilots among them, representing 80 percent of the work
force. That index has fallen for nine consecutive months, an unprecedented
string over the 44 years the bureau has calculated weekly pay, capturing the
large number of people out of work, those working fewer hours and those whose
wages have been cut. The old record was a two-month decline, during the
1981-1982 recession.

“What this means,” said Thomas J. Nardone, an assistant
commissioner at the bureau, “is that the amount of money people are paid has
taken a big hit; not just those who have lost their jobs, but those who are
still employed.”"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/business/economy/14income.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all

Villains Hate Being called Villains

There shouldn't beany surprises here. All the insurace companies ever really supported was an expansion of their market. Even this is less an effort to derail reform, than a rationale for steply raising rates after reform's passage. They may even succeed in further weakining already weak cost sontrols.

in reference to: Democrats Call Insurance Industry Report Flawed - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

The Clear and Future Danger

Op-Ed Columnist - The Uneducated American - NYTimes.com

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States economy lost 273,000 jobs last month. Of those lost jobs, 29,000 were in state and local education, bringing the total losses in that category over the past five months to 143,000. That may not sound like much, but education is one of those areas that should, and normally does, keep growing even during a recession. Markets may be troubled, but that’s no reason to stop teaching our children. Yet that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/opinion/09krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Chicago School Violence Plan Focuses on Potential Victims - NYTimes.com

Chicago School Violence Plan Focuses on Potential Victims - NYTimes.com

“”

Really complex problems tempt us to favor solutions that are simple, straightforward, and don't, won't and can't work.

We label schoolchildren thugs. (Remember super predators?)

We never ask how our economy, schools and politics, somehow combine to create so many desparate kids who don't value their own lives (or anyone else's).

I live on the streets where these kids die. They go to schools in my neighborhood. I'm 59, almost 60. I had jobs after school. They don't even have the memory of after school jobs. These kids have post traumatic stress.

Society at large wishes they would disappear, and they know it.

Their teachers don't believe they can learn, and they know it.

They're viewed as criminals, whether or not they've ever committed a crime, and they know it.

We've taught them some lessons well.

Adult's can't be counted on.

Don't expect help.

We'll record their trouble, upload it to YouTube, shake our heads in disgust, but never even try to stop the fights.

There were plenty of adults there when Derrion Albert died.

Police were there, before Derrion Albert died.

That honor student, that good kid looked too much like the kids they labled thugs. So nobody bothered to stop them from killing him.

If he hadn't been an honor student, he';d have never made the news.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/us/07chicago.html?hp

Six Online Resume Tools Reviewed by Webware

Job hunting is a stressfull way of life in the current economy. Cnet's Webware introduces six tools that relieve some of that stress by making it easier to build and make available resumes.

in reference to: Get that job: Six online resume tools | Webware - CNET (view on Google Sidewiki)