Archive for the Wages Category

Opportunity, Welfare And Unrest (June 15, 2015)

Posted in Collapse, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Kleptocracy, Minimum Wage, Poverty, Slavery, Society, Wages, War, Welfare on June 15, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

4          “They say that welfare is the bribe paid to the underclass not to revolt.  The bribe is no longer enough.  The underclass reasonably seeks more from the overclass.  Many of them do not want a bribe, they want opportunity.  There is no opportunity today and will be even less opportunity tomorrow.  There is more restiveness.  There is more restlessness.  There will be more unrest.”

6          “The war on poverty has become the war on those in poverty.”

4          “Always a war.  Could be a hot summer.  Or a hot winter.” 

6          “A hot winter?  Is that anthropogenic global climate change?

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”  John F. Kennedy

Corporations Control Court: The Cancer Metastasizes (December 15, 2014)

Posted in Amazon, Conflicts of Interest, Courts, Judicial Arrogance, Judiciary, Law, Minimum Wage, Perjury, Perjury/Dishonesty, Supreme Court, Wages, Work on December 15, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L1          “Labor economists divide life into time spent pursuing ‘work’ and time spent pursuing ‘leisure’ or, if you prefer a four letter word for symmetry, then employ the word ‘play.’  An employee should be paid for the work he or she does for an employer but not for the time he or she plays for himself or herself.”

L2          “That is also the settled law in the Republic of America.”

L1          “Except at the Supreme Court which rewrites the laws to protect corporations at every opportunity and cost.”

L2          “I’m not amazed that Amazon requires a security check as part of one’s work.  Fine.  That time should be compensated under the law because it is work and is not play.”

L1          “The ‘Justices’ get paid for donning and doffing their robes.  Most police get paid for the time they put on their uniforms and the time they take off their uniforms.”

L2          “The ‘Justices’ all agree that the underlying maxim in American law is ‘Might Is Right’ and, like politicians, are shrewd enough to support the police and others who defend them against the populace.”

L1          “The ‘Justices’ work a part-time job and get not only full-time pay but lifetime pay even when they should be discharged ‘for cause.’  The irony is delightful . . . and obscene.”

L2          “Another unprecedented problem plaguing the Court is its eagerness to reward the lawyers/lobbyists who litigate and lobby on behalf of the corporations.  The Court has never at any time in the history of the country been more obedient to the corporations and less accessible to the American public.”

L1          “In another trend than has been consistent now for decades, the Ninth Circuit correctly interprets the law and then the Supreme Court improperly imposes its ideology.”

L2          “There are some nice enough folks on the Supreme Court, but law just is not their forte.”

L1          “They say that the conjunction ‘but’ is an acronym that means ‘behold utter truth’ because everything before the word ‘but’ in a sentence is a polite untruth.”

L2          “The Republic will require at least 50 years if not a century to recover from the lawlessness and criminality at work and in play at the Supreme Court today.  But it may not recover.”

. . .

[See the screed at http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/13-433_5h26.pdf.]

[See the commentary at “Humanity’s Motto: To Enslave And To Colonize (January 27, 2014).“]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Own A Supreme Court ‘Justice’ Today (Corporations Only, Please)

America has many rules and many laws but not much rule of law.

“Peak Advertising” (November 3, 2014)

Posted in Consumerism, Economics, Elections, Facebook, Football, Google, Minimum Wage, Occupy Movement, Peak Advertising, Politics, Press/Media, Social Media, Sports, Television, Voting, Wages, Writing on November 3, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “‘Mt. / Everest / Sherpas / Prefer / Burma / Shave.’”

2          “Turns out that some of the first ‘six-word memoirs’ were crafted by English majors laboring for BBDO.”

. . .

1          “‘Peak Advertising’ occurs when all of a person’s senses are assaulted all of the time with non-stop commercial advertising.”

2          “That is the collective business plan of all the social media platforms.  They are premised on their presumed ability to bombard the right demographic with saturation advertising all the time.”

1          “At some time, the marginal utility of each additional fusillade will not provide any return because the consumer has nothing to spend and no source of additional debt.  What if they don’t have any more money?”

2          “They have huge advertising budgets.”

. . .

2          “Well, right, those people may be out of money.”

. . .

1          “If the television is viewed as a mirror rather than a monitor, what should one make of a string of ads for fortified barley soda interspersed with those huckstering elixirs for erectile dysfunction.”

2          “Potents for potency.  The medium is also a microscope into the ‘Land of Skinny People’ where the people have BMIs below 22 and definitely do not reflect their viewers.  They hawk products that make a person fat ninety percent of the time and concoctions that purport to make a person skinny ten percent of the time.”

1          “When others talk about ‘thinking inside the box’ are they referring to the big flashing box in the home and the little flashing box in hand?”

2          “A wide body watches a wide out on a wide screen doing battle for his team and town.  The viewer should go out and do.”

. . .

1          “Seventy percent of the economy is attributed to consumer spending.  The total amount and the percentage of consumer spending in the next few years will be revealing.”

2          “Hard to spend if you have no money and no one will provide any more credit.”

. . .

1          “One thought might be to have parents lease a newborn’s forehead to tattoo an advertisement.  You can’t let an unbleached beachhead canvas go untrammeled.”

2          “Start young.  The kid surely would develop an affinity for the product or service.”

. . .

1          “Anyone in a political battleground state has been subject to ceaseless fusillades of hate and fear from all quarters for months.  In interviews, voters criticize the negative campaigning and yet in the voting booth vote in favor of those behind the vicious attacks.  The candidates provide what the public really wants.  Each political battle is part of the ceaseless war in American politics to own the government with its ability to plunder from the populace.”

2          “I vote to be a non-combatant.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Mt. / Everest / Sherpas / Prefer / Living / Wage

Occupy Namche Bazaar

Namaste

Peak Oil, Peak Water, Peak Land, Peak Advertising, Peak Peaks

“Don’t mind your make-up, you’d better make your mind up.”  Frank Zappa

“If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.”  Mark Twain

A ‘tax and spend’ Democrat versus a ‘no tax and spend’ Republican.

Vote

Unionizing Athletes And Adjuncts (And Sherpas) (April 21, 2014)

Posted in Education, Occupy Movement, Pogo Plight, Schooling, Slavery, Sports, Unions, Wages, Work on April 21, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “They say you need three things to run a college:  sex for the students, tenure for the faculty and football for the alumni.”

2          “That’s about it.  The sex is self-executing.  Tenure for the faculty is now tenuous with the adjuncts impressed to assume the laboring oar.  That leaves the futball team – the sine qua non that justifies the existence of a college in America today.”

1          “The young gladiators are relieved of paying some of the lease payments for the classrooms they may not frequent and the coliseums they fill and toil in for the benefit of the ‘lums.  Granting tenure might foster academic freedom and independence.  Adjuncts can be underpaid and overworked along with the gladiators.”

2          “Today all the money is deployed for administrators who are bureaucrats with shiny pedigrees.  Someone needs to develop a percentage formula to limit the amount spent on the administrators who exist to collect big pay checks and approve tuition increases.”

1          “Humans seek to enslave other humans.  We need to resist our basic impulses.  Unless the athletes organize and unless the adjuncts organize, they will be exploited.  And the Sherpas too.”

. . .

1          “Kids who do not understand their own mortality do not understand that their student debt is immortal.”

2          “The solution is simple.  After high school, youngsters are still engaged in the emancipation process from their parents or parent.  A two-year break allows them to flirt with adulthood rather than go to college and extend their adolescence.  A summer with the Civilian Conservation Corps, a stint in the military, a go at something out of their community or comfort zone provides critical perspective.”

1          “Even one year.  The kids in college who took a year off before starting college were three years more mature than the others.”

. . .

2          “If fewer students attend college, the unused dorms can be used for housing of others in the community to allow students to interact with other members of the community and develop a sense of community.”

. . .

2          “We paid the lead Sherpa the equivalent of two year’s wages via a stack of Benjamins for our climbing fee.  He paid his countrymen and women a few Rupees a day to do the work and carry the load.”

1          “Humans seek to enslave other humans.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” titled “Is College Worthless? (July 25, 2011)” and “Humanity’s Motto: To Enslave And To Colonize (January 27, 2014).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

I have let my schooling interfere with my education.

Occupy Namche Bazaar

Earth Day