. . .
K “Workers Day.”
J “Builders Day.”
. . .
K “Workers must unite.”
J “And then bargain zealously or strike with zeal.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at Labor Day. Oh, And Happy Labor Day! (September 3, 2018).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Archive for the Work Category
Workers And Builders Day. Oh, And Happy Labor Day! (September 4, 2023)
Posted in Middle Class, Work on September 4, 2023 by e-commentary.orgLabor Day (September 5, 2022)
Posted in Minimum Wage, Work on September 5, 2022 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “When the government pays folks not to labor, folks learn to enjoy not laboring.”
J “Many if not most of the jobs were crappy, but many of the jobs on this planet are crappy. There will always be some crappy job that cannot be automated.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary around prior Labor Days and at ‘Mericanize: Monetize, Mechanize And Militarize (December 30, 2013).]
Bumper stickers Sweatshirt of the week:
College
Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague: What Is A [Labor Day] Weekend? (September 7, 2020)
Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Society, Work on September 7, 2020 by e-commentary.org
. . .
J “The appeal of that show is still beguiling, yet the series appealed to the whole family wholeheartedly and to me. ‘What is a weekend?’, the Dowager at Downton Abbey inquired at dinner. What was a declining way of life for the wealthy is now an emerging way of life for the villagers.”
K “And when you are self-unemployed under the old way of life, you only knew it was the weekend because your friends could come out to play.”
J “But you are employee of the month every month.”
. . .
K “The circus had its own calendar and dedicated days. In the fall and winter, Friday night was demarcated by high school football, Saturday afternoons by college football and almost all of Sunday by professional football.”
J “And the professional game metastasized into Monday night and then into the Thursday night edition of Monday night football that became Thursday night football. Tuesday and Wednesday are the weekend for football. The circus markers are gone or limited.”
. . .
J “A friend notes that she only knows the day of the week if the newspaper does not arrive which means it is Saturday.”
K “And then there is always Sunday night. A friend described the Sunday night malaise that set in every week around 5 o’clock began sooner each year and then set in earlier in the day and then set in upon getting up and then set in around 5 o’clock on Saturday night and then set in earlier in the day and then set in upon getting up and then set in around 5 o’clock on Friday night.”
J “On Sunday night, you are only seven days away from Sunday night and a fortnight away from Sunday night.”
. . .
K “And the winter solstice this year falls on a Monday.”
J “And the day the sun starts returning springs on a Tuesday.”
. . .
K “Until recently, of course, one typically spent five days in an office and two days in or operating out of a home. Now seven days are spent in a home office that creates a sense of uninterrupted house arrest. I even use the word ‘prisoner’ in some conversations to describe my confined circumstances.”
J “Although I am likely to cancel the furlough, I booked an airline ticket in December that I hold in my hand to hold out hope of getting a work release from the prison I am booked in today. The ticket is a psychological get out of jail card for fee.”
K “Book ’im, Danno.”
. . .
J “What is a weekbegin?”
K “T.G.I.?.”
. . .
[Follow the criminal proceedings – by the English and American court systems – against Julian Assange at Consortium News.]
[See the e-commentary at Labor Day and Labor Day weekend at “Laboring Day (September 2, 2019)”, “Labor Day. Oh, And Happy Labor Day! (September 3, 2018)”, “On Writin’ And Livin’ And Laborin’ (September 4, 2017)” and “Doctorin’ And Lawyerin’ And Laborin’ (September 5, 2011)”.]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Labor on!
What is a weekend?
Unions – The folks who brought you the weekend
Everybody’s playing for the week
“Eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and eight hours of what you will”
T.G.I.?.
“A job?”
On Writin’ And Livin’ And Laborin’ (September 4, 2017)
Posted in Book Reference, Society, Work, Writing on September 4, 2017 by e-commentary.org. . .
W2 “Seems to me that one is best advised to ‘Live life’ first and foremost. If the writing thing does not work out, then one has lived life. If the writing thing does work out, then one can write about the life one has lived.”
W1 “And about the things that terrify you and satisfy you and mystify you and pacify you.”
. . .
W2 “Live and write. Write and live. Works for me. Plays for me.”
W1 “Is writing also living? . . . He not busy writing is busy dying?”
W2 “Works for me.”
W1 “Play is for me.”
. . .
[Labor Day]
[See the e-commentary on the art and craft of writing at “Writin’ (February 17, 2014)”, the longing to write at “Writing The Long Song (September 26, 2011)”, the absence of standards and quality today at “On Standards & Quality (July 20, 2015)”, the love of ideas at “A Nerd You Know You Are (June 7, 2010)” and the role of the thinker/writer at “Contrarianism, Revisionism and Iconoclasm: On The Path To Truth Or Trailing The Truth? (September 19, 2016)” among other e-commentary.]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Live life; life lived
Live Life and Die Death;
Don’t Live Death and Die Life.
Live to learn; learn to live
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” Mark Twain
“Not being heard is no reason for silence.” Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
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.
“Titters” v. “Self-Unemployed” (September 1, 2014)
Posted in Entitlements, Judicial Arrogance, On [Traits/Characteristics], Pensions, Work on September 1, 2014 by e-commentary.org. . .
Q “If you plan to attract an academic clique, you need to concoct your own hip lingo. Those who are in the know need to believe they are in a selective and exclusive circle.”
P “I also call them ‘9-to-5ers’. That is just not as much fun . . . or as facetious.”
. . .
P “‘Class’ is a telling factor even though we profess to live in a class-free society. And of course ‘Earnings’ or ‘Income’ however defined are salient traits.”
Q “Social scientists have it covered with the more antiseptic academic catch-all phrase ‘Socioeconomic Status’. ‘Race’ is also intertwined with ‘Socioeconomic Status’.”
P “‘Education’ also impacts and is impacted by ‘Socioeconomic Status’.”
Q “‘Religion.’ ‘Religion’ and ‘Race’ are related. Some say that the most segregated hour of the week is every Sunday morning in the houses of worship.”
P “And one’s ‘Political Party’ is one’s defining clan and secular religion. Some hypothesize that the Red Clan hates the Blue Clan; the Blue Clan hates the Red Clan.”
. . .
P “A nuanced understanding of ‘Employment Status’ is also revealing. The differences between those who are employed and those who are unemployed refine the analysis. When I poll people who are among the employed cohort, the most defining trait is the difference between those who are ‘Titters’ versus those who are ‘Self-Unemployed’. Is someone working for the government or working for himself or herself? The analysis can be expanded to cover anyone getting a regular pay check, yet someone working for a corporation does have an almost certain guarantee of lifetime government employment. The distinction between ‘Titters’ versus the ‘Self-Unemployed’ is more telling and tells you as much as the other conventional traits.”
Q “One’s employment circumstance may be even more revealing than whether one is a devotee of the Designated Hitter Rule or not.”
P “Exactly. The ‘Titters’ feel entitled to every single penny and will fight for every single penny. And they are tight with every penny. ‘I earned it.’ The ‘Titters’ do not feel that they should pay the ‘Self-Unemployed’ for their services.”
. . .
P “When ‘Titters’ talk about the mission of their bureau, almost without fail they preface the discussion by stating that they cannot get the job done without even more money and even more personnel. The ‘Self-Unemployed’ admit that they don’t have enough money and personnel, but they soldier on within their limited means.”
Q “I know one guy who spends his work days twisting paper clips into animal figures and complains that the bureau can’t get the job done without even more money and even more personnel.”
. . .
P “Those who are ‘Self-Unemployed’ recognize that money is ‘Hard come, easy go’ and are often willing to throw a few dollars into the pot even though they do not know whether the next dollar will arrive.”
Q “I’ve notice that those who are ‘Self-Unemployed’ also may deduct a few meals that are only quasi business-related and thus spread the costs of their pinching with other citizens. They may also a slip a few dollars in their pocket without accounting to the Great Uncle.”
P “Pinching pennies by pinching pennies. Not a great surprise.”
. . .
P “Those who work for the government eat. Those who work for themselves eat . . . what they kill . . . if they kill.”
. . .
P “Republican Judges and Democratic Judges share one conviction – they will protect their pensions uber alles. One judge did not have any problem with the plight of a group of new employees who were forced to fund the retirement of an earlier group of retirees even though the new employees could not participate in the retirement fund under any circumstances.”
Q “Raw naked amoral power, the currency in courts today. And the judge surely participates in the old plan. Bankruptcy Judges will be increasingly deciding the issue and rarely are able to repudiate one hard reality. Resources of a debtor are finite. Almost all pensions today are actuarially unsound. If the money is not there in a bankruptcy case, it is not there.”
P “Judges other than Bankruptcy Judges will find some legal hook to order, adjudge and decree that their pensions shall be paid under any and all circumstances.”
Q “The new employees are a generation younger than the old employees. The conflict is both intra-generational and inter-generational.”
. . .
_ “A substantial cohort of citizens are entering retirement with no possibility of even maintaining a poverty level life style. The unfunded Social Security obligations dwarf in comparison to this unrecognized and unanticipated financial burden.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at Pensions and Other Entitlements: Pt. 1 (April 14, 2008) and Pensions and Other Entitlements: Pt. 2 (April 28, 2008) and other e-commentary under the Category on “Pensions” at https://e-commentary.org/category/pensions/.%5D
Bumper stickers of the week:
For folks not working for the government, your retirement party is now known as your funeral.
For folks who are “Self-Unemployed,” your last day on the job is also your last day on the planet.
“Perspectives on Race, Class, Gender, Titters and The Self-Unemployed 101” at 9 a.m. M W F at Mr. and Ms. R. Baron Hall taught by Adjunct Professor of Race, Class, Gender, Titters and The Self-Unemployed H. Sebastian . . . .
Unemployment Insurance = Welfare 2.0 (June 23, 2014)
Posted in Federal Reserve, Insurance, Journalism, Military, Newspapers, Pensions, Personal Story, Press/Media, Unemployment, War, Welfare, Work on June 23, 2014 by e-commentary.org. . .
E “They are not coming back.”
U “And they keep coming.”
. . .
E “After the War, he moved the family westward from the homestead bequeathed to his older brother to a community with no friends and no connections and moved upward from one manufacturing job to another and then retired as a floor manager. He put food on the table and kids through college. He said that all the companies he worked for have gone out of business or moved overseas. Most of the pension funds were dissipated or disappeared.”
U “Those returning from the current wars are not finding opportunities. Those who stayed have not found opportunities.”
E “Years ago, some guys worked at a service station checking the tires and washing the windows and graduated to a mechanics job for life. Now there is no service and far fewer mechanics positions.”
U “Yesterday’s grease monkey with a G.E.D. is today’s barista with a B.A.”
. . .
E “Many of the jobs are undertaken by a robot that may never craft an inspiring poem or participate in a parent-teacher conference, yet it produces a consistently high quality product very efficiently.”
U “A company can use the robots to fine-tune the built-in obsolescence. The product can be designed and manufactured to fail ten minutes after the limited warranty expires. And robots are not the most efficient consumers of their own products.”
. . .
E “The Federal Reserve is untethered by the Constitution, Congress or common sense except for a mandate in the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act to address unemployment in its decision-making. The Fed has knowingly pursued decisions that do nothing to promote employment and do much to transfer wealth to the wealthy.”
U “The Republicans respond with the obscene lie that a reduction in the capital gains rate will reduce unemployment. The Press almost always gives them a pass.”
. . .
E “Unemployment insurance originally covered thirteen weeks and then twenty-six weeks and then up to seventy-three weeks in many jurisdictions. Some are calling for further extensions of unemployment insurance.”
U “The insurance is becoming a tenuous version of ‘Welfare 2.0.’”
. . .
E “What happens when thoughtful people realize that the jobs are never coming back.”
U “The unemployed are categorized under the ‘U6 Unemployment’ category and forgotten.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
Get a job
Where?
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
e-commentary 