“It’s so easy to see
If only they’d listen to you and me
The answer we’re seeking is staring us right in the face
All we gotta do is ……”
The nation’s unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in June, the highest rate since August 1983, according to figures released Thursday by the Department of Labor. The U.S. economy lost 467,000 jobs in June, according to the report. The unemployment rate has now jumped nearly 2 full percentage points since Obama became president. Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June, driving the unemployment rate up to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, suggesting that the economy’s road to recovery will be bumpy. The Labor Department report, released Thursday, showed that even as the recession flashes signs of easing, companies likely will want to keep a lid on costs and be wary of hiring until they feel certain the economy is on a solid ground.
June’s payroll reductions were deeper than the 363,000 that economists expected. If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 percent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994.
So whose to blame? President Obama or the greedy corporations in America like Kroger, Vail Resorts, Safeway, who continue to cut employee wages to bare minimum, while operating with skeleton crews and making remaining employees do more and more work? No wonder King Soopers and Safeway both have rejected recent contracts and are considering a prolonged strike over employee benefits. It is not President Obama who has contributed to the highest unemployment in US history it is corporate greed which ran unchecked for eight years during the Bush /Cheney administration.
First and foremost, the American people are concerned about the economy, job creation, and the unsustainable debt obligations incurred in the last 6 months. As job losses continue to mount, families’ worried about losing their health-care, paying their mortgage, and sending their children to college, continue to intensify. The finger pointing in Washington continues to be business as usual with Republicans blaming Democrats and Dems like Nancy Pelosi blaming Repubs.
Partisan politics – Red and Blue states is killing America.
“This is the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all the jobs growth from the previous business cycle,” said EPI economist Heidi Shierholz.
Obama administration officials called for patience and vowed to do whatever was necessary to revive the economy and the labor market.
Of particular concern, the number of long-term unemployed – those out of work for 27 weeks or more swelled by 433,000 last month to 4.4 million, the report said. This group now represents 29 percent of unemployed workers. The U.S. government, once crafted as a system that would serve the interests of the people, has devolved into a system of plutocracy where corporations control both the government and the people. Virtually every government regulatory department, for example, is now run by the corporations it is supposed to be regulating. Just look at the FDA, USDA, FTC, FCC, NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) and most other government regulatory bodies and you’ll find a room full of politicians and bureaucrats who utterly disregard the People while prioritizing the financial needs of influential corporations. Our nation’s policies on health, finances, agricultural, national defense and even education are increasingly slanted towards enriching the corporations, usually at the expense of the People.How did the corporations gain so much power over government and the people? It’s simple: Campaign finances. The corporations hire hoards of lobbyists who dart in and out of lawmakers’ offices in Washington, leaving behind trails of cash and corruption. Most lawmakers hardly ever meet with the actual people they claim to represent. Instead, they spend their time cavorting with corporate rabblerousers who operate based on the simple principle of greed. Think Enron, but times a thousand. That’s who controls Congress today.
To keep the People in line, public protests have been limited and outlawed in many areas, where new fenced-in “free speech zones” have been set up to force protestors to protest out of the way somewhere. (Note to all: If free speech is limited to a “zone” then it isn’t free speech at all!)
So where is it all heading?
To a desperate place, unfortunately. It’s a natural cycle of nation states. Following abundance comes greed, then corruption, then police state tyranny, then collapse. After the collapse there’s rebirth, reconstruction and a new cycle of abundance until the whole thing repeats itself over and over again, one century after the next.
Well intentioned as he is, President Barack Obama cannot and will not stop the system of corporate greed that America has had in place since Jimmy Carter left office. “The WalMart’s, Home Depots, Targets, Kroger’s of the world all have corporate lobbyists in state after state, that use every trick in the book to prevent workers from having a voice on the job,” says UFCW organizer Harold Embry. “They do everything that’s within the law, and some things that are not.”
It is not President Obama that has created the highest unemployment rate of 10-percent in America it is the corporate greed by Kroger, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Safeway and others. Corporate fast-food chains like McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Starbucks, and others were once honorable companies but are now have a corporate attitude of greed turning them into a bad neighbor who seems content to trash communities for the sake of fat profits.”
As companies shed jobs and stocks plummet, hundreds of chief execs collected extra pay last year. Here’s how boards justify these rewards. Despite terrible performances that cost lots of jobs and produced huge shareholder losses, hundreds of CEOs pocketed millions in bonus pay last year — thanks to good friends on company boards. As millions of Americans cope with job losses and struggle to make ends meet, there’s been only a little belt tightening in the corner offices. Despite terrible performances that cost lots of jobs and produced huge shareholder losses, hundreds of CEOs pocketed millions in bonus pay last year — thanks to good friends on company boards. Consider the Ryland Group (RYL, news, msgs) CEO whose bonus went up in 2008 compared with 2007, though more than a third of the homebuilder’s employees got the boot. Or the Honeywell International (HON, news, msgs) chief who missed the benchmarks for his annual bonus — and got $3.5 million anyway.
All told:
* Among all the Fortune 1,000 companies, nearly 400 CEOs got bonuses last year, taking home $402 million in annual bonus pay, according to Equilar, an 
executive compensation research firm. But that’s only part of the picture; more bonus pay figures will roll in as additional companies file reports on 2008.
* These privileged CEOs got an additional $66 million in “discretionary” bonus pay. Annual bonuses are linked to some performance target, while boards can hand out discretionary bonuses for whatever reason they choose.
* These bonuses topped off already-large pay packages. CEOs at larger companies earned about $10 million on average last year, according to Equilar.
How does a CEO earn a big bonus when his company is staggering? Experts chalk it up to a broken pay system. The compensation committees that determine CEO paydays set up vague and flexible criteria that keep bonuses rolling no matter how badly a company performs.
“Compensation committees are on automatic pilot,” says Timothy Smith of Walden Asset Management, a social and environmental investment shop that monitors compensation. “They continue to reward top management while shareholders and employees suffer.”
TEN THINGS KIDS (AND PARENTS) CAN DO TO
JUST SAY NO TO CORPORATE GREED
1. Write a letter to the CEO’s of corporations such as Nike and Disney, asking them about their labor practices in Third World Countries.
2. If you have a choice, don’t buy the expensive brands of shoes, such as Nikes, who are known to engage in unfair labor practices.
3. If you must go to a Fast Food, (McDonald’s, BK, etc) just buy the food, don’t buy the kiddie meals which have the tie-in merchandise.
4. Don’t go to the movies, just because all your friends want to go.
5. If you want to see the movie, wait for it to be rented at the video store or the Red Box instead of buying it.
6. Pay attention to local strike issues, such as the current farmworker struggle with the strawberry farmers.
7. Research the cost of production for an expensive item, and compare it to the amount of money being paid to the workers to produce it. If the difference is more than 15%, you probably shouldn’t buy it.
8. Recycle the greed. Donate usable items to food and clothes closets so that someone else might use them.
9. Send for the year-end reports for major corporations, just to see how much money the CEOs make vs. the “average” worker.
10. Tell your friends why you are taking the stands you do.
US President Barack Obama, under fire over the payment of huge bonuses to traders at the floundering insurance giant AIG, Wednesday vowed to end the culture of corporate greed in America. He said that the ‘culture’ of ‘excess greed, excess compensation, excess risk’ has to change and pledged regulatory reform to put more controls on the finance industry. He said the government was working to set up a ‘resolution authority’ similar to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which regulates banks and insures bank deposits.
I think people are right to be angry. I’m angry,’ Obama said. ‘What I want us to do, though, is channel our anger in a constructive way.’
One of those ways might be to stop patronizing coporate box stores like Home Depot, WalMart, Target, City Market, Safeway and instead giving our business to “small businesses,” Ma and Pa businesses. Instead of forking out big bucks at KFC or City Market for fried-chicken, visit the small restaurant in your area that offers up great fried-chicken along with great customer service.
ALL WE GOTTA DO IS:
JUST SAY NO TO BIG BUSINESS!
JUST SAY NO TO WALMART, HOME DEPOT, TARGET, CITY MARKET, SAFEWAY
JUST SAY NO TO McDONALDS, BURGER KING, SUBWAY, TACO BELL, CHIPOTLE, CORNER BAKERY, STARBUCKS (instead patronizing the Ma and Pa coffee roasters, the small hamburger joints in your area, the local Mexican restaurants).
KH
