Labor Day News: 'Young Workers: A Lost Decade’

[FayeforCure]

Young Workers: A Lost Decade’
By Tula Connell

September 2, 2009 - 10:15am ET


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Something bad happened in the past 10 years to young workers in this country: Since 1999, more of them now have lower-paying jobs, if they can get a job at all; health care is a rare luxury and retirement security is something for their parents, not them. In fact, manyâ€"younger than 35â€"still live at home with their parents because they can’t afford to be on their own.

These are the findings of a new report, “Young Workers: A Lost Decade.” Conducted in July 2009 by Peter D. Hart Research Associates for the AFL-CIO and our community affiliate Working America, the nationwide survey of 1,156 people follows up on a similar survey the AFL-CIO conducted in 1999. The deterioration of young workers’ economic situation in those 10 years is alarming.

Nate Scherer, 31, is among today’s young workers. Scherer lives in Columbus, Ohio, where he shares a home with his wife, his parents, brother and his partner.

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009093602/young-workers-lost-decade

Here are some shocking stats:

44% of people earning $30,000 or less don't have health benefits

73% don't have retirement or pension benefits

about 50% don't have paid sick leave

[buckethead]

The government should do something.

[FayeforCure]

The government should do something.

Well, in this land of opportunity, opportunity is slipping away.

It's a sad state of affairs, having three families living in one house. Used to be that was only the case among new immigrants, not those who had already had been exposed to "opportunity."

As far as government is concerned,.......they have all the perks with their job that are being denied to most workers:

Paid sick time, vacation, healthcare insurance, and pensions.

On top of that, they make about $170,000 a year. So they're not feeling it.

[buckethead]

Jobs move from here to Indonesia because Indonesians are willing to do more work for less money.

I wonder how many of them make 30 000 annually. How many of them have health insurance?

How many mor jobs would migrate overseas should we mandate employer provided insurance? I would like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I'm just tone deaf.

[BridgeTroll]

Makes you wonder about the Japanese, Germans, Koreans, etc,etc, moving factories here... pulling good paying jobs out of thier homelands....

What a wacky world... 

[FayeforCure]

Jobs move from here to Indonesia because Indonesians are willing to do more work for less money.

I wonder how many of them make 30 000 annually. How many of them have health insurance?

How many mor jobs would migrate overseas should we mandate employer provided insurance?

Hmmmm, I wonder why European countries prosper the way they do?!?!

They are not in the race to the bottom,......they feel a responsibility to their citizens, which apparently doesn't compete with their bottom line. It actually enhances their bottom line.

Doctor Doom
How Is Western Europe Doing?
Nouriel Roubini, 09.03.09, 12:00 AM EDT
France and Germany are faring better than the others. 


This week I will review the second-quarter gross domestic product releases of the four large Eurozone countries and the U.K. Europe's big surprise for the quarter was that Germany and France expanded again, each posting 0.3% quarterly growth.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/02/eurozone-gdp-france-germany-united-kingdom-opinions-columnists-nouriel-roubini.html

Remember France has the world's best healthcare system!!!!!!

The paradox is that having a really good healthcare system doesn't have to cost a lot:

France spends only half of what the US spends per capita (per person living in that country) than what the US spends per person, even though the US leaves 50 million people uninsured and another 50 million people with junk insurance.

[DavidWilliams]

This gets my vote as the funniest thread I have seen on this site.

I just hope I can make it through the day without crying too much about the poor young workers of America. It will be difficult, but I think I can manage.

Try to hold it together...we (and our poor, exploited work force) may just make it 

[mtraininjax]

Labor day was created, by President Cleveland, as a result of the Pullman strike of 1894. He sent 12,000 soldiers to help quash the strike, just to get the rail cars moving again around the country as other "union" folks who worked the railroads, would not work the Pullman cars. Interesting time in US History, so now we get the first Monday of September off as a result.

Just heard Big Jim go off at the 7 AM shift.

[Dog Walker]

There's a bit of labor history for Labor Day; Big Jim.  The work day started at 7AM; whistle.  Stopped for lunch at noon; whistle.  Started again at 1:PM; whistle.  Stopped at 5PM; whistle.

And we complain about working hard from 9 to 5??

[Burn to Shine]

Being under 35 and out of work, I can sympathize but I suppose we are just going to have to get more creative in finding a job and keeping a job.  No, luckily, I don't live in mom's basement - yet.

[Fallen Buckeye]

Jobs move from here to Indonesia because Indonesians are willing to do more work for less money.

I wonder how many of them make 30 000 annually. How many of them have health insurance?

How many mor jobs would migrate overseas should we mandate employer provided insurance? I would like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I'm just tone deaf.

That's what tariffs are supposed to help control and prevent. Think about this for a second. A company who let's say makes coffee mugs can move his company to Mexico (or dozens of other countries that we have free trade agreements with) and sell the same product without being taxed for importing said product and often with reduced costs because of differences in wages and so on. Meanwhile our country loses jobs and tax revenues. Yet the average working man is taxed on his income (which didn't happen until the 20th century) plus he'll be charged sales tax for when he goes to buy coffee mugs from the company that moved their factory. That's justice all right.

Granted I'm biased because I'm from a rust belt town that has experienced this first hand, but don't you wonder how the government ever got along for over 100 years without income taxes? I have no ill will for those other countries, but the U.S. needs to look out for the interests of all its people not just the top bracket. Maybe if we had a better tax policy, then paying for insurance and entitlements and so on wouldn't be such a hot button issue.

One more thing I've been near the bottom of the pile, and life was still pretty good. Maybe we need to rethink our standard of living too. Bottom line: greed is killing us rich and poor.

[buckethead]

Income tax is slavery. Tariffs work, but there is a price to be paid for implimenting them.

You might remeber hearing about a group name America First?

We have most certainly lost sight of what serves our citizenry as a whole.

[FayeforCure]

Income tax is slavery. Tariffs work, but there is a price to be paid for implimenting them.


We have most certainly lost sight of what serves our citizenry as a whole.

Income tax is the price we pay to live in a civilized society, plain and simple.

Yes, on an uninhabited island you wouldn't have to pay any income tax, ...........but is that where you want to live?

[Dog Walker]

Faye,  The income tax is actually a fairly recent invention as far as taxes go.  Tariffs, taxes on goods as they move from one place to another, sales taxes, property taxes, poll (head) taxes, all have a much longer history.  Value added taxes and income taxes are recent and require fairly sophisticated accounting and record keeping.

The income tax wasn't introduced in this country until 1913.  The Supreme Court of the US had declared income taxes unconstitutional and it literally took an amendment to the Constitution to implement.  The Supreme Court knew that the income tax was not authorized by the original Constitution so the amendment was necessary.

This country was actually quite civilized even before the income tax was instituted.  When first put in place, fewer than 3% of the population actually paid the tax because it was applied only to millionaires.

[Overstreet]

....................This country was actually quite civilized even before the income tax was instituted.  When first put in place, fewer than 3% of the population actually paid the tax because it was applied only to millionaires. ........

.......and now most every body pays income tax.  This is something to remember the next time a politician says that they will only tax the rich to pay for a new program.