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The current shift in labor attitudes in the US is fascinating. What does this say about our culture as a whole? How does this compare to the cultural dynamics around work in other countries?

I'm interested to see how this progresses. It seems like we're in the middle of a really important labor shift that was somewhat catalyzed by the pandemic.

Its interesting to see if this shift in unionizing and labor laws will make any different in unemployment rates, seeing how they have peaked during the pandemic.

"The agreement reached in September would have allowed workers to take time off up to three times each year for a routine medical appointment without risking disciplinary action, but many workers said that the concession was insufficient and that it did not address the deeper issue underlying their concerns: a business model that seeks to minimize labor costs and results in chronic understaffing."

Through this article I have gained a deeper insight in how public expenditures and public goods promote wealth equality in a society. "Public services are an important antipoverty tool."

Cool theory in regards to "the tipping point". Interesting, and solid criticism of large social expenditures. Wonder how socialists view this, as opposed to free-market economists.

"Public services are an important antipoverty tool. Their benefit doesn't show up in income data, but they appear to play a key role in reducing material hardship." INteresting to see the statistics and how social expenditures help reduce poverty and the wealth gap.

After a previous failed vote, the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union charged Amazon with illegal misconduct and called for a do-over. A hearing officer from the National Labor Relations Board confirmed the decision.

"The Story of Catherine's iPod"

The disconnect here is so weird. It begins with people digging in the mountainside with sticks, and ends with a tiny, sleek, lightweight computer that makes images flick past at the swipe of your finger and makes music. It's like magic, except instead of the instead of using "toe of newt and eye of frog" the world is making these products by allowing people to be greatly mistreated. Beyond educating people, as Arshia and Alison said, it seems we must either: find other materials to make electronics out of (although that doesn't strike me as very likely?) or pressure companies (who have the money and the leverage) to enforce better regulation. To follow up on Catherine's video, I put three t's into google and got an article about an investigation into the mining in the Congo (maybe Catherine has already seen this): http://africarising2010.blogspot.com/2009/11/tracing-3-ts-from-congo.html. It says: "Even though they found that it is relatively easy to determine the source of minerals based on different coloration and texture based on the source mine, there is insufficient regulation to make this work....Export companies are required to register with the government, but their method of determining the source of minerals they buy is to merely ask the seller whether their goods are from conflict mines. There is no system of confirming what the seller says."

This presentation kept shocking me. I was surprised to hear that basic parts of the iPod (the Three Ts) originate in the Congo rather than China. I was then shocked (and horrified) by the rape statistics. I had heard the statistics before, but not in relation to the acquisition of the Three Ts and production of products that we use. The story about the woman whose brother was ordered to rape her and then stabbed to death when he refused was particularly awful. I was also In summary, I was appalled at all the crimes that took place in the Congo- before the Three Ts even got to the factories in China that Catherine talked about. When Catherine started talking about the factories in China, I was again shocked at the working conditions- 100 workers sleeping to a room and clothes locked in a bucket with no visitors allowed (to protect the secrecy of Apple's product plans) while workers worked 15 hour days. The suicide reports from the FoxCon (spelling) factories were also shocking, as was the revelation that workers make just half of what they did in the 1800s. It was sad that the factory earns only $4 per iPod sold- while Apple earns $80. This presentation was very thought provoking- I had never assumed that Apple would be one of the "bad" companies with very questionable labor and humanitarian practices (a la Wal-Mart). Thanks for bringing it up, Catherine. I'm now thinking about it in a whole new light.

This article gives both economic and social reasons for the education gap between girls and boys in India. This article finds that wealthier families send their daughters to school in higher percentages than poor families because they do not need the money gained from their labor or for their daughters to spend time doing household chores.

Qatar, which is non-democratic and run by monarchs, has been widely criticized for its many human rights violations and its exploitation of workers. However, this is being ignored by other governments in the world who seek to become allied with Qatar. Geopolitical goals are prioritized over human rights.

It's not really surprise considering Qatar's history surrounding human rights issues. I know that right now I believe the kafala system is still in place, which in principle deceives workers and gives a great amount of control to people over these workers. Basically increases cheap labor for migrants. Furthermore, though I the ILO keeping stressing that the workers welfare is being taken care of, it is clear that this is untrue seeing that there are plenty of injuries. Frankly, I don't think the ILO ever thought they could stop anything.

I'd love to know more about the "kafala system." What's "the ILO," Nicole? International Labor Organization? What is that? A UN body?

BERLIN - The top leaders of Germany and Italy plan to meet Wednesday as part of an intense round of shuttle diplomacy before several critical decisions that face Europe. The region's leaders are struggling to appease voters questioning the price of unity in the euro currency union after three years of financial turmoil.

I find European economics very fascinating, personally. Germany has been saving much of the Euro economy for three years since the economic crash began, but is not facing its own fiscal issues. In addition, the article discusses the actions of Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti, who has been frantically attending meetings and important "coffees" with other European heads of states to prevent their country's growing national debt--already at 123% GDP!!!

What are Germany's own economic issues? It has seemed like the bulwark of Europe for the last five years! Are there things that are being ignored, e.g. migrant labor, cost of universal health insurance and old age pensions? Is Angela Merkel still popular? Who might succeed her? What are her party's politics?

This "Room for Debate" article is about workers' strikes in China. The second response by Yasheng Huang is particularly interesting because it touches on something that we came across in our country jigsaws - even though a country may have an enormous GDP and growing economy, the average citizen is not necessarily well off. Huang writes: "Job creation is one thing; who gains from it is another…Many Western economists are cheerleaders of 'the China miracle,' but for the average Chinese the miracle is far less than what meets the eye." American companies profit from Chinese labor wages being so cheap, but how will things play out on the international stage if wages increase in Chinese factories?

(For people that are having difficulty finding the article for homework, I already posted it on Diigo)

The question I would have liked to look into is how the process my computer went through differs from the process a computer from apple or dell goes through

As Harrison said, I'm surprised that circuit boards and such are made by hand. I always assumed they were produced by machines. Maybe it's on a size scale where human work is better quality? For really tiny things, machines are of course much more accurate, and for big things it's more efficient to use machines. But on this scale, it's feasible for people to do it, and humans can perhaps do it better than machines can(?), since we can adjust things properly and take things case-by-case. Or maybe it's just cheaper.

Unfortunately it stops working for me after the first 40 seconds as well (I think that this is the end of the first slide). Like Greg, though, I am interested in the specifics of recycling computer parts and how exactly this takes place.

I think its interesting that piracy is increasing throughout the world. Personally, I feel that its good that other countries are working to counter this threat.

I found it interesting that American-made American flags are lower quality than those made in China. It struck me as very similar to the situation faced by the speaker who came to talk to us about her bag business: how she had to outsource because she couldn't find a quality producer in the U.S. Something that bothered me is that many of the flags are synthetic; if the government is going to hand our hundreds of free flags that might just get thrown away, it seems as though it would be better to at least make them out of renewable materials like wood and cotton. However, I suppose that may be more expensive... Also, I visited the Jinteng factory website because I was curious if they specialized in a certain type of flag or not. It turns out that they make all different types of flags depending on the order, just as the jeans we saw in China Blue varied order by order. I suspect that although some workers feel frustrated making other countries' flags, their catalog indicates that they make flags for many countries, not just one, so any anger would perhaps be less likely to be directed toward a specific country due to constantly producing their flag.

I thought that it is sad (and ironic) that, as Matthew said, our symbols of freedom and patriotism are being paid for with people's rights (in China). I had never considered how 9/11 would have caused a drastic increase in demand for American flags, and though it shouldn't have, it surprised me that the low price of American flags from retailers such as Wal-Mart does not cover the production costs of the flags. Like Larkin, I found the juxtaposition of the symbols of the flag and where it is actually made notable. I also had the same question as Alison about whether any flags are actually made in the United States. I thought that Matthew did a nice job pointing out the odd juxtaposition and talking about the production cycle of the flag.

Greece has been making structural reforms to try to address their debt, but Europe is also making them impose high taxes and cut social spending which is not helping to ease the problems. Hopefully, Greece will move towards liberalization of labor markets, cost-efficient public services, and more uniform taxes.

The Greek economic crisis is so difficult to overcome because of the Greek business habits of short hours and a culture of not paying taxes. To pay for these bailouts, the contemporary Greek culture must be revised, something that is incredibly difficult. Though the Greeks have agreed to higher taxes, it certainly does not mean that the majority of the people has changed. The strain that the Greeks are putting on Europe and the strain that Europe is putting on Greece hopefully will not produce cracks.

In addition to proposing four possible solutions to the United States's Social Security problems, this staff report also gives insight into the problems a newly designed system would need to foresee, such as the upcoming demographic shift, the dropping labor force participation rate amongst younger individuals, increased consumption, potentially stagnant economic growth, etc. The proposed solutions are to "1) increase payroll taxes by 6 percentage points, 2) reduce the replacement rates of the benefit formula by one-third, 3) raise the normal retirement age from sixty-six to seventy-three, or 4) means-test the benefits and reduce them one-to-one with income." Means-testing, already used in Medicaid, is the process by which the government assessing the income and assets of individuals and families to see if they could live without the government's help. In this case, only the poorest would receive benefits. The solution was first proposed by Ross Perot; however, it could lead to a social stigma around accepting pension benefits. Furthermore, each solution has its own repercussions and political obstacles. Maybe it is possible to look overseas to find more palatable solutions.