Suppose that by enacting a particular law we'd increase the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. But almost all that growth would go to the richest 1 percent. The rest of us could buy some products cheaper than before. But those gains would be offset by losses of jobs and wages.This is pretty much what "free trade" has brought us over the last two decades.I used to believe in trade agreements. That was before the wages of most Americans stagnated and a relative few at the top captured just about all the economic gains.
Contents contributed and discussions participated by Joseph Skues
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How Trade Deals Boost the Top 1% and Bust the Rest | Robert Reich - 0 views
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The biggest things big American corporations sell overseas are ideas, designs, franchises, brands, engineering solutions, instructions, and software.Google, Apple, Uber, Facebook, Walmart, McDonalds, Microsoft, and Pfizer, for example, are making huge profits all over the world.But those profits don't depend on American labor -- apart from a tiny group of managers, designers, and researchers in the U.S.
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According to Economic Policy Institute, the North American Free Trade Act cost U.S. workers almost 700,000 jobs, thereby pushing down American wages.
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Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, America's trade deficit with Korea has grown more than 80 percent, equivalent to a loss of more than 70,000 additional U.S. jobs.
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The new-style global corporate agreements mainly enhance corporate and financial profits, and push down wages.
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Trans Pacific Partnership -- the giant deal among countries responsible for 40 percent of the global economy.
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also guard their overseas profits.
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even more patent protection oversea
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And it would allow them to challenge any nation's health, safety and environmental laws that stand in the way of their profits -- including our own.
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White House strategists seem to think such corporations are accountable to the U.S. government. Wrong. At most, they're answerable to their shareholders, who demand high share prices whatever that requires.
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OpEdNews - Article: The Golden Age of US Capitalism - 0 views
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"According to a recent study, from 2009 to 2012, 95 percent of all new income went to the top 1 percent. Meanwhile, since 1999, median family income declined by more than $5,000 after adjusting for inflation. Today, a record-breaking 46.5 million people live in poverty in the United States. At 21.8 percent, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. One out of four of our kids now lives in a family that receives food stamps. "
Jesse Ventura - 1 views
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shared by Joseph Skues on 17 Jul 11
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Chart of who "owns" the Federal Reserve…once again… ;) | Project World Awareness - 2 views
www.projectworldawareness.com/...the-federal-reserve-once-again
chart federal federal reserve reserve project world awareness
shared by Joseph Skues on 17 Jul 11
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The two principal Rothschild representatives in New York, J. P. Morgan Co., and Kuhn,Loeb & Co. were the firms which set up the Jekyll Island Conference at which the Federal Reserve Act was drafted, who directed the subsequent successful campaign to have the plan enacted into law by Congress, and who purchased the controlling amounts of stock in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 1914.
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These firms had their principal officers appointed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Federal Advisory Council in 1914.
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Examination of the charts and text in the House Banking Committee Staff Report of August, 1976 and the current stockholders list of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks show this same family control.
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In 1914 a few families (blood or business related) owning controlling stock in existing banks (such as in New York City) caused those banks to purchase controlling shares in the Federal Reserve regional banks.
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even at the present time, having two of its major executives of its subsidiary firm, Bechtel Corporation serving as Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration.
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The David Rockefeller chart shows the link between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,Standard Oil of Indiana,General Motors and Allied Chemical Corportion (Eugene Meyer family) and Equitable Life (J. P. Morgan)
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Non-Hybrid Seeds | Non-Hybrid Vegetable Fruit Grain Herb Seeds - 0 views
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The Seed Vault is for emergency backup and 1 or 2-person use. The Family Pack is for larger family yards and seed storage. The Homestead and Farm Packs are for large properties, groups and investment-grade seed purchase. The Specialty Packs cover a wide variety of specialty needs. For an overview of Heirloom Organics Non-Hybrid Seed packs, see our seed pack comparison chart. If you are shopping seed suppliers, or are new to the subject on Non-Hybrid Seeds, read our guide: 7 Things You Should Know When Buying Non-Hybrid Seeds.
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Drying and Storing Herbs for Cooking Knowing what to do with an overabundance of unused herbs is a dilemma many of us encounter. Dealing with an extra supply of herbs on our hands does not only occur as we begin to hang up our gardening hat towards the end of the season. Read More >> Researchers Germinate 4,000-Year-Old Seed Announcing yesterday that a 4,000-year-old seed that was found during an archaeological dig in the Aegean city of Kütahya has germinated, Professor Nejat Bilgen from Dumlupinar University said that being able to analyze the characteristics of plants from centuries ago would be a scientific breakthrough. Read More >>
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Monsanto Will Soon Be Allowed To Police Itself4A Government of Monsanto, by Monsanto, and for Monsanto2YouTube - DON'T BE FOOLED..... ELENIN IS NIBIRU3Planetary Alignments with Comet Elenin Causing Big Earthquakes2ARE THESE GIANT UFO'S TRAILING COMET ELENIN?3Hyperinflation!See more stories dugg by NonHybrid on Digg.com
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Peter and Lou Berryman on Vimeo - 0 views
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by luciano M
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"Solidarity Forever" When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run, There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun; Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one, But the union makes us strong. CHORUS: Solidarity forever, Solidarity forever, Solidarity forever, For the union makes us strong. Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite, Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might? Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight? For the union makes us strong. Chorus It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade; Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid; Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made; But the union makes us strong. Chorus All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone. We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone. It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own. While the union makes us strong. Chorus They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn, But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn. We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn That the union makes us strong. Chorus In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold, Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold. We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old For the union makes us strong.
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Daily Kos: Kathy Nickolaus in Waukesha forgot to save? Really? - 0 views
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Nickolaus says repeatedly that she imported the data into Access, but through a process of "human error", she "forgot to save". Then come the tears, repeatedly, throughout her presser. Here's the problem. Microsoft Access (any version) doesn't ask you to save. When you enter data into a table, it automatically updates the underlying database. If you close the database accidentally, the data you entered (or imported, in the case of Nickolaus) remains. If you stop to take a phone call from your buddy the governor (for example), your data will still automatically save.
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Bottom line: Nickolaus is clearly lying. Not only did she insist on having her own private system based on some of the most unsecure, pedestrian computing technology available (Seriously? Access and Excel controlling such an important part of our democracy?), but she apparently assumes that nobody else has ever used Microsoft Access.
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On an almost daily basis, I recommend to my business users to avoid Microsoft Access, due to the almost complete lack of security and auditing within the tool. It's good for keeping track of your grocery list, perhaps. But not an election. It's difficult to imagine being any worse at stealing an election and lying about it. Honestly.
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We're Not Broke: Congress -Here's $400 Billion In New Annual Revenue « SpeakEasy - 0 views
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Congress has blown holes in our tax code, losing hundreds of billions in revenue. Worse, lawmakers have averted their eyes as corporate lobbyists drill new tax loopholes and extract new corporate welfare subsidies.
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How else can we explain how a profitable company like General Electric pays no taxes?
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Other huge global companies such as Verizon, Boeing, ExxonMobil, and Bank of America also pay no taxes.
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They pretend to earn their profits offshore and then report their paper losses here in the United States–so they don’t have to pay the IRS a dime.
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f U.S. millionaires and billionaires paid taxes based on 1961 tax rules, we would have raised an additional $231 billion in federal revenue this year.
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By reversing years of tax giveaways to America’s rich and the corporations that enrich them, Congress could raise trillions in revenue. We could fund the public structures that safeguard our families and our future.
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a modest financial transaction tax on the transfers of stock, currency, and speculative investments that do little to strengthen the real economy
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reduce corporate tax dodging by closing overseas tax havens and requiring companies to pay U.S. taxes on the profits they actually earn in this country. This could generate as much as $100 billion a year.
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new top tax rates on households with annual incomes over $1 million, which could generate another $100 billion a year.
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a progressive estate tax on fortunes over $5 million, with higher rates on billionaire estates. That would generate $45 billion a year.
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aking all four of these straightforward steps could raise a total of approximately $400 billion per year.
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But that doesn’t mean we’re broke. It just means we need to get our priorities straight.
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Originally Published in OtherWords.
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Senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where I direct the Program on Inequality and the Common Good (www.ips-dc.org/inequality). Co-founder of Wealth for the Common Good (www.wealthforcommongood.org). Co-author with Bill Gates Sr. of Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes. Co-author with Mary Wright of The Moral Measure of the Economy.
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Archives - Progressive Radio Network - 0 views
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Natural Solutions Foundation's Global Health & Food Freedom Portal - 0 views
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Yes, Islam condones wife beatings - 0 views
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"Recently, Marvin Levant (Dec. 28), Steve Harris (Dec. 30), Syed Soharwardy (Jan. 2), and Riazuddin Ahmed (Jan. 5) debated Islam through the forum of the Herald's letters to the editor. The issue of wife beating and gender inequality in Islam has become convoluted and highly controversial as many Muslims try to sugar-coat the ugly truths and others try to shed some light on the issue. Soharwardy's statement that "Beating one's wife is not only wrong, it is criminal and completely un-Islamic" is incorrect. The Qur'an says that "men are in charge of women because Allah has made one of them (men) to excel the other (women), thus man's superiority over women . . . good women are the obedient ones . . . admonish the rebellious women and banish them, and scourge them (whip them severely to inflict pain) (4:34) . . . smote them (hit or strike with the hand or with a weapon causing pain, beat them . . . (4:62)". Islam does not recognize gender equality. For example, polygamy is accepted in Islam, but polyandry is not. A woman's testimony is considered half as worthy as a man's in court; a son inherits twice as much as a daughter does. Muslim men may marry Muslim, Jewish or Christian women, but Muslim women can marry only Muslim men. In short, sharia law leads to the inhuman treatment of Muslim women by their husbands and others, especially in South Asia and the Middle East. Higher education is emphasized more for sons than for daughters; in cultural honour killings, almost always women are the target for murder. Under sharia, divorced Muslim women get custody of their sons under eight years of age and daughters until puberty, and then the fathers take the children away. Sharia enabled one of the worst fundamentalists, the vile and ruthless military dictator, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, to put more than 15,000 rape victims in jail because they could not comply with the absurd Islamic condition requiring them to have numerous male witnesses of their victimization. They were char
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LITERATURE TABLE - 0 views
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Food Not Bombs without literature and a banner is just another charity supporting the current system of exploitation
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Food Not Bombs can be one of the most effective ways to encourage public support for peace, social justice and the protection of the environment
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we are often the only activists visible to our communities.
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Food Not Bombs group can be effective at inspiring social change if
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make a point of engaging the public in conversation about subjects like diverting resources from the military toward necessities like nutritious food, educations and healthcare.
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You can also set up a literature table at concerts and other events. The more we speak with the public the more we will build interest in changing the world. After all one reason there are somany Food Not Bombs groups is because people learned of our work by talking with us at our literature tables.
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Food Not Bombs is not a charity. It is organizing to change society.
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The authorities are so concerned about our literature tables that they have been telling groups that they can share food as long as they don't hand out flyers and post banners.
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Police infiltrators have been volunteering to bring the literature and end up discarding the flyers on the way to our meals.
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The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the government that handing out literature and vegan meals under the banner Food Not Bombs is a threat and can be stopped by the government. Your group is encouraged to defy the courts, military contractors and government by always bring a Food Not Bombs banner and literature to your vegan meals. Read the July 6, 2010 Ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
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shared by Joseph Skues on 21 Jan 11
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Jim Hightower | Republicans Give Government Back to Their Corporate Paymasters - 0 views
www.truth-out.org/heir-corporate-paymasters66966
republicans jim hightower government boehner congress lobbyist
shared by Joseph Skues on 21 Jan 11
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You see, the people he's giving the government back to are not tea partiers, but the rapacious corporate lobbyists who ran the Congress during the years when former Majority Leader Tom DeLay ran the show.
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In recent years, he has formed unusually tight legislative, political and even social ties with a group of lobbyists for such giants as Citigroup, Coors, Goldman Sachs, Google and R.J. Reynolds.
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Boehner had a private meeting with a flock of top corporate lobbyists to help shape "a new GOP agenda
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orget the tea party. No tea party operative is a Boehner insider
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It's the corporate agenda that Republican leaders will be pushing, and to make sure that it stays on track, Boehner has hired a top corporate lobbyist to be his policy director
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Also entering the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremonies was David Koch, the multibillionaire industrialist and laissez-faire extremist who bankrolled much of the tea party/GOP victory last fall. What symbolism! The members were taking office, but Koch and his corporate agenda were taking power.
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Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the new chairman of the Wall Street oversight committee, declared that his role is to "serve the banks."
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He sent letters to 150 corporate interests, asking them to tell him if Obama and his Democratic meanies have imposed any consumer, worker or environmental protections that should be undone.
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big banks, for example, wailed that their ability to gouge customers with rip-off debit-card fees had been curtailed. There, there, Issa said soothingly, I'm here now. I'll make it all better for you.
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The letters unleashed an outpouring of corporate whining
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This is not just business as usual, it's business way more than usual.
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shared by Joseph Skues on 21 Jan 11
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For many, a nurse practitioner is The doctor - 0 views
www.azcentral.com/...221nursepractitioners0220.html
health practicioner delicious a for nurse the many is socialism obama financial-crisis financial-oligarchs Banksters banksters
shared by Joseph Skues on 21 Jan 11
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During the past five years, the number of nurse practitioners in the United States has increased by nearly 40 percent, to 125,000, according to estimates by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Arizona's rate of growth has been slower in recent years, but since 2000, the number has jumped by 46 percent, to 3,000 practitioners, which is faster than population growth. The trend is being driven in large part by a shortage of primary-care doctors or general-practice physicians, medical experts say. Although most nurse practitioners work in settings supervised by physicians, more are striking out on their own, opening and staffing their own clinics apart from doctors. That has generated some controversy in the medical community, as physicians worry about the risk of misdiagnosis if NPs don't work collaboratively with licensed physicians.
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America: No Vacation Time For You | NEWS JUNKIE POST - 0 views
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In the richest country in the world, there is no right to any vacation time
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In most other wealthy nations, there are between 20-35 vacation days per year (4-7 weeks).
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1 in 4 private-sector workers in the US do not receive any paid vacation or paid holidays
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*The average paid vacation + paid holidays provided to U.S. workers in the private sector (15) is less than the minimum required by law in nearly every other rich country
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69% of low wage workers have vacation
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36% of part time workers have any paid vacation
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The United States is the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation.
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but most of the rest of the world’s rich countries offer between five and 13 paid holidays per year.
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For example, the average lower-wage worker (less than $15 per hour) with a vacation benefit received only 10 days of paid vacation per year in 2005, compared to 14 days of paid vacation for higher-wage workers with paid vacations. If we look at all workers ? those who receive paid vacations and those who don’t ? the vacation gap between lower-wage and higher-wage workers is even larger: only 7 days for lower-wage workers, compared to 13 days for higher-wage workers.
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we also note that several foreign countries offer additional time off for younger and older workers, shift workers, and those engaged in community service including jury duty.
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Three countries even mandate that employers pay vacationing workers a small premium above their standard pay in order to help with vacation-related expenses
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Our analysis does not cover paid leave for other reasons such as sick leave, parental leave, or leave to care for sick relatives.
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Many of these countries have strong labor unions and the workers are more protected than in the U.S.”
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Even Koreans who work hundreds of more hours per year than Americans average nearly twice the number of paid vacation days
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On the other side of the scale, people in The Netherlands work hundreds of hours less per year than Americans, and averaged 45 paid days off at one time (recent data not available).
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One in six workers in the US are unable to take any vacation days for various reasons (usually due to workload), with some people going for years without taking their offered time off.
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They calculate this to be worth $19.3 billion a year to their employers.
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And 53% of respondents did not know that US employees receive considerably less annual vacation time than their counterparts in other industrialized countries.
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The research firm Ipsos
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lists the percentage of people in the following countries that used the full amount of their offered paid vacation time: France: 89 percent Argentina: 80 percent Hungary: 78 percent Britain: 77 percent Spain: 77 percent Saudi Arabia: 76 percent Germany: 75 percent Belgium: 74 percent Turkey: 74 percent Indonesia: 70 percent Mexico: 67 percent Russia: 67 percent Italy 66 percent Poland: 66 percent China: 65 percent Sweden: 63 percent Brazil: 59 percent India: 59 percent Canada: 58 percent United States: 57 percent South Korea: 53 percent Australia: 47 percent South Africa: 47 percent Japan: 33 percent Why the discrepancy? Kathleen E. Christensen, the founder of the Workplace, Work Force and Working Families program at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and author of the book Workplace Flexibility: Realigning 20th-Century Jobs for a 21st-Century Workforce, states
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A 2007 report by the World Tourism Organization cataloged a sampling of nations to compare and contrast figures of the average number of vacation days offered: Italy 42 days France 37 days Germany 35 days Brazil 34 days United Kingdom 28 days Canada 26 days Korea 25 days Japan 25 days U.S. 13 days
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Ironic that the country with the largest economy and greatest wealth in the world does not require any vacation time for the workers who create the wealth with their labor. When paid annual and holiday leave is offered, it is less than half of what most other countries receive, and of that almost half of Americans do not use all of their days.
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addition to our finding that the United States is the only country in the group that does not require employers to provide paid vacation time, we also note that several foreign countries offer additional time off for younger and older workers, shift workers, and those engaged in community service including jury duty
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addition to our finding that the United States is the only country in the group that does not require employers to provide paid vacation time, we also note that several foreign countries offer additional time off for younger and older workers, shift workers, and those engaged in community service including jury duty
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n addition to our finding that the United States is the only country in the group that does not require employers to provide paid vacation time, we also note that several foreign countries offer additional time off for younger and older workers, shift workers, and those engaged in community service including jury duty.
ORS - Welcome to the Judges Retirement System - 1 views
www.michigan.gov/...607,7-144-6185-21628--,00.html
carf corporationnation states taxes judges retirement
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Tax Retirement Fund - TRF - How to End Taxation - 0 views
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MichiganJudges Retirement ServicesMichigan Office of Retirement ServicesMichigan Public School Employees Retirement SystemMichigan Treasury/Michigan Bureau of InvestmentsOffice of Retirement SystemsPublic School Employees Retirement SystemRetirement Systems of the City of DetroitState Employees Retirement SystemState Police Retirement Board
Above Top Secret - 1 views
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Prisoner Advocate Elaine Brown on Georgia Prison Strike: "Repression Breeds Resistance" - 0 views
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four prisons in Georgia remain in lockdown five days after prisoners went on strike
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Using cell phones purchased from guards, the prisoners coordinated the nonviolent protests to stage the largest prison strike in U.S. history.
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reports of widespread violence and brutality by the guards against the prisoners on strike
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Elaine Brown, Longtime prison activist and former chair of the Black Panther Party. Her books include The Condemnation of Little B: New Age Racism in America and A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story.
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Black Panthers, Then and Now (5/13/1996)
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until they receive better medical care and nutrition, more educational opportunities, payment for the work they do in the prisons.
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they’re demanding just parole decisions, an end to cruel and unusual punishments, and better access to their families.
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the newly formed group Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights
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And t hey made a decision that that would be on December 9th.I have no idea why they picked that date and how they ended up getting perhaps ten prisons involved. But at that point, of course, the guards and the administration became aware of their intention. And so, when they locked down on the night of the 8th, their decision was to not get up.
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they’re talking about four prisons, and there were probably ten in the initial one-day strike
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Can you tell us a little bit about your life and how you came to be a prison activist today?
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have known him for 15 years, and I have been with him for that long, since he was incarcerated and put into an adult facility at 14 years old.
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there’s no real educational opportunities. There’s no exercise. There’s nothing else.
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Not only is he on lockdown, but he’s in the hole right now, because from almost day one or so, I was informed that he was taken off to the hole, deemed some sort of leader.
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the constant violence being perpetrated against them by guards, who with their own idle time look to try and instigate an incident here or there, so there’s a lot of screaming, hollering, you know, aggressive behaviors that go on. And so, there’s always some incident jumping off,
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But the prisoners in the state of Georgia are paid nothing at all.Now, that’s not to say that the prisoners in other states are being paid. They’re mostly being paid a dollar a day to 50 cents an hour
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they are not paid one single dime, and they are required to clean the floors, clean the showers, do the yard work, do the dishes, cook the food—in other words, to maintain the prison itself.
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I learned the other day that one guy said he paid $800 to a guard for a cell phone that was probably worth about 50 bucks. So, that’s the first point that has to be made, because people imagine that there’s all this smuggling going on—and there is, but it’s on the part of—in the main, on the part of guards that are inside these facilities.
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all of them, for reasons that I cannot explain how they suddenly understood how to be unified, decided, “Yeah, we’re not working, and we’re down with this, and we’re not going to get up, and we’re going to stay united.” And across the prisons, in the various sets, they called each other, sent text messages
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e food is bad. They have poor nutrition.
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In the Black Panther Party, there was a 10-point platform and program that articulated some of the manifestations of our general oppression, talking about lack of education, as a matter of fact, not having enough food and housing. In essence, what we called for was freedom and right of self-determination.
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the Brown Berets, the Red Guard, the Young Lords, the Young Patriots, and so forth
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So, we became internationalists.
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when we consider that we black people make up approximately 12 to 13 percent of the overall population and yet almost 50 percent of the prison population, we have to ask the question, is this the result of some genetic flaw in black people? Are we obviously some sort of criminally minded? Or is there something wrong in the scheme of things? Obviously, the latter is what I would say. And so, I’ve committed myself to bringing people out of prison.
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So I helped to organize the Committee to Free Chip Fitzgerald. These people have been buried in prison for their political beliefs, and they’ve been buried in prison for their poverty. There are no rich people languishing in the prisons of America.
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which is what they are doing by prodding men with everything, turning off the heat, beating people, forcing them out of their cells, turning off the hot water, destroying and trashing people’s property, not feeding them, and so forth and so on, all kinds of tactics to instigate a violent response.
Joseph Skues