May 17, 2012
By Heather Boushey and Adam Hersh
To say (click here) that the middle class is important to our economy may seem noncontroversial to most Americans. After all, most of us self-identify as middle class, and members of the middle class observe every day how their work contributes to the economy, hear weekly how their spending is a leading indicator for economic prognosticators, and see every month how jobs numbers, which primarily reflect middle-class jobs, are taken as the key measure of how the economy is faring. And as growing income inequality has risen in the nation’s consciousness, the plight of the middle class has become a common topic in the press and policy circles....
We have heard from great leaders like Bernie Sanders and we have witnessed great Governors standing up for their citizens and moving a higher minimum wage through their legislature. To those that have been movers and shakers, we thank you. We also thank you because it leads to a stronger economy with more consumers and a growing economy. I wish all our leaders saw the gratification of providing dignity to so many people by simply raising their wages.
It also helps our US Treasury. When citizens do better financially they contribute a great amount of taxes and they need less social subsistence such as Medicaid, SCHIP and Food Stamps. Everyone that moved this country forward while fighting for the Middle Class shares in the joys of Labor Day.
Since 2008 the battle cry for our economy was to maximize the local economy and take control of the stability of our economies. To that we have witnessed the stabilizing of our economy and growth in our small businesses. Small business was and continues to be the rudder of the ship, "The USA," when comes to growth.
Small Businesses are our baseline economy and we should never let it slip. These are some of the businesses that worry the most about taking on a new task of health care insurance reform. For the governors that believe in their Middle Class and it's importance as shared by Small Business, I would like to see them form a Health Care Exchange for Small Businesses Only. The governors need to take special care of those businesses that are our baseline, like the Mom and Pop stores and the entrepreneur that built their business from the ground up and now hire 20 or so. They need to be protected and provided for while upholding the well being/wellness of their employees. No business should feel threatened by their move to a better health option for those that work. The Governors should be taking the necessary step to preserve this group of very wise business people.
But, this is really interesting and why even the citizens in those states without health care reform and stubborn legislators that can't see the forest for the trees, there is help coming.
The world is changing as I write this. Global leaders, as in China, are seeking to provide for better outcomes for their citizens. They want to grow an economy and not lean on the USA as a trading partner as their only economy. They can see the future and they know it is true.
I thought this was said well.
...The nineteenth century industrial revolution (click here) created a substantial Western European and American middle class, which grew again after the Second World War – a spurt which this time included Japan.
Today this is happening in the emerging markets (EMs).
Today this is happening in the emerging markets (EMs).
In Asia alone, 525 million people can already count themselves middle class — more than the European Union’s total population. Over the next two decades, the middle class is expected to expand by another three billion, coming almost exclusively from the emerging world.
This paper looks at this growth and how it will change both developing and developed worlds.
By 2030, so many people will have escaped poverty that the balance of geopolitical power will have changed completely, and global trade patterns will also be unrecognizable....
Autonomy will increase consumer demand for goods and whether Wall Street likes it or not, they will have to pay their employees better. The emerging markets are moving to create a more wealthy society within each country. These countries will no longer be CHEAP LABOR. They will be skilled and paid with benefits as time goes by and they become more self-oriented to the success of their country's economy.The playing field for workers is leveling. This will drive Wall Street to seek a TRUE PATTERN of economic growth. The pattern that works best is to pay laborers and be sure they are secure in their Middle Class to continue an upward demand for supply. Why will that lift up the people of the USA? Because businesses across the country are learning it is best to keep warehouses small, answer to demand and keep transportation costs to a minimum, hence, more opportunity for work and better pay.
The other aspect to improved opportunity for good paying jobs is the reduced demand by people to hold down more than one job. Rather than 2 jobs there will be one. Rather than 3 jobs there will be one or possibly 2. Who is going to change that creating an upward drive for better pay scales? It isn't a who. It is a what.
The Affordable Care Act has provided health care to people in the way of better and less expensive policies which relieves the demand on the working poor to continue to be separated from their families and only having the identify as provider without be Mom or Dad.
The current trend being found since the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, is downward when it comes to the cost of health care. People are being treated aggressively and becoming well. Having a Primary Physician and/or Nurse Practitioner enhances care and reduces cost.
August 31, 2014
By Steven Greenhouse
MIRA LOMA, Calif. — Week after week, (click here) Guadalupe Rangel worked seven days straight, sometimes 11 hours a day, unloading dining room sets, trampolines, television stands and other imports from Asia that would soon be shipped to Walmart stores.
Even though he often clocked 70 hours a week at the Schneider warehouse here, he was never paid time-and-a-half overtime, he said. And now, having joined a lawsuit involving hundreds of warehouse workers, Mr. Rangel stands to receive more than $20,000 in back pay as part of a recent $21 million legal settlement with Schneider, a national trucking company.
“Sometimes I’d work 60, even 90 days in a row,” said Mr. Rangel, a soft-spoken immigrant from Mexico. “They never paid overtime.”...
And last, but never least, is the return of the unions. People suffer too much in the USA because they are alone in their employment without a resource of legal representation. Unions do that. It doesn't have to be a class action lawsuit, it can be a simple complaint filed by the union with an employer to bring balance to exploitation. Sometimes companies don't know and they need to be told where the inequality is happening within their employees. Sometimes it is a bigger problem such as "Schneider Trucking."
Where there is a union there is also the NLRB which cares about the people of the USA and their treatment in the work opportunities they seek.
Today, on Labor Day 2014, it is all good and getting better. We need to continue down this path and shore up the loose ends of the floundering economy that remains draconian to our country's economic growth.
Have a good one. Stay healthy.
