Marches demonstrations, civic unrest, attacks by law enforcement and the military on protesting civilians: The parallels between the summer of 1932 and what is happening currently are striking.
Source: A summer of protest, unemployment and presidential politics – welcome to 1932 : The Conversation
President Donald Trump justifies tariffs on imports by arguing that “unfair trade policies” have harmed American workers. This has led to a trade war in which the U.S. and China have placed tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s products.
Most recently, China said it’s ready to slap tariffs on US$60 billion in U.S. imports if Trump goes ahead with his threat to tax another $200 billion of Chinese goods.
Since the president claims to be acting on behalf of working-class Americans, it’s fair to ask: How do tariffs actually affect them?
Scholars of international political economy, such as myself, recognize that trade hasn’t always been good for poorer Americans. However, the economic fundamentals are clear: Tariffs make things worse.
Source: How Trump’s trade war affects working-class Americans : The Conversation
“My tax dollars are going to save them, but they aren’t going to help save my job,” says a plant worker
Source: Workers at endangered Indiana plant feel forgotten by Trump – Salon.com
Mike over at Vox Political has posted a piece about the remarks by Andy Haldane, the Chief Economist at the Bank of England, that Britain’s economy is being damaged by exorbitantly high executive pay. An article in the Independent notes that the average pay of FTSE 100 bosses is now 150 times that of the average UK worker. The Indie then went on to say
This large and growing remuneration gap, Mr Haldane said, “drive[s] a wedge between management and employees…that in turn erodes social capital. A company, like a country, whose physical and social capital is being eroded is one whose wealth-creation capacity is being impaired.”
Social capital refers to trust and relationships in a society and Mr Haldane argued this matters “every bit as much to wealth and well-being” as financial capital such as stocks and shares and other such assets.
It also reported that there have been…
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Is this true remorse or just ‘crocodile tears’.
The vast majority on benefits are there because they have no ability to work and never will have, this is not by choice, but due to their disability and or health deterioration. Due to increasing survival rates, due to considerable medical advances many persons who would not have survived years ago are now doing so, but the Government processes and the media attention are not taking this into consideration and are thereby, by their actions, demonising people on benefits and a good proportion of the public are believing this. Both the Government and some of the media are guilty of malicious propaganda.
Ipswich Unemployed Action is in two minds about watching this documentary tonight: Workers and Shirkers.
Thursday 7 April. 8.00pm-9.00pm. BBC TWO
Ian Hislop’s entertaining and provocative look at Victorian attitudes to the poor sheds a sharp light on today: controversial benefits cuts, anxieties about scroungers, sensational newspaper reports, arguments about who does and doesn’t deserve welfare – it’s all there!
Ian explores the views of five colourful individuals whose Victorian attitudes remain incredibly resonant. Pioneer of the workhouse Edwin Chadwick feared that hand-outs would lead to scrounging and sought to make sure that workers were always better-off than the unemployed. That sounds fair – but was his solution simply too unkind?
James Greenwood, Britain’s first undercover reporter, made poverty a cause célèbre – but is that kind of journalism voyeuristic?
Helen Bosanquet, an early social worker, believed that poverty was caused by ‘bad character’ – that some people simply more deserving…
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A number of media commenters have pointed out the inconsistencies and contradiction in Donald Trump’s speeches as he tries to drum up support for his presidential campaign. Kyle Kulinski over at Secular Talk, for example, has pointed out how Trump has argued for separate, and opposite positions on the Middle East, healthcare and the economy. For example, on the Middle East he has at one moment declared that America should go in much harder to carpet bomb whole cities, and torture and kill not just terrorists, but also their families. At other moments, sometimes just after he has argued passionately for the preceding policy, he has completely reversed his position. Instead of renewing America’s campaign in the Middle East, he has argued instead that America should not get involved, and instead leave Vladimir Putin to sort out ISIS.
His position on healthcare is similarly muddled. At one point he appeared…
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