the economy will be fixed easily

Point to remember:  Politicians don't necessarily always want what they say they want.




Note:  In the January 24, 2017 New York Times, there's an article titled "Why women quit working" written by Patricia Cohen, which can be read Online.


The article isn't about President Trump, but he "sneaks into" many discussions on various topics  these days -- one Reader Comment on the Cohen article calls the new president and his Cabinet of -- mmh -- Intelligent Billionaires, the "empty-your-pockets-for-me brigade now in charge, in Washington"....




One Reader Commented from Seattle: 
"We need to restore dignity to service jobs....If we stop working out of self interest and start working for the sake of others' benefits, the economy will be fixed easily. 


The problem will be changing the scarcity mindset and fears associated with loss of  your own benefits to others.  Many women work for free for their family and love what they do."




Some other Reader Comments on this article:


Ellen Liversidge    San Diego, CA
---------- Thanks for what I hope is the beginning of serious reporting of work in the U.S.  Lack of work, underpaid work, lack of societal supports, topped by unheard of income inequality are all factors that drove the vote the way it went this year. 


Beyond the aggregate numbers that keep reporting more people back at work, there are countless untold stories....












Rick    ABZ
----------------- When I was unemployed, no-one ever asked me if I quit looking for work, and of course, I hadn't. 


I still had to eat, and could not collect unemployment.  I am sure there were many like me. 


I am tired of hearing there is a large swath of people who just gave up, as if it were a luxury they could choose.  Ridiculous.




Upstate New York
---------------- ...What I do think is consistently missed for the jobs numbers with respect to men, but also some women, is that they are working in the cash-only economy...




Chuck Mella    Mellaville
-------------- We didn't "give up" Rick.  Many of us found ways in the underground economy.  But we don't like to talk about it.  Get it?




JJ    Chicago
----------- Finally, an article that acknowledges that the 4.7% unemployment rate is entirely misleading.







Steve725    NY, NY
---------------- This is not surprising.  For the past 20 years too many employers have been treating their employees as disposable, temporary and only as needed; now workers are treating employers the same way....




marklee
-------------- Ms. Stevenson is working full-time; she's just not getting paid to be a home health aide to her mother, a caregiver to her children, or a housekeeper and personal assistant to the entire family.




Anna    Greensboro, North Carolina
--------------- Let's admit that women don't "stop working" when they leave employment.  They trade one responsibility for another.  Ms. Stevenson is filling in gaps of our societal neglect.




Mark Thomason    Clawson, Michigan
----------------- She is not without a job.  She has an unpaid job -- caring for an elderly stroke victim.


Why is that an unpaid job?






Woof
------------------ Economists that are, to quote Krugman "mystified" as to why the labour participation rate has been falling, need to memorize this sentence in the article:


"Both women and men complain they are unable to find full-time, secure jobs that pay a middle-class wage."


...It is that lousy jobs are replacing good jobs that is cause for both women and men dropping out.






Sarah    California
----------------- With every passing year, conservatives gain a little more ground and part of their "success" means continued devaluation of the worker. ...







Ava    Atlanta, Georgia
---------------------- Revolution. 


If people don't believe they can get ahead in the system that is, they opt out of the system.


Ryan Republicans see Trump's marginal success as a stamp of approval for their agenda,...but interviews of many Trump supporters, including those on the ACA, show exactly the opposite. 


They want cheaper medical care with better access. ...It's the government who can rein in companies charging $900 for two epipens. ...





Susannah    France
--------------- ...Here is what I find interesting about the chart in the article:


Sweden -- Single Payer since 1955
Switzerland -- Single Payer since 1994
Norway -- Single Payer since 1912
Denmark -- Two-Tier since 1973
France -- Two-Tier since 1974
Germany -- Insurance Mandate since 1941 


Netherlands -- Two-Tier since 1966
Spain -- Single Payer since 1986
Canada -- Single Payer since 1966


United Kingdom -- Single Payer since 1948
Greece -- Insurance Mandate since 1983
Australia -- Two-Tier since 1975
Japan -- Single Payer since 1938
USA -- Insurance Mandate since 2014? - Really? 2-years and now dismantling.


Ireland -- Two-Tier since 1977
Chile -- Two-Tier since 1989


Italy -- Single Payer since 1978
Mexico -- Free Market system
New Zealand -- Two-Tier since 1938




RM    New Jersey
----------------- Why is the unpaid labor that these women do, to care for ill or elderly family members or young children, not considered "work" or "employment"?  


The reason that women can work outside the home at a higher rate in other countries, is because the government is paying for and doing the caregiving work there.






Paul    Brooklyn
--------------- Here are some of the issues imo...


1-From 1945 to 1965 we had no competition...  The western world was destroyed and the east had an inefficient economical system.


2-We tried tricks like putting women to work, borrowing etc. to hide the fact that from 1965 - 2008 we had economic problems.


3-When the end came in 2008 people were in a panic.  We quickly went democratic, then a republican congress, then re elect a dem now a rep. congress with a demagogue at the top.


Until we learn how to deal with the problems in a bipartisan way, we will continue to tread water.




ChesBay    Maryland
---------------- I stopped working, at 61, when I lost my job thanks to Republican criminality.  In my rural area, there were no similar jobs nearby (within 50 miles) so I "retired."  Nobody wants to hire a person in their late 60's.




Tab    Boston
----------------- Lately I've been wondering what the point of showing up to the office every day is after all.  Money?  So what?  I'd rather be poor but free.  We seem to be going on a crash course to oblivion, so why not enjoy the precious time we have on this planet rather than be stuck in a self imposed prison?




Patty    NJ
----------------- We need more social support, medical support, childcare support in this country and we need to get over this idea that "those people" (read poorer, minority) will unfairly take advantage.


[I (blog-writing person) want to put something in, here:  thinking about the phenomenon of people getting mad because they think "someone else" might benefit from a government program --


some people see that as racism etc., and while some of it might be, I'm coming to the conclusion that there are people who are born with a "resentment gene" --


mindless, baseless, free-floating resentment is a guiding principle in their view of the world, and they just attach it to, or aim it at, various targets. 


I.E., "Somebody, somewhere, might be gettin' somethin' and -- well -- it's Not OK With MMMEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  It's just a theory which -- suggests itself to me...]




JMM    Worcester, Massachusetts
---------------- If the tax code was re-written to replace personal exemptions and standard deductions, and unemployment payments were replaced with a universal basic income, this kind of thing would be more normal and less stressful.


People could care for those who need it.  Employers would have to pay enough to make it worth working there.  Piecemeal work, like Uber, could offer viable alternatives.


As to the ruining of incentives sometimes cited as a negative for universal basic income, why do rich people work?


We will someday get to universal basic income and universal health care.  We should start positioning them as the backlash to the current administration begins.








Seattle
------------- The title is misleading.  Those women are not quitting work, they are quitting a job and working at home taking care of family members.  A lot of people, mostly women, work outside a regular job and contribute enormously to society, my wife being one of them.




Eric Glen    Hopkinton, New Hampshire
-------------- As a society, let's supplement, not supplant, the individual's earnings.  Let us require any able bodied individual receiving taxpayer assistance to repay that assistance with service hours.




Rosa    California
-------------- Only if that includes every CEO and recipient of farm subsidies, every Defense Contractor, and all members of Congress.






[blog-writing person saying, the following comment, I don't totally understand, but I include it here for contemplation purposes, and maybe some readers will "get it" more than I do...]


SJ    Kansas City, Missouri
------------------- Too  many lower-paid service industry jobs are for rent-seeking outfits. 


They don't want self-employed independents because that cuts into the CEO, other corporate execs, and franchise owners' skim from which they bring negligible to no benefits to the table, while the actual producer is the lowest-compensated. 


Financialization has been the ruination of our country for the many, while very lucrative for the few.






rexl    Phoenix, Arizona
----------------------- Work, or a job, is not all it is cracked-up to be.


[Blue Collar Lit adds:  A married woman once told me the same thing about marriage and children -- "It's not all it's cracked up to be.  No one appreciates all the things you do for them."...]




Michelle
----------------- Has the two-earner household been a blip, and are we simply returning to a historical norm of one-earner households, but with the worker being of either gender?





California
--------------------- An age-old problem, care-giving and enslavement to money-earning. 


Age-old solution is nurturing woman does the care-giving,


less sensitive more competitive male does the money-earning. 


Sound familiar? 


Nothing sacred about it, not for everyone (role reversals are fine if appropriate) and they need to be equals in the overall enterprise, but as a business model it often represents the best deployment of resources so it shouldn't necessarily be resented as 'the patriarchy.'




Sarah    Cleveland, Ohio
------------------ ...Working full time at low paid jobs still doesn't solve the problem when entry level jobs don't pay anything close to a living wage.  End corporate welfare.  Raise the minimum wage.




JJ    Chicago
------------------- Universal basic income is the right course.




CommonSense'17    California
----------------- After reading this article and the commentary, one comes to the negative conclusion that we are facing an economic and social tsunami very soon. 


With the retirement of the enormous Baby Boom generation -- and...younger generations working unstable low-end jobs or none at all -- and the lack of resources to care for the looming elderly population --


we are in for it, folks.


-30-