A slogan for Hakeem against Towns (and maybe Barron):
The Latest
State Government Employment: 2002 and 2010
|This post is the final discussion of the spreadsheet of the U.S. Census Bureau’s state and local government employment and payroll data, which is linked from this post. The data can be downloaded by following the link. In March 2010, U.S state governments employed just under 1,400 full time equivalent workers per 100,000 U.S. residents, a small number compared with the nearly 4,000 local government workers, and more than 5,500 workers in the private health care, social services, and heavy construction sectors, which are substantially government-funded.
The three levels of government may be described this way: the federal government takes in the most money, but sends it right back out again in payments to individuals (Social Security, interest on the debt), the private sector (Medicare), and aid to the states. It actually does very little other than national defense and the Post Office. Local governments do most of the work actually done by government workers. State governments, however, make most of the decisions on the margin, control how local governments do their work, and supply much of their funding. The primary work of state governments, as opposed to work done by local governments and the private sector in part with state money, are state colleges and universities, state correctional institutions, and state hospitals (mostly mental hospitals). These three functions accounted for nearly 60.0% of all U.S. state government employment in March 2010. A discussion of how the State of New York compares follows.
Strong Words from Sean Penn. Says Tea Party wants to lynch Obama
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Actor Sean Penn says the Tea Party wants to “lynch” President Obama, launching the latest celebrity attack on the conservative grassroots movement that has grown into a political force.
During an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan on Friday in which Penn rambled about the need for more infrastructure spending, affordable health care, bolder actions from President Obama and an end to the Afghanistan war – all in the same answer — he segued into what’s wrong with the Tea Party.
Occupation Foole
|As a high school student back in Poland, Domestic Partner fomented rebellion.
The teacher in Charge of “Family Living in a Socialist Society” was giving a hygiene lecture.
ON PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS (AND THE WORDS OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS)
|Many people wonder why Republican legislators and Tea-Party members are so hard on President Obama. Frederick Douglass may have given us the answer 128 years ago:
The Economic Crisis: They Are Finally Starting to Get It
|For the past near 40 years, more and more U.S. income has become concentrated at the top, as the average worker has earned less and less adjusted for inflation, and yet this had not been reflected either in what businesses could sell, or how most Americans lived. A rising share of Americans had a car, had more than one car, lived in bigger housing units with more bathrooms, had color TVs, had more than one TV, had air conditioners, ate meals prepared by others, and traveled on airplanes. Falling inflation-adjusted wages, particularly for younger generations, were offset by more workers per household as more women entered the labor force, and at first overall household income (and spending) kept rising. Then by lost future income, as defined benefit pensions were replaced by defined contribution retirement plans in the private sector, and then the defined contributions stopped. That didn’t effect past spending, but it will lead to much less spending by retirees when the affected younger generations reach old age. In the final phase, millions of Americans went on a debt binge to keep the spending going as real wages kept falling. That finally collapsed, leaving soaring public debts as the only source of demand preventing consumer-based economies from a downward spiral.
The questions for the wealthy, U.S. businesses and older generations are this: Who are you going to sell your product or service to, now that not only your employees but everyone else’s employees (or former employees) don’t have any money and can’t borrow anymore? When you want to sell stock or your home, how much can the next generation pay for it, given that they are much worse off? I’ve been saying this for some time. The surprise – the shock really – is that suddenly a bunch of economists and financial analysts now seem to understand this, as this article on Bloomberg News lays out essentially the same argument. Read it, to the end, where the dicussion of political effects is followed by a discussion of economic effects.
Cornell West & Tavis Smiley are at it again. But they don’t talk tough to Bill O’Reilly. Naturally, of course.
|With great interest it's noted, Cornell West and Tavis Smiley challenge President Obama at every turn.
Notice the other night how Bill O'Reilly treated them, even openly talking down to them. But hey, it doesn't matter to West/Smiley, as long as they are the ones in the media spotlight.
I will say it. Both of them need to go somewhere and sit down, and pimp other issues, not the President of the United States.
It's amazing the tone West and Smiley use for President Obama, and how they were put in their place by O'Reilly.
The Gateway [In Liu of Integrity Edition]
|No mere glorified bookkeeper, John Liu brings to the Comptroller's office a track record of innovative and dynamic creativity–and he's a hands-on manager who says he's never heavily relied on an accountant or treasurer to handle his campaign finances, overseeing the operation himself: “I’m responsible for my own campaign.”
The Gateway (Weiner Shoots Off Edition)
|While I'm not sure I agree with Goldberg's policy prescription (added at the end almost as an afterthought), this article nicely sums up all sorts of global hypocrisy usually overlooked by some of my more mushy-headed friends on the left.
The Gateway (Tracks of My Tears Edition)
|Too bad Marvin Tarplin never did an instrumental album of the songs he wrote and played on–he couldda called it "Marv Plays Smokey," which would have been a very apt description.