All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (2 Viewers)

[Maxp]

I fear we are really going to be in a bad place due to the obvious cuts to the federal agencies that deal with infectious disease, but also the negative effect the Affordable Care act has had on non urban hospitals. Our front line defenses are ineffectual and our ability to treat the populous is probably at an all time low. Factor in the cost of healthcare and I can see our system crashing. What do you think about the politics of this virus?

 

[Optimus Prime]

Article on the unemployment benefits debate
===============
Governors of more than a dozen states — Republicans all — have announced that they will soon cease paying their state’s unemployed residents the federal jobless supplement, curtailing benefits for about 2 million Americans.


The tough-talking governors say they believe the extra $300 a week is causing some recipients to ignore open jobs, such as positions in restaurants that pay the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 an hour.

Generous unemployment benefits, according to their argument, are allowing many people a break, courtesy of the American taxpayer.
“My decision is based on a fundamental conservative principle — we do not want people on unemployment,” Idaho Gov. Brad Little declared last week. “It’s time to get back to work.”

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte struck a similar note earlier this month: “Incentives matter,” he said, “and the vast expansion of federal unemployment benefits is now doing more harm than good.”


It’s certainly possible many people are eschewing low-wage jobs that would pay less than they receive in unemployment benefits. But admitting that points up a conversation about why so many positions pay less than a living wage.

Instead of engaging that very real issue, right-wing pols are returning to a familiar trope: accusing the poor and others in need of government assistance of being slackers eager to live off the dole.......

And we’ve been here before. During the Great Recession, sympathy for the victims of dodgy mortgages shifted quickly to blaming people who lost their homes to foreclosure for getting greedy.

Some bank CEOs took government money to save their firms, then turned around and accepted gargantuan paydays. When called on this, Wall Street titans claimed victimhood.


As Republican governors scale back aid for the unemployed and CEOs profit amid the pandemic downturn, sympathy for low-wage workers appears to be shrinking. Even when you can recall the past, it seems, you can be doomed to repeat it.......

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/19/wealthy-ceos-rake-money-an-ugly-trope-about-americans-needing-help-reemerges/

 

[insidejob]

I heard there is a bill proposed in the LA legislature to give a one time payment of $1000 to people getting off unemployment for a full time job and $500 for part time. That still doesn't change the fat that people receiving federal and state unemployment right now are making on average $13/hour while minimum wage is nearly half of that. You'd think this discrepancy would make the push for a national minimum wage at least that amount to get people back to work that much more substantial but it hasn't. I'd definitely be willing to pay $0.50 more for a fast food burger so the workers could actually survive on their wages from that one job.

 

[DaveXA]

I heard there is a bill proposed in the LA legislature to give a one time payment of $1000 to people getting off unemployment for a full time job and $500 for part time. That still doesn't change the fat that people receiving federal and state unemployment right now are making on average $13/hour while minimum wage is nearly half of that. You'd think this discrepancy would make the push for a national minimum wage at least that amount to get people back to work that much more substantial but it hasn't. I'd definitely be willing to pay $0.50 more for a fast food burger so the workers could actually survive on their wages from that one job.

Sort of. The problem is raises prices for everything, so while their pay would increase faster than the rate of inflation temporarily, it won't last. The only way this works is if you index the minimum wage to inflation. But I doubt Congress has the balls to do that.

 

[brandon]

Sort of. The problem is raises prices for everything, so while their pay would increase faster than the rate of inflation temporarily, it won't last. The only way this works is if you index the minimum wage to inflation. But I doubt Congress has the balls to do that.

Except that inflation has been happening forever anyway, making minimum wage worth less every year.

 

[coldseat]

The minimum wage needs to be tied to some index (federal poverty index, perhaps) that adjust annually or every couple of years. That way things balance out over time and it's automatic. It's stupid that we have to pass legislation every time and fight to raise it. It should keep pace with inflation and the cost living and be enough to live off of if working full time.

 

[DaveXA]

Except that inflation has been happening forever anyway, making minimum wage worth less every year.

Precisely, which is why it should be indexed to inflation. They won't do it becuase Congress needs a cause to run on every few years.

 

[insidejob]

Precisely, which is why it should be indexed to inflation. They won't do it becuase Congress needs a cause to run on every few years.

I'll take term limits for $2,000, Alex. Daily Double? I'll wager it all.

"What is: Tear the whole forking thing down?"

 

[Optimus Prime]

another article on the unemployment situation
================================
Business owners around the country are offering up a lament: “no one wants to work.” A McDonalds franchise said they had to close because no one wants to work; North Carolina congressman David Rouzer claimed that a too-generous welfare state has turned us all lazy as he circulated photos of a shuttered fast-food restaurant supposedly closed “due to NO STAFF.”

Most of these complaints seem to be coming from franchised restaurants. Why? Well, it’s not complicated. Service workers didn’t decide one day to stop working — rather huge numbers of them cannot work anymore. Because they’ve died of coronavirus.

A recent study from the University of California–San Francisco looks at increased morbidity rates due to COVID, stratified by profession, from the height of the pandemic last year. They find that food and agricultural workers morbidity rates increased by the widest margins by far, much more so than medical professionals or other occupations generally considered to be on the “front lines” of the pandemic. Within the food industry, the morbidity rates of line cooks increased by 60 percent, making it the deadliest profession in America under coronavirus pandemic.............

When coronavirus is spread at restaurants, and restaurant workers make little money and rarely earn health benefits, it’s no wonder morbidity rates are so much higher for food service workers. But rather than collectively grieve the deaths of tens of thousands of the people who serve us and keep us fed, and keep such tragedies in mind when considering the state of the food-service industry labor market today, business owners and their political lackeys call these workers “lazy.”

There are, of course, also living, breathing people who have decided they do not want to risk their lives for $7.25 per hour and no health benefits. That is a perfectly rational decision for the homo economicus to make. Given how dangerous restaurant work is during a viral pandemic, if restaurant owners really wanted more workers, they would offer living wages, health benefits, and adequate personal protective equipment. But all the wage increases in the world won’t bring back the dead.

There aren’t enough people working in the service industry, and service bosses have somehow turned that into our problem, into something we ought to be ashamed of. We shouldn’t fall for it. Profits accumulate because of labor — without workers to exploit, the owning class can’t get richer. Capitalists cannot exploit the labor of the dead, so when large swathes of the working class die, they turn their ire on the living.

This is a barbaric response to mass tragedy. Workers across the country and the globe are dead or grieving. We shouldn’t risk further tragedies for a paltry minimum wage.......

Service Workers Aren’t Lazy — They Just Don’t Want to Risk Dying for Minimum Wage

Restaurant and bar owners whining about the difficulty of finding workers to toil for low wages and no benefits never seem to consider the possibility of raising those wages and benefits to try to attract such workers. But they’re also ignoring something more basic: the coronavirus pandemic...

www.jacobinmag.com

 

[MT15]

I knew flu was down just from observation. But this is incredible. Also one of my R acquaintances said “that’s because they’re not testing for flu, only Covid”. Not true at all. Our Covid testing platforms, both of them, automatically test for both Flu A and B as well as Covid. There just wasn’t any flu out there this year. Makes sense, since flu is less transmissible than Covid.

 

[DaveXA]

I knew flu was down just from observation. But this is incredible. Also one of my R acquaintances said “that’s because they’re not testing for flu, only Covid”. Not true at all. Our Covid testing platforms, both of them, automatically test for both Flu A and B as well as Covid. There just wasn’t any flu out there this year. Makes sense, since flu is less transmissible than Covid.

The people spouting that nonsense are garbage. A little homework would debunk those claims in no time, but...gullible fools are gullible.

 

[JRad]

The people spouting that nonsense are garbage. A little homework would debunk those claims in no time, but...gullible fools are gullible.

Or just talking a dang doctor

 

[Saintman2884]

another article on the unemployment situation
================================
Business owners around the country are offering up a lament: “no one wants to work.” A McDonalds franchise said they had to close because no one wants to work; North Carolina congressman David Rouzer claimed that a too-generous welfare state has turned us all lazy as he circulated photos of a shuttered fast-food restaurant supposedly closed “due to NO STAFF.”

Most of these complaints seem to be coming from franchised restaurants. Why? Well, it’s not complicated. Service workers didn’t decide one day to stop working — rather huge numbers of them cannot work anymore. Because they’ve died of coronavirus.

A recent study from the University of California–San Francisco looks at increased morbidity rates due to COVID, stratified by profession, from the height of the pandemic last year. They find that food and agricultural workers morbidity rates increased by the widest margins by far, much more so than medical professionals or other occupations generally considered to be on the “front lines” of the pandemic. Within the food industry, the morbidity rates of line cooks increased by 60 percent, making it the deadliest profession in America under coronavirus pandemic.............

When coronavirus is spread at restaurants, and restaurant workers make little money and rarely earn health benefits, it’s no wonder morbidity rates are so much higher for food service workers. But rather than collectively grieve the deaths of tens of thousands of the people who serve us and keep us fed, and keep such tragedies in mind when considering the state of the food-service industry labor market today, business owners and their political lackeys call these workers “lazy.”

There are, of course, also living, breathing people who have decided they do not want to risk their lives for $7.25 per hour and no health benefits. That is a perfectly rational decision for the homo economicus to make. Given how dangerous restaurant work is during a viral pandemic, if restaurant owners really wanted more workers, they would offer living wages, health benefits, and adequate personal protective equipment. But all the wage increases in the world won’t bring back the dead.

There aren’t enough people working in the service industry, and service bosses have somehow turned that into our problem, into something we ought to be ashamed of. We shouldn’t fall for it. Profits accumulate because of labor — without workers to exploit, the owning class can’t get richer. Capitalists cannot exploit the labor of the dead, so when large swathes of the working class die, they turn their ire on the living.

This is a barbaric response to mass tragedy. Workers across the country and the globe are dead or grieving. We shouldn’t risk further tragedies for a paltry minimum wage.......

Service Workers Aren’t Lazy — They Just Don’t Want to Risk Dying for Minimum Wage

Restaurant and bar owners whining about the difficulty of finding workers to toil for low wages and no benefits never seem to consider the possibility of raising those wages and benefits to try to attract such workers. But they’re also ignoring something more basic: the coronavirus pandemic...

www.jacobinmag.com

Maybe its just me, but this article assumes that all restaurants, bars, and industries involved with foodservice industry pay the same $ 7.50/ a hour in all states and territories everywhere and that some of them, like Waffle House, do offer their employees stock options and health benefits after they've been employed their a while or have some seniority? I mean, wasn't there huge labor battles from McDonald's employees in Washington and IIRC, Texas several years ago for more wages, better health benefits, work men's compensation and didnt they win some concessions?

Being a waitress or receptionist at Longhorn or Outback or a bar-tender doesn't necessarily involve the same dangerous risks you might find at a Burger King or McDonald's and is hardly the same equivalent, working environment? It wouldn't been nice for Jacobin to try and make that distinction.

 

[DaveXA]

As if we needed more evidence MTG doesn't belong in Congress. What the hell...

 

[Taurus]

I heard there is a bill proposed in the LA legislature to give a one time payment of $1000 to people getting off unemployment for a full time job and $500 for part time. That still doesn't change the fat that people receiving federal and state unemployment right now are making on average $13/hour while minimum wage is nearly half of that. You'd think this discrepancy would make the push for a national minimum wage at least that amount to get people back to work that much more substantial but it hasn't. I'd definitely be willing to pay $0.50 more for a fast food burger so the workers could actually survive on their wages from that one job.

You know what I'd be even more willing to do?
See the CEO of that fast-food company make a couple less million a year so the workers can afford a life.

 

[superchuck500]

@J-DONK

 

[bdb13]

@J-DONK

forking China..

I've always thought that the location of the origin of the outbreak was way too freaking coincidental for it not to be related to the lab.

Too simplified, but weren't the odds always much greater for this to have come from the lab rather than wet markets that have existed for years and years?

 

[zztop]

add another (R) controlled state to further politicize this. I don't know about anyone else, but seems like when I was a kid, certain vaccines were required for school. And maybe I was too young, but seems like most people recognized that it for the common good vs today

The Latest: Haiti imposes curfew, mask use for pandemic

Puerto Rico has ended a nightly pandemic curfew after more than a year in force and will allow vaccinated visitors to enter the island without a negative coronavirus test result.

apnews.com

would prohibit government entities from issuing “vaccine or immunization passports” or other “standardized documentation for the purpose of certifying immunization status” although standard child immunization forms would be excluded.

It would also prevent people from being denied entry to businesses, universities, and state agencies if they have not been vaccinated for COVID-19. However, the legislation does not specify any penalty for violations.

 

[superchuck500]

add another (R) controlled state to further politicize this. I don't know about anyone else, but seems like when I was a kid, certain vaccines were required for school. And maybe I was too young, but seems like most people recognized that it for the common good vs today

The Latest: Haiti imposes curfew, mask use for pandemic

Puerto Rico has ended a nightly pandemic curfew after more than a year in force and will allow vaccinated visitors to enter the island without a negative coronavirus test result.

apnews.com

would prohibit government entities from issuing “vaccine or immunization passports” or other “standardized documentation for the purpose of certifying immunization status” although standard child immunization forms would be excluded.

It would also prevent people from being denied entry to businesses, universities, and state agencies if they have not been vaccinated for COVID-19. However, the legislation does not specify any penalty for violations.

Just more proof that “conservative” no longer means a belief that government should play only limited and constrained roles in society.