Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts

So the "Paper of Record" has been pulling at our collective heart strings this holiday season with an expose on lives of the homeless in New York.  What confuses me is why we are supposed to feel anything for this family of ten living in a shelter. Call me Scrooge if you want but there is no way we should feel anything but contempt for these irresponsible people who proceeded to have eight children with no apparent means to support them.

I know that I repeatedly harp on the population point but here I go again. In the past 20 years the population of New York City has grown by nearly 10 percent. With much of that population growth being of wealthier individuals. The population density is extremely high here and this coupled with improvements in city life puts a premium price on everything. It would be next to impossible to raise a family of eight children on a million dollars a year here. The fact that the oldest of this families children is 11 means that they were all conceived during the economic realities of the 21st century. Large families are vestigial remnant of a time with a high infant mortality rate and need for large human labor force and should only be seen as socially irresponsible in the 21st century. There are no excuses for this kind of behavior from adults.

At some point we have to tell these people if you cannot afford to care for your children there will be consequences. We cannot continue to support a world that is so overpopulated. If you want to decrease the worlds wealth inequality stop having so many damn kids. I am ready for your Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future now. They can join me in my annual holiday Star Wars marathon just remind them to bring booze.

"Do the Reich Thing"

So former Labor Secretary and last living Hobbit Robert Reich has been all talking about income inequality and why the recovery is so "anemic" in his opinion. Reich states that the post World War II economic boom improved life for everyone while claiming that the stock market boom of today only those on the top. There is one key factor he is not considering. Population.

The population of the United States in 2010 was just under 309 million people in the post war boom of 1960 it was 180 million people. Taking a look at household incomes in 2010 we see that 50 percent of the country lives in households making over 50,000 dollars a year. This is equal to 86 percent of the total population in 1960. Looking further we see that 20 percent of all Americans live in households with an income over 100,000 per year. This number equals 34 percent of the population of the United States in 1960.

The reason for low wages is that there are more people than there are jobs. The growth of the population has outpaced the growth of jobs necessary to make society run. One need look no further than North Dakota where the population is so small that Walmart is hiring cashiers at 17.50 an hour to prove my point.

Just because there are more people does not mean that there will be more jobs. As I have pointed out time and again technological advances has made much of the past's human labor irrelevant.  The economy is doing fine for the majority of Americans it just cannot support a population that has grown by 72 percent in the past 50 years. If only Bob Barker had encouraged people to spay and neuter their neighbors at the end of every Price is Right.

Pimping is Easy and Completely Unnecessary

Now is when I shock you all by siding with workers against management. The Manhattan federal courts recently ruled that the dancers at Rick's Cabaret were not independent contractors but were in fact employees. This ruling means that Rick's was in violation of the law by not paying the dancers a wage. The issue here is how the club forced the girls to share their income earned from lap dances and private dances with the club.

A person receiving a percentage of income earned by dancing for giving you a  place to dance, protecting you from being harmed and telling you how you must behave at work is a pimp. I am not saying that strippers are having sex for money but they are performing acts of a sexual nature for money and in this instance the club owners were acting in the same manner as pimps.

I have nothing but the highest regard for strippers holding them in almost as high esteem as I do bartenders. Pouring a nice glass of whiskey being one of the few professions more noble than stripping. However I have absolutely no respect for pimps be they strip club owners, night club promoters, live music promoters or actual pimps.

Rick's in this instance was way too greedy. They owners should have been happy selling drinks at premium price because of the entertainment at the club. They should have been happy paying their security off of the income earned from the cover charge. There was simply no reason that the club should have been taking any of the money earned by the dancers.

It is with this entry that I unleash a new crusade, at least until I get bored with it, against pimps of all kind.

These Kids Today With the Hair, the Makeup and their Box Socials

So first day back from Labor Day and right away there is an article about why Gen Y is terrible. This article as been written so many times I all but ignore it in most cases. However since I needed to get back into the flow I figured I would swing at this (also setting up a rant as to why Labor Day is so 19th Century). The article linked once again mentions how members of Gen Y are ill prepared to fit into the labor force, that they are selfish and don't have the commitment to the company previous generations had. This is true if you assume that the previous generation's world still exists.

It does not. The 40 hour work week and staying with the same company for 40 years has gone the way of newspapers, music videos on MTV and compelling network dramas. All the technological innovations that have been discussed in this blog ad nauseam  have not only made physical labor obsolete but it has also made a non flexible work system obsolete. Those of you who currently work in an office how much of your work could you do with a cell phone and a WiFi connection from anywhere in the world. Do you actually have to be on site? For the most part you do not. Which is why you are reading this blog while at work.

The fact is get used to the way Gen Y operates for they are what will move the economy. It is the products that they want that will create wealth. The fact is they are more prepared to live in the world of today than boomers or Gen X is. Society will be run on their terms soon enough so might as well just sit back and enjoy the freedom.

Proof GTFU has a Heart After All

Yesterday the New York City MTA stop the Q train for nearly two hours in order to save two lives. A pair of four week old kittens were on the tracks. The cats were fortunately rescued and are at the Animal Care and Control Center of  East New York where they will be available for adoption in a few weeks. I fully support this rescue mission. Now had it been a couple of humans well unless it was a couple of really good looking women I say it's their own damn fault for getting on the tacks.

And you Thought the British Anti-Pornography Laws Were Harsh or Don't Video Tape Yourself Having Sex if Your Ex is a Brutal Dictator

Eleven North Korean musicians including Kim Jong Un's former girlfriend were recently executed by firing squad on August 20th. What crime constituted this punishment you might ask. They apparently video taped themselves having sex. I think it is safe to say that "Dear Leader" wasn't impressed when he saw his ex actually enjoying herself 'In Flagrante Delicto'. While this punishment is way out of line with common decency I can think of at least one instance in which it seems just.

Can't we send her to North Korea?

A Call For Reason and The Strike for 15

I am never going to get to cover Syria if this shit keeps happening. So tomorrow my favorite pointless

would you pay these guys 15 an hour?

cause the "Strike of 15" is staging a walkout all over the country. Or so they claim. Well lets just examine one of the poor victims of the evil fast food industry that for some reason I am supposed to feel sorry for. I will take quotes out of the article I linked and then comment on them.

Shaniqua Davis, 20, lives in the Bronx with her boyfriend, who is unemployed, and their 1-year-old daughter. Davis has worked at a McDonald's a few blocks from her apartment for the past three months, earning $7.25 an hour. Her schedule varies, but she never gets close to 40 hours a week.

Why did she have a child at 19 with her unemployed boyfriend when her only opportunity to raise the child was on the wages earned at McDonald's. Birth control is cheaper than raising a daughter. She seems to feel that it is McDonald's fault that she doesn't have enough to raise her child.

 She pays the rent with public assistance but struggles to afford food, diapers, subway and taxi fares, cable TV and other expenses with her paycheck.

Yes you read that correctly. She pays her rent with public assistance but struggles to afford a list that includes cable TV, which in New York is at least 100 a month, and taxi fares. I don't have cable or take taxis because they are not worth the price why can't she do the same? 

I have a real hard time feeling bad for this person. Sure she probably came from a difficult starting point in life but she clearly could have and could continue to make better choices. Simply cutting the cable and kicking out the deadbeat boyfriend would go a long way to making her life easier. 

I believe that anyone who is willing to put in 30 hours a week of work, 30 hours being what should be considered the new full time, should have 20,000 dollars a year minimum. No income tax or anything like that. If they make less than 20,000 they would get a refund to make up the difference. For example if someone works 30 hours a week for 9 dollars an hour they would receive a negative income tax equal to 5,960 dollars giving them an income of 20,000 a year. This is all they get. No public assistance or food stamps. They have to make a go of it with what they have. (editors note: the plan also calls for single payer health care)

I am just saying that these jobs are not worth 30,000 dollars a year. Yes it is a struggle to make ends meet on these wages. Yes people who are willing to put in the work should have things a bit easier. However for the love of all that is reasonable can't we ask that people make better decisions with their lives and if they don't that is their problem?