Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Posted here Wednesday, August 11, 2004 at 5:36:45 PM     Good article on the passing of rsik from corporatrions to individuals - that is, workers. http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040816&;s=hacker081604 udged on this basis, what my evidence shows is deeply troubling. When I started out, I expected to see a rise in the instability of family income. But nothing prepared me for the sheer magnitude of the increase. At its peak in the mid-'90s, income instability was almost five times as great as it was in the early '70s, and, although it dropped somewhat during the late '90s (my data end in 1999), it has never fallen below twice its starting level. By comparison, permanent income differences across families have risen by a more modest, if still troubling, 50 percent over the same period.  The full explanation for this dramatic rise in instability is still unclear, but two causes loom large. The first, and most obvious, is changes in the nature of work. In today's postindustrial economy, less skilled workers are much more vulnerable than when unionized, manufacturing labor was more of the norm. (Not surprisingly, instability is greater for families headed by less educated workers, though it has actually risen more quickly in the last decade for workers who went to college.) Workplace benefits, such as health insurance and pensions, have been on the chopping block. And corporate America increasingly relies on part-time, contingent, and contract workers--all of whom enjoy precious little security.  ********

Posted here Wednesday, August 11, 2004 at 10:38:40 AM     The core problem for - or is it with - Kerry. Many hope for better. This seems like the dick morris kind of strategy - hold you support and reach for more. But it is a very risky posture because the lack of weakening of support, and more critically, muddling the issues. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&;c=Article&cid=1092175810357&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795 Rising to Bush's bait, Kerry said he would have cast the same Yes vote in Congress that he did on Oct. 11, 2002, to authorize the president to launch a pre-emptive war that began March 19, 2003, even if Kerry had known that Saddam Hussein had no ties with Al Qaeda terrorists, no weapons of mass destruction and posed no real threat to the world. ********