What do you think about with current News and Opinions?

toomuchbaloney · Dec 11, 2021

30 minutes ago, Beausoleil said:

Your comments disgust me. To politicize a tragedy like this is reprehensible.

P.S. Of the six states affected by the tornado outbreak, only two are in the Midwest; the rest are in the South.

Your disgust is noted.

Yeah...lots of people with republican political leadership were affected and are going to need help. Lots of people who are fed a steady stream of partisan nonsense in their preferred media about Marxism and socialism and liberal spending when tax dollars are used to benefit groups of people. Often times the same people who pooh pooh the concepts of climate change and covid...which have just collided in their region.

There's not much that I can do for them from here in Alaska. Thoughts and prayers is what we do here in the USA.

subee, MSN, CRNA · Dec 11, 2021

42 minutes ago, Beausoleil said:

Your comments disgust me. To politicize a tragedy like this is reprehensible.

P.S. Of the six states affected by the tornado outbreak, only two are in the Midwest; the rest are in the South.

But most of them are red states - those states whose demographics are reflected by Fox News, the far right media and other climate change deniers. Climate scientists didn't politize the crisis - TV personalities did. Do you think that you have a monopoly over the pain suffered by the people who live through these events? What you call politicizing is a plea to people to wake up and smell the coffee. By the way, I grew up in the deep South in a tornado alley and you know who lives along these tornado courses? Poor people who can't afford to move somewhere else..lots of them. And I don't call it Marxism to give them some of the taxpayer's money, but a lot of people who live there do and they are pro-states rights until a situation comes along where FEMA has to step in.

Beerman, BSN · Dec 11, 2021

1 hour ago, toomuchbaloney said:

Your disgust is noted.

Yeah...lots of people with republican political leadership were affected and are going to need help. Lots of people who are fed a steady stream of partisan nonsense in their preferred media about Marxism and socialism and liberal spending when tax dollars are used to benefit groups of people. Often times the same people who pooh pooh the concepts of climate change and covid...which have just collided in their region.

There's not much that I can do for them from here in Alaska. Thoughts and prayers is what we do here in the USA.

In other words, they deserve what they got.

Wow. What a vile attitude.

Cclm, LPN · Dec 11, 2021

6 hours ago, Beerman said:

No. Not everyone believed him. The "Trump supporters are racist homophobes" crowd is the who bought in hook, line, and sinker.

Yes, something like that.

Perhaps not provide opinions on cases that have not been to court? Or not virtue signal or otherwise make ones self look good by commenting as the primary motive? Maybe they can do that?

toomuchbaloney · Dec 11, 2021

36 minutes ago, Beerman said:

In other words, they deserve what they got.

Wow. What a vile attitude.

Once again your bias clouds your comprehension which then inspires you to misrepresent my remarks. None of my words imply that the victims deserved anything. I did say that they are going to need help, is that offensive?

How embarrassing for you.

Cclm, LPN · Dec 12, 2021

Perhaps this is why people don't immediately believe these hate crime allegations....

https://thefederalist.com/tag/hate-hoax/

Yes this source leans right however the stories are legit (some opinion parts are a bit extreem). And I couldn't find any left leaning source the reported any of them in detail. Or at all.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2021

Natural disasters used to be the one time that we could all pull together and help the affected area be they a red or blue state.

It's a shame that partisan politics sometimes get in the way. During hurricane Sandy when Obama visited and toured with Christie showing a united front Christie was actually criticized for making Obama look good.

These are the times to help and be compassionate. We've lost that.

Beerman, BSN · Dec 12, 2021

"U.S. workers at private companies earned an average of $31.03 per hour in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the past year, workers’ hourly pay has increased by 4.8%.

But when you factor in inflation, real wages are down 1.9 % over the past year, according to the BLS. From October to November, real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.4%. "

https://fortune.com/2021/12/10/inflation-wages-low-income-workers/

Tweety, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2021

8 hours ago, Beerman said:

"U.S. workers at private companies earned an average of $31.03 per hour in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the past year, workers’ hourly pay has increased by 4.8%.

But when you factor in inflation, real wages are down 1.9 % over the past year, according to the BLS. From October to November, real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.4%. "

https://fortune.com/2021/12/10/inflation-wages-low-income-workers/

I wonder if that's part of the "great resignation" that people with established jobs quit for a competitor offering more. During the recovery from the Great Recession I remember this not being the case that wages stayed stagnant during full employment. I'm glad to see wages rising this time.

It is part of an overall trend that middle class workers haven't seen gains in standard of living for decades. This from 2018

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/

But in the here and now the inflation is a dreadful thorn in our side.

toomuchbaloney · Dec 12, 2021

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/pandemic-economy-inflation-causes/620931/

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Women have also dropped out: The number of women ages 25–44 in the labor force fell 341,000 (1 percent) compared with just 6,000 men of the same age. This disparity may reflect the hardships of pandemic parenting—an ongoing problem.

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Maybe the pace of inflation will diminish without the need for anything more than a small interest-rate increase, one consistent with continuing employment gains and high asset prices. But I doubt it. The Omicron variant—and the international response to its discovery—leads me to believe that COVID-related disruptions to the economy may well last for years, not months. This is still a pandemic economy, and it will be for quite a while.

I will always wonder how our economy might have faired had we pulled together to fight a common threat from a pandemic. Some Americans just desperately wanted to be liberated from public health recommendations. The president at the time encouraged them ... maybe that wasn't very smart.

toomuchbaloney · Dec 12, 2021

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/11/16/what-does-current-inflation-tell-us-about-the-future/

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Although the recent surge in consumer goods inflation does not suggest persistent inflation in this sector going forward, two other issues present risk to the inflation outlook: labor supply and demand in the services sector as well as the recent increases in housing prices.

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Softness in labor force participation rates and a frustratingly slow pace of matching job seekers with jobs has raised concerns about weakness in the supply of labor. To be sure, the pace of job matching is probably slowed by the sheer number of job openings and opportunities across multiple industries that candidates have to consider. In addition, because of pandemic-related issues, some people are constrained from working or worried about the health risks of working. My expectation is that those issues will resolve.

However, continued weakness in labor supply may suggest that the experience of the pandemic and the changing nature of work since March 2020 could persistently dampen how much labor people are willing to supply. If labor supply continues to be restrained, this will affect the ability of the U.S. economy to produce goods and services. That would increase inflationary pressures for a given level of aggregate demand, which is a problem. But, in that circumstance the more significant problem to address would be that our standard of living would be lower.

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inflation going forward is not a continuation of the forces currently at work in the goods sector: this will not be persistent. Instead, the biggest risk is that large increases in demand for workers in the services sector will not be met by equally large increases in labor supply.

Policymakers can encourage labor supply by continuing to get the pandemic under control through vaccinations and sensible health policies. Moreover, policymakers can also remove barriers that make work costly, such as lack of access to affordable, high-quality childcare. Policymakers can facilitate the matching of job seekers with jobs through job fairs and better access to labor market information. Finally, immigrants are a critical source of workers in the U.S., and rates of immigration are significantly down relative to pre-pandemic projections. A return to more typical levels of, for example, green card issuance would help to expand labor supply in the U.S. to meet the growing demand for labor. In short, the policies that will rein in inflation in the future are the same policies that support a sustained and equitable labor market recovery.

It's difficult to see how remedial policy might be legislated or acted upon in a congress that struggles with partisan deadlock and obstruction. At least the Biden administration has been able to forward some policy which increases access to daycare and preschool. That helps get parents and single mothers back into the workforce.

subee, MSN, CRNA · Dec 12, 2021

2 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/11/16/what-does-current-inflation-tell-us-about-the-future/

It's difficult to see how remedial policy might be legislated or acted upon in a congress that struggles with partisan deadlock and obstruction. At least the Biden administration has been able to forward some policy which increases access to daycare and preschool. That helps get parents and single mothers back into the workforce.

People constantly underestimate the contribution women make to the working force. We need to think of daycare as a impetus to the economy rather than babysitting.