<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER  No. 2059 -- 9/28/2009 >>>>>

Liberal talk show host Thom Hartmann wrote a commentary that sounds like a
good idea called "Cash for Geezers"! Be sure to read the last part of it
where he writes about H-1B.

   Having already largely wiped out the ability of a blue-collar
   single-wage-earner family to have a middle class lifestyle
   over the past 30 years, Greenspan now wants to go after
   white-collar workers by eliminating limits on H1B visas for
   skilled workers ranging from computer programmers to physicians
   to scientists. The investor class would always be protected,
   in the Greenspan world, but the working class -- regardless of
   skill level -- should always be the working poor.


It's no accident that Thom Hartmann sees the light on H-1B. Hartmann was
accosted by a dedicated activist who handed him some material on H-1B and a
few quotes from Alan Greenspan. These are some of the quotes that got
Hartmann's attention:

   "Significantly opening up immigration to skilled workers solves
   two problems," he said. The companies could hire the educated
   workers they need. And those workers would compete with
   high-income people, driving more income equality, he said.
   --- Greenspan on solving inflation

   "The most effective initiative, though politically difficult,
   would be a major expansion in quotas for skilled immigrants,"
   --- Greenspan on solving the housing crisis

Although I can't mention the activist's name, many of you might recognize
his voice because a couple weeks later he went on-the-air with Hartmann. 

To listen to it, go to:

http://podcast.com/show/26494/
Go to page three:  August 20, 2009    Hour 1

The file is about 15 meg, and the comment is about 36 minutes into the
show. Before that a female computer IT programmer has some worthwhile
commentary on her trouble with healtcare.

So, the morale of this story is that one person can make a BIG difference.
I never thought I would see the day when a far left radio commentator like
Hartmann would say the things he did, but it happened!


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/08/26/18619718.php

Cash for Geezers: Retirement for Boomers at 55
by Thom Hartmann
Wednesday Aug 26th, 2009 2:44 PM

    Eduardo Galeano and Thom Hartmann, beloved Air America host, could make
our days full of light.

Cash for Geezers? Lower the Retirement Age to 55 Now!
One of the most powerful forms of stimulus we could apply to our economy
right now would be to lower the current Social Security retirement age from
the current 65-67 to 55, and increase the benefits back to where they were
in inflation-adjusted 1960s dollars by raising them between 10 to 20
percent (so people could actually live, albeit modestly, on Social
Security).

The right-wing reaction to this, of course, will be to say that with fewer
people working and more people drawing benefits, it would bankrupt Social
Security and destroy the economy. But history shows the exact reverse.

Instead, it would eliminate the problem of unemployment in the United
States. All those Boomers retiring would make room in the labor market for
all the recent high-school and college graduates who are now finding it so
hard to find a job.

If enough Boomers left the job market, it would even flip the current
dynamic of too-many-people-chasing-too-few-jobs upside down, and create a
tight labor markets. Tight labor markets drive up wages.

And as wages go up, tax revenues -- which are paying for Social Security
(among other things) -- would increase.

Additionally, these new-into-the-workforce people can then pay off student
loans, buy new houses and cars, and otherwise drive the economy from the
bottom up. Which will further increase tax revenues further strengthening
the Social Security system.

To further tighten the job market and drive up wages (and tax revenues),
modify the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 -- which tightened the labor
market and reduced unemployment by establishing the 40-hour work week -- to
include all hours worked by a person. We could also, like in France, drop
the 40-hour maximum-workweek threshold to 35 hours (used by the Mitterrand
government to successfully lower unemployment and stimulate the French
economy). A final step would be to emulate the rest of the developed world
and require by law that every worker get at least two to four weeks a year
of paid vacation -- further tightening the labor market.

In Uganda, Joseph Okwakoi gets it. He’s the president of the National
Youth Council in that nation, a group that has considerable political power
(and an affiliated Member of Parliament, the Central Youth Party’s Joseph
Kasozi).

Earlier this month, Okwakoi called on Parliament and President Museveni to
lower the age of retirement for government workers (the country’s largest
employer) from the current 60 years of age to 55. This single act would
instantly create about 15,000 job openings in the country, which could be
filled by currently unemployed young people.

President Museveni replied that he’d consider it seriously, pointing out
that, "The retirement age was actually 55 when we came but because of
manpower shortage we put it at 60." Now that the manpower shortage has
eased, wages are falling, and unemployment is rising, he noted, "We shall
study it."

What Joseph Okwakoi understands is that there is a marketplace for labor.
When the supply of labor exceeds demand, the price of labor ("wages")
falls. On the other hand, when the demand for labor is at or greater than
the supply of labor, the price of labor -- wages -- increases.

This is the main reason why the labor movements of the 18th and 19th
centuries fought so hard against child labor; they knew that if children
were removed from the labor marketplace, then the supply of labor (the
number of people available to work) would decrease and the price of labor
(wages) would increase. And, sure enough, that’s exactly what happened --
and it began the creation of a blue-collar middle class.

It’s also why the labor movement pushed for an 8-hour day and a 40-hour
maximum workweek. By reducing the amount of labor available from each
worker from the average 60 hours a week or so people were working before
1938, the labor market tightened up, increasing the number of people who
could be employed and raising wages.

Of course, this is the exact opposite of American labor policy ever since
the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush era. Reagan drove down wages by busting unions
(which tighten a labor marketplace); declared an amnesty for millions of
then-illegal immigrant workers to increase the supply of labor and depress
wages (particularly whacking the carpenters and other construction trades
unions); and began the process (completed in a big way by Bill Clinton with
NAFTA and GATT/WTO) of dismantling tariffs, taxes, and laws that made it
expensive or illegal to export American jobs.

Reagan also put into the chairmanship of the Fed Alan Greenspan, who openly
declared that his most important job as chairman of the Fed was to prevent
"wage inflation" -- a term which he exclusively applied to working-class
people. Greenspan is still preaching that now-discredited and anti-American
philosophy he learned from Ayn Rand, in fact.

Having already largely wiped out the ability of a blue-collar
single-wage-earner family to have a middle class lifestyle over the past 30
years, Greenspan now wants to go after white-collar workers by eliminating
limits on H1B visas for skilled workers ranging from computer programmers
to physicians to scientists. The investor class would always be protected,
in the Greenspan world, but the working class -- regardless of skill level
-- should always be the working poor.

In September of 2007, in an interview on C-SPAN for Book TV, Greenspan
said:
"We pay the highest skilled labor wages in the world. If we would open up
our borders to skilled labor far more than we do, we would attract a very
substantial quantity of skilled labor which would suppress the wage levels
of the skilled, because the skilled are essentially being subsidized by the
government, meaning our competition is being kept outside the country."

It’s shocking that ideologues like Greenspan, Reagan, and Clinton believe
this, but they do. And the only way to reverse the past 29 years of
Reaganomics/Clintonomics is to tighten up the labor market again. While a
great start would be to pull out of our insane trade treaties and begin
again protecting American manufacturers, that will take a decade for the
impact to be truly felt even if we were to go back to our 1980 tariff
levels today.

But providing space for a good chunk of the 16 percent of the American
workforce over 55 years old will immediately take us to nearly zero
unemployment and dramatically stimulate the economy. Then we can begin to
bring our manufacturing jobs back home from China and the other important
steps (Medicare For All and Card-Check for unionization) to restore the
strength and integrity our nation and national economy once had.

http://www.thomhartmann.com

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