Puterbac News Network and Political Discussion Thread

[Toemeesleather]

Tis the Christmas season at PNN, where it is tradition to bash the lay-abouts and dregs of society who parlay government assistance into the latest and greatest tech gadgets and posh sneakers.

Sooo, we've re-elected it's Bush's fault...great.

[bluetick]

Firms Resist New Pay-Equity Rules - Wall Street Journal by Leslie Kwoh

As the final shareholder votes on executive pay round out this year's proxy season, companies are already fighting on another pay-related front.

At issue is a rule that could force them to disclose the gap between what they pay their CEO and their median pay for employees, a potentially embarrassing figure that many companies would like to keep private.

Total direct compensation for 248 CEOs at public companies rose 2.8% last year, to a median of $10.3 million, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal and Hay Group. A separate AFL-CIO analysis of CEO pay across a broad sample of S&P 500 firms showed the average CEO earned 380 times more than the typical U.S. worker. In 1980, that multiple was 42.

Wide gaps in pay can affect employee morale, productivity and turnover, several studes have found. In the 1980s, management guru Peter Drucker advocated capping the ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay at 20 to 1. Beyond that, resentment creeps in, according to the think tank Drucker Institue. In 2010, a joint study by Northeastern University's business school and Bentley University found that employee productivity decreases as the disparity between CEO and worker pay increases.


Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Let your heart be light

[bluetick]

Corporate America's Chokehold on Wages - WaPo, by Harold Meyerson

If you are wondering why American consumers are still flat on their backs, rendering the economy similarly supine, the answer is both fundamental and simple: It's not just that so many of them are unemployed. The ones who are employed are also underpaid.

Don't take my word for it - take that of Michael Cembalest, the chief investment officer of J.P. Morgan Chase. He asserted in the July 11 edition of "Eye on the Market," the banks regular report to it's private banking clients, that "US labor compensation is now at a 50-year low relative to both company sales and US GDP."

The primary subject of Cembelest's report isn't wages. It's profits - specifically, the fact that profit margins of the S & P 500 companies are at their highest levels since the mid-1960s, despite the burden of health-care costs, environmental compliance and other regulations that are presumably weighing down these large companies


From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight

[Toemeesleather]

So Obozo, like Bush hates poor/black/minorities....ok then.

[Toemeesleather]

High paying jobs here, but Obozo fights'em tooth and nail.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... LEFTSecond

[Toemeesleather]

Tis the Christmas season at PNN, where it is tradition to bash the lay-abouts and dregs of society who parlay government assistance into the latest and greatest tech gadgets and posh sneakers.

Yet you and a plethora of Obozo knob-gobblers touted the declining unemployment figgers pre-election....but the lay-abouts and dregs, as you say are driving $$$ for food stamps the opposite direction, what gives, Mr. Epoch?

[bluetick]

The U.S. is Now Dubbed the No Vacation Nation - Lags Behind Other Developed Nations Regarding Vacation Days



Employers certainly aren't complaining. Separate data from financial information company Sageworks shows profits-per-employee are at a 10 year high. Could workers cramming in more hours be a factor? Yes, says Libby Bierman, a Sageworks analyst. "As companies cut back on staff during the recession, they learned how to get by with a leaner workforce and rely more on technology. Since then, employees who saw their workloads build up over those years feel they can't afford to take time off

Until then we'll have to muddle through
somehow

[bluetick]

Rich-Poor Gap Widest Gap Since 1967

The census data show the wealthiest Americans secured most of the benefits from the economic recovery that began in June 2009.

"The gains from economic growth in 2011 were quite unevenly shared as households income fell in the middle and rose at the top," Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, said on a conference call with reporters.

Average incomes fell for the bottom 80 percent of earners and rose for the top 20 percent. The top 1 percent of households experienced about a 6 percent increase in income, said David Johnson, chief of the social, economic and housing division at the Census Bureau.

So have yourself a merry little Christmas
Now

[10ac]

"The gains from economic growth in 2011 were quite unevenly shared as households income fell in the middle and rose at the top," Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, said on a conference call with reporters.

Friggin' Bush.

[AlabamAlum]

No vacation nation?

What? Or is that saying the government does not mandate vacation days for private business?

[Jungle Rat]

Looks like its gonna be 4 more years of Republican bitching & crying. When will they get it? Its over.

[innocentbystander]

The U.S. is Now Dubbed the No Vacation Nation - Lags Behind Other Developed Nations Regarding Vacation Days



Employers certainly aren't complaining. Separate data from financial information company Sageworks shows profits-per-employee are at a 10 year high. Could workers cramming in more hours be a factor? Yes, says Libby Bierman, a Sageworks analyst. "As companies cut back on staff during the recession, they learned how to get by with a leaner workforce and rely more on technology. Since then, employees who saw their workloads build up over those years feel they can't afford to take time off

Until then we'll have to muddle through
somehow

Tick, what are you trying to argue for?

If you want a paid vacation (or 5 weeks of paid vacation) in our country, you negotiate for that.

[Toemeesleather]

With the vortex of decimation in Detroit, Michigan tries real hope and change.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... on_LEADTop

[bluetick]

The Christmas season invariably draws attention to those in need. Around here it's not always welcome attention...some enjoy the sport of it. And now you have the recent election where supposedly the Earners have been waylaid by the Takers.

Anywho. Just a few articles highlighting how the Job Creators have managed to improve their lot, notwithstanding the Great Recession that's had a negative effect on seemingly everybody else (and omg the record numbers added to the SNAP rolls!).

Happy Holidays Comrades! WotWU!

[hedge]

"Anywho. Just a few articles highlighting how the Job Creators have managed to improve their lot, notwithstanding the Great Recession that's had a negative effect on seemingly everybody else"

Isn't it amazing how the Job Creators have managed to maintain steady profits without creating any jobs? Wait, how is that possible? They create jobs, that's how they make their money. It's not possible that maybe, just maybe, they might make even more money by cutting jobs. No way, they're Job CREATORS!! WHHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

[Toemeesleather]

Yep, profits, I think PNN has stumbled on the crux of the issue....profits too damn high...get profits down, unemployment will follow.

[hedge]

Higher profits certainly don't seem to have affected unemployment particularly favorably...

[bluetick]

Well, profits don't seem to trickle down like they used to.

US labor compensation is at a 50-year low relative to both company sales and US GDP

Is that a bad thing? Maybe we were going soft and this is the 2 percenters way of saying the party is over. Time to work harder with less leave time - for stagnant wages. And if you're one of those who lost their job due to an outsource or downsize, maybe come back as a independant contractor with no benefits (or as a PTer with no benefits). Or maybe you'll just have to cool your heels since the company is doing gangbusters with half the staff.

Anyway. Have some holiday punch and cookies and try not to spill anything on the bosses new teak floor.

[innocentbystander]

The Christmas season invariably draws attention to those in need.

Christians do help those in need (not just at Christmas time but all times.) Christmas itself is not the celebration of those "in need." It is for something else entirely. Allow me to channel Lynus as he says to Chuck "Sure Charlie Brown, I'll tell you what Christmas is all about. Lights please."

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

(IB turns to bluetick)

That's what Christmas is all about, BlueTick.

[bluetick]

I never said Christmas is a celebration of the needy. Why do you lie?

Christmas does indeed bring an unusual amount of attention to those "in need." Toys for Tots. Empty Stocking Fund. Angel Tree. Santa's Helpers. etc etc

But feel free to share any other cartoon stories that touch you in a very special way, regardless of the context.