Know This About Amazon and Jeff Bezos and Union Organization

Amazon: --World's 4th biggest company --$21 billion a year in profit --Owner Jeff Bezos is worth $184B, up $70B in a year

--Sends workers 5 anti-union messages a day --36,000+ employees are on food stamps and Medicaid --Cost to lift them from poverty? 2% of annual profit --Dan Price @DanPriceSeattle

Our Insane US Healthcare System

No other nation in the world does health care the way we do in the US.

--We have, far and away, the most expensive health care system in the world. --We are the only nation that ties health care to profit. --We are the only nation where citizens go bankrupt from health care costs. --We are the only nation where our number one cause for bankruptcy for citizens is health care costs, approximately 40% of all bankruptcies in the US are from this, year after year, consistently. Insane. Obscene. Immoral. Fixable.

Health Care in America

From the New Zealand Nurses Organisation on Facebook. 

An American in our health care industry visits that country.

Quote of the day

""Profits come at the price of human misery. The best stock day ever will be the day before the world ends." --Kai M. Smith (friend)

Something here a model for the Star?

According to the New York Times today, the magazine "Consumer Reports, now 75 years old, has started generating more revenue from digital subscriptions than from print - a rarity among publications." Hopefully, somewhere in there is a little glimmer of hope for The Star and any other publication, in an effort to make profit and survive. Hint to Star: it might have to do with great, local reporting and writing that no one else can cover. Who knows? Here's hoping. Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/business/media/consumer-reports-going-strong-at-75-digital-domain.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha26

Quote of the day--what Capitalism and corporations do badly

"Your water, your health care, your kids' schools, they shouldn't be profit based. They should be community based. If, for example, a private enterprise takes over a prison, it will have to show growth from one year to the next. In other words, next year it will have to either have more prisoners or give the existing ones even worse services. Ditto for schools; ditto for hospitals. This is a major reason why the US has 5-10-50 times more domestic incarcerations than any other country that calls itself civilized. Profit."  


Yes, government-run institutions are often poorly-run. But you still have no choice but to re-organize them, since the only alternative is to lose control of what you really can't afford to lose control of. I don’t want to cover all services right here and now, but you don’t for instance want to let some private company uphold and police the law in your community. After all, what would be next? Let them make the laws too? What, we’re not close enough to exactly that yet? Really, you tell me, what's the difference between making the laws on the one hand versus interpreting the existing ones on the other? Blackwater, anyone?

"Outsource every public sector job possible", Mish? I don't think so. It's the road to hell, because the Carlyle Group and Blackrock and a bunch of Chinese and Arab multi-billion dollar enterprises and sovereign wealth funds will wind up telling you what you can do and say, what health care you can get, and whether or not you’ll have clean water in the morning. And the decisions between these options will be based on profit, not on whether your kids get a good education, or a good doctor, or whether they can drink their tap water or not. "Sorry, no profit in that."


--The Automatic Earth Blog, "The United States of Disintegration


You really should read about the debt and debts of states in the country and what it portends for the coming year.


That said, Merry Christmas


Link:  http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-20-2010-united-states-of.html

Maybe they'll keep Claycomo open after all

Latest report on Ford from The NY Times this morning: Ford Reports Another Profit, and Sees More Gains Ahead By NICK BUNKLEY DEARBORN, Mich. — The Ford Motor Company on Friday said it earned $2.6 billion in the second quarter and expected to have more cash than debt by the end of 2011. It was the fifth consecutive quarterly profit and best earnings report in more than six years for Ford, whose turnaround has been picking up steam, increasing sales and market share in the United States, even as the market remains sluggish. God forbid they have to close Claycomo. 4000+ jobs lost would hit this area rather hard. Think happy thoughts and have a great weekend, y'all. Link to original post: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/business/24ford.html?hp=&pagewanted=print