Brewtown Gumshoe: December 2019

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Get Big Money Out Of Politics

Why Pete Buttigieg’s Defense Of Wealthy Donors Is So Fuzzy

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made grassroots fundraising a centerpiece of his bid for the 2016 Democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton, painting her as part of the elite political class. Since President Donald Trump’s election, the Democratic Party has zeroed in on a campaign finance reform platform; this year, House Democrats passed a bill that proposed publicly financing elections and mandating certain disclosures (the measure remains stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate).

For Further Reading:
Why Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg can’t be trusted

Monday, December 30, 2019

A Recovery Squandered

Despite a decade of steady economic growth since the Great Recession, America has done remarkably little to address underlying structural weaknesses in the country’s economy and society. The nation has squandered the recovery.

Friday, December 27, 2019

The U.S. is a highly educated country. We've taken pride in knowledge, science, understanding, innovation and entrepreneurialism. Yet, we've also taken this beyond the reach of the job market. We have bank managers that studied literature in college. We've told everyone they need to get at least a four-year degree to be successful. Despite the fact that most jobs only need a high school diploma, some on-the-job training and/or an associates or trade degree.

We've used the more education mantra as more of a club than a means to an end. We should be educating and training for needs not ego. It sounds nice for everyone to have a medical doctorate or a juris doctorate, but the world needs more than doctors and lawyers.

An op-ed in Urban Milwaukee echoed the more education mantra: State’s Future Depends on Knowledge Economy

Four of the top five occupations with the highest projected numeric change in employment have salaries under $30,000 per year. 13 of the 20 earn less than $40,000 annually. And many of these only require a high school diploma or on-the-job training.

Get all the education you can. More education is always better. But have an endgame. Find a career. Find something you enjoy. Don't go ridiculously in debt chasing the education savior. People who would have been better at trade school becoming an electrician, plumber or mechanic end up with Bachelors and Masters degrees.

Too many pundits love writing about the creative class, entrepreneurship and the knowledge-based economy. All somehow magically dependent on more and more education. And, as if this was the majority of jobs and workers. This elitist view ignores the majority of employees. Which, again, have only a high school diploma, some on-the-job training and/or an associates or trade degree. Only one-third of the workforce has a bachelor's degree or higher.

For Further Reading:

Projections of occupational employment, 2016–26

Occupations with the most job growth

Fastest Growing Occupations

Fastest growing occupations

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Keep Crying Republicans, But The United States Is Already Socialist

What if Republicans actually wanted to discuss topics based on merit, priorities and facts? What if Republicans wanted to govern and actually help Americans?

Scott Walker faux worries, What if Santa were a socialist? Yes, he thought he'd use the holiday season to knock community, working together and caring for others. You know, the bedrocks of socialism.

Here's a news flash for Walker, Republicans and other dipshits that keep parroting the Socialism Is Bad trope, America is socialist.

Public schools, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, fire fighters, police, public transportation, roads, bridges, the military and on and on are all socialist.

We do things better and we all live better when we work together and help each other out. For Republicans to keep pretending these programs and institutions are threats to freedom is garbage. These are the foundations of our society and our high quality of life. For Republicans to keep pitting every American against one another, for Republicans to keep tearing down the institutions that have made everyone's lives better, is a disservice to the entire nation.

The United States is socialist. And, we need more socialism, not less. What we could use less of - disingenuous and self-interested Republican stooges.

Merry Christmas, even to the idiots that lap up Walker's horseshit.

For Further Reading:
How Socialism Made America Great
America Is Already Socialist, And That’s a Good Thing

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

He's Guilty

[source]

Sunday, December 22, 2019

The (Fox)Conn Continues

So, Scott Walker gives billions away to Foxconn. Thousands of jobs are promised. Now, according to Foxconn, Wisconsin actually doesn't have the workers to fill the jobs. Foxconn Says It Can't Find Enough Workers For Wisconsin Project. WTF?

Hopefully everyone can see this bribery that is called economic development is pure extortion. Inflated economic impact reports are released along with CEOs and politicians congratulating each other on the wonderful "partnership" they've created, which will result in massive job growth.

Business 101 instructs that you don't locate your business somewhere that can't efficiently provide your needed inputs (labor, obviously, being one of those).

The Wisconsin-Foxconn debacle perfectly illustrates how distorted our economic development policies have become. To pretend that Wisconsin had some underlying competitive advantage regarding Foxconn's business needs, and they just needed a little boost in the form of Wisconsin subsidies to reach that reality. Then, slowly, the job numbers decrease, and facility construction is delayed. Now, Foxconn tells us Wisconsin doesn't even have the workers for the jobs they are planning in Wisconsin. This is just another crony capitalist shakedown.

For Further Reading:
Skills Shortage, Labor Shortage, Skills Gap ... All Bullshit
The So-Called "Skills Gap" Is Complete Bullshit
More Skills Gap Crap