Author Archives: Karl

Poverty on the Rise

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I realize to some that this news is a few days old, my weblogging schedule not what is once was. There is something you should know, if you are not aware…

The poverty threshold for a family of four is $18,392. For individuals the amount is $9,183. The percentage of people in severe poverty, those with incomes below half of the poverty threshold, increased to 14.1 million from 13.4 million.

That “threshold” is ridiculously low. In whose pipe-dream world is a family of four, earning $25k a year, no, even $30k a year, not in poverty?!? A family of four can live off of $18,392? What world is this? Oh – yeah – the third world!

The first thing any compassionate conservative should do is raise that threshold to a reasonable level. I would expect no less from any true liberal. If there are any anymore.

Read Nickel and Dimed for a dose of reality.

What Intel has to say for the U.S. workforce

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Answering to the news that “the United States is about to cut the number of employment visas it offers to highly qualified foreign workers from 195,000 to 65,000, Patrick Duffy, attorney in the human resources department at Intel Corp., said,

“We expect that we will continue to sponsor H-1B employees in the future for the simple reason that we cannot find enough U.S. workers with the advanced education, skills, and expertise we need,” he said.”

How about more investment in public education?

I am very impressed with Microsoft’s commitment to fund a High School here in Philly.

Calling all Philly Weblogers!!!!

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Let’s do a get together October 11th in Willow Grove.

The Sleeping Angel Fund is holding it’s second annual Beef & Beer. Sleeping Angels provides assistence, including memorial stones for parents who have lost a child and are experiencing fincancial difficulties.

The fund is driven by my brother and his wife who lost their son, Hunger James to SIDS, September 15th 2001.

I was there last year and I will be again helping out this year. There are two pics of me at that link if your curious. Won’t tell you which. You’ll just have to come.

A Canticle For Leibowitz

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I recently finished reading, for what will become the first time of many I hope, “A Canticle for Leibowitz” by Walter M. Miller. I tend to look at anything called “classic” with suspicion, but for once – the critics are right. If you like science fiction, or fantasy, or just love fiction that helps to expose the human condition – this book is for you in a big way.

It consists of three small, separate, but in order, stories that revolve around a monastery in a post-apocalyptic world. The first story takes place relatively near the event. Civilization no longer exists in a recognizable sense. A new dark age. Learned people are hunted down and killed. The second occurs during a time of renaissance and rediscovery (or new discovery as one of the characters thinks it is). The third in a new nuclear age, far more advanced then our own (they have starships and off-world colonies), with laws and organizations designed to prevent a new apocalypse. The story is told thru a set of characters you can’t help but care about.

At Slashdot there is a great book review and discussion thread.

There is no labor shortage, there was no labor shortage, there won’t be a labor shortage

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Just three years ago, there was a chorus from companies selling that there wasn’t enough good labor here in the USA to satisfy their needs. Some were saying it was related to the age of our working population.

It was bullshit then and it is bullshit now.

I can’t help but feel insulted whenever I hear a large corporation pushing for imported labor when there are too many people I personally know, who if given the opportunity, would give their all and it would be far more then enough. Capable people that want to climb the ladder – they either haven’t been given the same tools others have to start with or have been suddenly displaced and are falling behind.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m just arguing for some compassion. For some bootstraps for people to pull themselves up by.

Of course, as this NYTimes story spells out, we’d rather settle for a couple extra bucks right now then invest in our workforce, invest in our children, invest in our future. Screw giving people bootstraps. Screw giving people boots.

Related:

Dr. Norman Matloff: Testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee: Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage

NYTimes: Good Economy. Bad Job Market. Huh?

NYTimes:
As Factory Jobs Disappear, Workers Have Few Options

CIO Magazine: Backlash (check out the comments folks!)

CIO Magazine: The Radicalization of Mike Emmons

CIO Magazine: No Americans Need Apply

Metafilter: Well…now what?

Salon: Welcome to the machine?

Salon: White-collar sweatshops

Economist: Mayhem in May via rc3.org.

A Nation Of Copiers?

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That is what John Leland asks if we are in this NYTimes article.

“The quintessential American company was Enron, which made nothing,” said Neal Gabler, author of “Life the Movie.” In today’s culture, he added, “the product is almost immaterial; it’s the consciousness about it.”

“What the Internet does is, it pries everything out of moral context and lets people feel knowing about it,” he said, because the skills used to cut and paste something with a computer are more valued than those used to manufacture it.

“In a sense, Internet technology is a metaphor for the new morality. As long as you can get it, it doesn’t matter how.”