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could you edit your post to say friend or delete it? thanks.

treat this nation like vulture capitalist treat the smaller companies they buy up, we will be seeing a widening gap between the rich and poor and an increasing number or poor or nearly poor. These folks would rather spend their money buying the nation through buying elections rather than INVESTING their wealth in helping the nation improve and survive. They will buy the nation and out-source it on all levels, buy us and sell us out just like Bain did to so many little companies. They use low information white working class as political hate-fodder to do their bidding at the ballot box while instilling blind hate in them so that they won't see how they are being used. It would be nice if the off-spring of the vultures would turn out differently but judging from the young Romney group, it looks pretty grim.

he told stories of working for american express and charles schwabb. they were being let go, but first had to teach the people from india who their jobs were going to.

now i have nothing against people from india -- they just want to have a decent job and provide for their families. i blame the corporations who are doing this. they bring the people here or they send the jobs there.

i'm 72. what happened to this once great country? yes, we've come along way with civil rights and gay rights, but there's so much greed on the part of corporations.

They can get away with treating workers like cattle as long as the actual unemployment rate is abut 12%. That guy who worked on your computer is functionally unemployed, but not according to the widely reported unemployment rate. That rate is completely useless. The rate you need to look at is called "U6":



That one catches all the people who are forced into part time or employed way below their skills. It doesn't include those who are completely outside the work force, and that number is even high of course. But U6 gets all those who are actively trying to hold down a job.

And notice what it tells us. It tells us:

a) Contrary to what 90% of the "experts" and 99% of the media tells us, this recovery is actually stronger than the past 2 recoveries

b) The issue is not the strength of recovery. The issue is just how badly the economy was screwed by the Bush meltdown.

We needed a New Deal and we got a package of timid stimuli together with a bunch of counter-productive tax cuts to placate Republicans who didn't even vote for it anyway. If Obama would have done the full $700Bn in stimulus, we would be close to that historic 7.5% number today. That is the point when workers have some leverage, and the Republicans (and sadly many Democrats too) will fight like crazy to make sure we NEVER get back to that point.

The Clinton recovery brought down "U6" unemployment 5% in 8 years or about 0.7% a year.

The Bush recovery brought it down 2.5% in 4 years or that same 0.7% per year rate. And that is before imploding into near-depression.

The Obama recovery has brought it down 4.5% 4 years or about 1.1% per year. That is nearly twice the rate of jobs recovery compared to the two previous recoveries. We have to keep reminding people that we truly were at the brink of a second Great Depression, and got zero cooperation from the Republicans to recover from this.

The good news is that this recovery looks linear at this point, and if we win the White House in 2016, we should be around that magic 7.5% number by 2018. I know that doesn't sound very hopeful for anybody who is on the receiving end of this Cheap Labor Republicanism {tm} today, but the good news is that with each month of improvement, workers gain a little bit of leverage

If we can get our leaders to support any of these principles, we could make some real progress:

The reason the rate has gone down over the last 4 years is the massive loss of people in the counted labor force. When you reduce the denominator in the working labor force/total labor force equation the unemployment rate will go down. Its just math.

I am not sure what the 7.5% figure in 2018 is referring to.

Look at http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNU05026646

This says there are currently about 450,000 men that are "not in the labor force" because of discouragement. This is down from 800,000

and for women:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/LNU05026647

Similar story. Currently around 300,000, down from 500,000.

I agree there is still a lot of pain, but is is just not accurate to say there has been no improvement.

That isn't unemployment. That is aging. I gave you references to the Federal Reserve data that shows clearly the number of people out of the work force because they are discouraged is still high but steadily going down.

It is not factual to say that there has been no improvement in the unemployment situation. That is simply not true

These "seniors" are not leaving the workforce because they have hit the SS age. They are people 50+ who have given up finding a job and know employers will not hire older people except for marginal jobs.

You can say there are areas and segments of our economy that are still in severe stress.

But to say it has not improved at all is just not telling the truth.

There's going to be a tipping point one day it's inevitable when so many are being displaced and treated as disposable.

the capitalists are treating the entire world as their oyster - pillaging at will.

It is going to take a global revolution of workers to push back.

oligarchs.

Just sayin'

and these are very good: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4785547

It would be a good start as a demand list from a global union initiative. And it's got to be a "demand list". I think this is the element of it that socialists/communists understand in a way democrats don't.

In this country we have a two-party system so we are sort of in this pattern of picking the less evil party and begging for scraps. There are many other countries with multiple parties that are not bound to that type of a system. They are able to be more militant quickly because they are not used to having to compromise.

The list is fine, but we've got to be much tougher in our negotiations and demand.

65 and I'm leaving my current job in two weeks. I'm not exactly retiring from that job as I've only been there three and a half years, but I'll be on Medicare and I'm in the very fortunate position to be able to not work.

I've been working at a hospital, a non profit, and yet the CEO gets a 14 percent raise every year while the rest of us are very fortunate if we get 2 or 3 percent. Really?

to the top performers. hubby got 1% -- sometimes 1-1/4%. we didn't complain because he was making a good salary and we were thankful for him to have a job.

Aside from saying that they were the largest wholesale liquor distributor in that state, I won't identify them.

Not long after our divorce, after 14 years of employment with nothing but good reviews, they decided to let him go. It was clearly a case of age discrimination, but because of Supreme Court decisions not long before, unless the company actually said, "We're letting you go because you're too old" people like him had no recourse.

In his case, the good news was that he'd saved money, had long been thinking of a serious career change, which he did. Since he's my ex and we don't communicate a lot, I may not have this exactly right, but from what I can tell he's much happier these days. Lucky him. And I'm glad. But many don't have the options he had.

the "I've Been Moved" meant everything was paid for the move the "Housing Inconvenience" and smooth sailing for your Mortgage when you relocated.

The downside was the "Dress Code." Anyone remember "Sleeves for Women and White Shirt and Conservative Tie" for the IBM Customer Service people?

It was a good life for those I knew who manage to snag a job there. But, that was back when they had "Punch Cards" and the Tech people came in to fix your Selectric Typewriter. Those were some good times for IBM Employees and those of that era ended up retiring very well.

Others younger....not so well. It was IBM's selling point...the Country Club, Picnics for Famlies and kids and living in communities where other IBM'ers lived in the constant moves.

Just my bit of history remembering. I worked in "Dead Tree Book Publishing" and the Technical Support for the "Typewriters." Publishing was all about the "Selectric" and manuscripts and Editing and Proofing were whole departments unto themselves. Our IBM Techs were really cool as they regularly seviced our Machines and the Punch Card Machines.

It seems like something out of the dark ages...but, it wasn't really as long ago as that.

allowed. julian mostel (zero's nephew who looked like him) worked for IBM. he was funny too. said we should buy booze -- sit outside the country club gates and get drunk.

my husband started with IBM in '69. he saw the good days. the company changed a lot over the years especially with pensions. fortunately because of his years of service he was under the old pension plan which i'm collecting since he passed.

the only move we made was the one we requested to phoenix. hubby asked for some money for moving and living but was told because he requested the transfer he wasn't eligible. then at a meeting a big shot who liked him said "you be my eyes and ears out in phoenix and i'll get you the money. i don't know how 'someone might come up to you with a paper bag' -- but you'll get it". it wasn't too much. we didn't have a house to sell -- so it was the moving van, plane, meals out for a week until the furniture arrived". he did get the money.

the dress code changed a few years after we moved to phoenix. it became very casual.

about since Reagan and their "Mo(u)rning In America."

I'm 59 and I know that the only way to keep my job is to be more productive than my younger co workers. Plus I am certain that if I lose this job, despite my years of experience, the best I could hope for would be a cashier's job. I'm retiring at 62 because I can't keep up this pace, it's just too stressful.

The management team I work with are mid-thirties and good around all day. They see me as their dependable workhorse who covers their backs.

It's so exhausting and stressful.

It is so scary what is happening to us as a class of people. is it because we know too much?

The last time I went into a normal commercial bank, April 2011, all the people that held cashier/teller positions, and even loan officer and new account positions were so very young. And what they were doing was beyond the pale. The bank, Wells Fargo, had found a new way to make money. It has created a "Preferred Customer" account program that supposedly had been set up so people could learn the value of saving money.

What it did was to transfer out of your checking into savings at least
$ 25 a month. I watched one very indigent young woman being told how beneficial this savings would be.

She was wearing a ragged tee shirt; and the despairing look of someone who is out of money by the 15th of each month But since she was being told that this was for her benefit she signed up for the program.

I can only imagine how many NSF bounced check fees WF collected from her over the next year.

Hello this war on the working people has been going on in the open since Jan 20, 1981

Sadly it took a bunch of Democrats to allow the war to start in the first place.

If we the 99% want change we have to elect and support only those that are interested in us the 99% and not toady's who do the bidding of the 1% and give lip service to the 99%. You Will Know Them by Their DEEDS NOT Their Words.

After my third layoff I decided to seek an alternative lifestyle. There was no real future in TV back then and nepotism was rampant. It appears that not much has has changed.

Worked in the Fortune 500 world for a few years, then went out on my own as a free-lance speechwriter, coach and event consultant. It's been fun.

I'm glad I'm not ten years younger, which I'm pretty sure is a new way of looking at things in America.

I'm in my mid-50's, working harder than ever. My company is very profitable but they play Lucy-with-the-football with sales goals and comp plans, which, of course, is nothing more than bogus justification for taking more for themselves. Raises are "merit-based," but since the goals are unattainable, no one's worthy. Except them, which is obviously happening all over, with corporate profits at all-time highs and incomes stagnant.

And, of course, the threat of job loss is always in the air and keeps you delivering the goods to them for lack of an alternative. There's very little movement in the work force. People are dug in and playing defense; an owners paradise, which doesn't make them happy anyway, but that's another story.

rat race and the employment uncertainty. I was blessed enough to finally get a permanent job this year after ten years of contracting. I hope and pray that I can keep it until retirement. I'm in a class alone at my workplace and don't really have to compete with the younger workers. I hope it stays that way.

In fact, Tuesday, April 1, was my first day of retirement. I had been on vacation for the previous two weeks. I had really begun to hate my job. I was fed up with them promoting really young (28-30) year olds to director positions and above, people who had no experience or knowledge. I also saw a lot of them treat their older subordinates like shit but depended on them to keep them from drowning.

People who have been there for a while, especially those over about 45, are barely getting interviews for promotions. I am so glad to have a good retirement plan, 401K and a small pension so I don't still have to be there. I have not missed it one day.

Google has a reputation of being a wonderful employer, but if you plan on being there a while, I am not so sure.

I remember some five years ago, reading about a guy there who was let go, and he was the only person still there who was over fifty, so he sued.
Never read the outcome of the lawsuit though.

I was told a while ago not to bother trying to get work through nursing agencies, as the price of the employer paying my health insurance was so high, and with 20 years of experience, my salary would be more, so the chances of my being hired over a younger "cheaper" employee were not very good and I retired from that field.

Luckily I have my own business to work at, but if I didn't have that to fall back on, what then?

be able to retire before we turn 50. This June will be my wife's last month at work as she is a teacher and is finishing the school year. I may or may not continue to work a bit longer but as of June we are basically done and in our mid 40's. Even working for the school system she feels the pressure from above against those over 40-50. Younger teachers are 1) cheaper and 2) ingrained into the digital culture more than those over 40 (generally). I don't know how much longer she could have tolerated working there.

ACA is a godsend for people like us as it allows for early retirement with affordable healthcare. As soon as it was ruled constitutional, we have been counting down the days. Less than 100!

I want to retire too and thinking seriously about it. I retired from the Navy after 24 years and so I have a relatively modest pension (retired as an E-7 so 2260 a month, plus a VA disability (1041 a month). I currently work for the federal government (monthly take home 2100) just going over 2 years. I am turning 45 in May. My problem is that I am so frightened that they are going to change the COLAs and eventually cut the pension and even the VA rating….I can see them doing that in the future to save money. A teacher's pension is decent and glad your wife has that, but with situations like Detroit and Chicago wanting to drop the pensions from people who ALREADY have it scares the crap out of me. I know they ended up not being able to thanks to the courts, but how long will that last? If it was not for fear of the future of this country, I would retire this Summer fully. Oh if I did retire, I couldn't stay in Maryland so I would move to Florida….no state taxes and relatively cheap housing (especially compared to Maryland).

mortgage, no cable bill, heat with wood (from our property), have solar panels, paid off cars (bought used for cash), have a big garden (almost an acre), have chickens, 3 goats, and a pig for food. We are still in MD and our property taxes on 4 acres and a small (sub 1000 sq. ft) house are under $1000 per year out in Garrett County. All together, out monthly expenses are less than $1000 out of pocket. While the teacher's pension will be nice, it does not kick in for 9 years. In the mean time we will be living off out investments that produce $1100 per month in dividends. Once we turn 55 (in 9 years), out income will go way up due to the teachers pension, but we are not strictly counting on it.

Closer in to DC/Baltimore, the costs would be MUCH higher, as you know.

That is an awesome plan. I do live closer to Baltimore. I live in Anne Arundel County in Arnold Maryland. I am so envious of you guys. You are doing it right. I wish you the best!!!!

Grew up in Severna Park!
How are things?
Haven't been there in 20 years...

Oh, well.