Monday, 29 August 2011
Why the Impossible Happens More Often
I thought the idea of an encyclopedia that anyone could change at any time to be a non-starter, a hopeless romantic idea with no chance of working. It seemed to go against my general understanding of human nature and group interaction. I was so wrong. Today I use Wikipedia at least once a day.
Twenty years ago if I had been paid to convince an audience of reasonable, educated people that in 20 years time we'd have street and satellite maps for the entire world on our personal hand held phone devices -- for free -- and with street views for many cities -- I would not be able to do it. I could not have made an economic case for how this could come about "for free." It was starkly impossible back then.
These supposed impossibilities keep happening with increased frequency. Everyone "knew" that people don't work for free, and if they did, they could not make something useful without a boss. But today entire sections of our economy run on software instruments created by volunteers working without pay or bosses. Everyone knew humans were innately private beings, yet the impossibility of total open round-the-clock sharing still occurred. Everyone knew that humans are basically lazy, and they would rather watch than create, and they would never get off their sofas to create their own TV. It would be impossible that millions of amateurs would produce billions of hours of video, or that anyone would watch any of it. Like Wikipedia, or Linux, YouTube is theoretically impossible. But here this impossibility is real in practice.
This list goes on, old impossibilities appearing as new possibilities daily. But why now? What is happening to disrupt the ancient impossible/possible boundary...?
Continue reading
Kevin Kelly @'The Technium'
Billy Corgan gets in a nasty Internet fight with a guitar pedal engineer and trans advocate
After spending money and collaborating to develop a bass pedal specifically for Corgan (per his request) with no feedback, Devi Ever aired her grievances toward the Smashing Pumpkins frontman on the SP forum site, Netphoria.
From there Billy sent out a series of now-deleted tweets about Ever’s “piece of shit” pedals, her business ethics, and her character. As if the childish fight-picking wasn’t enough, Corgan continually referred to Ever as him/her and he/she for being a transgender woman, and he commented on her appearance—as if calling someone an “ugly pig” is ever a relevant retort.
Outside of his public harassment, Corgan took the feud to Facebook, reportedly sending Ever nasty messages about her post, proving that Corgan doesn’t take well to criticism:
you ugly piece of shit...if i ever run into you, anywhere, at anytime, for as long as i live, i will knock your fucking lights out. don’t ever come near me, and if i hear even one more peep out of you in public about me, or the band, or the members of the band, i am gonna sue you for so much you’ll never be able to afford so much as to even make a fucking guitar cable.Calling Corgan’s tweet about her stolen pedal idea libelous, Ever suggested that Corgan’s fuming was only going to make matters worse for him and his proposed lawsuit. The short reply from Ever sent Corgan into an even less comprehensible retort, where he wrote:
you fucked up, you know it, so eat shit, shut the fuck up and accept you’ve attacked someone who tried to HELP YOU. but addicts and self-destructive people like you who HATE THEMSELVES must turn their hate out. if this is what you have to do to not kill your unhappy self, well then i’d say it was a wise decision. beyond that, you are fucking lame, dumb, and so so ugly.With assault threats now thrown into the mix, Ever posted a nearly 20-minute Youtube video explaining her side of the story—paying special attention to transgender rights and the disrespect Corgan had shown for them.
Anna Gross @'A.V. Club'
Once upon a life: George Pelecanos
I started working for my dad as a delivery boy when I was 11 years old. At the diner, our all-black crew consisted of a grill woman, one waitress, a sandwich maker and a dish washer. Southern soul and gospel played on the radio all day long, giving me my music education. The lunch counter was an uncrossed line, with mostly white professionals on one side, blacks and Greek-Americans on the other. Intellectually, I was too young to understand the dynamic, but on a gut level I knew where I stood.
As happens for many fathers and sons, we grew apart as I hit my teens. My personal profile was not atypical for the blue-collar neighbourhood where I was raised. I played pick-up basketball, drove a muscle car, listened to funk, rock and soul, attended many concerts, chased girls, drank beer, smoked weed until my head caved in, and underperformed at my school, where half of the kids did not go on to college. I was pulled over by the police many times, got in fights and found all kinds of trouble. When I was 17 I accidentally shot a friend in the face with a .38 Special police handgun that my father had bought on the black market. I was skipping school at the time in my parents' house. When my dad walked through the door that night, he dropped the bags he was carrying as he saw my friend's blood splashed upon the living room walls.
I don't know what my father thought of me then, but it's safe to say that he was not proud. He was a tough, handsome guy, an ex-Marine who had fought in the Pacific, but quiet, with nothing to prove. I was a skinny dude with a shoulder-length, white-boy Afro, sporting flannel shirts, ripped Levi's and suede Pumas. I could not have been what he had hoped for in a son. I know he loved me; I also know that I must have been a tremendous disappointment to him at the time. Inwardly, I wanted to please him, but I was who I was.
In December 1975, after a dance, my dad took a bunch of friends over to the Jefferson to cook them a late-night breakfast. I witnessed his joy as he prepared the food, but as I watched him perspiring through his shirt I thought: he's working too hard. A couple of days later, at the age of 54, he had a heart attack.
My mother sat me down in the kitchen of our split-level home. We had no insurance for our business, no savings, and probably little in the way of health insurance. I was to quit university and take over the running of the diner. Though I hadn't worked there in years, I had to summon what I remembered and make it happen. There wasn't any choice. I was about to become the breadwinner for my family and I was 18 years old. The next day, I took over the business.
It was rough going at first. I had to be up to greet the ice man and the bread man at 5.30am. I had to manage our adult crew, and I was not much more than a kid. I had to learn every aspect of the business and work every station, because we were often short-handed. And I had to learn how to deal with customers.
Every night I took the cash home and gave it to my mother. I was never paid a dime. It wasn't unjust: after paying the food brokers and staff, there was no money left. I began to understand that my father had worked so hard all those years for very little in return. His diner paid the bills, kept the roof over our heads and fed us, but there was nothing extra for him. There would be no extra for me.
It sounds like hardship but actually it was fun. I didn't want to be a student, and this was my way out. I was told by a customer that I should take the place over permanently, as "your people are good at running restaurants". The ethnic slag aside, he was right. It did feel natural. I turned 19 and began to inhabit my role of junior businessman. I enjoyed the company of a downtown secretary who was 13 years my senior. I got used to waking up in darkness after a few hours' sleep. Sometimes, when I had partied with my friends deep into the night, I didn't sleep at all. I took pride in making it into work at the appointed hour.
My favourite time was just before dawn, driving to work on 16th Street in my gold Camaro, the windows down, smoking a Marlboro Menthol, listening to the glorious music coming loud from my Pioneer 8-track deck and speakers: Springsteen's Born to Run, Mayfield's Super Fly, Al Green's Call Me, Bowie's Station to Station. The tunes made movies in my head and jacked up my imagination. I had a crazy idea that I might write stories some day, perhaps make films. But how would an unconnected Greek kid get there? If my plan was naive, it didn't matter. The dream sustained me.
Later that summer, when my father returned to work, I took off with my pal Steve Rados and wandered around the south on various adventures of the mind and flesh. That year – 1976 – was the most thrilling of my life. And, I know now, the most important.
Many fathers and sons never get to reconcile their differences or come to an understanding that fills the gap between love and expectations. I'm forever grateful to have had the opportunity to prove myself to my dad. After I took over the diner, the look in my father's eyes went from disappointment to respect. He never even had to say it – I knew. Not that I had matured by leaps and bounds. Nine years later, months before I got married, I was arrested for assault, fleeing and eluding the police, driving on the sidewalk and other charges after a fight in a parking lot, fuelled by alcohol and adrenaline and culminating in a high-speed chase. So, yeah, it took me a long time to grow up. But to my father, even with all my nonsense, I was a man.
Every so often I take the metro down to Dupont Circle, walk into the old diner and have a seat on one of the orange stools. The current owner has switched the menu to gourmet fare and changed the name, but the space is unchanged. The lights my father and I installed still hang over the counter. I order my food, eat my meal and look towards the grill, where I can see my baba in his apron, spatula in hand, flipping burgers and smiling. I'm not having visions; I'm visiting my dad.
@'The Guardian'
VOCALNewYork VOCAL New York
Methadone patients in NYC can request courtesy dose at closest program tmrw. Call 1-800-LifeNet or 1-877-8-HOPENY
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Notting Hill carnival curfew plan is 'pie in the sky' warn police on ground
As record numbers of officers are deployed on Sunday to police the Notting Hill Carnival, there is confusion over how a proposed "curfew" is to be enforced, with rank-and-file officers saying they have not received adequate instruction on how to clear the streets following the event's early closure.
In the wake of the London riots, carnival organisers are to proceed on the condition that the parade of floats will finish by 6.30pm, and the static sound systems will be turned off by 7pm – hours earlier than usual – to minimise the potential for disorder after dark.
However Metropolitan Police Federation vice-chairman John Tully said that hopes of clearing Notting Hill's streets so early were "pie in the sky" and could create potential flashpoints.
"We need direction – we being the rank-and-file officers that I represent – about when we are given an instruction from senior officers to clear the street what they actually mean by that?" he said. "We have no definition. If we go in heavy handed and a few people get cuts and bruises or injured, then my members are up in court on an assault charge. When we are told to clear the streets, we should get the backing of not just our managers but the politicians as well.
"I don't think it's achievable because of the volume of people who are going to be there and who don't want to go home. If they want to carry on, there is the potential for problems."
Tully also voiced wider concerns among colleagues that police officers were increasingly seen as a legitimate target by those who felt abandoned by the state: "Just look at Edmonton [north London] two nights ago when a police van was petrol bombed for no reason. That's an indication of how tense the streets of London are. In the current climate, there is obviously a worry that there could be a potential flashpoint."
He cited a meeting in Tottenham last week, where the first of the UK riots began following the shooting of Mark Duggan, in which there was a sense of fury among locals who had turned up.
"There was an atmosphere of absolute hatred towards the police and the establishment – the government – because they feel abandoned, the cuts in youth services, the cuts right across the board."
Commander Steve Rodhouse, the Met's spokesman for the carnival, said he remained confident that the early closing time of 7pm would prove effective and diminish the potential for trouble: "Carnival ends at 7pm and that is certainly our intention.
'We would hope that, combined with licensed premises closing at least between 7pm and 9pm, will be helpful in terms of encouraging people to leave the area and return it to normal for residents and businesses."
Organisers believe the latest festival will not only be safe but as memorable as the event the year after the 1976 riots at the carnival, which left 100 police injured and saw scores arrested.
Ancil Barclay, Notting Hill Carnival director, said: "People have said to me that the best carnival they can remember was the year after the Notting Hill riots and we are hoping that this will be the same. We need to demonstrate to the world that we can deliver. People are looking forward to making this a successful carnival."
Barclay said that crime at the carnival was decreasing: "Met commanders have said that you're likely to be safer in the carnival than in the West End on a Friday night." He added that local residents were acting as the "eyes and ears" of the community to help identify any potential troublemakers.
So far, more than 2,000 people have been arrested in connection with this month's riots, while another 40 have been detained following pre-emptive raids under Operation Razorback designed to prevent troublemakers attending the carnival.
However, last week Scotland Yard said up to 30,000 people were suspected to have been involved in the arson, looting and violence during the riots.
About 16,000 officers will be on hand in the capital during the duration of the carnival. Up to a million people are expected to attend on both days, the majority on Monday, with the weather forecast predicting sunny intervals.
'Preparing the show brings us all together'
Rosalind Thomas, 39The costume-maker from Paddington has helped with the carnival outfits. This year the colour scheme is red.
"I've been coming to the pre-carnival preparations since I was a baby. Sometimes there is so much to organise for a mas band that people sleep beside their costumes because of all the things that need to be completed. Preparing the show brings the whole community together; we have all generations from children to grandparents and teenagers – our junior king is 17 and junior queen is 16 – under one roof. It's an important time for us, celebrating all the Caribbean islands, all the community, everyone."
Nolan Simmons, 68
A carnival "king", for the last month he has travelled from south London to Notting Hill to help make his costume, a 20ft devil. He has been king of Elimu Paddington Arts Mas band for 30 years.
"We build the costumes from scratch, it takes time. This year I have my leg, so I'm a little worried. We'll have to see how I get on. I also have to dance with the costume on, but this year is a big carnival – the dry run for the 2012 Olympics. "A lot of things have changed since I've been doing this. We used to have police assigned to the band. They would have a great time – maybe, it was felt, too much of a good time. We also used to be able to go wherever we wanted, but now it is much more regulated."
Angela Badal, 40
The primary school teacher from Peckham works as a volunteer in the headquarters of the carnival organisers. She dedicates the bulk of the school holidays to helping organise the carnival.
"I love carnival. I have been coming since I was two or three. My parents are from Trinidad and I used to make costumes for the fancy dress shows at school and would win every year, then I would wear them at the carnival. Because of what has been going on, I really believe it is going to be very safe because of the number of stewards and police. It is a chance for everybody in London to show that we can come together, enjoy ourselves and be peaceful."
Mark Townsend @'The Guardian'
ggreenwald Glenn Greenwald
US Govt: we're trying to kill Awlaki, but we won't release information about him because that would invade his privacy: is.gd/TzY48g
Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, condemns British education system
The chairman of Google has delivered a devastating critique of the UK's education system and said the country had failed to capitalise on its record of innovation in science and engineering.
Delivering the annual MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh, Eric Schmidt criticised "a drift to the humanities" and attacked the emergence of two educational camps, each of which "denigrate the other. To use what I'm told is the local vernacular, you're either a luvvy or a boffin," he said.
Schmidt also hit out at Lord Sugar, the Labour peer and star of the hit BBC programme The Apprentice, who recently claimed on the show that "engineers are no good at business".
Schmidt told the MediaGuardian Edinburgh international TV festival: "Over the past century, the UK has stopped nurturing its polymaths. You need to bring art and science back together."
The technology veteran, who joined Google a decade ago to help founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin build the company, said Britain should look to the "glory days" of the Victorian era for reminders of how the two disciplines can work together.
"It was a time when the same people wrote poetry and built bridges," he said. "Lewis Carroll didn't just write one of the classic fairytales of all time. He was also a mathematics tutor at Oxford. James Clerk Maxwell was described by Einstein as among the best physicists since Newton – but was also a published poet."
Schmidt's comments echoed sentiments expressed by Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, who revealed this week that he was stepping down. "The Macintosh turned out so well because the people working on it were musicians, artists, poets and historians – who also happened to be excellent computer scientists," Jobs once told the New York Times.
Schmidt paid tribute to Britain's record of innovation, saying the UK had "invented computers in both concept and practice" before highlighting that the world's first office computer "was built in 1951 by the Lyons chain of teashops".
However, he said the UK had failed to build industry-leading positions or successfully transfer ideas from the drawing board to the boardroom.
"The UK is the home of so many media-related inventions. You invented photography. You invented TV," he said. "Yet today, none of the world's leading exponents in these fields are from the UK." He added: "Thank you for your innovation, thank you for your brilliant ideas. You're not taking advantage of them on a global scale."
He said British startups tended to sell out to overseas companies once they had reached a certain size, and that this trend needed to be reversed. "The UK does a great job of backing small firms and cottage industries, but there's little point getting a thousand seeds to sprout if they are then left to wither or transplanted overseas. UK businesses need championing to help them grow into global powerhouses, without having to sell out to foreign-owned companies. If you don't address this, then the UK will continue to be where inventions are born, but not bred for long-term success."
Schmidt said the country that invented the computer was "throwing away your great computer heritage" by failing to teach programming in schools. "I was flabbergasted to learn that today computer science isn't even taught as standard in UK schools," he said. "Your IT curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software, but gives no insight into how it's made."
Barack Obama announced in June that the US would train an extra 10,000 engineers a year. "I hope that others will follow suit – the world needs more engineers. I saw the other day that on The Apprentice Alan Sugar said engineers are no good at business," he said.
"If the UK's creative businesses want to thrive in the digital future, you need people who understand all facets of it integrated from the very beginning. Take a lead from the Victorians and ignore Lord Sugar: bring engineers into your company at all levels, including the top."
Schmidt also announced that Google TV, which allows users to search the internet on their TV sets, would be launched in Europe early next year, with the UK "among the top priorities". The product is already available in America, although sales have been disappointing.
Schmidt said Google TV did not threaten broadcasters and would enable them to experiment with new formats online. He defended the company's contribution to the TV industry, pointing out that it had invested billions of dollars in IT infrastructure that media companies use.
Google also announced it would fund a new course in online production and distribution at the National Film & Television School in London for three years.
James Robinson @'The Guardian'
Delivering the annual MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh, Eric Schmidt criticised "a drift to the humanities" and attacked the emergence of two educational camps, each of which "denigrate the other. To use what I'm told is the local vernacular, you're either a luvvy or a boffin," he said.
Schmidt also hit out at Lord Sugar, the Labour peer and star of the hit BBC programme The Apprentice, who recently claimed on the show that "engineers are no good at business".
Schmidt told the MediaGuardian Edinburgh international TV festival: "Over the past century, the UK has stopped nurturing its polymaths. You need to bring art and science back together."
The technology veteran, who joined Google a decade ago to help founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin build the company, said Britain should look to the "glory days" of the Victorian era for reminders of how the two disciplines can work together.
"It was a time when the same people wrote poetry and built bridges," he said. "Lewis Carroll didn't just write one of the classic fairytales of all time. He was also a mathematics tutor at Oxford. James Clerk Maxwell was described by Einstein as among the best physicists since Newton – but was also a published poet."
Schmidt's comments echoed sentiments expressed by Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, who revealed this week that he was stepping down. "The Macintosh turned out so well because the people working on it were musicians, artists, poets and historians – who also happened to be excellent computer scientists," Jobs once told the New York Times.
Schmidt paid tribute to Britain's record of innovation, saying the UK had "invented computers in both concept and practice" before highlighting that the world's first office computer "was built in 1951 by the Lyons chain of teashops".
However, he said the UK had failed to build industry-leading positions or successfully transfer ideas from the drawing board to the boardroom.
"The UK is the home of so many media-related inventions. You invented photography. You invented TV," he said. "Yet today, none of the world's leading exponents in these fields are from the UK." He added: "Thank you for your innovation, thank you for your brilliant ideas. You're not taking advantage of them on a global scale."
He said British startups tended to sell out to overseas companies once they had reached a certain size, and that this trend needed to be reversed. "The UK does a great job of backing small firms and cottage industries, but there's little point getting a thousand seeds to sprout if they are then left to wither or transplanted overseas. UK businesses need championing to help them grow into global powerhouses, without having to sell out to foreign-owned companies. If you don't address this, then the UK will continue to be where inventions are born, but not bred for long-term success."
Schmidt said the country that invented the computer was "throwing away your great computer heritage" by failing to teach programming in schools. "I was flabbergasted to learn that today computer science isn't even taught as standard in UK schools," he said. "Your IT curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software, but gives no insight into how it's made."
Barack Obama announced in June that the US would train an extra 10,000 engineers a year. "I hope that others will follow suit – the world needs more engineers. I saw the other day that on The Apprentice Alan Sugar said engineers are no good at business," he said.
"If the UK's creative businesses want to thrive in the digital future, you need people who understand all facets of it integrated from the very beginning. Take a lead from the Victorians and ignore Lord Sugar: bring engineers into your company at all levels, including the top."
Schmidt also announced that Google TV, which allows users to search the internet on their TV sets, would be launched in Europe early next year, with the UK "among the top priorities". The product is already available in America, although sales have been disappointing.
Schmidt said Google TV did not threaten broadcasters and would enable them to experiment with new formats online. He defended the company's contribution to the TV industry, pointing out that it had invested billions of dollars in IT infrastructure that media companies use.
Google also announced it would fund a new course in online production and distribution at the National Film & Television School in London for three years.
James Robinson @'The Guardian'
UK abortion rules to be tightened in biggest shake-up for a generation
Pro-life campaigners suggest the change could result in up to 60,000 fewer abortions each year in Britain. Last year, 202,400 were carried out.
The plan would introduce a mandatory obligation on abortion clinics to offer women access to independent counselling, to be run on separate premises by a group which does not itself carry out abortions.
Critics of abortion clinics claim that the counselling they offer is biased because they are run as businesses — a claim denied by the clinics.
But abortion charities said they feared the proposals would prolong the period before an abortion took place, and that the motive was simply to reduce the number of terminations and was not in the best interests of women.
The proposed change comes ahead of a Commons vote, due to take place next week, on amendments to a public health Bill put forward by Nadine Dorries, a backbench Conservative MP.
The amendments would prevent private organisations which carry out terminations — such as Marie Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) — from offering pre-abortion counselling. Women would instead be offered free access to independent counsellors.
The vote would be the first on the laws around abortion since the Coalition took power. A previous attempt to change the law — to reduce the time limit for abortions from 24 to 20 weeks — was defeated in a free vote in 2008. Ministers appear keen to avoid another such vote. They believe that announcing the consultation on independent counselling will prevent it going ahead.
The plan does not mean pre-abortion counselling will be mandatory — something which is vehemently opposed by pro-choice groups and which has been a flashpoint in parts of the United States.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “We are currently developing proposals to introduce independent counselling for women seeking abortion. These proposals are focused on improving women’s health and wellbeing. Final decisions on who should provide this counselling have not yet been made.”
Proposals under discussion would involve withdrawing payments made by the taxpayer to abortion clinics for counselling women.
Mrs Dorries, a former nurse, claims abortion providers are not independent because they have a vested interest in conducting abortions. Last year, Marie Stopes and Bpas carried out about 100,000 terminations and were paid about £60 million to do so, mostly through the NHS.
Mrs Dorries said she had hoped that her proposed amendments to the health Bill would prompt the Government into taking the kind of action which it has now done.
Frank Field, a Labour MP, said: “I’m anxious that taxpayers’ money is used so that people can have a choice — we are paying for independent counselling and that’s what should be provided.”
Ann Furedi, the chief executive of Bpas, said if her organisation was prevented from advising women about terminations it could be impossible to gain informed consent, as the independent counselling was not compulsory.
Robert Mendick @'The Telegraph'
The amendments would prevent private organisations which carry out terminations — such as Marie Stopes and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) — from offering pre-abortion counselling. Women would instead be offered free access to independent counsellors.
The vote would be the first on the laws around abortion since the Coalition took power. A previous attempt to change the law — to reduce the time limit for abortions from 24 to 20 weeks — was defeated in a free vote in 2008. Ministers appear keen to avoid another such vote. They believe that announcing the consultation on independent counselling will prevent it going ahead.
The plan does not mean pre-abortion counselling will be mandatory — something which is vehemently opposed by pro-choice groups and which has been a flashpoint in parts of the United States.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “We are currently developing proposals to introduce independent counselling for women seeking abortion. These proposals are focused on improving women’s health and wellbeing. Final decisions on who should provide this counselling have not yet been made.”
Proposals under discussion would involve withdrawing payments made by the taxpayer to abortion clinics for counselling women.
Mrs Dorries, a former nurse, claims abortion providers are not independent because they have a vested interest in conducting abortions. Last year, Marie Stopes and Bpas carried out about 100,000 terminations and were paid about £60 million to do so, mostly through the NHS.
Mrs Dorries said she had hoped that her proposed amendments to the health Bill would prompt the Government into taking the kind of action which it has now done.
Frank Field, a Labour MP, said: “I’m anxious that taxpayers’ money is used so that people can have a choice — we are paying for independent counselling and that’s what should be provided.”
Ann Furedi, the chief executive of Bpas, said if her organisation was prevented from advising women about terminations it could be impossible to gain informed consent, as the independent counselling was not compulsory.
Robert Mendick @'The Telegraph'
Michele Bachmann Would Consider Lowering Minimum Wage To Match The Cost Of Labor Overseas
The Associated Press is reporting that Republican Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is considering lowering the minimum wage to match labor costs overseas to lure corporations back to the United States.
Her comments came in response to the question of a reporter, during a campaign stop in Florida, who asked whether changes to the minimum wage should also be considered to balance the cost of labor here and overseas. “I’m not married to anything. I’m not saying that’s where I’m going to go,” Bachmann replied. She did say she wants to look at all aspects of doing business, from regulations to tax codes, and will consider anything that will help create jobs.
Lowering the minimum wage is not a viable option to stimulate the economy. People are struggling to live on $7.25 an hour as it is. Wages overseas are far lower than they are here. So low in fact that poverty is a way of life. Before Democrats passed the minimum wage law during the Great Depression, workers struggled to make a living while corporate CEO’s made millions. And when the Great Depression hit the country, millions of American workers ended up with nothing. Corporations don’t care how low wages are. Prices will not come down to accommodate lower wages. The only thing that lowering the minimum wage will do here in America is stimulate poverty.
Stephen D. Foster Jr. @'Addicting Info'
Her comments came in response to the question of a reporter, during a campaign stop in Florida, who asked whether changes to the minimum wage should also be considered to balance the cost of labor here and overseas. “I’m not married to anything. I’m not saying that’s where I’m going to go,” Bachmann replied. She did say she wants to look at all aspects of doing business, from regulations to tax codes, and will consider anything that will help create jobs.
Lowering the minimum wage is not a viable option to stimulate the economy. People are struggling to live on $7.25 an hour as it is. Wages overseas are far lower than they are here. So low in fact that poverty is a way of life. Before Democrats passed the minimum wage law during the Great Depression, workers struggled to make a living while corporate CEO’s made millions. And when the Great Depression hit the country, millions of American workers ended up with nothing. Corporations don’t care how low wages are. Prices will not come down to accommodate lower wages. The only thing that lowering the minimum wage will do here in America is stimulate poverty.
Stephen D. Foster Jr. @'Addicting Info'
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