A Year That Did Truly Suck

2014 sucked. That's pretty much the consensus. Here's an (incomplete) list why, in no particular order:

> Russia attempted to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi and dark comedy ensued... 

> ...Including Russia's re-drawing Europe's borders for the first time since World War II (HA! HA! Who's laughing now, decadent West!)

> Commercial airplanes were shot down (with no repercussions), or just disappeared without a trace. 

> Global warming is definitely happening and it's probably unrealistic to do anything about it now.

> Foreign tax inversions to avoid U.S taxes officially became a cool "thing" in the corporate world.

> Old wars became young and bloody again in Syria and Iraq.

> Ebola scared the shit out of us -- no deaths though -- and killed from 5 to 15 thousand of them, over there, where they tend to be scared less and die more.

> ISIS / ISIL / Islamic State / Daesh / Those Crazy Murderers In Two Countries Where Lots of People Get Murdered.

> It became news to us (but not to them, or the people they've been shooting) that U.S. police can shoot just about anybody and get away with it.

> Although the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 5.8 percent of the labor force in November 2014, the lowest since July 2008, the labor force participation rate (i.e. excluding those too young, old, sick or beaten down by failure to work) is still below 63 percent; and wages were up only 2 percent for the year.

> Congress did not raise the minimum wage, again.

> Voter ID laws are still in effect (mainly in the South) and still doing what they're intended to do: suppress youth and minority votes.

> Red Lobster (a fav of ur's truly) became an economic bellwether instead of that place with the cheesy biscuits.

> We found out (but weren't really surprised) that up to 18 percent of NCAA revenue sports athletes read like children.

> We discovered that sandwich makers earning minimum wage are being asked to sign non-compete agreements.

> We found out the CIA is filled with sadistic, sicko torturers (and their defenders) who are nonetheless incompetent.

> The GOP held onto the House and took over the Senate.

> The GOP put taxpayers on the hook in the amount of $300 trillion in bailouts for Wall Street's derivatives bets.

> U.S. corporations are even more, uh, endowed with personhood than ever.

> Likewise, robots (AI) continued their exponential Moore's-rate progress toward enslaving humanity... or just taking all humanity's jobs.

> Still no federal prosecutions of Wall Street banks that committed securities fraud, wire fraud, perjury during Congressional testimony.... (Thanks, Obama and Eric Holder)

> Stephen Colbert put to rest The Colbert Report -- and worse -- his genius farcical Bill O'Reilly persona.

> Dick Cheney managed to stay alive -- and stay on FOX -- for another year.

Did I miss anything?

2014 sucked for conservatives as well. I hear their whining so I know. Yet few of these will sound like victories to liberals (and notice that most involve Obama):

> Obamacare remains the law of the land (because the federal government remains funded).

> 44 states have adopted Common Core standards.

> Obama escaped an impeachment vote on (take your pick).

> The Keystone XL pipeline is still not approved.

> Obama remains extremely popular abroad.

> Uppity blacks (no, they don't use that adjective anymore!) protested and rioted about police all over the country and didn't seem to be punished for it.

> The Tea Parties' power in the GOP diminished and the Establishment came back.

> The gay marriage steamroller is unstoppable.

> Obama's Ebola "czar" wasn't qualified to thwart an Ebola epidemic that wasn't coming anyway.

> Obama granted "amnesty" to approx. 11 million illegals.

> Unlike the last guy, this Pope is a flaming lib.

> Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder got to leave his job at the time and manner of his own choosing.

> Obama tightened rules for US coal power plants and made a deal with China on greenhouse gas emissions.

> And all of Obama's other "tyrannical" executive orders (yeah, you know the ones, don't get me started).

> White conservatives lost their best black spokesman for personal responsibility among African-American males when it was revealed he was a serial rapist. (On the other side, liberals lost a great stand-up comedian).

> The latest (the 10th?) GOP Congressional report on Benghazi! did not conclude that Hillary Clinton murdered those four Americans with her bare hands.

> And Hillary seems like an unbeatable juggernaut in 2016 when compared to (insert RINO or TP wacko's name here).

2014 sucked for me as well. Maybe the worst year ever. For instance, being unemployed for most of it. Of course there are always silver linings, silver linings...

Begone and good riddance, 2014!  2015, you'll have to try really hard to suck worse. Talk to you next year, folks!

Is Red Lobster an economic bellwether?

As you may recall, I'm a fan of Dead Lobster, (no snickering!), even though I've criticized Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster's owner) for trying in 2012 to cut back on employee hours to avoid giving them health insurance. Facing a 37 percent drop in revenue, Darden was apparently trying to scapegoat Obamacare for its restaurants' poor performance.

LZ Granderson sees ominous portents in Darden's plan announced late 2013 to spin off its 700 Red Lobster restaurants because they are losing money. He says this reflects poor and middle class families' shrinking wages and buying power. Especially black and Latino families.

My latest visit to Red Lobster was a bust: it was so busy that the wait time was one hour and 40 minutes. So my local Lobster seems to be doing OK.

At any rate, Granderson rightly laments the U.S. working class's 30-year fall from prosperity:

From November 2012 to November 2013, weekly earnings rose 1.1% while the consumer price index increased 1.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That small uptick may not seem like much until you factor in three years ago, wages increased 1.8%, and the CPI was up 3.5%. And that may not seem like much until you realize that almost every year since 1983, a series of small ticks like those two examples has been widening the gap between between what we earn and what we can buy.

Consider the poverty threshold.

For a family of four in 1983 it was $10,178. Adjusted for inflation, that should be $23,817.03 today. However, the actual 2013 poverty threshold is $23,492, a difference of $325.03.

When you're living check to check, that's a lot of money.

Indeed, a family of four can have a very nice meal at the Lobster for about 70-80 bucks. So $325 is about four trips to Red Lobster a year, now out of the picture. Or maybe it's money spent on something else, it doesn't really matter in macroeconomic terms. Multiply that $325 times 9.5 million poor households, and we're talking $3 billion in consumer demand sucked out of the U.S. economy. 

This is where the minimum wage, SNAP and unemployment benefits matter, because we have an economy built to serve the working poor and disappearing middle class, and if those people don't have income then businesses that cater to them will die, taking more jobs and income with them, in a vicious cycle. 

It's much easier to destroy than to create; and what's destroyed doesn't come back.

UPDATE (04.01.2014): Furthermore, Harvard economist Lawrence Katz recently estimated that the U.S. economy is losing $400 million to $1 billion every week  thanks to Republicans' decision to end long-term unemployment benefits for about 1.3 million Americans.

It hurts to lose Red Lobster, but money is tight

By LZ Granderson

January 1, 2014 | CNN

URL: http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/31/opinion/granderson-red-lobster/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7

(Sigh) No more Red Lobster with Shooter...

It looks like I'll have to cease my traditional New Year's Eve feast at the local Dead Lobster, because I don't want to give my business to a greedy corporation that won't give its employees health insurance.  

I urge you all to do the same: do your homework and figure out what big companies that you frequent have adopted a policy of hiring only part-time workers in order to avoid giving them health insurance, then start buying from ethical companies instead.

The people have spoken, they don't want single-payer health care, or the public option.  They want a mainly private market for health insurance.  That means the private sector and private citizens must participate to avoid the free-rider economic problem.  

The good news is, it's America and there are a bazillion casual dining options, not to mention a bazillion of everything else.  We're spoiled for choice as consumers. There have to be a few who will do the right thing... and wouldn't mind marketing themselves as such.

"But won't lots of smaller local businesses start giving their employees only part-time hours, too?" you ask.  They may indeed, at first.  But large chains like Florida-based Darden (the owner of Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse) are an easier target.  Indeed, let's not put mom-and-pop places in the same category as a mega-corporation like Darden that can spread the cost of health insurance across a larger pool, and should be able to fit this in their cost structure.  It's the huge chain establishments that put cost pressure on local and mom-and-pop establishments, not vice-versa. So if health insurance for all employees becomes the accepted ethical norm among Big Business, it will be easier for smaller competitors to follow suit.

The boycott this year against Hyatt Hotels, "the worst employer in the hotel industry," by the NFL players, Sierra Club, AFL-CIO and 5,000 other individuals and organizations shows that high-profile, organized action against irresponsible corporations can be successful.  

UPDATE (12.20.2012): Daily Kos labor reporter Laura Clawson noted that Darden Restaurants' profits have dropped 37 percent since their public complaints about Obamacare and their intent to cut employee's hours. Darden has since back-tracked slightly -- to no avail, apparently.

Darden tests limiting worker hours as health-care changes loom

By Sandra Pedicini

October 7, 2012 | Orlando Sentinel

URL: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-10-07/business/os-darden-part-time-workers-20121007_1_darden-restaurants-health-insurance-olive-gardens