Tag Archives: Great Depression

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From the Middle Class Out


ThinkProgress War Room

Creating an Economy That Works for Everyone

For the last thirty years, we’ve been experiencing one long, failed experiment in so-called trickle-down economics. In practice, this means that the rich have gotten richer (exponentially so) while the middle class has fallen further and further behind. Trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, the one goal that binds the GOP together, utterly failed to trickle down, stifled economic growth, and contributed to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

We need a different model — an economy that grows from the middle class out. What does this mean? How does that work? One of our colleagues, Senior Economist Heather Boushey, lays it all out in a new video:

BOTTOM LINE: The wealthy and corporations simply aren’t paying their fair share so in order to reduce our deficit in a smart way and still make investments in the middle class, we need to get rid of hundreds of billions of dollars in wasteful loopholes and giveaways in our tax code.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

57 terrible consequences of the sequester cuts that the GOP is allowing to kick in next week.

Bitter pill: why medical bills are killing us.

Oops: GOP senator accidentally gets behind Roe v. Wade.

Laura Bush supports marriage equality, she just doesn’t want anyone to know.

One top senator’s latest racist excuse for opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

The public takes President Obama’s side on major issues we need to deal with.

Anti-spending GOP reps wants taxpayer funds to turn George W. Bush’s boyhood home into a national park.

GOP rep won’t support pathway to citizenship because he wants to keep immigrants in “the dirtiest jobs.”

Austerity: still failing.

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“The unemployed need not apply” …Rashad Robinson, ColorOfChange.org


It’s hard enough to be unemployed — but there’s a growing problem with companies that refuse to hire people who don’t already have a job. With unemployment at 9%, this kind of discrimination affects a huge number of people. And it hits Black communities particularly hard, as more than 15% of African Americans are unemployed.1

Our friends at USAction launched a campaign asking job listing websites like Monster.com to ban ads that discriminate against the unemployed.2 But not only did Monster.com refuse to ban these ads — they actually threatened legal action against USAction for raising the issue.3 Other job listing websites have been completely silent. It’s outrageous.

Monster.com needs to hear our voices now. Please join us in calling on Monster.com and other job listing websites to stop publishing ads which discriminate against the unemployed. It takes just a moment:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/monster

At a time when more than 9% of Americans are out of work, during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, no one should have to have a job in order to get a job. This type of discrimination hurts everyone who’s looking for work. But Black people are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed as White folks. And Latinos are also unemployed at a higher rate than Whites.4 Whether it’s intended or not, discrimination against the unemployed is discrimination against Black and Latino Americans.

Democrats in the House and Senate are crafting legislation that would make this kind of discrimination illegal. We’ll keep an eye on that legislation and let you know how you can help get it passed.

But right now, without any law to prevent discrimination against the unemployed, job listing websites could do more than anyone else to stop this practice. These companies are supposed to be in the business of helping people find jobs. But by continuing to publish help wanted ads that say “you must be currently employed to apply,” they’re enabling a practice which makes it even harder to recover for the people who are struggling the hardest in this economy.

Monster.com has said that they’re against discrimination against the unemployed5 — but they’re refusing to stop publishing these ads, saying that they’ll leave it up to individual companies to decide what to do.6 Monster.com wants to have it both ways — they think they can pay lip service to opposing this practice, while continuing to make money off of the companies that engage in it. It’s selfish and irresponsible.

We can help by joining the more than 60,000 people who have already called for Monster.com and other job listing sites to stop discrimination against the unemployed. If enough of us speak out, we can create negative media attention that will make easier for Monster.com to do the right thing than to continue profiting from job listings that discriminate.

Please join us in demanding that Monster.com and other job listing companies stop publishing ads that discriminate against the unemployed:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/monster

Thanks and Peace,

— Rashad, James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Matt, Natasha and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
    August 25th, 2011

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU–your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:

http://www.colorofchange.org/donate

References

1. Bureau of Labor Statistics News Release, 8-5-11
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/946?akid=2133.1174326.5MUP6T&t=7

2. “Stop Discrimination Against Unemployed Workers,” USAction
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/947?akid=2133.1174326.5MUP6T&t=9

3. “Monster.com Says It Won’t Ban Third-Party Ads That Discourage Job Applications From The Unemployed,” Huffington Post, 8-12-11
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/948?akid=2133.1174326.5MUP6T&t=11

4. See reference 1.

5. “Updated: Monster Speaks Out Against Employment Discrimination,” 8-8-11
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/949?akid=2133.1174326.5MUP6T&t=13

6. See reference 3.

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Deregulation = Financial Disaster + Middle-Class Robbery … AFL-CIO.org


This is not a drill. This is an emergency.

Our financial system is being attacked in Congress, and if it collapses again because of reckless greed, working people will bear the brunt. CEO-backed politicians will raid our Social Security, our Medicare and our public services to bail out the fat cats. Take action now.

http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=8sLeYVGi1PcO0hsdij8rr2gmjdx9rGEF

Tell your members of Congress: Deregulation leads to financial crises. Don’t deregulate Wall Street and then rob working people to pay for the bailouts that will follow.

In 2008, Big Banks and Wall Street CEOs created the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. As a result, 14 million Americans still are unemployed today.

But even though unemployment is high and our economic recovery is pathetically slow and fragile, corporations are lobbying furiously to undo the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Many parts of this new Wall Street Reform Act—including a requirement that outrageous CEO pay be publicly compared with worker pay—haven’t even gone into effect yet. But already, House Republicans are siding with corporate CEOs, trying to repeal the bill piece by piece.

What’s the Big Bank/CEO/House Republican plan? Deregulate. And if the economy collapses again because of reckless greed, rob working Americans to pay for bailouts while the rich get richer.

http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=8sLeYVGi1PcO0hsdij8rr2gmjdx9rGEF

Tell Congress to leave the Wall Street Reform Act alone—and that if deregulation leads to another financial panic, we won’t pay a dime for bailouts.

This is serious. This is the time to take action. As House Republicans pick at pieces and “provisions” of financial reform, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that deregulation brought our economy to the brink of collapse. That didn’t happen all at once, either. It happened in pieces since the 1970s. Little by little, corporations pushed their agenda, and they got away with it.

That’s why working people must push back hard when corporations and greedy CEOs lobby for even a small piece of deregulation.

Tell Congress to leave the Wall Street Reform Act alone—if deregulation leads to another financial crisis, we’ll know exactly whom to blame.

So far, this week Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed repealing several important provisions of Wall Street reform, including CEO-to-worker compensation disclosure—before they even go into effect. They also want to create new loopholes in the law for private equity fund managers, companies that use derivatives, credit rating firms and companies that issue up to $50 million in securities.

The fact is, America deserves to know what CEOs make compared with their workers, and we simply cannot afford to deregulate Wall Street.

But more broadly, we can’t give an inch and allow the deregulators to bankrupt America again.

Efforts at repealing pieces of Wall Street reform are just the beginning of Wall Street thinking it can return to its old ways. We’ve got to put that notion to rest, right now.

Tell your members of Congress you oppose repealing any part of Wall Street reform, that you demand CEO-to-worker pay ratios be made public and that working people can’t afford more financial disasters.

http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=8sLeYVGi1PcO0hsdij8rr2gmjdx9rGEF

In solidarity,

Manny Herrmann

Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

P.S. BREAKING NEWS: A Wisconsin judge just issued a restraining order against the recently passed bill killing public employee bargaining rights. You can read more at the AFL-CIO Now Blog. http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=IWj7usJ61FDarYEuMmAMp2gmjdx9rGEF

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a message from Speaker Pelosi


Over the last four years, the Democratic House Majority that you made possible took courageous action on behalf of America’s middle class to create jobs and save the country from the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression.

Despite the outcome of last night’s elections, please know that your grassroots support still made a difference.

There are many courageous Democrats who won close races last night because of your remarkable support.

The outcome of this election does not diminish the work we have done together for the American people. With so much at stake for our country, we must all strive to find common ground to support the middle class, create jobs, protect Social Security, reduce the deficit and move our nation forward. Today, all Democrats should hold their heads high.

Your support and dedication has made a positive difference in the lives of all Americans.

For that, I cannot thank you enough.
Nancy
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House

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It’s dirty trick #1 in the Rove playbook


Only 19 Days Left Until The Election When you’ve got dirty laundry, don’t apologize for it. Instead, just throw it at your opponent.

That’s exactly what the Republican attack squad is trying to pull off.

They’re claiming that my fellow House Democrats who consistently stand up for good paying American jobs are actually the ones to blame for jobs getting shipped overseas. Worse yet, they’re relying on millions of dollars from pro-outsourcing special interests to launch their attacks. Shameless.

We can’t let their lies take hold because we failed to act. The DCCC has got rapid response ads ready to fight back with the truth, but we simply must raise $117,337 more by tomorrow’s ad buy deadline to get them on the air.

Contribute $5, $10 or more to House Democrats’ October Rapid Response Fund before tonight’s Midnight Tomorrow and your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar by a group of committed Democrats. Your generous support is urgently needed to help our Democratic candidates fight back against Republican attacks.

It won’t surprise you that the Pulitzer Prize winning Politifact called the Republicans’ baseless attacks “FALSE.” It would be comical if the stakes of this election weren’t so high.

With early voting already under way, sitting on our hands is not an option. We all know what happens when you let smears like this go unchallenged. None of us can afford to look back on Election Day wishing we did more to fight back. And we certainly can’t let the Republicans and their front groups dominate the airwaves in the final days of this Election.

A gift of $10 will go a long way to getting ads on the air before tomorrow’s midnight deadline hits.

Thank you for standing with us.

Carolyn Maloney
Carolyn Maloney
Congresswoman, New York’s 14th District