Welcome to the United States of Amazon. Picture a not so far-off future where the online retailer has gobbled up all other businesses, automated all tasks and decisions previously carried out by human workers, and created a government full of AI bots uncorrupted by individual ...read more
As a stay-at-home father of an autistic son and a neurotypical daughter, sometimes it feels like I'm a Rodney Dangerfield skit; I get no respect, no respect at all. It's the only time in my life that I've been subjected to relentless sexism and when it comes to political ...read more
I was on the Thom Hartmann show last night getting into it with Nathan Leamer, a policy analyst at the R Street Institute and George Landrith, President of 'Frontiers of Freedom'. We discussed a variety of topics from L.A's new $15 minimum wage to Bernie Sander's plan for a free ...read more
One of the subtle but nastier implications of the "American Dream" narrative is that poor people have squandered their chance to make it in the land of opportunity. In the United States, so goes the thinking, there's great opportunity to achieve wealth, or at least a financially ...read more
In case you missed it, mass distributor of high fructose corn syrup, fat, and crappy meat company otherwise known as McDonald's released its new ad campaign during the Super Bowl last weekend and has been plastering the airwaves in an attempt to drive sales. With a rapidly dying ...read more
While he's no Mitt Romney, Governor Chris Christie (R-N.J.) may still have some designs on running for president in 2016, and if that happens, he's just cut the Democratic nominee's first campaign ad. While Republicans have long opposed increases to the minimum wage, they're not ...read more
Last Friday I went on Thom Hartmann's show 'The Big Picture Rumble' to debate the Senate Republicans playing politics with veterans' benefits, the British & U.S. intelligence agency scandal regarding 'Optic Nerve', and how Verizon's CEO wants to charge people based on how much ...read more
Noam Chomsky lays out some basic economic facts about the suppression of the minimum wage to the Huff Post's Ryan Grim: "Part of the neo-liberal assault was the minimum wage in real value started declining, and not growing...As GDP of economy grew, as productivity grew, minimum ...read more
President Obama has finally shown his true colors and is raising the minimum wage of federal contractors to a disgustingly high $10.10/hour. Reports indicate that the re-distributor-in-chief will enacting the policy via executive order, making sure workers could keep a family ...read more
I’m one of the poor, lazy people New York Times columnist, and overly-privileged/perennially out of touch, champion for the oppressed moneyed interests, David Brooks, talked about in his recent column ‘The Inequality Problem’. Ben Cohen took Mr. Brooks to task for his ignorant, ...read more
I went on the Thom Hartmann show last Friday to debate Matt Purple of The American Spectator and conservative commentator Kris Ullman on Medicaid expansion, the minimum wage, America's threat to the world, and the Duck Dynasty. I don't post these vids too often - only when the ...read more
Perusing McDonald's' corporate wellness site for its employees, which they actually call “McResource Line,” you might find yourself praying that it's an elaborate parody. But sadly, it is real. Real vague, real condescending and real insulting. On the heels of last summer's ...read more
Although the rich, the political elite and most of the media are not concerned with the plight of America's working poor, there are now real signs that those at the bottom rung of the economic ladder are taking matters in to their own hands and fighting back. Having spent the ...read more
Here's an idea I think could really gain some traction in America, a country reflexively opposed to unionism and worker rights: Linking CEO pay to the minimum wage. Hamilton Nolan wrote a heart felt piece in Gawker yesterday hammering Caterpillar for slashing wages and busting ...read more
