A city of Contrast. A center of entertainment. A center of music. A center of cool trendy things and wealth? The city with the highest homeless population in the United States of America.
A little more information
The two main activities in my life: Helping the hungry in the late hours of the night and helping guitar players sound better one amp at a time.
I always try to remember that in order to do good one has to take action and actually do something.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I have watched the city and Southern California change for well over half a century.
As of late 2019 the music related links and prints noted on this page which had their links to by GAB (Guitar Amplifier Blueprinting) website are no longer accessible. I grew weary of updating my GAB website and let it go away. You can contact me on Facebook. Saunders Stewart Models continues full operation but we are not accepting new clients without a referral.
Los Angeles Architectural History
1935 Art Deco at some of its finest: No. 168 - Griffith Observatory- (click on the photo for information)
The FULL stats totally support what you've been saying all along..
The information below was sent to me by a good friend. Below are some of his thoughts on what Mr. Geithner had to say:
The title sort of says it all, but just by skimming over it my immediate conclusion is that Mr. Geithner is either outright insane or a total liar. Neither of those are welcome realizations, though I doubt they are news to anyone with a working brain. However, for the sake of manners, I'll simply assume Mr Geithner is outright insane, in which case I am indeed, quite honored to be invited to his recovery... I only wish he'd mentioned the planet where it was taking place.
Let’s have a look at some data points on Earth, courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Ok, you could possibly see something along the lines of improvement if you focused solely on the number of unemployed people, which has dropped 100,000 in the last year. Moreover, the number of people working part-time for economic reasons has dropped by 300,000. That’s not bad… so we must be in a recovery right?
WRONG.
These are the only data points that show any improvement. To get the word “recovery” out of this, means ignoring a whole slew of data that is downright ugly including:
•The 900,000 who stopped being employed in the last year
•The 3.1 million people who somehow mysteriously vanished from the workforce but are not unemployed (?!?!)
•The 2.3 million MORE people who have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks
•The 407,000 more people who have simply given up even looking for a job because they don’t think they could find one.
Hard to find the word “recovery” from that mess. “Disaster” or “soon to be disaster when the unemployment benefits run out” seem more fitting descriptions. But then again, I am suffering the handicap of being on earth. Perhaps things are better on Mars?
It’s not as though the rest of the economic data looks much better. The following data points range from “not as bad but still bad” on the positive side to “absolutely horrendous” on the negative side.
Well, the number of mortgages underwater has dropped off. That’s largely due to the fact home prices bounced a bit year over year courtesy of the tax credits. But the jump in foreclosure filings, and personal bankruptcies shows doesn’t exactly spell economic strength. As for food stamp usage… no comment needed.
I don’t know about you, but I fully intend to take Mr Geithner up on his welcome invitation to the recovery. I only wish he’d tell me what planet it’s taking place on so I can move there, cause it sure ain’t earth.
Thank you to my good friend Joe for his take on this and sending me this in an email.
Tag experiment: "vacuum tube made of cheese" "mister wacko"
There were two stories I saw today out of many that are out there.
Stocks fall after spike in jobless benefits claims - NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks fell Thursday after first-time claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week.
Unexpectedly?
The high unemployment rate in the U.S. remains one of the biggest worries for investors. The surprise jump in claims last week suggests that employers are still reluctant to create jobs, which could keep a damper on economic growth the coming months.
Surprise?
Comforting to know that our government little clue on the pulse of our economy. Don't forget those that have recently run out of benefits are and no longer being counted.
The other story that caught my eye: New claims for jobless benefits rise
The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 479,000. Analysts had expected a small drop. Claims have risen twice in the past three weeks.
Some of the increase in claims stemmed from difficulties the government has in adjusting for seasonal factors.
Our government would need way fewer poeple to count who is unemployed if they followed a formula that I just developed for them:
1. "Seasonally adjusted". Drop this. No such thing. When somebody is out of work they are out of work, period. No June or December, night or day, rain or shine.
2. If benefits were being paid to somebody last month and not this month because the recipient ran out of benefits, and if they are still not working, count them. Yes... these people still count.
3. To simplify: Ignore step 1 and step 2 and try this. Keep a list that counts everybody that had a job, lost their job, wants a jobs whether they are collecting unemployment benefits or not. Count each and every one of them. Do not remove them from the list until you have some indication from THEM that they are working.
I do not have any issue with the story or the Los Angeles Times. The factors I am drawn to are the statements from our government that this story reports.
I have a number of issues with our government and have had issues in trusting them and having faith in them ever since I was right in the middle of the Vietnam era of this country.
In any case, it took more than one administration to destroy the country and to outsource our jobs.
America was not lost overnight. We used to produce the finest computers, rockets, aircraft, and cars in the world. RCA, General Electric, IBM all meant something. The "telephone company" provided service in the past but today we are left with people like ATT who has a customer service reputation that is even lower than the reputation of British Petroleum.
I posted the above video before but I am posting again as a reminder.
Destroying America did not happen overnight and it will take much longer to climb out of the hole than our government is going to report to the public. The country is going to need to go through a major shift and adjustment that will take many years. In the meantime, I personally feel our government is obligated to report proper and accurate numbers of those who are out of work, unemployed, who have lost jobs or whatever label one puts on the situation.
Don't print pointless numbers which are not true one week and reverse the slant with a nice set of numbers the next just to keep the stock market moving all over the place so the few people in the country who do have money can keep playing the most expensive and exclusive game that has ever been developed.
This will be an ongoing post. I will let folks know via facebook when there is an update.
Personal invitation to our Mayor - How about on August 21 you join me for a little tour of one area of Los Angeles. No press. No fanfare. Wear a wig and some sun glasses and nobody will even know who you are. Fly under the radar so to speak. Come along? Info is at http://la-economy.blogspot.com/2010/08/experience-life-learn-about.html
To the Mayor of Los Angeles, I took the photo below in 2010. I dedicate this photo to you.
Seems as if one more is walking away from being associated with the Mayor for whatever reason. Subject of the story claims support and I am sure his support was part of whatever compensation package he was given?
Perhaps a part of the story explains a bit more: As someone who dealt with the mayor’s schedule, Blackman also was one of the officials who helped arrange the mayor’s appearances at special events, such as Dodgers and Lakers games. Villaraigosa’s free events are now the subject of an investigation by the city Ethics Commission and an inquiry by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley into whether free entry to games and concerts should have been disclosed as gifts.
Villaraigosa said he was performing official duties at those events and did not have to consider the free tickets as gifts under state law. Asked about the controversy, Blackman said in an e-mail: “I am not a part of any inquiry into this issue, nobody has asked to speak with me about it, and it has absolutely nothing to do with my departure.”
Blackman was one of the four people who originally made up Villaraigosa’s E-Team, or executive team. The other three -- Chief of Staff Robin Kramer, Deputy Chief of Staff Marcus Allen and Senior Counsel Thomas Saenz -- have already left.
Perhaps under closer examination more will be discovered?
City planner recruited by Villaraigosa from San Diego announces retirement
Gail Goldberg, L.A.’s planning director for the last 4 1/2 years, announced her retirement Wednesday, triggering speculation at City Hall about why she decided to leave the sensitive post now. That is the opening line in the story at the above link.
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Below: Okay, maybe it is just me but if I were Mayor in a city with so many problems and had a staff that had a history of misleading me I would probably avoid these sorts of trendy gatherings until there was more to celebrate. I think our Mayor needs to be less of a public figure and more of somebody who puts on a pair of jeans and rolls up his sleeves and gets things done.
When I was a young child I thought I knew what a Mayor did. The mayor posed for photos, rode around in cars so people could see them, ate in nice restaurants with police to kick all the people out other than the friends of the Mayor to assure great service and had a bunch of people around to do the work and take the blame if anything went wrong. Well, I was sort of right other than the people around that are supposed to do the work are dropping the ball.
Some of my thoughts on this video above:
It seems our Mayor has a lot of extra time (and money) on his hands? Lisa Jackson needs to grab a canoe and skateboard if she wants a realistic view. The skateboard will be of much more use than the canoe.
I was shocked at Lisa Jackson's statement - Lisa Jackson to announce that the EPA deemed the Los Angeles River as navigable. I was even more shocked that the Mayor of Los Angeles bought this nonsense and took the time and resources to mak...e this video. Hey Tony (no respect from me here ... repect is earned in my book) how about spending a few buck on something a little more pressing? You want historical thing to be saved? There are a slew of great examples of architecture that could be saved a lot easier than the L.A. River for much less time and money. I need to add an ongoing post to my blog .... "Things the Mayor of Los Angeles does that are too stupid to put into words". I guess I can try to put it into words in the future.
To the Mayor of Los Angeles - before you try to fix a river that is easier to traverse via skateboard than canoe maybe allocate some of those funds to our schools?
Our Mayor can spend time and resources for so many things yet more pressing issues arrise within walking distance of his office that could be resolved for a fraction of the cost of so many of the Mayor's questionable choices.
URM already had pay cuts and reductions in work force and now comes the lastest wave to hit these folks that are the last line of defense and hope when people hit bottom.
Some comments today on this post:
...This needs to be sent to the Mayors office, the Governors office and the Presidents office. And to think that assholes like our District Attorney spends millions of dollars of our tax money trying to extradite someone from Switzerland, that money could have been spent HERE helping to keep this very thing from happening. Damn it! When will people get their priorities straight!
...Priorities? Government and priorities of the mainstream population are generally mutually exclusive.
...I agree. Then, you should run for office. I would campaign hard for you Myles. This post of yours is going to be reposted on my page, and with a note for others to do the same. Public awareness is the only way this travesty will be prevented. It seems that good things like URM don't do anything for the governments interest. They don't help their bottom line, which by the way is easily spelled out.... C O R R U P T.
...Thanks so much for the suport. Sometimes I cannot figure the percentages on corrupt versus payoff versus plain and simple stupidity. A post from a day or few ago on the Mayor of Los Angeles taking resources (even if only time that could be better spent just about ANYWHERE) than the Los Angeles River just makes my head spin.
...I have a simple solution. Get rid of the vice squad altogether. That alone would pay for the needs of the URM. Besides, drugs and prostitution doesn't hurt anyone except those that abuse them. People are going to do it anyway.
Below - Here is some serious stuff to ponder along with things like oil leaks, homeless folks, unemployment, KABC news reporting unemployment down when in fact it increased in July but over 380,000 folks were dropped from being counted as their benefits expired.
You might need a program to follow the real story? DWP giving the Mayor's office grief?
Villaraigosa names real estate executive to DWP board
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has nominated a real estate executive to sit on the five-member board that oversees the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipally owned utility.
The below is from a few days ago. Interesting story. Lots of data from 2007 and 2008. Guess the Mayor has his office window open and is too close to the crack smoke coming from a short walk away? Perhaps he needs to spend less time listening to his staff and use his own eyes?
Just a slight suggestion .... regardless of what voters want or vote for, you may want to consider stopping some of your current projects and spending the money elsewhere than the L.A. River, planting pretty lawn areas and those sorts of things.
My suggestion would be to fire some of your staff and for each one you get rid of hire one more police officer into the L.A.P.D. Give them money to protect themselves better. They are out there fighting a war. In case you think your staff know what they are talking about, here are the homicides for July in my blog post at http://la-economy.blogspot.com/2010/07/busy-july-for-lapd-lot-of-tension-out.html
Maybe your staff is putting a spin on this and putting homicides into a category that reduces the gang incidences?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXRRmf9XYro Turning a broken arm or whatever injury into a photo op? I wonder how much the video folks were paid for this? I wonder how many manhours were spent. I wonder what will help get the picture out of my mind of some of my friends on skid row that are missing an arm?
L.A. cab driver involved in Villaraigosa's bicycle fall didn't break traffic laws, mayor's office says
Is it safe to assume from this story - http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/07/traffic-laws-cab-driver-villaraigosa-bicycle-fall.html - that our Major was not paying attention? I rode motorcycles as my only form of transportation for years and never had an accident on the street. The trick ... ride like everybody is trying to kill you. Same probably applies to bike folks. My other questions come from the statement - Villaraigosa was riding with a member of his security detail ( crack security who also seemed to have a lapse in being aware of the environment) when he hit his brakes suddenly, flipping over his bike. (Somebody give our Mayor a bike riding lesson. Hard front brake is a no no. Then again, some folks just panic under any sort of pressure. The mayor did not make any contact with the taxi. (which is why the driver was not cited for any violation in the first place).
The Lu Parker Project, created by the KTLA news reporter who has been dating the mayor since early last year, is organizing young community volunteers to repaint the lobby at the city’s South Los Angeles Animal Shelter. (I wonder who will supply the paint for this project?)
Nonprofits seen as being associated with politicians and those close to them warrant scrutiny, some government watchdogs say.
The motivation for Parker, a longtime animal advocate, is to beautify the city and help animals and children in the process, according to a press release. Maybe get some people together to do a bit of painting in a place where kids have nothing? I love animals myself but give me a break, there are kids out there in trouble. Priorities?
"As a former high school teacher, I have always believed children crave an outlet to express love and compassion,” she said in a statement. “My dream is to help them find that outlet through Lu Parker Project by introducing them to animals who otherwise would never have a shot at knowing what love feels like.” Former high school teacher? Did she stop being a teacher when she started dating the Mayor? Not important I guess but a question I have in my own mind.
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California ethics agency investigating L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa's acceptance of free tickets
On July 24th there was an open house held at 65 Amps. It was a pretty big hit with the over 60 folks who attended. Many folks asked if an open house could be put on once a month. This is already in the works.
Man does not live by music alone. The group that attended the 65 Amps open house are a diverse group. Many of us share other interests. That got me thinking.
Continuing with the concept of a hot summer in more ways than just temperature I started thinking of putting a slant on things from the viewpoint that you can teach dogs new tricks, even old dogs like me. How about getting groups of folks together for other things during the summer? Sure, we will do the 65 Amps open house thing again ... more than once, but maybe we can do a bit more? 65 Amps open house started the ball rolling so I thought it would be a cool concept to continue - offer the chance to experience new things this summer to other folks.
Experience life. This would be exposing yourself to something that is not a part of most folks everyday life if you have a roof over your head.
Some of you have expressed an interest in coming along with me on my rounds on skid row in the evenings. Some of you have already come along and said was nothing like what you expected. This outing will be held during the day which will give you an experience that will be more comfortable for most folks than a late evening experience. (Side note - there is always an outstanding offer for folks to come along on my night rounds).
This event will be held on August 21 2010 at 10:00am
We will meet in North Hollywood at the Metro Red Line Station at 10:00am. Parking is free. An all day pass is $6.00 but you can also opt to spend $1.50 per one way ticket. We would all ride together in the same way I travel more than half of the nights every week. For many of you this would be a new experience in itself ... public transportation.
North Hollywood
Lankershim Bl/Chandler Bl, North Hollywood 91601
Free On-site Parking – 803 Spaces
We would get off at the Pershing Square Metro station. We would all walk down 5th street, my general route. I would act as your guide. I was a tour guide at one point in Amsterdam in 1970 and in 1966 I was a guide of another kind... but I digress. I know the area we would walk pretty well and there are some great buildings to see and some interesting history.
Pershing Square view of the Biltmore Hotel, U.S. Bank Building and Gas Company Building
We would walk down 5th street into the heart of Skid Row. For his 1980 album Heartattack and Vine, Tom Waits wrote 'On The Nickel' about a section of Fifth street, which in his own words "all the winos affectionately refer to as The Nickel."
Depending on how folks felt, once we got to Wall Street we would have one of two options once we saw the Los Angeles Mission. We could walk down Wall Street and see some of the SRO Hotels that line one side of the street across from the Central Police Station garage. Continue on Wall to 6th Street and then walk down 6th past San Julian Street, past The Midnight Mission and then turn on San Pedro Street to arrive at Union Rescue Mission. Second option would be to walk past the Los Angeles Mission on 5th and then walk down San Julian Street to the back side of Union Rescue Mission. San Julian Street is described as the most dangerous and violent street in the United States by many sources including the LAPD Central Division folks. If you saw the movie "The Soloist", much of it was filmed on this street and the LAMP center is also on this street. We would walk 5th to San Julian, San Julian to 6th, 6th to San Pedro and then go into the front entrance of Union Rescue Mission.
A 2010 documentary titled Lost Angels, by director Thomas Napper, highlights the stories and struggles of individuals on Skid Row. Napper was inspired to bring awareness of mental illness and homelessness on Skid Row the after working on The Soloist. Many of the movie scenes were filmed in the location shown in the above photo.
Above - a row of SRO hotels on Wall Street. These buildings are not what many would expect. They are well maintained and well run places. There are other hotels in various areas that would be a good reason to prefer to sleep on the street in some cases. The group of SRO hotels on Wall Street between 5th and 6th are an exception.
Union Rescue Mission will have a staff member to take us on a tour of the facility at Noon to continue the experience of the day. Hopefully we can tour bottom to top of the facility. The view from the roof is spectacular if you look outward. Do not look downward. Actually, if you want the total experience, look outward at the millions and millions of dollars that make up the skyline only blocks away. So close that we would have walked from there. Then look down and see ground zero.
After our URM tour is over we would walk along San Pedro Street to Little Tokyo and eat at some great spot. From there we would board the gold line for a one stop ride to Union Station, board the red line and head back to North Hollywood.
I can almost guarantee it will be a day you will not forget. I can also guarantee that everybody will learn things they did know before, regardless of their age. I am also somewhat sure that your emotions will get a bit of a workout that they do not get everyday that will run from shock to sadness to compassion to anger to concern for others to concern for yourself to ..... and you will get some nice exercise.
Taste great food - Grand Central Market or back on the red line to Union Station to the gold line to East Los Angeles for King Taco? Or hang in Downtown and hit Phillipe's. Or, if folks want to do something else there are a lot of great places. I know killer Chinese, Vietnamese, Italian.
Yesterday I attended a celebration put on by Union Rescue Mission at their Hope Gardens facility. I toured the facility and learned even more than what I already knew.
Many of you who may be reading this helped raise the $2.8 million dollars which were needed to keep this facility open. Thank you to all of you that helped.
These are shots of the BBQ celebration at Hope Gardens. Union Rescue Mission put on this event at the Hope Gardens facility. If you want to learn more about Hope Gardens or Union Rescue Mission visit their website at http://www.urm.org/
These shots are in raw format. I have not done any editing or cropping as I wanted to get them up in a timely manner.
These shots are mostly of the facility and activities rather than shots of individuals. URM had their own photographer who had better understanding of who may or may not wish to be photographed.
Just click on the arrow in the photo above if you wish to view the slideshow.
If you wish to visit the page where you can see all the photos in sizes of your choice where you can also download or comment on any of them follow this link - http://www.flickr.com/photos/myles111us/sets/72157624629838604/ There are also captions on many of the photos that give a bit of information in some cases.
My condolences to the families and friends of the people below.
I am not asking to open any sort of debate here. Some people may say that some of these folks were doing the wrong thing, involved in criminal activity or talk about their idea of justice. Some may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are many reasons why these things happen.
Sometimes we need to look past the obvious and look at the survivors of some of these people. The family members left behind as just one thought. Some of these cases are revenge. Some are individuals defending themselves on their own property. Some of these deaths will go down in the books as legal actions and others will not be determined as legal.
There may be thoughts of the right to bear arms, self defense, the pro and cons of gun ownership. I am not looking to go down that path with this entry. I am just trying to say that it is unfortunate that the people below are now dead and I feel pretty sure that their loss is painful to some people who are good people. My condolences are to those good people and I wish them comfort. I am not here to judge the reasons these things happen.
July in review. There is a lot of tension out there which is being made worse by current economic problems including the end of unemployment benefits for many people. Be careful out there folks.
Gary Lacey II 19 7/31/10 Inglewood Gunshot
Martin Garcia 43 7/30/10 Palms Blunt force
Andre Mcpherson Jr. 20 7/29/10 Vermont-Slauson Gunshot
Cristina Williams 27 7/29/10 Leimert Park Gunshot
Mary Sternal 90 7/29/10 Marina del Rey Gunshot
Ladona Kelly 41 7/29/10 Vermont Vista Gunshot
Kurt Deutsch Jr. 30 7/28/10 East Los Angeles Gunshot
Shaquana Watson 23 7/27/10 South Park Gunshot
John Lavine 62 7/27/10 Westchester Gunshot
Byron Wilson Sr. 55 7/26/10 Long Beach Stabbing
Sergio Gamboa Padilla 24 7/23/10 Harbor City Gunshot
Julian Romero 25 7/23/10 Historic South-Central Gunshot
Esmeralda Guzman 1 7/22/10 Van Nuys Unspecified
Pedro Santa Cruz 40 7/21/10 Wilmington Gunshot
Trent Kelley 21 7/21/10 Downey Stabbing
Luis De Paz 20 7/20/10 Hyde Park Blunt force
Katsutoshi Takazato 21 7/20/10 Beverly Hills Stabbing
Rudolph Galaz II 42 7/19/10 Commerce Gunshot
Jody Heard 35 7/19/10 Downtown Gunshot
Jorge Villatoro 19 7/19/10 Pico-Union Gunshot
Marc Bayar 50 7/19/10 East Hollywood Gunshot
Gabriel Camaro 43 7/19/10 West Hollywood Gunshot
Roosevelt Brock 25 7/19/10 Long Beach Gunshot
Carl Washington 44 7/18/10 Carson Gunshot
Javier Sanchez 15 7/18/10 Inglewood Gunshot
Hong Nguyen 34 7/17/10 South El Monte Gunshot
Katwonne Stewart 19 7/17/10 Broadway-Manchester Gunshot
Luciano Reyes 35 7/16/10 Pacoima Gunshot
Vicente Chavez 46 7/15/10 Historic South-Central Gunshot
Steve Kelly 42 7/10/10 Watts Gunshot
Javier Rueda 28 7/10/10 Sun Valley Gunshot
Quesi Chavez 10 7/9/10 San Pedro Stabbing
Enjae Rugley 2 7/9/10 Northridge Gunshot
Elden Mignault 19 7/7/10 Watts Gunshot
Samuel James III 28 7/6/10 Vermont Knolls Gunshot
Chad Andrew 22 7/5/10 Vermont Square Gunshot
Raymond Benford 33 7/5/10 Compton Gunshot
Rayvonne Akers 17 7/5/10 Watts Gunshot
William Knight 33 7/5/10 Harbor Gateway Gunshot
Daisy Garcia 14 7/4/10 Pico-Union Gunshot
Henry Sanchez 22 7/4/10 Pacoima Gunshot
Darren Dunning 22 7/3/10 Chesterfield Square Gunshot
Aldwin Ezell 24 7/3/10 Lancaster Gunshot
Dwayne Nichols 37 7/1/10 Willowbrook Gunshot
Maybe It Is Because Millions Of Their Jobs Have Been Lost To Outsourcing And They Aren’t Coming Back.
Above: Here we go again? The past.
Above: Today
As you read this, there are tens of millions of people in China, India and dozens of third world nations who would love to do your job for one-tenth the pay. They are willing to work 12 hours a day. They don't expect a benefits plan or a pension package. They aren't going to waste countless hours chatting on their cell phones or updating their Facebook profiles. All they want is a chance. And increasingly, the big global corporations that dominate the world economy are giving it to them. It is called outsourcing, and if you don't believe that it can happen to your job, you might want to think again. It is not just Americans who are chasing after the American Dream these days. We now live in a global economy with a global workforce and the rules of the game have fundamentally changed.
It doesn't matter if you don't like it.
The truth is that the big global predator corporations that dominate the global landscape don't care about you.
They don't exist to give you a good job.
They don't exist to enable you to pay your mortgage.
They don't exist to put your kids through college.
They don't exist to provide you with a big, cushy pension in your old age.
They exist to make money.
So why should they hire you, when they can hire someone else on the other side of the world for one-tenth the pay?
Why should they hire you, when countries on the other side of the globe will allow them to hire workers in an environment of extremely low taxes and almost no regulations?
Why should they hire you, when a worker in a third world nation is not going to require health insurance, employer contributions to Social Security and unemployment, a benefits package or a pension plan?
The truth is that it is very complicated and it is very expensive to hire an American worker.
Millions upon millions of jobs have already been offshored and outsourced, and tens of millions more are about to be sent out of America. In fact, Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder estimates that 22% to 29% of all current U.S. jobs will be offshorable within two decades.
All of our technological advances have made the world a very small place. In this new global economy, you had better get to know your competition.
So just who are you competing against? Well, in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
Are you willing to work for 86 cents an hour? No? You had better start getting used to the idea.
For decades, the American people voted for politicians from both parties who promised us that "free trade" and "the global economy" would be so good for us. But what they didn't tell us is that our standard of living would inevitably be forced down to the level of all the other workers around the world as labor became a global commodity. So now we reap the bitter harvest of our poor decisions.
For example, Detroit was once the 4th largest city in the United States, and it was a shining example of how U.S. heavy industry was providing millions of jobs for middle class Americans. See Detroit today in one of the above videos.
The millions of jobs that have been offshored and outsourced simply are not ever coming back.
During the really bad 2001 recession, the U.S. economy lost 2% of its jobs and it took four years to get them all back. But this time, the U.S. economy has lost more than 5% of its jobs and there is no sign that the bleeding of jobs is going to stop any time soon.
Yet the top politicians in both parties continue to insist that our trade policies are fine. They have no problem with the fact that we ship millions of jobs overseas and that the lopsided tariff and trade agreements the U.S. government has entered into have caused our trade deficit to balloon to ridiculous proportions.
The truth is that people need to start talking about the high cost of "free" trade. The other video posted above starts a little slowly, but by the end it will have your jaw hitting the floor.
But nobody takes all of this seriously enough. The once great American economic machine is being dismantled in slow motion, and nobody seems to really care. Now NBC is even promoting a new television show called "Outsourced" which makes a big joke out of it.
But the tens of millions of Americans who are currently out of work probably are not going to think it is too funny.
In fact, an increasing number of American people are getting really mad. Why? Well, because they are finding it really difficult to provide for their families.
According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007. But an increasing number of Americans are not even doing that well and have gone flat broke. More than 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which was a 32 percent increase over 2008.
The truth is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at an alarming rate.
The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
1 percent of the pie for 40 percent of the population? How long do you think that is going to last before people start getting really pissed off?
The American people don't need more handouts though - what they need are good jobs. But oops - we shipped all their good jobs to China and India.
The truth is that it doesn't take a genius to figure out why the average time needed to find a job in America has risen to a record 35.2 weeks and continues to rise.
Today there was a story by Stephen Bernard, AP Business Writer, On Thursday July 29, 2010, 5:38 pm EDT. Stocks fall amid uncertainty over the economy was the title. One paragraph stated: There was little to help traders get that clarity Thursday. The Labor Department said initial claims for unemployment benefits dropped by a modest 11,000 to 457,000 last week. That's slightly better than the 459,000 forecast by economists polled by Thomson Reuters, but investors were disappointed because the drop was so small.
In the paragraph in the original story - The Labor Department said initial claims for unemployment benefits dropped by a modest 11,000 to 457,000 last week.... My response is .... DUH .... that does not even begin to count those folks who fell off the list of the unemployed whose benefits ran out in July. July 2010 is the first wave of expired benefits since the accelerated downturn of the the economy in mid 2008. How can I put this in a classy manner... that still makes the point? To our Labor Department ... Fuck You.
There simply are not nearly enough jobs in 2010. Big corporations don't want to hire American workers anymore. In the new globalist system, there are far too many much less expensive options. The new playing field is governed by organizations with initials such as NAFTA, GATT and WTO and in this new game American workers are the big losers. Why in the world should big global corporations hire American workers when they are allowed to hire good workers on the other side of the world for one-tenth the pay and they don't have to give them benefits or a pension either?
I cannot see a light at the end of the tunnel for middle class American workers right now. Each month I see the population on skid row in Los Angeles rise as more families are displaced as they lose their homes.
The video below is the end of July update from Andy Bales, the CEO of Union Rescue Mission. July was a very busy month and a lot of good things were accomplished. If you read between some of the lines in this video you will hear how things are not getting easier in regard to the level of effort and expense needed by URM to continue to provide services. More people than ever before are in trouble and the numbers are increasing.
hey Myles, if the economy's improving, how come foodstamp recepients are setting new records for usage.. every month, it's a new record, and it's been doing that for 18 months now.(I do not have an answer for my friend that wrote the commentary)
It's very weird that 1/8 of our country has to rely on foodstamps.. There is something not right about that.
And next month, it'll be worse..
very weird.
As a side note on food stamps, here is a story from 8/10/10 posted in The Los Angeles Times
USDA urges California to reverse food stamp policy, even though some could lose benefits
August 10, 2010 2:38 pm
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is encouraging California to consider reversing a policy that prevents some of the state’s poorest and most vulnerable residents from applying for food stamps, even though it could cost some current recipients their benefits.
The suggestion, contained in a letter to the California Department of Social Services, has raised concern among some advocates for the poor who were hoping federal authorities would allow the state to open the food stamp program only to those recipients of cash assistance for impoverished elderly and disabled people who would not be adversely affected.
"We really do want to make sure that we protect those households with disabled children and low-income seniors that benefit from the current policy," said George Manalo-LeClair, senior director of legislation for California Food Policy Advocates.
The letter received Friday from the Department of Agriculture said federal law prohibits California from changing the rules for some and not all recipients of Supplemental Security Income.
California is the only state that does not allow its 1.2 million Supplemental Security Income recipients to apply for federal food stamps. When the federal cash assistance program was created in 1974, the state decided to increase its matching grant -- known as the State Supplementary Payment -- by $10 a month in place of administering food stamps for them.
Note from Myles in regard to the above paragraph - California, one more step ahead of the nation :-) Thankfully there are places such as Union Rescue Mission, The Midnight Mission and the other missions downtown. Perhaps California will lead the nation in the first state to have people starve to death if the people that cannot feed themselves and their family are too far from skid row.At the time, many Supplemental Security Income recipients qualified only for the minimum food stamp allotment, then $10. Augmenting cash payments by that amount helped the state reduce its administration costs and relieved elderly and disabled people from having to apply for food stamps.
However, a recent increase in food stamp benefits along with cuts to California’s cash assistance grants have raised concern that some Supplemental Security Income recipients are being short-changed by the policy.
According to state officials, Supplemental Security Income recipients who live alone or with another recipient would now be eligible for more benefits if allowed to apply for food stamps. But officials caution there would also be losers if the state reverses the policy, known as the food stamp cash-out.
Currently, households that include members who are not receiving Supplemental Security Income may apply for food stamps without the aid recipient's income counting against the rest of the family's eligibility or benefit levels. If California allows Supplemental Security Income recipients to apply for food stamps, it could reduce or eliminate their household benefits.
John Wagner, director of the California Department of Social Services, wrote to the Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service in April to ask whether the federal government would allow California to open the food stamp program only to households that depend solely on Supplemental Security Income.
"While FNS is unable to grant your request to partially end cash-out, I encourage you to consider the idea of ending cash-out completely" USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon responded last week.
Citing a February study by the independent Mathematica Policy Research organization, Concannon said opening the food stamp program to all Supplemental Security Income recipients "would have a lesser impact on mixed households than in prior years."
When Mathematica estimated the effects in 2002, it found that changing the policy would add more than 52,000 households to California's food stamp rolls but reduce the total amount of benefits received by 12%. Under current circumstances, an estimated 54,000 households would be added to the rolls and benefits would drop 1%. Participation in the program would be higher if newly eligible households were automatically enrolled, the studies noted.
Jean Daniel, a USDA spokeswoman, said it was up to California to decide how it wants to proceed.
Lizelda Lopez, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Social Services, said state officials remain concerned about the 99,000 households they estimate would lose some or all of their benefits and would have to consider the options.
Posted Jul 15, 2010 02:25pm EDT by Michael Snyder in Recession
The 22 statistics detailed here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.
So why are we witnessing such fundamental changes? Well, the globalism and "free trade" that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects. It turns out that they didn't tell us that the "global economy" would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations. The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor pools over the last several decades, but middle class American workers have increasingly found things to be very tough.
Here are the statistics to prove it:
• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.
Giant Sucking Sound
The reality is that no matter how smart, how strong, how educated or how hard working American workers are, they just cannot compete with people who are desperate to put in 10 to 12 hour days at less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the world. After all, what corporation in their right mind is going to pay an American worker 10 times more (plus benefits) to do the same job? The world is fundamentally changing. Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the big global corporations are making massive amounts of money. Meanwhile, the American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new "global" labor pool.
What do most Americans have to offer in the marketplace other than their labor? Not much. The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job. But today, U.S. workers are "less attractive" than ever. Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States.
So corporations are moving operations out of the U.S. at breathtaking speed. Since the U.S. government does not penalize them for doing so, there really is no incentive for them to stay.
What has developed is a situation where the people at the top are doing quite well, while most Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to make it. There are now about six unemployed Americans for every new job opening in the United States, and the number of "chronically unemployed" is absolutely soaring. There simply are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.
Many of those who are able to get jobs are finding that they are making less money than they used to. In fact, an increasingly large percentage of Americans are working at low wage retail and service jobs.
But you can't raise a family on what you make flipping burgers at McDonald's or on what you bring in from greeting customers down at the local Wal-Mart.
The truth is that the middle class in America is dying -- and once it is gone it will be incredibly difficult to rebuild.
I spent my morning at Union Rescue Mission hanging a bit with Alexander Cornejo and some of his staff. Alex is the manager the volunteer program. Great guy.
Each time I walk into URM I find that my surprise at how much they do and what goes on every day is something I seem not to get used to and the impression does not diminish with time.
I have written about some of the things they do. I cannot begin to cover it all. If you click on the title of this post you will be directed to the URM website where there is a lot of great information.
I digress. Back to the point here.
In late May of 2010 it looked as if Hope Gardens was going to be shut down. Many people stepped up and helped. There were a number of tools put into place so people could help this critical effort. One of these tools was a text number where each text would generate $10. I am trying to see if this number is still in place. If it is that is great. If it is not there are other ways to help. There is a page on the URM website where one can donate at https://secure3.convio.net/urm/site/Donation2?df_id=1300&1300.donation=form1
You can also donate by phone or mail:
Donate by Phone:
(from land lines): 1-888-77-THE-WAY-HOME (toll free) or 213-673-4876
(from cell phones): 888-778-4392 or 213-673-4876
Donate by mail:
Union Rescue Mission
Internet Donations
545 S San Pedro St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
I started thinking about the $10 text donation application that was active during the Hope Gardens crisis. I thought to myself that many folks might have no concept of what $10 can do in the hands of the folks at URM. I will supply a few pieces of information.
Over the course of one year Union Rescue Mission provides a million meals to people.
UPDATE as of 7/27/10: URM gave me some updated figures that take into account all the expenses associated with serving a meal rather than just the food cost. The current cost per meal is $1.84.
The meals are healthy, multi course, balanced meals. It is pretty darn good stuff. I have eaten a number of meals there myself and I will refrain from too much commentary in regard to eating better at Union Rescue Mission than I ate in most of my marriages.
The staff, including the executive URM staff eat the same food as served to the folks who come to the mission.
Meals served 365 days per week, three meals per day.
The cost of the food is offset by donations of food items in many cases. Buying in bulk reduces cost as well and terrific fund management makes a huge difference as well.
Fund management? Recently the news has been reporting that the earthquake victims in Haiti have seen nothing change. Their lives are in shambles. The money is not getting to the people. The government reports that they do not want to supply food because the vendors that sell food will have no business. Those vendors are also out of work because the starving people have no money to spend on food. Corrupt mismanagement of funds. Big organizations like the Red Cross are powerless to make much of a difference.
Back to URM. They stetch a dollar farther than one can comprehend. Their doors are open to the public and they are more than happy to take folks around the facility. No hidden places, no hidden doors, no hidden agenda. You can watch where the money is going at any given moment.
If you want to help in moments with no complications consider this:
To donate $10 to Union Rescue Mission, text the letters URM to 85944. You will receive a confirmation text message. Reply with the word YES to complete the transaction.
I guess I could talk about things like the water walks where the URM folks take to the street when it is over 85 degrees and pass out water bottles. Medical, dental, legal services. Educational services. Life transformation services. Hope Gardens, winter shelters and the list goes on and on.
You can make a difference.
Andy Bales on the roof of Union Rescue Mission. No ... it is not steak all the time but this might show that there is diversity in the meals. Andy is also known for his killer chili as a sidenote. Thank you Don Garza for this photo and others below.
Thanks again Don Garza for the photo.
Don Garza does more than just take photos. Here he is in the center of the folks in the photo on the BBQ as Andy takes a break.
Andy Bales getting ready to head out on water walk.
Your contributions and donations will always help in many ways.
The original story can be seen by clicking on the title of this post. I may highlight on some items in the story I copied below.
After Job Training, Still Scrambling for a Job
In what was beginning to feel like a previous life, Israel Valle had earned $18 an hour as an executive assistant to a designer at a prominent fashion label. Now, he was jobless and struggling to find work. He decided to invest in upgrading his skills.
It was February 2009, and the city work force center in Downtown Brooklyn was jammed with hundreds of people hungry for paychecks. His caseworker urged him to take advantage of classes financed by the federal government, which had increased money for job training. Upgrade your skills, she counseled. Then she could arrange job interviews.
For six weeks, Mr. Valle, 49, absorbed instruction in spreadsheets and word processing. He tinkered with his résumé. But the interviews his caseworker eventually arranged were for low-wage jobs, and they were mobbed by desperate applicants. More than a year later, Mr. Valle remains among the record 6.8 million Americans who have been officially jobless for six months or longer. He recently applied for welfare benefits.
“Training was fruitless,” he said. “I’m not seeing the benefits. Training for what? No one’s hiring.”
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have enrolled in federally financed training programs in recent years, only to remain out of work. That has intensified skepticism about training as a cure for unemployment.
Even before the recession created the bleakest job market in more than a quarter-century, job training was already producing disappointing results. A study conducted for the Labor Department tracking the experience of 160,000 laid-off workers in 12 states from mid-2003 to mid-2005 — a time of economic expansion — found that those who went through training wound up earning little more than those who did not, even three and four years later. “Over all, it appears possible that ultimate gains from participation are small or nonexistent,” the study concluded.
In the last 18 months, the Obama administration has embraced more promising approaches to training focused on faster-growing areas like renewable energy and health care. But most money has been directed at the same sorts of programs that in past years have largely failed to steer laid-off workers toward new careers, say experts, and now the number of job openings is vastly outnumbered by people out of work.
“It’s such an ugly situation that job training can’t solve it,” said Ross Eisenbrey, a job training expert at the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented research institution in Washington, and a former commissioner of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. “When you have five people unemployed for every vacancy, you can train all the people you want and unfortunately only one-fifth of the people will get hired. Training doesn’t create jobs.”
Labor economists and work force development experts say the frustration that frequently results from job training reflects the dubious quality of many programs. Most last only a few months, providing general skills without conferring useful credentials in specialized fields. Programs rarely involve potential employers and are typically too modest to enable cast-off workers to begin new careers.
Most job training is financed through the federal Workforce Investment Act, which was written in 1998 — a time when hiring was extraordinarily robust. Then, simply teaching jobless people how to use computers and write résumés put them on a path to paychecks. Today, even highly skilled people with job experience of two decades or more languish among the unemployed. Whole industries are being scaled down by automation, the shifting of work overseas and the recession.
“A lot of the training programs that we have in this country were designed for a kind of quick turnaround economy, as opposed to the entrenched structural challenges of today,” said Carl E. Van Horn, a labor economist and director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. “It’s like attacking a mountain with a toothpick. You take a policy that was designed for the best economy that we had since World War II and you lay it up against the economy that is the worst since World War II. It can’t work.”
Claiming Successes
The Obama administration argues that expanded job training has already delivered success. As part of the nearly $800 billion stimulus package begun last year, the administration increased grants sent to states for training programs devoted to laid-off workers by $1.4 billion for 2009 and 2010. Those funds came on top of $2.9 billion allocated through normal budget channels for grants in those two years.
Last year, the number of laid-off workers in job training reached 241,000, up from about 124,000 the year before, according to the Labor Department.
“These programs are really working,” said the assistant secretary of labor, Jane Oates. “These are folks who clearly want to go back to work and we’re able to help them get back to work. The investment in job training is one that’s not only going to pay off in the short term, it’s going to help us be more competitive in the long term.”
According to the Labor Department, 85 percent of laid-off workers who received training in 2007 and 2008 gained jobs within a year of completion. But the department does not track what percentage of them gained jobs in their fields of study and so far lacks any data for 2009, the first year of the Obama administration’s expansion.
Experts harbor doubts about the reliability of Labor Department numbers, which are derived from reports by state agencies that collect data from community colleges and employment offices whose training funds are dependent upon reaching benchmarks. Twice the Labor Department had to correct the data it supplied for this article.
“The states play all sorts of games,” said Mr. Eisenbrey, from the Economic Policy Institute.
Signs of Progress
But those who oversee job training say results have improved significantly in recent years.
“We’ve come a long way,” said Robert W. Walsh, commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services, which oversees the Workforce1 career centers, including the Brooklyn office where Mr. Valle enrolled. “We’re now focused on where the jobs are and the track records of the providers.”
Those factors are crucial, say advocates for expanded training, who point out that even with near double-digit unemployment, some jobs lie vacant, awaiting workers with adequate skills.
“There’s plenty of jobs in health care, in technology,” said Fred Dedrick, executive director of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, which advocates for increased and improved job training. “Once people move up, that creates opportunities for other workers.”
There is some evidence that this approach works. Two years after completing programs tied directly to the needs of local industries suffering shortages of skilled workers in the South Bronx, Boston and Milwaukee, graduates were earning 29 percent more than similar workers who did not receive training, according to a new survey from Public/Private Ventures, a nonprofit group that advocates for expanded job training.
A widely admired program begun in Michigan in 2007, No Worker Left Behind, provides up to $10,000 over two years for laid-off and underemployed workers who pursue certificates and degrees in areas of significant growth. The program has trained technicians to work on major energy storage projects and aircraft mechanics to service engines at commercial operations that have taken over former Air Force bases.
“We need to know that we’re training people in an in-demand growth area today,” said Andrew S. Levin, who oversees the Michigan program.
But forecasting where jobs will be can be tricky. Among those completing training by the end of 2009, 41 percent were still looking for work as of June, according to Michigan data.
Nationally, prospective trainees are often steered into programs by counselors at community colleges and employment centers who lack awareness about which industries are hiring.
In the suburbs of Philadelphia, Eric Nelson left a job at a credit union call center in late 2004 to enroll at a state college. There, the career services department helped him choose a course of study by consulting job growth projections. The result led to geographic information systems — the mapping of data by place.
“It seemed like the thing to do,” Mr. Nelson recalled, adding that he was assured he would easily land an entry-level job paying $35,000 a year.
But when Mr. Nelson, 42, graduated with his bachelor’s degree in May 2008, facing nearly $50,000 in student loan debt, he was horrified to discover that graduates greatly outnumbered jobs. Only people with six or seven years’ experience were getting hired, he said.
“I’ve had no offers at all,” he said.
He is now living off his wife’s wages as a librarian and contributions from his parents. Even programs with successful track records tend to be focused on people who are easier to employ — those with substantial skills and experience.
In late 2007, in the Minneapolis suburbs, Hennepin Technical College joined with local employers to help workers laid off from area factories secure new jobs.
More Skills, Better Luck
The Minneapolis-St. Paul area exemplifies how unemployment reflects not only a shortage of jobs but also a mismatch between jobs and skills. A half-century ago, mainframe computers were assembled in the area, before the business shifted to Silicon Valley. But large-scale manufacturing remains, particularly in one fast-growing industry whose jobs seem unlikely to be shifted overseas: medical devices.
“Nobody wants a pacemaker stamped, ‘Made in China,’ ” said Richard P. Kelly, who oversees Hennepin Tech’s manufacturing quality training programs.
The new program, WorkFast, aimed to quickly prepare laid-off workers for new jobs in medical devices and other growing areas of manufacturing, via intense training units lasting eight to 15 weeks. Many focus on so-called Swiss machining, which uses computerized equipment to slice metal into highly precise parts for the aerospace and medical device industries.
Since the program began, some 80 percent of its roughly 250 graduates have secured jobs, according to Hennepin Tech — among them David Gustafson, a wiry man of 49 who started working for his father’s asphalt business as a teenager.
In 1994, he got a job at a plant that made parts for medical device companies, running an early version of Swiss machining. He worked his way up to $18 an hour. In 2000, he and his wife at the time bought a home on an acre of land for their two boys.
But in the summer of 2008, Mr. Gustafson was laid off. A year later, his search for work had yielded little besides a lesson in the deficiencies of his résumé: He could not program the computers that govern Swiss machines, a deal-breaker for potential employers.
Living on a $299-a-week unemployment check in place of his $697 paycheck, he ran up credit card balances exceeding $13,000. He sold his great-grandfather’s carpentry tools and his grandfather’s wedding band. Bickering consumed his marriage, which soon broke.
“I was totally depressed,” he said. “I looked at every penny, and my wife was feeling really fed up with it. She’d say, ‘Every once in a while, let’s just go to the movies and forget about life for a while.’ And I’d say, ‘No, because the cost of that movie could feed us for three days.’ I said no to everything. I’m screaming ‘Turn the lights off,’ and ‘The heat doesn’t need to be that high.’ ”
Mr. Gustafson registered for the WorkFast program and added the mere fact of his enrollment to his résumé. In February, just as he was drawing his final unemployment check, he got a job from a Swiss machine shop for $19 an hour, with one requirement: He had to complete his training.
Through the spring, he worked at the plant from 5 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. Two nights a week, he attended class at Hennepin Tech.
“Just as soon as I could say, ‘Yes, I can program,’ I got a job,” Mr. Gustafson said. “I feel real secure.”
Mr. Gustafson had more than a decade of experience on the same machines he then trained to master. How easily can that success be replicated for lesser-skilled people?
The literature is not encouraging.
A 2006 study prepared for the Labor Department found virtually no benefit for 8,000 randomly selected recipients who entered federally financed training programs in 2001 and 2002.
In the year before their training, these people earned about $20,000 a year on average, according to the study. During the 15 months after their training, roughly 80 percent of these people were employed at some point, but their earnings in that period averaged about $16,000.
The 2008 study found that women were far more likely to benefit from training than men — cold comfort given that this recession has hit male-dominated industries like construction particularly hard.
Among those unemployed for six months or longer at the end of May, nearly 60 percent were men, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly 39 percent were in their mid-40s or older — another challenge to training programs whose results have generally been better among younger people. Nearly three of four had no degree beyond high school.
Bernard Pelzer, 56, has been jobless since the summer of 2009, when he was laid off from his position as a maintenance worker at a Manhattan office building. Since then, he has subsisted on a $260-a-week unemployment check.
Chasing Elusive Work
An African-American man who never completed high school, Mr. Pelzer has suffered a steady erosion of working opportunities. Through the 1970s and 1980s, he earned as much as $12 an hour as a handyman and security guard, enough to rent spacious apartments.
“You could pay your rent and take care of your family,” he said.
But in recent years, he has earned less than he did a quarter-century ago, even as the cost of living has climbed.
Now, with no paycheck, the bills are beyond him — even in a cramped apartment in East New York. He and his wife recently canceled cable television, their lone source of entertainment.
Last fall, Mr. Pelzer enrolled in a federally financed training course to become a certified building technician, following the guidance of a caseworker at a city-run work force center.
“I thought, ‘This is great,’ ” he recalled. “There are certain things you intend to achieve, but you run into blockages. Now, the blockages were going to be removed.”
But as Mr. Pelzer slogged through the muggy streets of Brooklyn last week in a brown dress shirt, carrying his résumé in a laminated sleeve, his training was beginning to feel irrelevant. Despite applying for more than a dozen jobs over the last month, he had yet to gain an interview.
“It’s very bad,” he said. “I haven’t gotten any response.”
Among those who have this year completed training arranged by New York City’s Workforce1 centers, half have found employment, according to the city.
But not Mr. Valle. As his 50th birthday approaches, he is living with his parents, unable to pay rent on an unemployment check.
Warm and effusive, Mr. Valle grew up in East Harlem, the son of Puerto Rican parents whose trajectory testifies to the potential of job training: His father sold hot dogs before parlaying classes in air conditioning and electrical repair into a career as a maintenance worker. By the 1980s, he was earning $45,000 a year.
Mr. Valle’s modern-day training has produced only frustration.
After he completed classes, the first interview his caseworker arranged was at a Family Dollar store in Brooklyn. It paid $11 an hour. Still, he figured he was in no position to be choosy, so he went, assuming he was the only one being dispatched to the interview. When he got there, nearly 50 people were waiting in a stifling warehouse. Some had been there for more than two hours. Some wore pinstripe suits, relics of short-circuited jobs at banks and insurance offices.
He waited an hour, standing because the crowd vastly exceeded the available chairs; because the applicants vastly exceeded the lone job being offered — an equation not altered by his upgraded proficiency in Microsoft Word.
“It was crazy,” he said. “I got so fed up that I walked out.”
The New Poor: Articles in this series are examining the struggle to recover from the widespread strains of the Great Recession.
The shot above I took in 2010 outside of The Midnight Mission in Downtown Los Angeles where people were waiting in line for lunch. The line wrapped around the building and down the next street. I don't see much difference between then and now.
I started this blog on December 13, 2009 to raise awareness on the homeless situation which is growing due to the current economic situation in this country. Two priorities at this period in my life are helping the homeless on the streets of Los Angeles and helping musicians sound better one amp at a time.
It is said that a picture is speaks a thousand words. Here are over three thousand random photos in a slide show. This is what I do, who I know, where I go.
An emotionally draining slideshow which mixes art, whimsy, low production values, a general lack of composition, sexual tension, nausea and the feeling of foolishness you have if you can watch the entire show from beginning to end.
What could be better than an album of nothing but low resolution shots taken with my cellphone (and a few from friends cellphones as well) ... and then, take these low resolution photos and upload them in real time to facebook where the quality and size is reduced even more?
Why I do what I do
To the folks who ask why I do what I do.
For many decades I worked in the corporate sector for very large companies. I worked many hours each week.
On some occasions I actually felt as if I made a change in a life. I could help somebody in their career. I could teach somebody something technical. Those sorts of things.
40-60 hours a week or more was generally not all that rewarding other than the friends I made along the way and the occasional change as I was able to make a difference.
I worked hard to make changes in my own life as most of us do. I made money to buy a house, raise a family. Family and friends are one side of our lives. The outside world is another.
I now have two main "jobs" each day. One is to help guitarists sound better, one amp at a time. I help folks in the music business and pass on what I have learned over decades walking this planet. I also try to help other people who are building their own career. That is one of the joys of being my age. You can help those on their path of building their own lives.
My second "job" is helping the homeless on the streets on Los Angeles. Five or ten hours on the street each week helping people makes more of a direct impact on more people than a month of work in my old life. Whether I feed people a snack, listen to what they have to say, give them a card from http://www.urm.org/ or walk them down to Union Rescue Mission I feel I am making life a little better for somebody.
In order to do something good one generally has to do something as in perform some sort of action. Los Angeles has the highest homeless population in the nation. Perhaps I feel as if I needed to do something.
Union Rescue Mission - What they do.
I talk a lot about Union Rescue Mission on this blog. I also talk a lot about them on facebook. I talk about them on my GAB website.
Many of my friends have become friends with Union Rescue Mission and members of their staff. I am sure many of you feel the same way I do about what they do and are a little bit better for knowing them. videos you may learn a bit more about the work these folks do.
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