Author Archives: WoodrowMcCart

Donald Trump Can’t Fix Offshoring, But He’s Got Bigger Problems Anyway

Mother Jones

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Steven Pearlstein suggests that Donald Trump’s deal with Carrier is part of a larger strategy aimed at changing norms of behavior:

There was a time in America when there was an unwritten pact in the business world — workers were loyal to their companies and successful companies returned that loyalty….Then came the 1980s, and all that began to change as American industry began to falter because of foreign competition….So the social norm changed….Although the public never much liked the idea of closing plants and shipping jobs overseas, it no longer was socially unacceptable.

Now comes Donald Trump — in the public mind, a successful businessman — who as the new president, suddenly declares that the new norm is not longer acceptable, and he intends to do whatever he can to shame and punish companies that abandon their workers….He knows that he and his new commerce secretary will have to engage in a few more bouts of well-publicized arm twisting before the message finally sinks in in the C-Suite. He may even have to make an example of a runaway company by sending in the tax auditors or the OSHA inspectors or cancelling a big government contract. It won’t matter that, two years later, these highly publicized retaliations are thrown out by a federal judge somewhere. Most companies won’t want to risk such threats to their “brands.” They will find a way to conform to the new norm, somewhat comforted by the fact that their American competitors have been forced to do the same.

I mostly disagree with this. I think the “norm” Pearlstein is talking about here is actually just ordinary economic reality. During the postwar economic boom, American companies didn’t need to offshore jobs, so they didn’t. Nor did they need to lay off workers or downsize their companies frequently. America was the most efficient manufacturer around, and there was plenty of money sloshing around for everybody. So why invite trouble?

When the postwar boom came to an end, businesses changed. We learned that what we thought had been a permanent new norm, was no such thing. It was just a temporary, three-decade blip. Starting in the 80s, as economic growth leveled off, the business community returned to operating the same way businesses had operated ever since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

I suspect Pearlstein is right about what Trump is trying to do. He’ll engage in some naming and shaming, and on a few occasions he’ll try to set an example by going after companies in semi-legal or outright illegal ways. It might even work a little bit, and it will almost certainly work in a PR sense. But more generally, Trump can’t keep the tide from coming in any more than any other president. It’s not as if the offshoring phenomenon is peculiar to America, after all.

The good news, such as it is, revolves around automation. Within a decade or so, most manufacturing work will be so highly automated that it won’t matter much where it’s made. We’re already starting to see signs of this. That will put an end to large-scale offshoring, but unfortunately, it will be even worse for blue-collar workers. We’re on the cusp of an era when tens of millions of workers will be put out of jobs by automation, and we’d better figure out what we’re going to do about that. But one thing is certain: whatever the answer is, it’s not naming and shaming.

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Donald Trump Can’t Fix Offshoring, But He’s Got Bigger Problems Anyway

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Venezuela sends country on forced vacation after hydroelectric power dries up

Venezuela sends country on forced vacation after hydroelectric power dries up

By on 16 Mar 2016commentsShare

This story was originally published by Fusion and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Venezuela is ordering businesses, factories, government buildings, and offices to shut down for an entire week as an extreme energy-saving measure in an oil-rich country that’s running out of power.

The forced shutdown, which begins next Monday, was announced by President Nicolas Maduro during an “anti-imperialist” rally. Initially, it was ordered for government offices and schools, but on Tuesday it was expanded to most of the private sector.

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Next Thursday and Friday are already national holidays for Easter, but the government’s measure will extend the holiday for a full week — something that many in the business community object to.

“We are talking to our lawyers to see if this applies to us, too,” said Clariana Boccardo, the owner of a bakery in southeastern Caracas. “But it would be very damaging for us, because if those days count as holidays, we’d also have to pay our workers 150 percent more.”

Maduro said the work stop will save the country up to 40 percent in electricity output for the week. The South American nation depends mostly on hydroelectric power, and the government says that dry weather conditions caused by El Niño have seriously affected the nation’s ability to generate its own electricity.

But enjoying the extended holiday might not be so easy. On Margarita Island, one of Venezuela’s more popular vacation spots, hotels have been complaining for weeks that they aren’t getting enough water to operate properly.

One tourist last week posted a picture of a guest at the Lake Plaza Hotel taking water from the swimming pool into his room, because there wasn’t any water in the toilet. “We were there for three days, and there was no [running] water,” said Ruth Segovia, the tourist who posted the photo on Twitter. “We were a group of eight people so we had to do something to keep the bathrooms clean.”

The hotel has since reestablished running water, Segovia said. “But they’ve had to shut down the pool, because there are no means of keeping it clean.”

Opponents of the Maduro administration are blaming the government, not Mother Nature, for this mess. According to them, the Maduro administration has mismanaged both the power grid and local aqueducts, and failed to make key investments to keep utilities running properly in Venezuela.

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Venezuela sends country on forced vacation after hydroelectric power dries up

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Oh Snap. The Feds Are Reportedly After Sepp Blatter.

Mother Jones

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The New York Times reports that authorities are confirming to them that Sepp Blatter is indeed the subject of a federal corruption investigation:

Mr. Blatter had for days tried to distance himself from the controversy, but several United States officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that in their efforts to build a case against Mr. Blatter they were hoping to win the cooperation of some of the FIFA officials now under indictment and work their way up the organization.

No one could have predicted.

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Oh Snap. The Feds Are Reportedly After Sepp Blatter.

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Most Americans are clueless about how climate change will affect their health

Most Americans are clueless about how climate change will affect their health

By on 16 Dec 2014commentsShare

Americans aren’t thinking much about the effects climate change will have on their health, a new Yale study finds. But at least the White House is starting to.

Back in October, the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication surveyed 1,275 Americans about their views on global warming. Yesterday, the organization announced that very few of those they spoke to — only 3 in 10 — had thought a “moderate amount” or a “great deal” about how climate change will impact health. Most hadn’t considered the matter. Less than a fifth of all Americans could come up with a way in which climate change is affecting health, or could name which groups would be most vulnerable. (Of course, according to separate Yale survey, 19 percent of Americans don’t accept that climate change is happening at all.)

Even many respondents who recognized that climate change poses health threats didn’t understand which threats were likely to affect American communities in the next 10 years. For example:

Allergies? Correct answer: yes. Percent who said yes: 38%
Asthma? Correct answer: yes. Percent who said yes: 37%
Heat stroke? Correct answer: yes. Percent who said yes: 36%
The flu? Correct answer: no. Percent who said yes: 29%
Depression? Correct answer: yes. Percent who said yes: 26%
Ebola? Correct answer: no. Percent who said yes: 22%

Once the survey got them thinking about global warming and health, half of respondents said agencies like the CDC, FEMA, and NIH should be doing more to prepare for climate change … though only a third wanted to increase agencies’ funding to enable them to do so.

While these results are disappointing, they aren’t necessarily surprising: Climate change generally ranks among the least concerning issues for Americans, and its health effects, future and present, don’t get much play in the media.

But even if most Americans aren’t thinking about climate change, the Obama administration is trying to make sure that healthcare providers are. As part of its Climate Action Plan, the administration released a “climate resiliency guide” for the healthcare sector yesterday, detailing best practices. It makes a range of suggestions, from rebuilding hospitals to prepare for severe weather — making sure that backup electricity, water, and heat are available on-site — to having healthcare workers coordinate with urban planners on transportation to make sure that doctors and others can get to work during an emergency. Representatives of major healthcare organizations visited the White House yesterday to endorse the report and pledge to put its recommendations into practice.

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Most Americans are clueless about how climate change will affect their health

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