A writer must “know and have an ever-present consciousness that this world is a world of fools and rogues… tormented with envy, consumed with vanity; selfish, false, cruel, cursed with illusions… He should free himself of all doctrines, theories, etiquettes, politics…” —Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?). “The nobility of the writer's occupation lies in resisting oppression, thus in accepting isolation” —Albert Camus (1913-1960). “What are you gonna do” —Bertha Brown (1895-1987).
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Sunday, December 31, 2017
Aux lecteurs en France ces 10 derniers jours, merci pour les 14,677 pages vues!
To the readers in France these past 10 days, thank you for the 14,677 page views!
Total Page Views Outside of America: 251,835
Total Page Views from America: 1,064,548
Total Page Views: 1,316,383
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Let’s compare Churchill to Trump, since it’s become a popular internet meme (by Richard Angelo Sasso)
“As a young man, Churchill actually fought in
wars on the frontline, especially in South Africa. He risked his life on a
daily basis in the Boer Wars. (Let’s leave aside the actual moral dimensions of
that conflict for the time being.) He could have easily avoided frontline
service, given his family connections. But he fought for his nation. He risked
his own physical life.
“Trump took five deferments so he would not go to Vietnam, including some for bone spurs. His so-called bone spurs have not inhibited his endless golf playing ever since.
“While he was out of power, Churchill
desperately warned his country about the Nazi threat.
“Out of power, Trump whined about Obama’s
birth certificate. Most recently, he told our country that there were some ‘fine people’ among
the Neo-Nazi marchers in Charlottesville.
“Churchill switched political parties a few
times in his life and was never completely trusted by the Tories or by Labor. However, when his time came to become Prime Minister, he worked across political boundaries
to form national governments when the nation faced a crisis that held through the
war.
“Trump has been relentlessly partisan and has
managed to create division within his own party and nation as a whole.
“Churchill led his people through their
darkest days. For over a year, he and Britain stood alone against the
Fascist-conquered Europe and when England withstood vicious Nazi bombing
of civilian centers. He told his people all he could offer was, ‘blood, toil,
tears and sweat.’ He gave the British people courage when they faced danger.
“Trump exaggerates the fear of our enemies
where there is little risk and exploits tragedies to manipulate fear to advance
his political agenda. He said he would 'Make America Great Again' - not by asking
for sacrifice and cooperation - but by scapegoating immigrants and refugees in
the face of one of the worse refugee crisis of our time, and by coddling billionaires
and millionaires with tax cuts.
“Churchill wrote and spoke with brilliance and eloquence. He was said to have deployed the English-language and sent it
into battle. After the war was over, he produced a brilliant six-volume
history of WWII. He understood the fine art of diplomacy’s nuances. He was
awarded a Noble Prize for literature as much for his written work as for the
totality of his achievement during humanity’s most challenging times. He faced
his critics in parliament and answered them face-to-face articulately and
clearly. And when the press hounded him, he accepted it as the price of
democratic leadership.
“Trump basically has a ghost-written piece of
trash to his credit and string of insulting 140 letter tweets to his critics.
“Churchill often struggled financially to make
ends meet. Trump’s greed and bankruptcies are legendary.
“Churchill had one wife whom he loved dearly.
Trump has had multiple wives and clearly multiple affairs.
“When he was voted out of office at the end of
the war, Churchill left graciously and served his party humbly.
“Let’s hope Trump can at least do that…”
Saturday, December 23, 2017
"The traditional pension seems destined to be an artifact of U.S. labor history"-The Washington Post
“…The notion of
pensions — and the idea that companies should set aside money for retirees —
didn’t last long. They really caught on in the mid-20th century, but
today, except among government employers, the traditional
pension seems destined to be an artifact of U.S. labor history.
“The first ones offered by a private company were those handed out
by American Express, back when it was a stagecoach delivery service. That was
in 1875. The idea didn’t exactly spread like wildfire, but under union pressure
in the middle of the last century, many companies adopted a plan.
“By the 1980s, the trend had profoundly reshaped retirement for
Americans, with a large majority of full-time workers at medium and large
companies getting traditional pension coverage, according to Bureau of Labor
Statistics data.
“Then corporate America changed: Union membership waned. Executive
boards, under pressure from financial raiders, focused more intently on
maximizing stock prices. And Americans lived longer, making a pension much more
expensive to provide.
“In 1950, a 65-year-old man could be expected to reach age 78, on
average. Today, that 65-year-old is expected to live beyond 84. The extended
life expectancy means pension plans must pay out substantially longer than they
once did.
“Exactly
what led corporate America away from pensions is a matter of debate among
scholars, but there is little question that they seem destined for extinction,
at least in the private sector.
“Even
as late as the early 1990s, about 60 percent of full-time workers at medium and
large companies had pension coverage, according to the government figures. But today
only about 24 percent of workers at midsize and large companies have pension
coverage, according to the data, and that number is expected to continue to
fall as older workers exit the workforce.
“In place of pensions, companies and investment advisers urge
employees to open retirement accounts. The basic idea is workers will manage
their own retirement funds, sometimes with a little help from their employers,
sometimes not.
“Once they reach retirement age, those accounts are supposed to
supplement whatever Social Security might pay. (Today, Social Security provides
only enough for a bare-bones budget, about $14,000 a year on average.)
“The
trouble with expecting workers to save on their own is that almost half of U.S.
families have no such retirement account, according to the Fed’s 2016 Survey of
Consumer Finances.
“Of
those who do have retirement accounts, moreover, their savings are far too
scant to support a typical retirement. The median account, among workers at the
median income level, is about $25,000…”
From “I
hope I can quit working in a few years”: A preview of the U.S. without pensions by
Peter Whoriskey
Commentary:
What Defined-Benefit
Pension Plans Contribute to a State's Economy:
·Defined-benefit pension plans have an economic impact of
several hundred billion dollars each year and support several million American
workers in their jobs; they contribute over a hundred billion dollars to annual
local, state, and federal revenue, while reducing government expenditures; they
also provide capital to the financial markets, and they deliver the same level
of retirement income as an individual 401(k) type savings account at half the
cost as a result of their professional asset management and better long-term
investment strategies, particularly during challenging economic times(The
National Institute on Retirement Security, NIRS).
·Defined-benefit pension plans are associated with far fewer
American households that experience food privation, shelter adversity, and
health care hardship and provide a bastion of hope and financial stability for
millions of people in this country (NIRS). Instead of
attempting to eliminate defined-benefit pension plans, they should be advocated
by everyone.
·It is also true that state-funded pension plans are less
expensive for Illinois taxpayers than Social Security and that Illinois
taxpayers save hundreds of millions of dollars per year by not paying Social
Security payroll taxes for 78% of all active employees in the
five-State-managed plans.
·Defined-benefit pension plans have an economic impact of over $4
billion in the State of Illinois; their effect on Gross Domestic Product
creates $2.38 billion; jobs created as a result of their existence:
30,448 (TRS, 2012).
·Defined-benefit pension plans contribute over $100 billion to
annual local, state, and federal revenue in the U.S. and provide capital to
financial markets (NIRS, 2012).
A tous mes lecteurs français cette semaine: merci!
Au cours des 30 derniers jours, plus de personnes en France ont lu mon blog qu'aux États-Unis.
In the past 30 days, more people in France have read my blog than in the United States.
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America: Alzheimer’s Caregivers Still Need Help from Washington to Sustain their Crucial Role
“Preserving Medical Expense Tax Deduction Important Step, Approval
of RAISE Act Needed Next:
“NEW YORK (December 21, 2017) — In the
wake of sweeping changes to the nation’s tax code, Alzheimer’s Foundation of
America (AFA) President and CEO Charles Fuschillo is urging Washington to take
additional steps to aid caregivers assisting those with Alzheimer’s.
“‘The daunting task and financial burden of caring for a community
at risk is growing exponentially, and without assistance from Washington
individuals performing this task would be faced with the Hobson’s choice of
personal bankruptcy or walking away from loved ones,’ Fuschillo said.
“Fuschillo cited the preservation of the medical expense deduction
and reduction of the income threshold needed to qualify from 10% to 7.5% for
2017 and 2018 in the recent tax reform legislation as ‘recognition of some of
the needs facing family caregivers.’ Nearly 9 million caregivers deducted
approximately $87 billion for related healthcare expenses in tax year 2015.
“Fuschillo
says for the next step, ‘The Senate must join the House in passing the Recognize, Assist,
Include, Support, and Engage (RAISE) Family Caregivers Act which requires
Washington to create a National Family Caregiving Strategy that finally
recognizes family caregivers as integral and essential within the nation’s
health care safety net. Without these caregivers our society would be hard
pressed to preserve and protect the dignity and safety of countless individuals
who face Alzheimer’s.’
“‘Alzheimer’s is a crisis that touches every American, and we are
encouraged that there is an awareness and appreciation in Washington of this
fact. Without a coordinated response to this unfolding national challenge
we would be left directionless, isolated from those who can strengthen the
collective safety net for family caregivers,’ explained the AFA executive.”
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Americans for Tax Fairness Analysis: GOP tax plan “would give more than 80 percent of tax cuts to the nation's richest one percent while raising taxes on 92 million middle-class families…”
“As opponents continue to raise alarms about the GOP
tax plan being pushed by President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers—with
the House expected to vote Tuesday afternoon and the Senate later in the day—a
new analysis details 13 ways the proposed tax cuts for corporations and wealthy
individuals will negatively impact American families and the U.S. economy while
lavishing rewards on corporations and the rich.
“The analysis by American for Tax Fairness
(ATF)—a coalition of more than 425 groups that advocate for progressive tax
reform—found that the Republicans' plan would give more than 80 percent of tax
cuts to the nation's richest one percent while also—among other things—raising taxes
on 92 million middle-class families; increasing healthcare premiums; encourage
outsourcing of U.S.-based jobs; and limiting deductions for state and local
taxes.
“ATF's analysis warns that the GOP's proposed legislation:
- Gives 83% of the tax cuts to
the richest 1% by 2027. The richest 1% of taxpayers will get one-fifth (21%) of the tax cuts in
2018, but that grows to 83% by 2027. Their tax cut will average $51,000 in
2018; the bottom 60% of taxpayers will get about a dollar day. [Tax Policy Center
(TPC)]
- Raises taxes on 92 million middle-class families by
2027 to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations. That is more than one-half
(57%) of all households making less than $200,000 a year. 69 million
households making less than $100,000 a year would also pay more in taxes
after the temporary tax cuts for individuals expire. [TPC]
- Mandates automatic Medicare
cuts of at least $25 billion in 2018 and $400 billion over 10 years. In effect, seniors will pay
for tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy as automatic spending cuts
are triggered because the tax cuts add $1.5 trillion to the national debt.
Automatic cuts altogether will total $136 billion in 2018 and include
reductions in agriculture subsidies, student loans, military retirement
and more. [Congressional Budget Office (CBO)]
- Increases health care
premiums and leaves 13 million families without health coverage, to raise revenue
for tax breaks that mostly benefit the wealthy and corporations.
- The plan repeals a key part
of the Affordable Care Act: the requirement for individuals to have health
coverage if they can afford it. That makes $314 billionavailable for tax cuts.
[Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT)]
- This will lead to 13 million more people being
uninsured and cause a 10% increase in health insurance premiums for people
getting insured on the individual market. [CBO]
- Provides a corporate tax rate cut of $1.4 trillion and
makes those cuts permanent, but makes tax cuts for individuals and
families temporary. [JCT]
- The corporate tax rate is
slashed from 35% to 21%, and the corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
is eliminated.
- The $1.4 trillion corporate-tax-rate
cut is nearly equal to the $1.5 trillion by which the whole tax plan
increases the national debt, and to the $1.5 trillion cut the Republican
budget makes to Medicare ($473 billion) and Medicaid ($1
trillion). [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)]
- Tax cuts that benefit
working families will expire after 2025. However, one individual tax cut
made permanent changes the way tax brackets are adjusted for inflation, resulting in
growing tax increases over time. [CBPP]
- Adds $1.5 to $2.2 trillion
to the national debt, jeopardizing critical services. The plan includes at
least $1.5 trillion in tax cuts that are
not paid for, such as by closing loopholes used by the wealthy and
corporations. [JCT] Because the bill contains several budget gimmicks that
obscure the true cost of the tax cuts, the cost could be as much as $2.2 trillion. [CBPP] This will balloon
the national debt and further endanger funding for Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid, public education and more.
- Prioritizes the wealthiest
taxpayers over working families with children. The plan lowers the top
individual tax rate from 39.6% to 37%, giving more tax cuts to the richest 518,000 households. The GOP chose not to fully adjust changes in the Child Tax
Credit so that some 24 million children in working
families could fully benefit. Both of these changes would cost roughly the
same amount, about $80 billion over 10 years. [Institute on Taxation and
Economic Policy (ITEP), CBPP]
- Prioritizes wealthy business
owners and real estate developers like Donald Trump. They get a net $265 billion tax cut from a new 20%
deduction for “pass-through” business income combined with a tightening of
rules on losses. Applied to the new 37% top individual tax rate, this 20%
deduction on business income will drop the top pass-through business tax
rate from 39.6% to 29.6%. More than 80% of this tax cut will go to the
top 5% in 2019. Trump owns
more than 500 pass-throughs. Pass-through owners—which
include sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLC’s and S corporations—pay
taxes due on their business income on their personal returns at individual
rates. [JCT, ITEP]
- Kills American jobs by
encouraging outsourcing and profit shifting. The plan creates a
territorial tax system, which exempts foreign profits from U.S. taxes.
While the plan will tax some of those offshore profits, the effective tax
rate will be far below the U.S. rate. U.S. multinationals will have even
more tax incentives to outsource more jobs and shift more profits offshore.
- Hands a $400 billion tax cut
to offshore tax dodgers. American corporations have $2.6 trillion
in profits stashed offshore on which they owe $750 billion in U.S. taxes. Rather
than make them pay what they owe, like all the rest of us do, the tax plan
will charge them only $339 billion—over a $400
billion discount. Apple will save $44 billion and Microsoft $25 billion,
based on their Securities and Exchange Commission tax filings. [ITEP]
- Limits the federal deduction
for state and local taxes (SALT), hurting the middle class. The bill caps at
$10,000 the amount of state and local property and income or sales taxes
that can be deducted from federal taxable income. This is one of the
reasons that nearly 8 million families will see
tax increases in 2018. The impact of this change will be felt especially
in the 20 states that claim an average SALT
deduction of more than $10,000. Limiting SALT will put pressure on state and local budgets,
likely forcing cuts to education, health care, and infrastructure. [TPC,
CBPP]
- Lets many wealthy heirs
avoid paying the estate tax. The estate tax is substantially
weakened, losing $83 billion and allowing very
rich families to inherit wealth tax-free. Under current law, the tax only
applies to estates worth over $5.5 million per person or $11 million per
couple—about 5,500 estates. Under the bill, only estates worth at least $11 million per
person or $22 million per couple (about 1,800 estates) would pay the tax. [JCT,
TPC, CBPP]
- Enriches President Trump and
his family. In
addition to cutting the top individual income tax rate and creating a tax
break for income from pass-through business entities (of which Trump owns
500), the bill preserves the many existing tax loopholes for real estate investors and
even creates a new one. The final bill exempts real estate owners from a
provision meant to limit abuse of the new pass-through income deduction” [ITEP].
From Common Dreams, December 19, 2017
Thursday, December 14, 2017
"H.R. 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, would make permits to carry a loaded concealed gun issued in one state valid in all other states"-Glenn Kessler
“…All states have statutes authorizing the carrying of handguns
in public places for self-defense, but 38 states have various requirements for
permits. Only one state, Vermont, does not issue a carry permit, while 11 other
states — Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New
Hampshire, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming — make it optional to
apply for a permit. (There are some advantages to getting a permit, such as
being allowed to carry in some areas that are off-limits to people without
permits.)
“The laws can vary among states. Federal law prohibits people with felony convictions from obtaining guns, as
well as persons convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors, or by persons
subject to a restraining order involving actual or threatened violence against
an intimate partner. Federal domestic abuse law can prohibit current or
former spouses, co-parents and current and former co-habitants from possessing
guns. If a state makes a stalking crime a felony, that would also be prohibited
under federal law. But some states have broader definitions of domestic
violence dis-qualifiers, such as boyfriends or girlfriends…
“It’s worth noting that that the large majority of states which
don’t issue nonresident permits already have reciprocity agreements to allow
carry by visitors with a permit from their home state. A map on reciprocity agreements
maintained by the USA Carry website indicates that only eight
states — Hawaii, California, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, Massachusetts — and the District of Columbia do not allow
reciprocity with any other states. (Kopel says the map also incorrectly lists
Illinois but that it allows carry from four states.)
“Some states, such as Virginia,
already honor permits from every state. Other states, such as Colorado, may mostly
honor only residential permits (i.e., a Florida permit that has been issued to
a Floridian, but not a Florida permit issued to Georgian)…
“[T]he reality is that most states already allow for reciprocity
agreements with other states. Federal law also already prohibits violent
criminals, abusers and stalkers from having guns; the issue is that some states
already have tougher laws than at the federal level that could be overridden by
permits from more lenient states. Still, the differences among most states may
loom larger in the gun debate than in reality…”
from Pelosi’s claim the House GOP is‘inviting’ violent criminals
to carry concealed weapons by
Glenn Kessler
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Why you should beware of “more than 240 colleges and universities, almost all in the U.S., got donations from Koch family foundations in 2016”—Alex Kotch, International Business Times
“The
foundation of billionaire industrialist Charles Koch is ramping up its
ideological higher education donations, smashing last year’s record amount
given to colleges and universities. The foundation, along with smaller
contributions from two other Koch family foundations, gave over $51 million to
higher education institutions in 2016, according to tax records analyzed
by International Business Times. Koch donations typically come in the form of
multi-year gifts, which support free-market centers [*], courses,
professorships, graduate scholarships and lecture series, all with the aim of
producing bright, young conservatives to recruit into their political network
and like-minded professors to create scholarship that dovetails with the Kochs’
ideology and business interests.
“Koch and
his brother David are well known for running a giant oil, chemical and
materials conglomerate, Koch Industries, and for leading a vast, conservative
political network that rivals either of the two major political parties in size
and funding. Lesser known, but crucial to their long-term strategy to bend
America toward their small-government ideology, is their considerable funding
of higher education.
“The
political activities of the Koch brothers have led to increased scrutiny into
the family’s university grants in recent years, and students and faculty at
several academic institutions have protested proposed donation agreements. In
many cases, despite the opposition, universities and their economics
departments, eager for an influx of cash, approve the agreements and begin
taking yearly installments of hundreds of thousands — and sometimes millions — of
dollars… More than 240 colleges and
universities, almost all in the U.S., got donations from Koch family
foundations in 2016, up from 218 the previous year…
“In her most recent book, Dark Money, New
Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer describes a 1976 New York City conference that
Charles Koch organized for wealthy libertarians to plot a strategy to take over
American politics. In order to broaden their radical conservative movement,
Charles Koch advocated a focus on ‘attracting youth’ because ‘this is the group
that is open to a radically different social philosophy.’ Koch’s political
lieutenant at the time, former John Birch Society member George Pearson, said
at the gathering that traditional university gifts would not be sufficient, but
funding private institutes on campuses would make it easier for donors to exert
more control over hiring decisions and the ideological bent of these centers.
“The ‘Structure of Social Change,’
a plan devised by Koch and one of his closest lifelong associates, Richard
Fink, begins with funding higher education. Next, academic output — or
‘intellectual raw materials’ — moves on to right-wing think tanks funded by
Koch and his network, which repackage the scholarship into more relatable
policy proposals. Koch-funded political advocacy groups then rally people
around these policies and pressure lawmakers to adopt them.
“The
strategy appears to be working. Not only are libertarian-minded academics
raising their profiles with the help of Koch grants and providing ‘raw
materials’ for conservative think tanks to convert into policy proposals but
some are rising directly into the halls of government. International Business
Times recently identified a host of Koch-backed academics who have secured posts
within the Donald Trump administration this year. Meanwhile,
business is booming for the wealthy brothers. Charles and David Koch
are currently worth a combined $99.2 billion.”
For the complete article, Charles Koch gave $50 million to
higher ed in 2016. What did he buy? by Alex Kotch, click here.
*For a Commentary on Global Free Market: a Perspective and
Admonition, click here.
Monday, December 11, 2017
“We are witnessing an extinction of fields of study once thought essential” by Nina Handler
“…I am a college English instructor. This is a
bad time for my species — and a bad time for the study of English. In academe,
we are witnessing an extinction of fields of study once thought essential. I
teach at a private university that has just canceled majors in English,
religious studies, philosophy, and music. The English major is becoming the
useless gentleman [and gentlewoman]…
“In the
academic struggle for existence, English has lost. This is not specific to my
university; English has been weak for a while now. According to the Modern Language Association, in the late 1960s and early
’70s, English accounted for about 7.5 percent of all bachelor’s degrees granted
in the United States. By 2004, the MLA reported, only 3.47 percent of college
students earned bachelor’s degrees in English.
“The
belletristic tradition is obsolete, and those who once imparted the art of
rhetoric now strive to teach basic literacy. English, once a backbone of the
university’s structure, has become a little-used organ with only vestigial
value — the appendix of academia…
“Times
change, and institutions of higher education must change along with them. If no
one wants to study a particular field, if it’s not filling a niche, it will die
a natural death. This is evolution in action. I have no choice but to accept
that the vast majority of students at my university don’t want to major in
English. They don’t want what I have to offer. Instead, they want degrees in the
health sciences.
“Of
course, my students and their worldviews don’t exist in a vacuum. They live in
a culture that tells them in every way that STEM fields are where the money’s
at and consequently are the only fields worth studying. They want to know — for
the return on the gargantuan investment they and their families have made in a
college education — that they will be able to get a well-paid job tied directly
to their major.
“Once
education is viewed as a hoop to be jumped through to get somewhere else,
people start assigning value to it in a way that privileges direct connections
to prosperity and jobs they can easily see. With no sense that being an English
major leads to any job but being an English teacher, students are ‘voting with
their feet,’ as my provost said when she canceled the major. Social Darwinism
speaks of ‘survival of the fittest,’ a victim-blaming phrase that has been
distorted to justify socially constructed imbalances of wealth and power. If
you can’t make it, it’s your own fault — or it’s just nature taking its bloody
course…
“And not to diminish courses in health sciences,
marketing, or communications, but I sometimes think that the most important
thinking students do happens in their English classes. I’ve seen light bulbs go
off over their heads. I’ve seen the moment when their brains seem to
short-circuit — when the possibilities of interpretation, or the interplay of
complexities and their implications in a text, are overwhelming. Then they go
away and think some more and give me papers full of insight and analysis. I’ve
seen English majors born in those classes… [Nevertheless], it’s hard to face
one’s own extinction.”
From Facing My Own Extinction by Nina Handler
Saturday, December 9, 2017
How much is college adjunct labor worth? by Audrey Williams June
“The
impending negotiations between the City University of New York’s faculty union
and administration may come down to a fundamental question: How much is adjunct
labor worth? The union’s answer is $7,000. That’s the minimum pay per
three-credit course that it’s seeking for the roughly 14,000 adjuncts it
represents — about double the minimum that adjuncts there now earn per course.
“The
current pay rate is ‘insulting to adjunct faculty and not commensurate with
their experience,’ said Barbara Bowen, president of the Professional Staff
Congress, which represents 30,000 faculty and staff members at CUNY. Increasing
the pay for adjuncts, who teach more than half of the courses in the nation’s
largest urban university system, would, she said, send an important message to
students and the part-time faculty…
“The
union arrived at the $7,000 figure for adjuncts by reverse-engineering from the
wage of a different group of contingent faculty — full-time lecturers. The
salary of full-time lecturers at CUNY for a full teaching load of eight courses
a year is about $60,000. A part-time adjunct teaching the same number of
courses would earn only about $25,000 at the current minimum per-course rate of
about $3,200…
“The
union also took into consideration the minimum per-course compensation
suggested by professional associations like the Modern Language Association —
which in 2011-12 recommended $6,800, but is now calling
for $10,700.
“Levels
of per-course pay that are in line with what CUNY’s union is seeking have
cropped up in recent years in cities with similar costs of living — but they
have been at private institutions. Three years ago, Tufts University agreed to
pay part-time faculty members at least $7,300 per course, and a new contract promises further pay raises.
“And
in New York, newly unionized adjuncts at Barnard College can now count on
making $7,000 per three-credit course — a 3-percent increase. By the fall of
2021 that figure will increase to $10,000. Barnard makes a point of touting the
pay on its human-resource department’s web page,
calling the wages ‘among the best in New York City, and among elite, urban
colleges and universities nationally.’
“…Faculty
and union leaders say the items on the union’s bargaining agenda, especially
the per-course minimum, mean CUNY’s governing board, administrators, city and
state leaders will need to make a commitment to deeply invest in public
education — no matter what…”
from
What’s a Fair Wage for Adjuncts? by Audrey Williams June
Audrey
Williams June is a senior reporter at The Chronicle for Higher Education who
writes about the academic workplace, faculty pay, and work-life balance in
academe. Contact her at audrey.june@chronicle.com, or follow her
on Twitter @chronaudrey.
Friday, December 8, 2017
Adjuncts and the hierarchy of labor in higher education by Katie Entigar
“…This is the way of higher education nowadays, the slow and
steady fight to save budgets through the ‘adjunctification’ of colleges and universities across the country. As in
other educational contexts, the rise of neoliberal thinking in higher ed –
essentially the claim that market values like efficiency, accountability, and
bottom-line thinking produce healthy businesses schools and satisfied customers students – justifies the trimming back of faculty
and the use of contingent labor to pick up the slack. Read: adjuncts…
“Yes, it can be argued that all teaching is a labor of love,
a point that I will be the first to make. I love this work, because it means I
am doing something important, something that has, I hope, a significant impact
on the world. Yet I also want to think of myself as more than a low-level
laborer in the service of an erstwhile dream of what higher education should be.
“We can poke all the fun we want at people pursuing what
seems like a wild dream of being a thinker, writer, and educator for a living.
However, all individuals have a right to be compensated for their work. And
saying that the budget won’t permit such a change, while an expression of the
numbers on a page, also justifies the status quo arrangements that divide the
haves from the have-nots on faculties across the country.
“All of us who work in higher ed need to work together to
make changes toward a more just arrangement for adjuncts in higher education.
It’s time for more love, and less labor, for conditions that are just and
compensation that reflects the reality of the work being done. Hierarchies can
change and move into new arrangements, so long as there is agreement that
justice is a goal that all must share.”
For the complete essay, click here.
For 59 articles on this crisis, click here.
Sunday, December 3, 2017
Concerns Over Tax Legislation and Higher Education
“The U.S. Senate early
Saturday morning narrowly approved major tax legislation roundly opposed by higher
education leaders and student groups. The bill, like the House of
Representatives' tax plan passed last month, got no public hearings and
senators themselves complained they had no opportunity to read the
legislation even as last-minute amendments were offered affecting issues like
private college endowments and education savings plans.
“The 51-to-49 Senate vote sets up
negotiations with House leaders over substantial differences between the two
bills. Most in higher education view the House version as
substantially more harmful for students and colleges than the Senate bill, but
many also have major concerns about the Senate legislation. Both
bills would create significant potential new tax burdens for higher
education institutions and would, college leaders predict, adversely
affect charitable giving and state budgets that support public colleges and
universities.
“Senate
lawmakers approved multiple amendments Friday to provisions that would affect
higher education. One allows taxpayers to deduct only up to $10,000 for state
and local property taxes. Previous language eliminated state and local
deductions entirely. Even with that change, however, higher education leaders
say the cap could put strains on state budgets. The fear is that wealthy
taxpayers in states that invest substantially in public colleges and other
services will push to cut spending generally, since they will no longer receive
a tax break on their state and local payments…”
For
the entire article: Senate
Passes Tax Bill with Major Implications for Higher Ed by Andrew Kleighbaum.
Saturday, December 2, 2017
“Let us do the work we know how to do, even better and with more determination and community than we have"-Kipp Dawson
“A message -- an appeal -- to members of my generation. On the morning just after the U.S. Senate passed what's being called the ‘tax bill.’ (Those under 60 who are reading this are welcome here, but this is a matter among us elders.)
“We are needed now. And we are being watched. This particular blow
from the U.S. rulers hits more of our children/grandchildren more directly here
on U.S. soil -- and more immediately -- than most of the others. Which is
saying a lot.
“So this morning more of us (look around, look around) are waking up
to a more personalized/immediate kind of shock than we have collectively felt
since that morning a year ago when the U.S. presidential election results were
certain. And right now, more of our -- and our children's -- and our neighbors
--households are on the brink of immediate injury. We are being pushed
together, all of the victims who might not have recognized any
relationship/similarity/even humanity between/among ourselves -- pushed down by
the same scoundrels. It's us now, too.
“We are being watched this morning, and today and tomorrow. Just as
we watched our elders when tough things happened to our people, our peoples,
our planet, in our youth.
“And because some of them did not give in to despair -- did not turn
to us and say ‘we're sorry we're giving you such a messed up world’ -- we had
beacons, did we not? Because some of them had a sense of history and knew
their/our ancestors had stood up to similar/worse/horrendous attacks and had
looked them in the face and kept fighting -- because of this, among our elders
were people who gave us hope in their continued hope. Models in their
resilience. A push away from despair in the resonance of their song. A hand up
back to the work that has inspired the lives of those of us lucky enough to
have found the battles that have energized and bound us.
“It's our turn now. It's our turn to look into the
bewildered/frightened/questioning faces of our younger co-inhabitants of this
planet. Not to deny the depths of fear and certainly to join in the anger. But
not to apologize. Oh no, not to give any credence to the idea that all we have
done to teach/heal/paint/sing/protest/organize/rejoice/create/build/join hands
-- that this has been in vain. Because that is just what the ugly powers want
us to do.
“Despair and guilt are understandable BUT DANGEROUS. And we know
better, do we not.
“Our history -- the struggles of our ancestors and yes, of our
generation also -- tell us a story of human beauty and resilience. And never
has that story been more important. And who is to tell it best, if not us. We
have a big, big job to do. As did those now gone from this planet who did it
for us.
“So please. Get up from wherever you landed when you read the news
this morning. Pick yourselves/ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start --
not all over -- but start, again.
“Let us do the work we know how to do, even better and with more
determination and community than we have.
“Let us be in the places and meetings where our younger
sisters/brothers/children are working/studying/organizing and bring this gray
hair of ours, these ears, and these memories of our own good work and ups and
downs among those who will carry this forward. We will not lead them. But my,
oh my, we can give them our support, and my, oh my, can THAT not be a salve
now?
“As was the support of our elders when we got knocked down along the
way. Right there with you, my beloved older sisters and brothers. Sending you
love.
“PS: While we're at it, dear old ones, please, please tell your/our
stories. Tell them to younger people who need to know/deserve to know, and who
will know better than we how to record them. And tell them before our
fading/aging memories lock tight the file cabinets in our brains in which we've
stored them, and the locks rust. This is our children's heritage, and, by
golly, we have no right to keep it from them (and no reason). We have so much
to tell! (And the memories will help us keep going, too, won't they?!).”
-Kipp Dawson
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