Wednesday Open Thread

21 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. Today is International Sex Workers Day

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   1. That’s weird.  I usually see prostitutes at night.  Are their rates lower by day, Dave?

      . And why not wait until June 9 — 6-9 — to celebrate their craft?

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2. There's all this news about a shortage of workers and the impact the $300.00/month has on that. And there is a real shortage.

   But when I left Windward (yes I am now among the unemployed) we had 6 openings. We have been looking for these for months, one for almost a year. And these are all jobs over 100K.

   So it's not just the low end. For jobs where unemployment doesn't come close to the salary of a job – there's a ton of open positions across pretty much all industries.

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   1. Huh … Was Windward not getting applications, not getting applications with plausible capabilities, or not getting "the right" candidate for the job? Or I suppose the company could have found the right person to fill the job and when offered, you were declined?

      recent employment news says 6.1% unemployment.  "The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a report released on Tuesday that we are in a a workforce crisis. The economy is experiencing an all-time high of 8.1 million job openings "  "The Chamber, which used the most recently available data from March, said there are 1.4 available workers per job opening in the US. This rate is just half the average of the past 20 years – and it's continuing to fall, the Chamber said."

      San Francisco Fed had an interesting statement.  Their analysis

      So, where have all the people who lost their jobs gone if they are not unemployed? The answer is that they have dropped out of the labor force. The combination of the simmering pandemic, bleak short-run job prospects, and family obligations at home has made many people decide not to look for work now. Since February 2020, the U.S. labor force has declined by 3.4 million individuals.

       

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      1. Flat out not getting any qualified people. With that said, we have very high standards and we did get people who were programmers, but they couldn't think. Adding any of them to our team would have been worse than running without them.

         And yes there's a price at which you can get people, but it'll bankrupt the company. Because you would have to raise all existing salaries to match. And the thing is, top people in programming and product management, the ones in the top 10%, are not money driven. So what would be the price to get someone working at a place where they are happy?

         And if we did, then the other company now has a job opening. And so the number of open positions will remain the same, all we do is adjust what companies have those openings.

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   2. I always find posts like this interesting. In a free market, there are always buyers and sellers if the price is right. In this case, if you offered $1-million/year, you'd probably find qualified candidates willing to work at Windward. That might not make for a viable buisness, but you get my drift. There is a salary at which you will find somebody.  The same applies to service industries and hospitality. 

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   3. I hope you got rich from the sale.

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      1. It's funny, it doesn't change how my wife and I choose to live. And I'm going to start another company this fall (no idea what yet) so it won't change what I do much. But there is great joy in knowing that I am truly doing what I want to do.

         And I can now make larger political contributions 🙂

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3. Just whom does Mark think consumes the bounty from Kit Carson County’s 700 farms?

   The assault on agriculture by lawmakers and activists with no stake (my emphasis) in our business is especially infuriating.

   Hillman: Country folks can survive – if city politicians will leave us alone

   This is exactly the kind of drivel that makes building bridges between the producers and consumers in Colorado difficult. 

   The legislative process that gives us boundaries for civil society comes from the closest thing constituting a (real) free market in Colorado: public citizen’s voices electing representatives through the political process.

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   1. Send Hillman a bill for construction of whatever REA he's on, and a bill for all water projects that take water off the Western Slope and ship it to him. His rugged individualism would take a beating.

       

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      1. REA….water projects…. To say nothing of roads, bridges, schools, other public buildings, etc., on the Eastern Plains whose construction is subsidized by Front Range taxpayers. Hillman seems to be living in some sort of right wing never-never land.

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         1. …and feasting at the buffet one of the grandest federal transfers of wealth from the many to the few: (this is one rural Colorado county, pop. 7,447 with 700 farmers)

            

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4. Great piece by Mike today: 

   Littwin: Republicans ignore the lessons of the Jan. 6 Capitol assault. Now Democrats must learn the lesson of May 28.

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5. Donald Who?   

   Former president Donald Trump’s blog, celebrated by advisers as a “beacon of freedom” that would keep him relevant in an online world he once dominated, is dead. It was 29 days old.

   He's now returning to his natural state of leaping from one failure to the next

   Upset by reports from The Washington Post and other outlets highlighting its measly readership and concerns that it could detract from a social media platform he wants to launch later this year, Trump ordered his team Tuesday to put the blog out of its misery, advisers said.

   His planned social media platform will almost certainly follow in the path of Trump Steaks, Trump Water, Trump casinos, Trump airline, etc. etc.  

   Hopefully, he finally goes out with a whimper, but sticks around just long enough to screw the GOP's chances next year in the mid-terms.

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   1. 1/22 the time it takes to gestate an elephant (less than three Scaramuccis).  Sad!!

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   2. Can you say " albatross"? 😊

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6. Paging Ben Kuck: (there's a little something in here for Jerry, too)

   We Don’t Need a ‘Moonshot’ for Faux Burgers—We Need To Hold ‘Big Meat’ Accountable.

   The problem with cheap meat is not that it should cost the consumer more (though it probably should). It is that what looks cheap to the consumer is in fact costing the public all the way down the production line. From unchecked pollution to uninsured workers, cheap meat makes a lot of money for a very few, while costing the earth—quite literally—for all of us.

   The challenge is not how to save the hamburger by making an animal-free, lower-emission proxy, nor is it about generating enough chemical compounds to make soy and fungi taste like blood at an affordable price.

   The problem is unchecked market power, enjoyed by a small handful of corporations. They often own all parts of the food chain—from the grain silos to the feedlots to the final brand that shoppers see on grocery store shelves. And they make a lot of money by selling unhealthy food, extracting profits from farmers whose livelihoods are squeezed in poorly regulated and noncompetitive markets, using a vulnerable workforce whose rights they violate. Market power is turned into political capital as these corporations use campaign donations to capture state and federal legislators, who have spent decades commissioning reports that document these harm and bemoaning the hollowing out of rural America in public speeches, all the while eliminating the funding for inspectors, enlarging legal loopholes, and handing out public money in support of those few highly profitable firms.

   JBS, USA is headquartered in Colorado's 4th Congressional District: 

   

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   1. Interesting stuff, Michael. I am learning a lot. The explanation above from Civil Eats is a very good primer on the corporate model that has damaged so many communities and individuals. 

      I gathered the piece was written by Ezra Klein…izzat right?

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      1. Really thought-provoking and well-written, Duke, but by Sophia Murphy, not Ezra Klein, although Klein proposed the “meat research moonshot”. 
          

         Murphy’s article proposes that we fix Big Meat by treating its workers like human beings…

         1. Enforce basic labor rights, legislate a living wage, enforce the right to collective bargaining, and protect the right to affordable and adequate health care. For all.
         2. Fight structural racism in the food system. Keep the money going out to farmers excluded from the last 150 years of public funding. End the abusesencouraged by the U.S. immigration system, the loopholes for farm work that permit human rights violations, and the environmental injustice that pushes pollution onto communities of color and Indigenous peoples’ land.
         3. Use and fund the Packers and Stockyards Act. Provide enough inspectors, make their job worthwhile and fine the operators who break the law. Ensure climate emissions are counted when issuing permits to factory farms. Do that math right—lesson one of climate change science is that cumulative effects matter.
         4. Enforce anti-trust laws. Hundreds of thousands of independent hog and poultry producers have been bankrupted in the last 20 years; many now work on contract for global meat companies. Decades of legal challenges to the poultry sector have left the corporations untouched.
         5. Control overproduction. U.S. land is exhausted, farmgate prices don’t cover the cost of production and high (and highly concentrated) profits accrue to grain traders and meat packers.
         6. Make polluters pays. Fine the operations with practices that lead to excessive nitrogen fertilizer run-off that kills our waterways, and demand protection for biological diversity in farm systems. Insist factory farm permits factor in their climate costs, especially their monstrous sources of methane. Now, that owners of concentrated animal feeding operations (or CAFOs) want public money to turn their hogshit into factory farm gas, or so called “biogas.” The real solution is stopping the waste at the source by enforcing real manure regulation.
         7. Invest in local and regional food systems. Alternatives to cheap meat exist—animal agriculture that is regenerative, supports farmers, and is kind to the animal, soil and water—but they provide only a small share of the market. Now is the time to shorten and diversify supply chains and use public contracts and institutional buying to leverage new revenue streams for producers that build in high standards. IATP’s experience with farm to school and childcare programs shows how well this can work to support an integrated food policy involving education, environment, health and agriculture departments in productive conversation and innovate policies. Create the space to diversify, experiment and reintroduce regional specialty foods.
         8. Reward regenerative and agroecological practices. The U.S. has useful and effective conservation programs, including the Conservation Stewardship Program and Conservation Reserve Program. They are heavily oversubscribed and underfunded. Fund and improve them.

         I got to know some people working in meat and dairy plants when I lived and taught in Sonnenberg’s district. The structural racism is appalling- ~60% of the community doesn’t really believe that the ~ 40% that produce the meat are fully human, with rights to be respected. Far from appreciating the cultural diversity, they resent it.
         And there are the other problems Murphy addresses in the above list.

         As a personal consumer choice, I eat less ( but higher quality) meat and dairy. But as a progressive, I agree with Murphy’s calls for systemic change in theindustry.

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         1. Thanks for that correction on the writers' identity. Sophia Murphy writes with clarity that reminds me of another writer named Klein…Naomi.

            As I continue to monitor the descent of civilization, I return again and again to perspectives I first began to really understand after reading her brilliant book, "the Shock Doctrine". Most peoples' eyes glaze over when you try to discuss the "Free Market Experiment", but the forces at play today are still manifestations of the realignment of global structures…political, economic, and otherwise.

            The ghost of Milton Friedman marches on.

             

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         2. Great overview, KW.  The article absolutely nailed it: the plant-based industry has all of the resources it needs via the marketplace.  These are publicly traded, vertically integrated companies with access to every financial resource they'd ever need through the capital markets. 

            Jerry runs around with his hair on fire over a Governor proclamation – and Ken takes on the Silicon Valley liberals – while Rome is literally burning under his nose. 

            Vilsack and Biden have both taken strong positions that we need smaller, regional meat processing plants. USDA resources can make that happen.  Biden has also said the Civilian Conservation Corp should be engaged in agriculture in ways that can have positive effects on climate change. Holistic management of grazing lands is more labor-intensive, so this is a great pairing of resources, human and natural, and capital.  If we managed the global grasslands for carbon sequestration with cattle we'd have more beef than we could consume.  But then we'd need less corn, chemicals, and coal-fired power to withdraw our water from the aquifers.  Therein lies the problem as the Bayer, Dupont business model is predicated on perpetuating the current scheme. 

            I'm going to sound like a broken drum, but the book Methland really is a must-read for anyone reading this thread.  It paints the picture of how Big Pharma, via the Reagan White House, thwarted efforts to regulate pseudoephedrine, hedge fund managers were rolling up smaller packing plants, once a great place for middle-America to get a good union job, and replacing them with what we have today with largely imported labor. Then, (thanks to our failed War on Drugs) the Mexican cartels moved in behind the plant closings and infected the displaced workers with meth.  Combined, it created a toxic stew that lives with us today. 

            We're smarter than this. 

             

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