Signs the economy is bad: August 24, 2018 edition

Welcome to another edition of "Signs the Economy is Bad" here at The Itinerant Librarian. This is the semi-regular (as in when I have time and/or feel like doing it) feature where I scour the Internet in search of the oh so subtle hints that the economy is bad. Sure, pundits may say things are getting better, but what do they know? And to show not all is bad, once in a while we look at how good the uber rich have it.

 


Another week, and a lot of stuff has been going on. Let's see how many bad signs are out there.

In news of the Pendejo In Chief and the Party of Stupid:

• A new estimate for the Pendejo In Chief's toy soldier parade is at $92 million dollars. However, things are not looking good, so for now the parade is off and the powers that be are postponing it until 2019. So is the cost too high? Kind of depends on who you ask. Stories via the Los Angeles Times and NPR.
• And speaking of the armed forces, things may be getting expensive, especially for the U.S. Army due to them getting less selective about who they let in. The article's subtitle puts it well: "Recruits who are fat, stupid and have criminal records is no way to run the military." Plus consider the implications when said fat, stupid, and criminal record recruits get out of the army and back into civilian society. Story via Salon.
• Meanwhile, Pendejo In Chief fans, miffed that his Hollywood Walk of Fame star keeps getting vandalized (hey, not all heroes wear capes) are going about the Walk of Fame pasting fake fame stars with his name on it. Why is this part of the bad economy? Well, whoever is selling them those stickers is probably making bank. Story via VICE.

In the world of corporate fuckery:

•  Payday loans are a pox and curse, especially for poor people. So basically what companies what Walmart and others are doing is sort of  modified pay day loan anyhow with what appears to be a less onerous system. That remains to be seen. Basically the problem in the end is people in the Bad Economy living paycheck to paycheck mainly because they are not paid enough by said big corporations who are fine paying slave peon wages (we should note slaves do not get paid). Story via NPR.
• In Texas, where they are not always exactly friendly to employees, turns out the employers doing recovery work after Hurricane Harvey were basically stealing wages left and right from their workers. Because what better way to show gratitude to the people helping you rebuild than stiffing them on pay they earned working for you? Story via TruthDig.
• In the fast food world, a bunch of companies agreed to stop their "anti-poaching" behavior, i.e. preventing workers from leaving one job in one fast food place for a higher wage at another, basically sort of blackballing them in an area. This was not out of the goodness of their hearts. It was because the lawsuits were out in force, and they figured it was that or getting sued into oblivion and bad publicity. Story via NPR.
• Medical insurance companies like Anthem are running a sweet scam making patients pay outrageous co-pays on medicines that would be seriously cheap if paid in cash, if only the patient knew about it by the way. Why does the patient not know? Well, for one, asshole companies like Anthem have lobbied to put laws in place to keep pharmacists from telling patients of such cheaper options. For example, read about the Anthem patient stuck paying $285 as copay on a $40 medicine. Now THAT's corporate fuckery. Story via Boing Boing.
• Google will track you, whether you allow it or not. They are probably tracking you right this moment, even if you turn off location tracking options. At least one lawsuit has been filed. Read the story with updates over at Infodocket.
• Meanwhile the Twitter overlord Dorsey says his company is "experimenting with 'features that would promote alternative viewpoints in Twitter’s timeline to address misinformation. . . '".  Story via Nieman Lab. Let me put it clear to you and the others. I do not need nor desire  your help to get "alternative viewpoints." I am already well versed in information literacy, my Google-Fu is strong, and I can certainly detect bullshit when I see it. I also have my feeds on social media finely tuned to avoid the "alternative viewpoints" bullshit you tend to tolerate (yea, I heard you put Alex Jones in time out, but that was more because you got bad publicity not because it was the right thing to do). So fuck off. I am doing just fine online, and I always have the option to just delete Twitter and go elsewhere. 
• I knew that news sources, especially local news, are getting lazier and lazier, putting in less effort. Some of it is economics, but also just the laziness of going to the Internet, finding some crappy YouTube video or such and linking to it, passing it as news. Don't believe me? According to a new study highlighted by Nieman Lab, an analysis of 16,000 stories across 100 U.S. communities found very little actual local news, if any at all. The findings are not encouraging. For example, "Only about 17 percent of the news stories provided to a community are truly local — that is actually about or having taken place within — the municipality." And it can get worse, for a part of the sample, "There’s a lot of reporting on Jay-Z’s latest tweet, for example. One thing we found was that even at the local media outlet level, Twitter and YouTube are fairly easy go-to sources of news." Now that is seriously depressing. 

The Bad Economy in Education:

•  So how are school teachers doing? Well, teachers continue to be underpaid, and naturally parents and community members whine and balk about properly funding schools because heaven forbid they pay taxes to sustain a common good and get a well educated citizenry. Then they think that, if they can afford it, they can send their kids to private school failing to see privatization is not a solution but rather a racket that often seeks to get the public to pay for something private with public money because otherwise they are not sustainable. But I digress. Let's have a look.
• Overall, public schools are severely underfunded. According to this story out of Pacific Standard, 12 states cut general funding for education by 7% at least. 
• They are turning more to free supply shops, basically like food pantries except for school supplies, to get the supplies they need. Story via NPR.
• To make ends meet, teachers are also flocking the sharing economy, doing things like opening their homes to AirBnB. AirBnB surveyed its hosts and found "the results of a volunteer survey this week containing the striking statistic that nearly one in 10 of its hosts in the United States is an educator." In some areas of the U.S. that number of educators is higher. Story via The Atlantic.
• And as if things were not bad enough with underfunded public schools, you have to also worry that the kid you send to school may get shot in school. However, not to worry. Maria Bartiromo of Fox News has you covered as she praises the latest fashion trend for school kids: bulletproof backpacks. Found the story via The Week, which includes link to the Faux News segment.
• And while students carry bulletproof backpacks, teachers may be packing guns. Because there is no money, according to the powers that be, to fund classrooms and teachers properly with materials, books, supplies, etc, but dang nab it, money can be found for guns as Betsy DeVoid pushes to allow schools to use federal funding to buy guns to arm teachers. Story via AlterNet. Because, priorities man. 
• And higher education, things are not much better. 
•  A report shows that enrollment for students in teacher education is dropping. Story via Inside Higher Ed. Gee, I wonder if being underpaid, underfunded, and possibly sent to some crumbling school has anything to do with that, not to mention the common disrespect teachers get from society and people with no clue and who would never dare step into a classroom.
• Meanwhile, colleges are cutting back on programs, especially in the liberal arts. For example, University of Akron is cutting 80 degree tracks, and Goucher College is gutting liberal arts. Stories via Inside Higher Ed. 
• At Purdue, they admitted too many students, so many that they had to make temporary dorms. Needless to say, students who are forking thousands of dollars for tuition and housing are not pleased, and have taken to social media to express their displeasure. Story via COED. 

 So how are the uber rich doing?

•  It's payback time for Party of Stupid millionaires as they reward the party for all the bounty the Party of Stupid gave them in tax breaks, so on. Story via VICE.
• However, for some Party of Stupid politicians, getting juicy tax breaks is not enough. They are greedy bastards who want it all, and when they say want it all, they literally want it all, even things meant for those in need. Like this Alaskan politician mofo busted for welfare fraud. Yes, she was cheating to get money she was not entitled to. According to the story, she stole "more than $10,000 in food stamps that they shouldn’t have qualified for." Story via The Midnight Sun. A hat tip to Juanita Jean's.
• Meanwhile, in the world of wine, when it comes to rosé, there are all sorts of sordid things going in with bribery, pay to play, and outright bad wine displacing the good in the fancy restaurants. The result is "an outbreak of shitty rosé on wine lists everywhere." Story via Bon Appetit. Here is yet another reason why I prefer to buy my own wine and spirits and drink peacefully at home with close folks.
• Meanwhile, those rich people may suffer more as more fancy hotels add more fees for things like using the spa. The horror. Story via The Los Angeles Times. I have no idea what that pain of spa and salon fees is like since my hotel budget is pretty much El Cheapo Motel. As long as it is clean and has a bed in it, I am good. 
• And finally, if you got some money to burn, maybe you want to indulge in the most expensive ice cream sundae. For the measly amount of $60,000 you too can take a trip to Mount Kilimanjaro "where Three Twins Ice Cream's founder will hand-churn a batch of ice cream with glacial ice from the mountain's summit." I guess for some people Dairy Queen just does not cut it. 

Now let's see how people are Hustling in the Bad Economy:

• A liquor store figures they need to do more than just sell liquor. So, they opened their own private gun range and club inside the liquor store. Story via KING 5.
• What does Waffle House do to increase their business and get hustling? They get their own food truck to cater events. Story via USA Today.
• Are you a farmer needing to make a few extra bucks? You got a spare barn you are not using in good condition? Well, turn that barn into a wedding venue for hipster and bougie couples who want "like every wedding you see on Pinterest with the burlap and the lace and the baby breath and Mason jars." Story via the Journal Sentinel.
• Bigger organizations also have to hustle to find those extra bucks, even college football. So if you are one of those bowls they have every year post season, one way to rake in more money is with naming rights. For instance, the Cactus Bowl just became the Cheez-It Bowl. Story via USA Today. Hey, for the right amount, college bowls will pretty much slap your name on their bowl event. So for the right price, we could get the Kotex Bowl or the Massengill Bowl. Imagine how much money your bowl could bring in when big tough macho guys show up to cheer their teams at the Kotex Bowl. Imagine your college or university having the glorious distinction of having beat their rival at the Massengill Bowl. 
• Dr. P.Z. Myers of Pharyngula suggests he could supplement his income as a professor by peddling his own vitamin supplement. You may laugh, but he tells the tale of a guy who has made a fortune doing just that. 
• Meanwhile, a teacher, who again, probably needs a few extra bucks, gets arrested for hosting an adult website with her husband after hours. Story via Click On Detroit. Mind you that doing so is not illegal, and she is doing it outside of school hours. What you need to ask is who was the busybody moralist who was trolling for porn, found her site, and then decided to rat her out (probably after jerking off to a video or two from the site)? Way I see what consenting adults do to earn a buck or two is their business. It's not like teachers are highly paid or anything. 
• Now some may say some women have it easy to hustle in the Bad Economy. Just sell some sex online, and perverts customers will pay you. If possible, try to do the least amount of work as possible and still get paid (let's be honest, fucking on camera can be work, even if it is with your hubby). So, maybe you figure you can sell your dirty panties. Yes, there are freaks fetishists out there who do enjoy gathering and collecting women's soiled unmentionables. So hey, wear a few panties, don't wash them, put them in a plastic bag, and sell online. Voila, right? Watch the money roll in. Well, according to this article in VICE, turns out selling dirty panties online is harder than it looks. A lot of it has to do with how certain sites have monetized the process, and it is not in favor of the panty sellers.

And finally for this week, in "Great Debates of Our Time"

Today's great question: are 90 minutes enough time to eat a full meal at a fancy restaurant and still relax? According to this restaurant critic, he whines it is not enough time to relax. Feel free to chime in. Story via The Guardian. I would not know. Places I eat usually serve me food relatively quick.