Signs the Economy Is Bad: July 30, 2021 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.

Well, another week and it's the end of the month, and yes, the economy is still bad. Let's have a look plus stay tuned for this week we have a winner of the "No Shit, Sherlock!" Award for Stating the Obvious. 

Rural News

• Things are not going well for rural towns between the pandemic and the bad economy. Their latest scheme (oops, possible solution) is trying to lure remote workers to move to their states in an attempt to boost local economies. Story via The Hill. This does assume these workers have enough financial resources to move out of their cities to those middle of nowhere places. For those with the financial means (and good Internet), it can mean more affordable living costs and in some cases some states even give those people tax breaks to sweeten the deal. 
• The Daily Yonder takes a look at how the pandemic is affecting restaurants in rural areas. Their report draws from this study out of the Journal of Public Health.
• Trying to get an effing hospital to be transparent about their charges when giving you service is next to impossible; that is how they fleece you. You are in a vulnerable spot,  you need care, and you may or not be worried about the actual costs, something they certainly use to their advantage.  It is much more difficult when dealing with rural hospitals. Story via The Daily Yonder. By the way, guess who tried to do something about this? The Trump administration which put in place the Hospital Transparency Rule. They must have had someone semi-competent they did not fire right away to put that rule in place. Not that it has made much of a difference since hospitals have pretty much not given a fuck and mostly not complied so far. 
• Meanwhile, farmers are having a hard time shipping their farm products out. Via NPR. Here is an illustration of the problem: "Shippers are delivering record volumes of back-to-school supplies and fall fashions from Asia to the West Coast. Typically, those containers travel to North Dakota or other points in the middle of the country to be filled with U.S. exports. But today, instead of carrying soybeans and other American products back across the Pacific as usual, many of the containers are going back empty as shippers rush to bring in even more imports." In other words, it is cheaper and more profitable for the shippers to bring stuff from Asia, including all those super cheap back-to-school supplies (in high demand now that schools are reopening no matter who gets sick), unload here and then rush back to Asia with empty containers to get more stuff than waiting on farmers in North Dakota or wherever to put soybeans or what have you on those containers.

 

The Bad Economy  Around the World

• Now, Americans may get all excited that their federal government is giving them some crumbs to live on (out of taxes they pay by the way) in the form of a $300 or so child tax credit. Whoop dee doo. Meanwhile, while not perfect, well, read how Germany does it. It is a heck of a lot more generous and family friendly. Story via Esquire. 
• In news from across the pond in the British Isles: 
• In northeast England, extreme poverty is leading to more cases of child services interventions. Via The Guardian.
• Philip Morris has announced that they will stop selling Marlboro cigarettes in the United Kingdom. Via NPR. However, do not get too excited. They will just be selling other things that can be just as bad to people's health. 
• In India, COVID is devastating families, not just because of the medical crisis. It is causing financial devastation as well from medical debt. Via Al Jazeera.
• Meanwhile, the sign that the economy is bad in Mexico this week is that tortilla prices are soaring. Via Al Jazeera.
• In Latin America, sex workers are finding they are locked out or unable to use OnlyFans, the popular online platform many sex workers use to promote their services. Story via VICE. If you are in a wealthy country like the U.S., you can pretty much take for granted that you can use OF. If on the other hand, you live in some of the poor parts of Latin America, things like good Internet access (if any access at all) and lack to a banking account can keep you from using OF.

 

In Other News of the Bad Economy

• Netflix is losing subscribers in the U.S. Story via The Hustle. The company has still added subscribers, just not in the U.S. Part of this I am sure is what I have said before: there are more and more streaming services, and all have different things, and after a while how much are people really willing to pay to feed their FOMO (fear of missing out)? I do find a bit ironic people whined about cutting the cable, blah blah, and now as they add yet another service to get that one show the bill starts adding up. 
• Via HBS Working Knowledge, a study reveals that many companies often liquidate too quickly or without planning ahead. The working paper asks what if some of those companies were given time to restructure? Would they be more likely to survive? 
• In what do things really cost?
• Type Investigations looks at the cost of the cheap chicken we get. It may be cheap for you and me at the grocery store (although given the pandemic that may be changing), but there are a lot of other human costs, illness, etc. 
• The Rockefeller Foundation has put out a report on the "true cost of food." A bit from the report: "In 2019, American consumers spent an estimated $1.1 trillion on food. That price tag includes the cost of producing, processing, retailing, and wholesaling the food we buy and eat. It does not include the cost of healthcare for the millions who fall ill with diet-related diseases. Nor does $1.1 trillion include the present and future costs of the food system’s contributions to water and air pollution, reduced biodiversity, or greenhouse gas emissions, which cause climate change.  Take those costs into account and it becomes clear the true cost of the U.S. food system is at least three times as big—$3.2 trillion per year" (emphasis in original). Hat tip to Food Politics. 
• Mother Jones looks at the costs of shipping good around the world, specially bringing them to the U.S. A lot of it has to do with how much shipping companies pollute. 
• President Biden recently announced a proposal for states and municipalities to pay $100 to get people to vaccinate. That story via CNBC. However, this is far from the first time that incentives have been tried to get the COVIDIOTS to vaccinate. Offering guns, marijuana, beer, and even gold has not really gotten a lot of people to get their shot. That story via VICE. Heck, here in Kentucky they are running a lottery of $1 million among those who got the shot. Yea, I put my name in the hat, but still I am not sure how much that gets people here to get a shot. Anyhow, if I win, you'll be hearing from me LOL. 
• Speaking of drugs and weed, Americans are on track to spend more on weed and cannabis than they spend on milk. Story via Leafly. Could the next big ad campaign be "Got Weed?" 
• On a bit of trivia, did you know that by now American cars, specially American trucks, are bigger than U.S. World War II tanks? Story via VICE. One of the findings from the study: "Perhaps more surprising is that large SUVs like the Chevy Suburban, Lincoln Navigator, and Ford Expedition, specifically marketed as family vehicles, are just as comparable to World War II tanks in size. " All you need is to mount a gun or two on it, and you are good to go in the new urban hellscape.

 

Hold My Beer 

(Serious fuckery in the bad economy)

• In profiteering fuckery: 
• The Pendejo In Chief and conservatives are profiteering from disinformation. Via Mother Jones. Turns out that lying and cheating and trying to overturn a perfectly legal election can bring in big money. 
• Meanwhile, via Democracy Now!, turns out that lawyers and consultants are profiteering out of money from funds that should go to victims of California fires. I am not saying lawyers work for free, but fucking damn it outright profiteering while people suffer should be a crime. 
• In just plain fuckery: as hospitals go broke, the corporations that hold them, even if the hospital no longer exists, keeps suing former patients. Story via NPR. Add to this stories like the one above about the serious lack of transparency in billing, and this becomes a massive problem and outright exploitation of vulnerable people. 
• And in something that we all sort of new but we now have evidence for it, yes, making waitresses be all "friendly with a smile" to grovel for tips DOES lead to asshole customers sexually harassing them. Via NPR. Because even when eating out, men can still be ill behaved pigs. The study finds: "The results, they said, confirm that dependency on tips and a requirement to appear emotionally pleasant on the job work together to increase an employee's risk of being sexually harassed."

Uber Rich

• Big banks are a little cranky that President Biden wants to make it easier for you and me to move our money to wherever the hell we want to move it. Story via Mother Jones. Less exploited clients means for those bankers less cigars they can light up with $100 dollar bills. The idea is to make it easier for you to move your funds and financial data easier so if you want to, for example, go to an online bank you can do that without the big bank you may be using now giving you shit about it. 
• Did you want to take a cruise around the world? Pandemic or not, some people want to do that. However, not if you are trying to get on Regent Seven Seas Cruises. Their 132-day $73,000 or so cruise sold out within 3 hours of it being announced. Story via NPR. Clearly there has been some seriously pent up demand. 
• People still want to move to D.C., so interest in luxury apartments is up. To lure those people in, apartment developers are trying just about any amenity in the book to get people to close the deal. Story via The Washingtonian.
• Finally, for rich people with money to burn for lunch. the restaurant in New York City that sells a $300 burger figured you might want fries with that. You can now get fries with it for $200. Story via Boing Boing. I am just buying some buns and frozen burgers for the grill to make at home, add my own fixings, some cheese, and I am good. Oh, also add a bag of frozen fries or some fresh potatoes to bake. 

And finally for this week, we have a winner: 

The "No Shit, Sherlock" Award for Stating the Obvious

• In one of those seriously blatant statements of the obvious, so much so even Stevie Wonder could have seen it, Dr. Leana Wen, speaking at Democracy Now!, stated what most of us able to see the signs and know human nature already knew: “We know that we can’t trust the unvaccinated..."

Well, no shit Doc. 

In fact, I called it back in May when the CDC said that stupid statement of trusting people on an "honor roll", and best part is I am not a doctor. Hell, I am not even a pundit nor so I play one on TV. Here is my tweet from May:  

There it is, I did say, and I am sure I was not the only one. This definitely was one of those moments I did not need cartomancy for. Thus, for the week of July 25 to July 31, Dr. Wen gets the "No Shit! Sherlock Award for Stating the Obvious." Congratulations. 

Signs the economy is bad: April 9, 2021 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.


It has been a good while since I've done an entry in this series. I managed to find some stories for this week, including an award winner, so let's have a look.

Education News

• While progress is being made in getting people vaccinated for COVID-19, there are always some holdouts and fuckbagels who decide they are "skeptical" about the vaccine and do not want to get it. One way to give a little incentive to people to get the vaccine is to pay them to do it like this community college in Kansas is doing. Story via the Shawnee Mission Post. On a side note, my college employer floated this idea, since they claim they cannot just require employees to do it (I honestly would like a formal legal opinion on why not, but that is another story), so they were considering giving college employees some small financial incentive if they got vaccinated and provided proof. As of this post, I have no idea if the proposal has made past the thinking about it stage. For the record, as of this post, I will have had my two shots and thus will be fully vaccinated. While I am not demanding payment, if the college chooses to give an incentive, they know where to send the money.
  

 Rural News

 

• Via PEW's Stateline, the wildfires out west have been a problem for forests. The problem has gotten worse because there are less trees to plant to replace the burnt down trees. Why? Because states like Oregon decided to close down the state run tree nurseries that provided a lot of those replacement trees. Whoops.

 

Government News

•  President Joe Biden has announced he will do some executive orders to implement some modest gun control measures. Via UPI. Why is this a sign the economy is bad? Because any time the government attempts and/or rarely implements any measure of gun control, gun fetishists enthusiasts rush to gun stores to stock up on even more firearms because they fear someone will take their guns away. Let the good times roll. 
• In U.S. politics, once you serve in some high government level, you can expect to find some cushy job and/or sinecure in a think tank, a lobbying group, maybe a university chancellorship, etc. However, Trump administration former officials are finding a hard time getting any of those jobs. Headhunters trying to find them work report no one wants to hire them. Story via The Hill. Gee, I can't imagine why. However, I would not worry about them. People like Mike Pompeo and Elaine Chao are already very rich, so it's not like they need the jobs.
  

The Bad Economy  Around the World

•  Over across the pond in Great Britain, Saga, a travel and insurance company for people over 50, reports major loses in travel revenue due to the pandemic. Story via The Guardian. I will be honest. You cannot pay me enough money to get on a cruise ship, which is nothing more than a floating germ and virus petri dish. 
• This is a story I just found interesting. Telesur has a short article on how China lifted 8 million people in the country out of poverty.
• In Mexico, piñata makers are having a hard time due to the pandemic. However, they are hustling to find ways to adapt such as adding "coronavirus figures to their lineups of superheros and princesses." Story via The New York Times.  

 

In Other News of the Bad Economy

• Amazon is buying up closed down malls to turn them into fulfillment centers and warehouses. Story via NBC. A bit of an irony given that Amazon is a big factor in those shopping malls dying. 
• In some sad news, for me at least, LG announced they are shutting down their mobile phone business. Via Boing Boing. I currently have an LG mobile phone, and of the phones I've, it has been the most durable and reliable. I was hoping to keep it a bit longer, especially since it is paid for by now, but with LG getting out of the market, I may have to get a new phone sooner rather than later. 
• In another bit of electronics news, there is a shortage of internet home routers. Story via Al Jazeera. Much of this is due to pandemic disruptions. 
• Electronic Frontier Foundation has a good article on "what movie studios refuse to understand about streaming." I find this ironic, all that "cut the cable" rhetoric, and we are back to a form of cable basically in a worse way. Personally, I just do not give a hoot about just about anything streaming. If it is good, it will make it to DVD and my library will carry it. For example, The Irishman I watched recently via my library on DVD. If it does not come on DVD/Blue Ray, then I do not worry. I got many other options that are less hassle and often cost a lot less. The article is interesting as it also looks at some history of the days of movie studio monopolies. Those monopolies were eventually broken by the U.S. government and antitrust laws. The monopolies have basically returned, just in different form. It may be high time to break up these new monopolies that really serve no one other than the greedy companies. 
• In the Bad Economy, especially in these pandemic times, that stimulus check the U.S. government sent out to people can be a life saver. However, for people who are homeless and/or may lack a bank account, they may not be able to get that bit of life saving money. In Dallas, TX activists are working to help the homeless get these payments. Story via Dallas Observer. 
• Here is another article from the Dallas Observer I found interesting. This one is about "how independent promoters wrestled with the pandemic." If all you know about wrestling is the WWE, you need to get out more, maybe check out one of the independent operations that may be near you.

Hustlin' in the Bad Economy

• Musicians are also having a hard time in the Bad Economy, especially due to the pandemic. Making recordings can get costly, so they are turning to an old technology to make recordings in a more affordable and accessible way: audio cassettes. Story via Salon. You gotta respect the hustle here.
  

Hold My Beer 

(Serious fuckery in the bad economy)

• After some serious bitching, moaning, gaslighting, and some stupid mistakes on social media, Amazon finally fessed up and admitted what we all knew from documented reports, that yes, they DO have employees they force to pee in bottles in order to keep the work lines going. Story via Boing Boing. Not that most Americans give a fuck about how Amazon exploits their workers. As long as they get their packages on time, Americans are more than willing to turn a blind eye to Amazon's exploitative fuckery that is barely a step above slavery.
  

The "No Shit, Sherlock" Award for Stating the Obvious

•  This week's award winner comes from this commentary comic at The Guardian where it reminds us that having "to ask if workers should be left alone by their employers when they are not being paid at work is offensive and weird." It is not just offensive nor weird. It is obvious. Once you are off the fucking work clock, your employer has no right over you. He wants you to work, he better pony up more pay or shut the fuck up and wait til the next shift. This is a rule I live by: once I go home, I go home. Period. Work e-mail does not get checked I do not care who dies. You want extra work, you need to pay for it. This is as obvious as it gets.
  

Signs the economy is bad: May 10, 2019 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.


We have a lot of stories this week. Very often I have to keep looking to find a few things. For this post, things practically fell on my lap, so let's get it on.

We start this week with:

Education News

•  Another cheating asshole plead guilty to bribery charges in the now infamous college cheating scandal. This one paid $400K at least. Via USA Today.
• Meanwhile, a former college admissions counselor spills the beans on how elite college admissions "really" works. Some of this is basically obvious, and some of it seems more like a guy getting a pang of conscience late  in life and trying to justify his actions, some of which can be seen as questionable at least, or, you know, it is not illegal but. . . . Via Vox.
• In broader news, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) reports that in a decade the federal student loan program will be running a deficit. Story via Inside Higher Ed.
• Here is the CBO report document  if you really want to dig in.
• Above the Law has a story and list of the law schools with the most unemployed graduates in 2018. Three of Puerto Rico's law schools are among the top. Now, unlike other schools in the US mainland that may or may not be of questionable quality, Puerto Rico's law schools may have a very important reason they got on this list: "For what it’s worth, we suspect that all three Puerto Rico law schools landed on the list due to the fact that the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria and has since been in 'recovery.' You apply to jobs without electricity." And before any of you gringos whine that the hurricane is long gone, keep in mind your president, The Pendejo In Chief, is still throwing tantrums and denying federal assistance to the US colony for hurricane relief and recovery.

Rural News

•  The Sage of Omaha recently said that rural newspapers are "toast." Naturally, some editors from small local news rags newspapers took exception in the pages of their barely read distinguished publications. Buffet's rationale is "due to the internet sucking away advertising revenue." Story via The Rural Blog. That scenario is not inaccurate. The editors went with the usual pap about how "rural newspapers provide a service to communities unmatched by any other resource" even as major newspapers are abandoning rural areas in droves making them vulnerable to fake news and partisan influence, at least 1/5 of newspapers have closed down nationwide (which makes it worse for rural areas, many of which are basically news deserts), and even newsprint tariffs are hurting the newspapers that are left. By the way, those other stories I presented in previous editions of "Signs the economy is bad" here on this blog. The tariff story is so bad it even got one of our local rags recently when the newspaper in the town over made a big deal that they were significantly reducing pages and content due to high costs, including costs of news print paper. So let us be perfectly honest here: Warren Buffet is not so much a genius; he just sees what the rest of us willing to see reality and pay attention already see, and then has an uncanny ability to make a shit ton of money out of it. Rural newspapers are not just toast: they are BURNT toast. Regular toast you can at least put butter on it and consume. Burnt toast gets tossed out for the most part. 
• In fact, in another story I found for this week, again, here we have a piece on small towns without a local newspaper. Those news deserts just keep getting bigger. Via The Daily Yonder.
• Meanwhile, as if things weren't bad enough for the press in rural regions, turns out the locals don't even want to talk to the press most of the time. They don't trust them. I wonder why. Story via The Rural Blog.
• According to a new poll, farmers are seriously stressed and have to deal with mental health issues. Story via The Rural Blog.
• Part of what stress may come because they are having difficulty finding workers to pick the actual crops because they refuse to pay decent wages for the hard work (not to mention consumers who want cheap fruit no matter what, but that is another story). One example is in Pennsylvania, where the farmers are so desperate they are basically turning to any cheap and (almost) slave labor they can find just to not have to pay a decent wage and so their crops don't rot. Such "creative" ideas to replace the immigrants they so gladly exploit include: ". . .inmate work-release programs, organizations that help the visually impaired find employment, and others that help veterans find work. . .". That story via The Rural Blog. So they are hoping to find a new pool of (barely) slave labor with  prison inmates, the visually impaired (who may already struggle to get employed to these farmers are hoping desperation will get them to pick crops), and veterans (hey,  they are not working send them to the farm. Better than that other farm). But hey, as long as those fruit stay cheap in  the grocery store. . . 
•  In rural health, the signs of the bad economy are there too. The diabetes mortality gap is widening in rural areas. Story via The Daily Yonder. They are basing the story on a new study in an article from the Journal of Rural Health (pay article but you can see abstract and conclusions. If you really want to see the full text, your local library may have access to it or the ability to do an Interlibrary Loan request for you). So you may be asking what is the big deal? The big deal is this: “'Rural America in general, and the rural South in particular, has seen little improvement in its diabetes mortality rate over the past two decades,' according to the report."
• Meanwhile, what started with  good intentions in Kentucky to build one of those "information superhighways" has become a serious boondoggle of lost money, incompetence, inefficiency, and nothing delivered. Via Pro Publica.  
• In the end, rural areas are pretty much fucked, for various reasons, including a good amount of reasons that boil down to them shooting themselves in the foot regularly. So, no matter how often those butt kissing candidates go to Iowa first every four years or so, rural areas like Iowa are just on the way down. Story via UPI. It boils down to this, as the story states: "The facts are clear and unarguable. Most of the nation's smaller urban and rural counties are not growing and will not grow." The news piece looks at various analysis resources including Department of Commerce data (resources linked in the article).

Government News

•  The Pendejo In Chief always provides signs that the economy is bad. No, I do not mean he does so by losing millions of dollars as a business man and then claiming it was a stroke of genius.  Oh no no. We got a couple of good ones this week from his Royal Orangeness: 
• He launched a new assault on the poor. . . again. Story via TruthDig. So what did Cheetolini do this time? "The Trump administration on Monday moved to change the definition of 'poverty' in the United States in a proposal which combines the president’s attempts to portray the U.S. economy as strong with his repeated attacks on the working poor and their access to government services." 
• And he just said he'd be fine if military academy graduates who play football put off their actual military careers (you know, the actual shit they got a coveted appointment to and a US service academy and a free education and that they agreed to serve upon graduation) so they can go play sportsball. By the way, while you may be struggling to pay off college loans because you did not want to or could not get into a service academy, you still pay taxes for those kids who DO go to a service academy only to go slack off and go play sportsball instead of doing the military duty they agreed to by contract when they accepted said free education. Story via USA Today. Feel free to queue up the patriotic sportsball enthusiasts who will be happy with Mar-A-Lago's Caudillo statement (bonus if they are gung ho Party of Stupid military vets who themselves would have never been able to get into a military academy or better yet local militia guys).
• The military industrial complex in the United States keeps marching on. Their latest budget request  (as of this post) is almost a trillion dollars. According to the story from TruthDig, "If passed by Congress, it will, in fact, be one of the largest military budgets in American  history, topping peak levels reached during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. And keep one thing in mind: that $750 billion represents only part of the actual annual cost of our national security state."
• And how is the US military often able to secure such obscene amounts of money? Well, fearmongering is one way. And these days, raising fears about rising Chinese power works really well to get Congress to approve money for defense fast. A former U.S. army colonel looks at a new Department of Defense report on Chinese military power and explains why it is fearmongering more than accuracy. Story via The Canary. If interested, you can see the actual Department of Defense document on the Chinese military in 2019 here (PDF document).
• In regulatory news, apparently the administration of the Pendejo In Chief, in their zeal to deregulate anything and everything no matter how silly or seriously dangerous is now targeting cherries in your frozen pie. I am not making this up. See the story, including link to the actual FDA report, at Food Politics. Not even Ace Rothstein was this anal about regulating fruit in a pastry.

Health and Medical News

This week, in Health and Medical News, let's play: "Did you know?" By the way, this week's edition of Health and Medical News here at the Itinerant Librarian is brought to you by Wilford Brimley. 

• Did you know that over 137 million people in the United States are stressed seriously over medical bills?  Story via Big Think. I am sure that has nothing to do with the shitty for profit exploitative health care and insurance system this  shithole country has that is a shame compared to what most civilized countries have. No siree, no way, no how, right? 
• Did you know that pregnancy deaths are up in the U.S.? It is specially bad for minorities. Story via TruthDig. 
• Did you know that diabetes hospitalizations are going up among young teens in the United States? Story via UPI.
• Did you know that U.S. citizens are actually driving up to Canada in caravans so they can buy insulin at a cheaper price because U.S. Big Pharma and insurance companies keep ripping them off on price preferring profits over the health of people? Story via Boing Boing. Seriously, they can save around 90% on the price by buying their insulin, which  is an essential drug (if you are a diabetic on  insulin you need it or die, it is that simple), up in Canada.
• Did you know that hackers are helping diabetics in need by hacking a  discontinued insulin pump model that can be reprogrammed by the hack to make an artificial pancreas? Story via Boing Boing. This is a fucking  big deal, and it is something that Big Pharma could probably make, but again, since they choose to fleece vulnerable sick people because profit is the only value they know, patients need to do what they can. I know that I often say if the Revolution comes, and I am in charge, that hackers along with scam artists, spammers, phone bank scammer and their ilk are first against the wall, but these heroic hackers will get an immediate pardon and put to work on behalf of citizens' health. 

The Bad Economy Around the World

•  In the Philippines, they are turning to China to help build infrastructure. This is part of the continuing story about the Chinese Belt and Road initiative we have written about here in the blog before (see last week's edition of "Signs the economy is bad"). This week's story via The Atlantic.
• India: economic inequality is an issue as the richest, in a country known worldwide for its poverty, are the beneficiaries of local growing economy. Story via Al Jazeera. On the one hand, "India is home to the third-highest number of billionaires in the world, including Asia’s richest person." But on  the other  hand, India has "some of the poorest people in the world"
• Great Britain: Things are so bad that many parents who have a baby in the hospital can't afford to take it home (or at least take it home right away). Why? They can't afford things as basic as a car seat to be able to carry the baby home. Story via The Canary. 
• The World: According to a new United Nations report, 1 million animals and plants are in imminent risk of extinction due to human activity. Story via NPR. Keep in mind that is 1 million of an estimated 8 million, and a lot of those could be lost within a decade.

In Other News of the Bad Economy

• If you work at a company that says you can have unlimited vacation, beware. It is a scam basically. Read the details over at Inc.
• Pew Research reports that even though adoption of tech among low income Americans is up the digital divide is STILL a problem.  Hat tip to Infodocket.
• In local neighborhood news, want to buy a house? Apparently now a lot of people check Facebook to see if they find groups and pages of local neighborhoods, subdivisions, etc. People tend to speak freely, for good or ill and sometimes way too freely, on said forums. For some home sellers it can be a problem if their neighbors air all the dirty laundry when potential buyers are coming around. Story via WKYT.
• In something to actually help folks out, here is a piece on 6 items you need to be prepared to replace over time. Basically things like your car (it ain't going to last forever no matter how much you love it) and how to plan for when you need to replace. Via Wise Bread.

Sometimes you need to up your game, use a little ingenuity and creativity in the bad economy to make a buck or two. So that's why we look at. . .

Hustlin' in the Bad Economy

•  Food waste is a huge problem. However, three Stanford University graduates figured how to make an opportunity out of it that can make them money and help reduce food waste. Story via Inc.
• If you enjoy adult entertainment, specially cam girls, you can likely find a cam girl that will cater to pretty much any fetish as long as you got the currency to pay for her services. In a field where it can be very competitive, cam girls need to get creative to stand out. Well, one cam girl over in Florida noticed there was a serious need to serve a special clientele that few people even consider when it comes to adult entertainment: the deaf and hard of hearing. So our entrepreneur got herself a good education in ASL, and now she can sign dirty talk and communicate with deaf and hard of hearing people. That is just genius. We tip our pimp hat here at The Itinerant Librarian to this young creative entrepreneur who saw a need and moved to serve it and make a buck or two. Story via Metro (UK). 
• Speaking of the Internet, maybe you cannot make a living as a cam girl. But you still want to make a living working on the Internet. After all, you can do flexible hours, mostly in front of your computer, you got good computer skills, effort can be minimal, and you still get paid without having to take your clothes off. Well, you may to consider becoming a professional internet troll. If your politics are very flexible or lean right wing, the Russian government is willing to pay for your services doing things like posing as pro-Trump Americans on social media, websites, so on. Story via Business Insider.
• Jacob Silverman, in The New Republic, writes a good piece worth a read about the plight of the freelance journalist. Freelance journalists and writers do share common plights and pain with adjunct professors and even adjunct librarians (yes, those do exist, and I am fortunate not to be one of them so far).

This week, we open a new regular feature here in "Signs the economy is bad." There are stories I come across that are honestly the lowest of the low. They are so low in things like overall stupidity, cruelty, viciousness, insensitivity, indifference, negligence, and just plain fuckery that I decided to give them their own feature. I hope not to bring this feature out often, but in this bad economy, you never know. So. . .

Hold My Beer 

(Serious fuckery in the bad economy)

•  Delta Airlines, often known for their overall fuckery as an airline, decided to do some union busting. It did not go well for them. Story via The Washington Post. Additional commentary via P.Z. Myers at Pharyngula.
• In fuckery that you just have to read, read the tale of a school district that sent a kid's lunch bill to a collections agency. By the way, we need to mention the reason the bill came to life is because the school royally fucked up, what they called "a clerical error", and they STILL fucked over the poor parent anyhow. Because heaven forbid they admit their mistake. And there is more. Story via Yes! Magazine.

This week we get to award another award. This week's award goes to Warren Buffet who stated not one but two statements of the obvious:

• One, the statement above that rural newspapers are "toast." 
• Two, a statement that college is not for all, and it may even be a terrible decision for some people. Via Inc.

Thus, this week, we award

The "No Shit, Sherlock" Award for Stating the Obvious

To Warren Buffet, the Sage of Omaha. 

Congratulations.

Signs the economy is bad: April 19, 2019 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.


Been a while since I have done one these, but the signs that the economy is bad are all around us. So let's see what's been going on these days. 

Big news this week

• The big news in recent days is the college cheating scandal. Basically the big deal is not that they were doing it. It's that they got caught doing it in the most stupid and dumb way possible. Everyone knows if you make a big enough "donation" (wink, wink), your kids will get into that fancy pants university or college you desire. So apparently some admissions officials are having sudden existential questions about things like when to give a donor more or less leeway in order to keep that wonderful money coming into their campuses. You can read all about their ethical "dilemma" at Inside Higher Ed. A college student cited in the article summed it well: "I thought it was an open secret that wealthy parents paid universities all the time to get their kids in.”

 

Education news

•  Turns out that those for-profit colleges and online schools spend the least of their money on actual instruction. Want to know where much of their money does go? Advertising. Via Salon. 
• In tragic news, a story from The Atlantic about "The Death of an Adjunct" is making the rounds. Tragic as this is, I am having difficulty having a lot of sympathy since she DID land a tenure-track job, and then ". . . she was principled; so, in 2006, she left" due to various indignities. Granted, the racism was bad, but again, she had the tenure job; she had the damn job that so many others never get. Once she fell into the adjunct grinder, it was pretty much over for her. Still, stories like this will continue to surface as long as academia just keeps on exploiting adjuncts to save a buck. 
• Matt Reed, at Inside Higher Ed, claims there is a student debt crisis. However, it is not what many of us think. He actually argues students should not be afraid of taking on loans if needed to complete their education. A real issue, which he does mention, are college dropouts, but the reality is drop out or not, a student loan can become a curse and a stone on your neck. There are plenty of reports on how student debt can keep graduates from doing things that Mr. Reed may  take for granted like buying a home (via CNBC). In fact, 30% of student loan recipients find themselves unable to keep up with  payments after 6 years (via CNBC). Student loan debt is a crisis (via The Atlanta Voice), and for anyone to be recommending or encouraging anyone to take out a college loan is irresponsible to be honest. But I suppose if you work in higher ed,  you want that tuition income to come to you no matter what, and after they graduate, they are gone, not your problem. They can always go back to living with their parents (via MarketWatch).
• P.Z. Myers at Pharyngula comments on another article in The Atlantic about the exploitation of adjuncts in higher education.
• On an interesting piece out of Hyperallergic, an argument "Why Art Colleges and Universities Should Not Act Like For-Proft Galleries." 
• Did you know that Kentucky school teacher salaries are worse now than they were 15 years ago? Yea, Kentucky pretty much treats their teachers like peons. Via Forward Kentucky.

Rural news 

•  Major newspapers are abandoning rural areas. Not too surprising. The issue according to the article is that it makes those areas vulnerable to partisan influence. According to the piece, "It helped conservative evangelicals establish themselves as news providers across rural America. And it helps explain why rural people’s understanding of their own self-interest may seem out of sync with what people who get their news in metro media hubs think it should be." I think we can say that in a lot of those areas they already gave in to their partisan influence and are quite proud of their willful ignorance as well. Sure their politics and "wholesome family values"  means they usually vote against their interests but it's their choice to choose the  Party of Stupid consistently. Via The Rural Blog. 
• Meanwhile in Kentucky, changes to the SNAP food assistance program means more Kentuckians are going hungry. Another example of actions, namely  voting for the party that said they could cut SNAP and other social service programs, having consequences. Maybe a little less whining that major news are "fake news" and worrying about "pwning the libtards" and a bit more paying attention to your actual needs and voting accordingly. Via Forward Kentucky.
• In what can only be described as hipster/bougie fuckery, apparently farm chic is now a thing, especially for home decor. This is a problem because thieves are now stealing planks of whole wood from barns and other older farm buildings to sell as "reclaimed wood," and  those hispter/bougie fuckbagels are buying them in droves. Story via The Rural Blog.

In other news of the bad economy

•  Learn about the "gay tax." Turns out that same sex couples get more discrimination in housing, especially when trying to get a mortgage. Via Telesur.
• Apologies in advance to my non-Spanish language friends. In news from back in the U.S. colony, Puerto Rico faces at this point their greatest decline in population according to the census. Story via Primera Hora.
• For many people in the bad economy, bankruptcy is a last resort, but at least it is a resort  you can take if things get really, really bad. That is unless you have college loans, in which case you are truly fucked (thanks largely to finance lobbyists and Party of Stupid legislators, student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy). However, you get to be seriously truly screwed if you are so poor that you can't even afford to file for bankruptcy. Read about it via Pro Publica.
• Who knew? Turns out that show Shark Tank is not a real depiction of entrepreneurship. Read about it at Inc.
• P.Z. Myers, over at Pharyngula, reminds us how capitalism really works as he looks at why eyeglasses and prescription eye wear is so damn expensive. Having recently bought a new pair of eyeglasses, bifocals by the way (yea, I got a reminder I am getting older), and paying a king's ransom for them, I appreciated this story. 
• Walmart is among the retailers rushing to put robots in their workplaces. This article claims to help you tell if your job will be given to a robot or not. Via The Conversation.  Articles like this often say librarians are prime candidates for the robot overlords, but usually people who say that have no flipping clue what librarians actually do. This article places us in the "displaced" category, i.e. in the  highest danger of being booted out by a robot. I'd like to see a robot try to do my job in areas like student consultation, teaching, and other skills and tasks that take things like creativity, empathy, and thinking on your feet among other things. My job is pretty secure at this point. 

How are the uber rich doing this week

• These days a lot of the uber rich are concerned people may decide to actually get them to pay their fair share of taxes. However, they use their power, influence, and lobbyists to try to prevent that, and a lot of stupid voters fall for the bullshit that taxing the rich is bad, mainly because they see themselves as inconvenienced rich people. Yea, take a moment to laugh at the idea. And then you can read how Robert Reich explains and debunks the myths about taxing the rich. 
• Wall Street firms keep on investing in private prisons, so apparently that industry is doing well for them. Via Latino Rebels. 
• Apparently some thing or other is going on with that Game of Thrones show/fantasy soap opera so many people obsess about. I think I heard it is finally ending (good riddance). However, businesses left and right are trying to cash in on the show with  products that license or just use GoT as a label or just in news stories trying to get attention, like this story on choosing fancy toilets so you can have a good throne. Via The Washington Blade.

Hustlin' in  the Bad Economy 

•  Big retailers and big box stores may be declining  in the bad economy. Malls are not doing any better. However, one small type of business is hustling in the bad economy, working hard to make a go of it, and doing well. What is this business? Your local witchy and/or metaphysical shop. Learn more via The Wild Hunt.

 

 Today, we inaugurate a new feature in this blog:

The "No shit, Sherlock" Award for Stating the Obvious

•  Today's winner comes from the Harvard Business School. In research that tells us the obvious: people still prefer talking to an actual person than putting up with a fucking phone tree. "No shit, Sherlock!" Via Working Knowledge. Congratulations on your award and telling us all what we already know.

Booknote: New Rules (audiobook edition)

Bill Maher, New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer. Beverly Hills, CA: Phoenix Books, 2005. ISBN: 1-59777-029-9.

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: humor
Format: Audiobook on CD
Source: Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library

I read this book in print back in 2007, and I made a short note of it back then. Part of what I wrote then applies today to the audiobook edition. However, I rated it lower this time because the much of the political humor does not hold up as well. The book was written in the midst of George W. Bush's presidency. A lot has changed since then, some of the better, some not so much. This is also a very lightweight book, something that is highlighted more by the audio edition. There is not much deep substance here. However, the humor on general topics still holds pretty well, and in the end, I still like the book.

Bill Maher reads the book, which works well for me. I tend to prefer books, as much as possible, where the author reads their own work. If you've seen Maher's segment of "New Rules" on his show, that is pretty much what he does in reading the book. In a way, it is a long segment of new rules. In reading the book, he can be a bit more serious at times, but it is still a good read, and it was a good choice for him to read it.

3 out of 5 stars.

This book qualifies for the following 2016 Reading Challenges:

Reading about the reading life, July 10, 2013

Welcome to another small compilation of items about books and reading. As I have mentioned before, these are items that catch my eye that I think my four readers might find interesting as well.

• This story came out a while back, but it caught my interest. It is a story about a culture of cafes with books to read in South Korea. They are a reflection, in part, of the fact that brick and mortar bookstores are rapidly declining there. Some just offer books to read, but others do sell books. And this is just one type of cafe. According to the article, "today’s visitors have many choices ― there are cafes with cats and dogs, cafes with fortune-tellers, and cafes with cool vintage furniture and even artworks" Via Korea Herald.
• It's not easy finding good erotica to read out there. There is a lot of crap out there. Crystal Veeyant argues that much of this has to do with the problem of shame, i.e., society's repressed notions when it comes to sex and sexual expression. From the piece, "again we should consider the chilling effect that shame and fear might have on many skilled writers that stays their hand from publishing erotica, ceding the market to countless horny typists with no credentials beyond a C+ in high school English and an almost charming ignorance of their own mediocrity." Via Bending the Bookshelf. I think we can add to this certain low quality fan fictions that somehow get re-written and then go on to become bestsellers. As a librarian, I usually do not judge what others read (not professionally anyhow). As a reader with some standards, if you do read that subpar stuff when there are so many other better options, I have to wonder. 
• On a different vein, an interview with author and activist Rigoberto Gonzalez. The man does a bit of everything: YA fiction, poetry, short prose, so on. Plus he is a book critic and makes time to help out other authors coming up along the way.  A bit of what he says: "I’ve been truly blessed with opportunity. Fortunately, I had the right mentors, writers who were generous with their time and guidance, who instilled in me a sense of responsibility to my various communities. Being an activist-writer means keeping the door open for others, not closing it right behind you. It means asking yourself what you can do, not only who you can be." Via Lambda Literary. 
• I don't have a whole lot of love for Amazon. I think my four readers know this by now. Aside from using the Kindle app on my iPad for a few free items here and there (mostly as a learning experience), there is no love lost for the company overall. This story illustrates yet another reason I don't exactly consider them experts when it comes to books and reading. To them, if you did not buy items to them, then you are not really a reader. In a nutshell, you know when Amazon does one of their big press releases touting well read cities in the U.S.? They base that on their book sales. Yea. That is pretty much it. I can't imagine what other key factors might be indicative that a city or town is a well read place, such, as, having libraries maybe? Read about it over at Book Riot.
• At Papeles Perdidos, as part of celebrating the International Day of the Book, they ask their readers why do you read? Author Caballero Bonald gives his answer. (Blog post in Spanish language). I would be curious what reasons some folks out there would give for reading: pleasure? distraction? to learn something? aesthetic reasons? Feel free to comment.
• This was not something I read, but rather something I enjoyed watching. A short film entitled "The Last Bookshop." Link to YouTube video here. In a not-too-distant future, a boy's holographic entertainment goes on the fritz, and he decides to venture outside, where he finds, lo and behold, that a bookstore still exists. 
• A message from the Department of the Obvious: Having bookshelves and books in a home can help your children succeed academically. The story is found here at Pacific Standard Magazine. On a serious note, my parents did make sure we had access to books in the home. Curiously enough, complementing that with trips to a local library never seemed to occur to them. It is a puzzling part of my childhood to be honest. However, we never lacked for books at home. Now that I have a family, we do have books at home as well, and we are a family of readers. It has paid off for our daughter as well.
• This article from The Economist back in March basically has publishers worried that with e-books in libraries, no one will ever have to buy a book again. Yes, the guy from Macmillan said that, showing once again how publishers as a whole are just clueless. The article does have some pretty fun one-liners that librarians may find amusing, such as this comment from Phil Bradley, "in publishers’ eyes librarians are 'sitting close to Satan.'” I bet Mr. Satan has a very interesting book list, and he probably borrows from his local public library. Yea, we probably share the same reading bench.
  
  I’ve been truly blessed with opportunity. Fortunately, I had the right mentors, writers who were generous with their time and guidance, who instilled in me a sense of responsibility to my various communities. Being an activist-writer means keeping the door open for others, not closing it right behind you. It means asking yourself what you can do, not only who you can be. - See more at: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/interviews/05/04/rigoberto-gonzalez-populating-the-bookshelves/#sthash.ipPg4bcb.dpuf
  I’ve been truly blessed with opportunity. Fortunately, I had the right mentors, writers who were generous with their time and guidance, who instilled in me a sense of responsibility to my various communities. Being an activist-writer means keeping the door open for others, not closing it right behind you. It means asking yourself what you can do, not only who you can be. - See more at: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/interviews/05/04/rigoberto-gonzalez-populating-the-bookshelves/#sthash.ipPg4bcb.dpuf
  I’ve been truly blessed with opportunity. Fortunately, I had the right mentors, writers who were generous with their time and guidance, who instilled in me a sense of responsibility to my various communities. Being an activist-writer means keeping the door open for others, not closing it right behind you. It means asking yourself what you can do, not only who you can be. - See more at: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/interviews/05/04/rigoberto-gonzalez-populating-the-bookshelves/#sthash.ipPg4bcb.dpuf
  I’ve been truly blessed with opportunity. Fortunately, I had the right mentors, writers who were generous with their time and guidance, who instilled in me a sense of responsibility to my various communities. Being an activist-writer means keeping the door open for others, not closing it right behind you. It means asking yourself what you can do, not only who you can be. - See more at: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/interviews/05/04/rigoberto-gonzalez-populating-the-bookshelves/#sthash.ipPg4bcb.dpuf

  I’ve been truly blessed with opportunity. Fortunately, I had the right mentors, writers who were generous with their time and guidance, who instilled in me a sense of responsibility to my various communities. Being an activist-writer means keeping the door open for others, not closing it right behind you. It means asking yourself what you can do, not only who you can be. - See more at: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/interviews/05/04/rigoberto-gonzalez-populating-the-bookshelves/#sthash.ipPg4bcb.dpuf
  I’ve been truly blessed with opportunity. Fortunately, I had the right mentors, writers who were generous with their time and guidance, who instilled in me a sense of responsibility to my various communities. Being an activist-writer means keeping the door open for others, not closing it right behind you. It means asking yourself what you can do, not only who you can be. - See more at: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/interviews/05/04/rigoberto-gonzalez-populating-the-bookshelves/#sthash.ipPg4bcb.dpuf
  I’ve been truly blessed with opportunity. Fortunately, I had the right mentors, writers who were generous with their time and guidance, who instilled in me a sense of responsibility to my various communities. Being an activist-writer means keeping the door open for others, not closing it right behind you. It means asking yourself what you can do, not only who you can be. - See more at: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/interviews/05/04/rigoberto-gonzalez-populating-the-bookshelves/#sthash.ipPg4bcb.dpuf