March 1, 2014

Biden? Clinton?.. How about NEITHER ?

"Up with Steve Kornacki" is going on and on about how poor old Joe has such low numbers against Hillary.

In this time we live in, gender (female) trumps sitting-veep.

But even if Hillary was content to not run and to say it in no uncertain terms, I would still not want Joe to run.

I am mostly upset at how everyone is totally negating and lame-ducking the president we just re-elected not that long ago.

I am nearly 65, so I DO know the value of experience, but I also know how important it should be to have a younger person in charge...someone who grew up "digital", and who has a fuller understanding of our newer ways of working/banking/investing/communicating, etc.

No one is "owed" the presidency, and even though it might be "loverly" to see a female president, I would prefer a tech-savvy younger person.

Every time I start to focus on all the upsetting things our government does/does not do, I find myself wishing we had a better system....one where all offices are ONE-TERM... No need to campaign for re-election .. President 6 years & out..senate 6 years and out, house 4 years and out. Without the need to STAY elected at any cost, perhaps legislators would feel free to actually legislate.

February 14, 2014

One in three experienced poverty

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/seesaw-economy-nearly-one-three-dipped-poverty-n17111

In America’s new normal, plenty of Americans will tumble into poverty at some point – but few will be stuck there forever. Nearly one in three Americans experienced a stint of poverty between 2009 and 2011, a new Census Bureau report finds, but only a fraction of those people were stuck below the poverty line for the entire three-year period. “There’s a lot of movement in and out of poverty,” said Ann Stevens, director of the Center for Poverty Research at UC Davis.

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But it’s also because of a longer-running trend toward lower skilled, low-paying jobs. Permanent, good paying jobs are largely going to the highly skilled and highly educated, while many of the rest are living on a knife-edge of economic ruin, where even living paycheck to paycheck seems like a luxury.



The 22-year-old from Wellsville, N.Y., makes $5 an hour plus tips at her part-time job as a server at a pizza chain. She rarely knows how many hours she’ll be working, or how much money her customers will leave on the table.
That means she also rarely knows whether she’ll make enough to pay the rent or put food on her own table. “It’s not even month to month. It’s week to week or night to night,” she said.

The Census Bureau report found that 31.6 percent of Americans were in poverty for least two months between 2009 and 2011, compared to 27.1 percent of Americans between 2005 and 2007. The recession ran from late 2007 to mid-2009. Those who fell below the poverty line also stayed there longer. The median length a person spent below the poverty line was 6.6 months between 2009 and 2011, as compared to 5.7 months between 2005 and 2007.

snip