DOCSLIB.ORG

I'm Making $21 an Hour at Mcdonald's. Why Aren't You?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
I'm Making $21 an Hour at Mcdonald's. Why Aren't You? I’m making $21 an hour at McDonald’s. Why aren’t you? | The Great Debate 8/29/14 9:37 AM Safari Power Saver Click to Start Flash Plug-in RECOMMENDED VIDEO Whole organ 'grown' inside animal for the fir… U.S. Navy releases video it says shows aircraft t… I "Shaun" the sheep could be the world's woolliest work for McDonald’s and I make $21 an hour. No, that isn’t a typo. It’s really my salary. Girl shoots instructor during shooting lesson You see, I work for McDonald’s in Denmark, where an agreement between our union and the company guarantees that workers older than 18 are paid at least $21 an hour. Employees younger than 18 make at least $15 — meaning teenagers working at McDonald’s in Denmark make more than two times what many adults in America earn working at the Golden Arches. To anyone who says that fast-food jobs can’t be good jobs, I would answer that mine isn’t bad. In fact, parts of it are Sponsored Financial Content (?) just fine. Under our union’s agreement with McDonald’s, for example, I receive paid sick leave that workers are still fighting for in many parts of the world. We also get overtime pay, guaranteed hours and at least two days off a week, unlike workers in most countries. At least 10 percent of the staff in any given restaurant must work at least 30 hours How CashPro has helped Shure achieve a week. seamless cash efficiency Bank of America Estimate how much you’ll need for retirement with My Retirement Plan® Wells Fargo Meet Warren Buffett's Worst Nightmare Motley Fool Use Free 2-Step Reverse Mortgage Calculator For Cash Estimate, Today! Liberty Home Insurance One Smart Penny Ridiculously Easy Way to Pay Off Mortgage Faster One smart penny MORE REUTERS NEWS But in New York last week, I met fast-food workers from around the world who aren’t as lucky as I am. We marched through Midtown Manhattan demanding a China investigates senior legislator amid fair wage and respect at the workplace. corruption crackdown Many of the U.S. workers I met make less than $9 an hour. And unlike in Denmark, where most fast-food workers Separatists say will allow 'trapped' are young people looking to make extra money while in school, the vast majority of U.S. fast-food workers are adults trying to support their families. Roughly 70 percent are in their 20s or older, according to a recent study, and more Ukrainian forces to withdraw than a quarter are raising kids. Pakistan leader distances himself from I met Jessica Davis, for example, who works at a McDonald’s in Chicago and has two daughters— one 4 years old army as crisis drags on and the other 4 months old. After working four years at McDonald’s, she makes $8.98 an hour and has no stable U.N. says 43 Golan peacekeepers seized work schedule. by Syria militants, 81 trapped How can fast-food companies expect employees to work hard but not pay them enough to live on? All fast-food Tragedy-hit Malaysia Airlines to lose workers should be able to support themselves while helping large companies like McDonald’s make huge profits. 6,000 jobs in bold revamp Employees also deserve a voice in their workplace — as we have in Denmark — and McDonald’s should respect the right of employees in all countries to organize and speak for themselves. McDonald’s didn’t give us our union. We had to fight for it. It was a five-year struggle that involved many demonstrations like the ones that will stretch across the globe on Thursday. In Denmark, I will be in one of them. PHOTO (TOP): Protesters march outside McDonald’s in Los Angeles, California, December 5, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/05/15/fight-for-15-try-21/ Page 2 of 10 I’m making $21 an hour at McDonald’s. Why aren’t you? | The Great Debate 8/29/14 9:37 AM PHOTO (INSERT): A customer exits a McDonald’s restaurant as members of ‘MoveOn’ shout slogans against McDonald’s in front of the restaurant in Times Square, New York, December 4, 2013. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz « Previous Post Next Post » More From Reuters Fitch Affirms Denmark at 'AAA'; Outlook Stable | 22 Aug Experimental U.S. hypersonic weapon destroyed seconds after launch | 25 Aug Texas police chief shot dead during traffic stop | 24 Aug 'Men in green' raise suspicions of east Ukrainian villagers | 26 Aug Mum's the word on soaring Swedish household debt as poll nears | 24 Aug Sponsored Financial Content (?) LEAKED: Apple's Next Smart Device Motley Fool Learn how to make the right retirement choices for you Wells Fargo An Overlooked Way to Pay Off Mortgage One Smart Penny How Graphic Packaging's global plan achieved millions in cost savings Bank of America Use Free 2-Step Reverse Mortgage Calculator For Cash Estimate, Today! Liberty Home Insurance From The Web Sponsored Links by Taboola You Won’t Believe What Buffett's Empire Is In NEVER eat this fish Eerily Beautiful This Teen Can’t Do W… Peril... And He Knows It (EVER) Abandoned Places Toyota The Motley Fool Inflammation Solution Conde Nast Traveler The Army’s New The attacks are coming, How to Weed Out the Robert De Niro Talks Handgun: A Weapon f… the attacks are comin… Worst Job Applicants … About Finding Out His The Fiscal Times VERISIGN American Express OPEN Yahoo… News With Katie Couric Comments 88 comments so far | Comments RSS « 1 [2] SHOW ALL MAY 16, 2014 Lastly… she isn’t paid $21 per hour, she is paid 115 Kroners (Danish currency as they 4:49 PM UTC don’t use the Euro). The cost of a McDonalds combo meal there? 65 Kroners. They http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/05/15/fight-for-15-try-21/ Page 3 of 10 I’m making $21 an hour at McDonald’s. Why aren’t you? | The Great Debate 8/29/14 9:37 AM pay about twice as much as average Americans. See the issue? Posted by jimstark | Report as abusive MAY 16, 2014 The questions never asked about jobs, worker benefits, and middle class. 6:50 PM UTC 1. We might start with exactly what is the middle class, besides wages, there are benefits, education(s), experience and skill sets (AKA what can you do productively). Might also include real wealth, since credit is the emperors clothing of most who think of selves as “middle class”. We can for now ignore reality, AKA what you own, as “middle class” in reality “Owns” very little, as clothes/TV/trips etc you do not really “own” until paid off. 2.Fast food-related type work AKA little education or skills required, highly replaceable needs to be evaluated.Are these actually “real jobs” or simply the last bastion of the lower end, uneducated, low end hourly workers. We must remember that not that far back, fast foods, paper routes, such jobs were nearly 100% staffed by HS/College kids, they were NOT adult, family supporting jobs. Not that far back hard to find anyone over 21 in such occupations. These jobs were simply a stop along the way for education, car, clothes and such for kids. Now if they are career adult jobs, along with lots of “new USA economy, mfg, other “services”, semi skilled labor, semi-functionally literate, all with limited to no REAL upward mobility, we then can discuss wages for adults,seniors, etc. We decide on the wages after we decide what these jobs are really worth and how that was based. 3 Is a semi-literate HS drop out with zero chance of upward mobility/30 hour part-timer worth 8/10/15/20hour. Since these part timers min wages-10-15 cancel, make most items unfordable, rent/HC/Retirement/food/utility/auto-ins and education/home ownership and other like items. Now we ask, since wages, and in truth qualifications for job so low, and the corporations only concern is profit for WS, who must pay these bills? MCD/WM/ and all, even small business (but profits there never asked when owners whine, justifiably or not, we never know). How can nation survive when 1/3 do not finish HS or graduate illiterate in most skills? Dare we ask? 4 Dare we ask, WHO IS GOING TO PAY THESE BILLS for life supporting functions? Please no more of the right’s Ver. 1.0 of either dodging the issue, or attacking such workers (but never their corp owners) of “just pull selves up by bootstraps as others do. What is omitted form the discussion is reality today is made up of wealth via legislation (AKA buy/employee the elected for profits). 5 Other big’gy, never discussed. that as “investment” bleeds off more from the economy, less goes to workers, less to Competitive world class R&D, updated mfg- worker upgrades/education/high tech, exports to compete at world class levels. That costs money which takes form WS”investors”. We have a sorry history since 80′s of bleeding companies with NO updated HW or workers training. Regan told us in 80′s ship mfg offshore, everyone will work at home with a PC, “keyboarding” was a hit, until reality burst that bubble as last mfg plant left. But we still hear the manta of “USA Business doing great in China” not said, Chine by law must own (profits?) 50+ of each business along with all the technology for free for “USA Co.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • English, French, and Spanish Colonies: a Comparison
    COLONIZATION AND SETTLEMENT (1585–1763) English, French, and Spanish Colonies: A Comparison THE HISTORY OF COLONIAL NORTH AMERICA centers other hand, enjoyed far more freedom and were able primarily around the struggle of England, France, and to govern themselves as long as they followed English Spain to gain control of the continent. Settlers law and were loyal to the king. In addition, unlike crossed the Atlantic for different reasons, and their France and Spain, England encouraged immigration governments took different approaches to their colo- from other nations, thus boosting its colonial popula- nizing efforts. These differences created both advan- tion. By 1763 the English had established dominance tages and disadvantages that profoundly affected the in North America, having defeated France and Spain New World’s fate. France and Spain, for instance, in the French and Indian War. However, those were governed by autocratic sovereigns whose rule regions that had been colonized by the French or was absolute; their colonists went to America as ser- Spanish would retain national characteristics that vants of the Crown. The English colonists, on the linger to this day. English Colonies French Colonies Spanish Colonies Settlements/Geography Most colonies established by royal char- First colonies were trading posts in Crown-sponsored conquests gained rich- ter. Earliest settlements were in Virginia Newfoundland; others followed in wake es for Spain and expanded its empire. and Massachusetts but soon spread all of exploration of the St. Lawrence valley, Most of the southern and southwestern along the Atlantic coast, from Maine to parts of Canada, and the Mississippi regions claimed, as well as sections of Georgia, and into the continent’s interior River.
    [Show full text]
  • Colonial Theodicy and the Jesuit Ascetic Ideal in José De Acosta's
    chapter 6 Colonial Theodicy and the Jesuit Ascetic Ideal in José de Acosta’s Works on Spanish America Bryan Green This chapter aims to demonstrate the centrality of the problem of theodicy in José de Acosta’s (1540–1600) scientific, ethnographic, and historical writings on Spanish America.1 Based on Acosta’s experience as the Jesuit provincial of Peru and his active participation in the political and ecclesiastical reforms initiated under the viceroy Francisco de Toledo (1515–82), these works bear witness to the moral evils running rampant among his fellow Spaniards and the concomi- tant suffering inflicted upon the indigenous population.2 While Acosta recog- nizes the moral evil at the root of Spanish sovereignty, namely greed in the ruthless pursuit of precious metals, his colonial theodicy nevertheless main- tains that this evil is a means to the greater good of the Amerindian’s salvation. In his guidelines for missionary conduct, Acosta offers a response to this ethi- cal impasse through the performance of a distinctly Jesuit ascetic ideal, which 1 This chapter was written at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso with the sup- port of a research grant from the Chilean government (fondecyt Iniciación en Investigación no. 11140527, 2014–17). 2 The son of a prosperous merchant from Medina del Campo in Spain, Acosta entered the Society in 1552 and completed the first years of his studies at the Jesuit college in his home- town. Having distinguished himself as a student and grammar teacher in several Jesuit schools throughout Iberia, Acosta moved on to study philosophy and theology at the renowned University of Alcalá de Henares in 1557.
    [Show full text]
  • The Early History of Greed the Sin of Avarice in Early Medieval Thought and Literature
    The Early History of Greed The Sin of Avarice in Early Medieval Thought and Literature RICHARD NEWHAUSER Trinity University (San Antonio) published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge The Pitt Building, TrumpingtonStreet, Cambridge, United Kingdom cambridge university press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, ny 10011±4211, USA http://www.cup.org. 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia # Cambridge University Press 2000 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2000 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeset in Adobe Garamond 11.5/14pt [ce] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Newhauser, Richard, 1947± The early history of greed: the sin of avarice in early medieval thought and literature / Richard Newhauser. p. cm. ± (Cambridge studies in medieval literature) Includes bibliographical references amd index. isbn 0 521 38522 9 (hardback) 1. Avarice ± History. 2. Christian ethics ± History ± Middle Ages, 600±1500. I. Title. II. Series. bj1535.a8n48 2000 241'.3±dc21 99-25922 cip isbn 0 521 38522 9 hardback Contents List of abbreviations page viii Preface xi 1 Alms and ascetes, round stones and masons: avarice in the 1 early church
    [Show full text]
  • By Courtney Campbell
    by Courtney Campbell © Courtney Campbell 1998 The proverbial verdict of history on Columbus and the legacy of the Spanish conquest has been at best ambivalent in this quincentenary year of the discovery of the new world. Last fall, a mock trial conducted at the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center sentenced Columbus to 350 years of community service and education following a guilty conviction on counts of slavery, torture, murder, forced labor, kidnapping, violence, and robbery. The chief prosecutor remarked that though Columbus was a man who lived by the standards of his times, modern persons must hold Columbus accountable for these various crimes against the indigenous populations. Was it really the case that Columbus and those who shortly followed him to the new world lived by an "anything goes" morality? Consider the voice of protest raised in 1511 by the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos. Warning his Spanish audience that their conduct towards the Indians on Hispanolia (Haiti) risked mortal sin, Montesinos asked: "By what right or justice do you keep these Indians in such a cruel and horrible servitude? On what authority have you waged a detestable war against these people, who dwelt quietly and peacefully on their own land?..." (17) Those questions of right, justice, and authority, defined the Spanish debate over the morality of the conquest of the new world for the next century. The standards of justice and authority were not anything goes, but were given substantive meaning through the application of the traditional moral framework of the "just war." Montesinos described the war on the Indiansas "detestable"; others would not agree, but the framework of just war provided the substantive parameters for debate over the moral and theological justification of the conquest.
    [Show full text]
  • The-Diamond-Empire-Transcript.Pdf
    1 MEDIA EDUCATION F O U N D A T I O N 60 Masonic St. Northampton, MA 01060 | TEL 800.897.0089 | [email protected] | www.mediaed.org The Diamond Empire Transcript Part 1 begins on pg. 1 Part 2 begins on pg. 15 PART 1: INTRODUCTION NARRATOR: On a hill above Johannesburg is the private estate of one of the wealthiest families on earth. They’ve made their fortune by manipulating markets and fixing prices. Their money has come from ordinary people all over the world who imagine they’re investing in something rare and valuable. But this is a family which deals in illusion. It presides over one of the last great cartels, an extraordinarily successful business empire worth $60 billion. This is the Oppenheimer family and their trade is diamonds. NARRATOR: The richest diamond jewelry market in the world is in New York. It’s a $10.8 billion business. Around 47th Street, there are twenty-five thousand people who buy, cut, polish and sell diamonds, from the most glamorous jewelry to the cheapest mail-order. It’s a highly secretive and risky business. The Oppenheimers themselves declined to help in any way in the making of this film. Bill Goldberg is one of the few top dealers who will talk openly about what he does. BILL GOLDBERG: It’s fascinating, it’s amazing that a lot of men that are ten years younger than I am can’t wait to retire and I can’t wait to get here in the morning at eight o’clock, to produce these beautiful works, these beautiful pieces of art from what looks like a pebble on the beach.
    [Show full text]
  • Turkey's National Struggle: Contrasting Contemporary Views
    Turkey’s National Struggle: Contrasting Contemporary Views and Understandings Honors Research Thesis Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with honors research distinction in History in the undergraduate colleges of The Ohio State University by David Richard Howard The Ohio State University June 2011 Project Advisor: Professor Carter Findley, Department of History Howard 2 Introduction: “In the first half of this century an amazing reversal took place—Turkey became a healthy nation in a relatively sick world.”1 This event, after the First World War, was one of the more controversial, mind-changing events of the early twentieth-century. The majority of the world considered the Turkish people to be finished and defeated, but the Turkish National Struggle (1919-1922) proved this opinion quite wrong. This paper examines the factors behind this successful national movement and the birth of the Republic of Turkey by offering comparative insights into contemporary accounts of the National Struggle to close in on the truth. This understanding of the subject will involve analysis and comparison of primary sources (in English) representing several different viewpoints of the period. The Turks were the only defeated people of the First World War to force a rewriting of the peace terms imposed on them at Versailles. The Treaty of Sèvres (1920) left the Turks with but a small part of central Anatolia and the Black Sea coast, and yet they managed to achieve victory in their National Struggle of 1919-1922 and force the Allied powers to a renegotiation of peace terms in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), thereby recognizing the emergence and legitimacy of the Turkish Republic.
    [Show full text]
  • It Was the Dollar, and Not the Greed
    Georg Zoche, Author of WELT MACHT GELD ("WORLD POWER MONEY") It was the dollar, and not the greed. 1929 and 2008: Why national world currencies lead into crisis. Always. The Triffin-Dilemma It is most commonly agreed that Turbo-Capitalism and greed have caused the financial crisis. The UN commission of experts1 as well as central banks2 are deriving at quite a different result: the US dollar, it was. Greed and deregulation only played an underpart. The same mechanism which in 2008 pushed the world into a financial crisis had already shown its effect in 1929. Then it affected the Pound Sterling, this time it was the US dollar. With economists, the illness that has seized our dollar-based world financial system is known as the Triffin dilemma – after Robert Triffin, who already described todays crisis some 50 years ago in his book Gold and the Dollar Crisis. Triffin had its foreword – written on Halloween 1959 – end with these prophetic words: Whether (…) these problems have any chance to be negotiated in time to avoid a major crisis in the international monetary system, is an entirely different matter which history alone can, and will, answer. 3 Triffin had proven that the use of the US dollar as world key currency sooner or later would have to result in a crisis. Inevitably. Without any ifs and buts. How could that be the case? The unavoidably deadly mechanism of the Triffin dilemma can quickly be explained: The US-Dollar can only serve as world key currency, if the US are running into debt with the rest of the world.
    [Show full text]
  • The Jurisprudence of Greed
    University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 2002 The Jurisprudence of Greed Eric A. Posner Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/journal_articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Eric Posner, "The Jurisprudence of Greed," 151 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1097 (2002). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE JURISPRUDENCE OF GREED ERIC A. POSNERt Although a reader might arch an eyebrow at Wilkow's strategy, an allega- tion of greed is not defamatory; sedulous pursuit of self-interest is the engine that propels a market economy. Capitalism certainly does not depend on sharp practices, but neither is an allegation of sharp dealing anything more than an uncharitable opinion. Illinois does not attach damages to name-calling.' Greed-the motive Kumpf attributes to Steinhaus-does not violate a "fundamental and well-defined public policy" of Wisconsin. Greed is the foundation of much economic activity, and Adam Smith told us that each person's pursuit of his own interests drives the economic system to produce more and better goods and services for all.2 [W] hen a pig becomes a hog it is slaughtered.' INTRODUCTION Antonio, the merchant of Venice, is an admirable, or at least un- objectionable, figure. 4 He cares about his friends and the finer things in life. Although he is a merchant and deals with money, he conducts his trade honorably and discreetly, and his work is not the focus of his life.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cost of Greed
    Book Two The Cost of Greed Originally published in Greed and Good: Understanding and Overcoming the Inequality That Limits Our Lives by Sam Pizzigati (Apex Press/Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). For more, see Inequality.org. THE PRICE WE PAY FOR INEQUALITY IF THOSE WHO FAWN OVER FORTUNES were right, if letting wealth accu- mulate were indeed the prime prescription for a healthy, vigorous soci- ety, we ought today to be enjoying a new American golden age. Never before, after all, have grand fortunes accumulated as prodigiously as they have over recent decades, at least not in modern times. Our econ- omy, given this awesome accumulation, ought to be vibrant, full of opportunity at every turn. Our enterprises should be generating wealth at extraordinary rates. We ourselves ought to be feeling stoked and energetic, confident that our hard work will be duly rewarded. Compassion ought to be flowing for the unfortunate, the arts ought to be blooming. We should be feeling absolutely terrific about ourselves and our country. But we aren’t. So what went wrong? What really happens when societies stand back and let great wealth accumulate in the pockets of a few? What has inequality cost us? The pages ahead will search for answers to these questions, in places both self-evident and somewhat surprising. We’ll explore the worksites where we labor and the neighborhoods where we live. We’ll look at our families and our friendships. We’ll examine what makes us happy and what makes us sick. We’ll probe why our professions no longer leave us proud, why our pastimes no longer bring us pleasure.
    [Show full text]
  • Building Security in Africa an Evaluation of U.S
    Building Security in Africa An Evaluation of U.S. Security Sector Assistance in Africa from the Cold War to the Present Stephen Watts, Trevor Johnston, Matthew Lane, Sean Mann, Michael J. McNerney, Andrew Brooks C O R P O R A T I O N For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR2447 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018953878 ISBN: 978-1-9774-0049-9 Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2018 RAND Corporation R® is a registered trademark. Cover: Photo by Staff Sgt. Brian Kimball. Limited Print and Electronic Distribution Rights This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions. The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org Preface This report documents the results of a RAND Corporation project, “The Effectiveness of Security Cooperation in Advancing Counter­ terrorism and Counterinsurgency Goals in Africa.” The research team used statistical models to analyze the effects that U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • A Model of Real Income Growth in Roman Italy
    Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics A model of real income growth in Roman Italy Version 2.0 February 2007 Walter Scheidel Stanford University Abstract: This paper presents a new model of the main exogenous and endogenous determinants of real income growth in Italy in the last two centuries BC. I argue that war-related demographic attrition, emigration and the urban graveyard effect converged in constraining the growth of the freeborn population despite increased access to material resources that would otherwise have been conducive to demographic growth and concomitant depression of real incomes; that massive redistribution of financial resources from Roman elites and provincial subjects to large elements of the Italian commoner population in the terminal phase of the Republican period raised average household wealth and improved average well-being; and that despite serious uncertainties about the demographic and occupational distribution of such benefits, the evidence is consistent with the notion of rising real incomes in sub-elite strata of the Italian population. I conclude my presentation with a dynamic model of growth and decline in real income in Roman Italy followed by a brief look at comparable historical scenarios in early modern Europe. I hope to make it probable that due to a historically specific configuration of circumstances created by the mechanisms of Roman Republican politics and imperialism, the Italian heartland of the emerging empire witnessed temporary but ultimately unsustainable improvements in income and consumption levels well beyond elite circles. © Walter Scheidel. [email protected] 1 1. Argument Between the fourth and the first centuries BC, Rome grew from a small city-state in western central Italy into a pan-Mediterranean empire that came to control a territory of about four million square kilometers inhabited by up to one quarter of humanity.
    [Show full text]
  • The Economic Crisis, Greed and the Occupy Wall Street Movement
    Is Too Much Ever Enough? The Economic Crisis, Greed and the Occupy Wall Street Movement Denise Ellis, Ph.D., LCSW Kean University, Department of Social Work [email protected] Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, Volume 10, Number 1 (2013) Copyright 2013, Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) This text may be freely shared among individuals, but it may not be republished in any medium without express written consent from the authors and advance notification ofASWB Abstract 2. Economic Crisis 101 This article examines key elements of the recent 2.1 Crisis description and role of values economic crisis in the United States, the Occupy The current economic crisis represents Wall Street movement, and the contributing role quite possibly the worst economic recession since of values. A description and overview of the the Great Depression and is indicative of the economic and political forces is presented. The effect that individual and collective values can paper also explores the psychosocial implications have on financial, governmental, and political for individuals and families and for social workers. circumstances. Max-Neef (2011) contends that “the current crisis is a direct product of greed,” Keywords: economic crisis; values; social reform which he views as the dominant value (Interview). movements; social justice; Occupy Wall Street In 2008 the U.S. economy crashed. The general public first became aware of the calamity when 1. Introduction it was reported that Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and AIG, the largest insurance company The world is currently in the grip of the in the world, were poised to fail. According to largest economic disaster in almost a century.
    [Show full text]