Etc.

As long as D.C. politicians in both political parties, including the president, are enthralled with University of Chicago crackpot economics which favor the few at the expense of everybody else, the American people don't have a prayer of recovering economically.

The more qualifications one has, the harder it is to secure another job.

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In a case of a mayor playing politics, the workers are the ones who are made to suffer.

The Scranton mayor, by the way, is a "Democrat":

Although Lackawanna County Judge Michael Barrasse ruled on July 5 that the city must recognize union contracts stipulating specific pay rates, the mayor’s office has ignored the court order.

Doherty, a Democrat, said that the city had a mere $5,000 left in its coffers after paying out minimum wages to its 398 employees. Workers were issued bi-monthly paychecks on Friday amounting to a mere $340.

As of Monday, the city reported holding $133,000, but owed $3.4 million in vendor bills.

Doherty and the city council, also Democratic, have considered various austerity measures and attacks on public workers to offset a growing budget deficit, which currently stands at $16.8 million.

The workers are already struggling with very modest wages. A report by National Public Radio quoted Roger Leonard, a heavy equipment operator for the city who had been earning $450 per week before the pay cut. His situation is typical of public workers, a section of the workforce usually presented by politicians and media commentators as comfortably middle class.
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Thanks to widespread layoffs and union concessions there is a shortage of teaching JOBS, NOT a shortage of teachers.

Some 300,000 teaching jobs have been lost over the past four years.
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The Libor scandal promises to be the mother of all financial scandals, and there is no reason to believe Wall Street isn't up to its eyeballs in it.

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