Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Helping the unemployed

Wall Street may think we’re coming out of this recession, but there are millions of workers who may disagree. That’s why Congress is considering another extension of unemployment benefits that “would provide 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for more than 300,000 jobless people who live in states with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of September.” The extension “would supplement the 26 weeks of benefits most states offer and the federally funded extensions of up to 53 weeks that Congress approved in legislation last year and in the stimulus bill enacted last February.”

This seems a no-brainer. This recession has been pretty hard on workers, leaving about 15 million out of work, and millions more working but facing pay cuts, furloughs or in part-time or temporary jobs.

Just as important is the number who are facing long-term unemployment.

Some 5 million people, about one-third of those on the unemployment list, have been without a job for six months or more, a record since data started being recorded in 1948, according to the research and advocacy group National Employment Law Project.

“It smashes any other figure we have ever seen. It is an unthinkable number,” said Andrew Stettner, NELP’s deputy director. He said there are currently about six jobless people for every job opening, so it’s unlikely people are purposefully living off unemployment insurance while waiting for something better to come along.

And,

Gary Burtless, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said at the Finance Committee hearing that, according to Labor Department figures, 51 percent of unemployment insurance claimants exhausted their regular benefits in July, the highest rate ever.

“It is likely the exhaustion rate will continue to increase in coming months” as the unemployment rate continues to rise, he said.

The reality is that, without the extension, many workers likely would need to use other social services or go without. Putting money in their hands is good policy — workers are going to spend what they receive — and the right thing to do.

You do it. No, you do it.

There appears to be consensus among international leaders that climate change must be reversed.

The consensus, however, is that it is up to the other guy to make the sacrifices needed to keep the Earth’s temperatures from continuing to rise – and causing the kind of havoc expected to be caused by the increase.

The leaders of about 100 nations are gathering in New York this week to discuss the issue at what The New York Times described as “highest level summit meeting on climate change ever convened.”

But it remains unclear whether the efforts expected to take place this week – they began Tuesday with round-tables on climate change – will shift talks out of neutral, where they have remained stalled for some time.

“The mood in the negotiations has been that I should do as little as possible as late as possible and let the other person go first,” said Kim Carstensen, the director of the Global Climate Initiative of the World Wildlife Fund.

There is some movement forward, but not a comprehensive, international plan. As The Times writes, “virtually all of the largest developed and developing nations have made domestic commitments toward creating more efficient, renewable sources of energy to cut emissions,” but — and this is key — “none want to take the lead in fighting for significant international emissions reduction targets, lest they be accused at home of selling out future jobs and economic growth.”

It is, as Jeffrey Sachs told the Times, a selfish nationalism that privileges parochial gains at the expense of humanity.

“The instinct is a kind of nationalist response that can get it exactly backwards,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. “We should be viewing this as global problem solving, not as global negotiation.”

Language police

I ran out of coffee yesterday so I stopped by Target this afternoon to grab a bag of beans from Starbucks (I had planned to get a pound at Small World yesterday, but ran into some friends and then realized the meter had run out — which meant that I had to, as well). When I handed the coffee to the kid behind the counter — and incredibly helpful and conscientious kid, by the way — he let me know that I had a free cup of the coffee of the day coming.

“Would you like a free complimentary cup of coffee?”

Of course, but don’t complimentary and free mean the same thing?

Conason offers voice of sanity on ACORN

You have to hand to the right wing. It certainly gets worked up over the most bizarre things.

Take its fascination with ACORN, with an organization of volunteers that works in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods teaching its residents to help themselves and stand up for themselves. It certainly borders on the psychotic.

Does ACORN have problems? Yes. But as Joe Conason writes on Salon,

To claim that the stupid behavior of a half-dozen employees should discredit a national group with offices in more than 75 cities staffed by many thousands of employees and volunteers is like saying that Mark Sanford or John Ensign have discredited every Republican governor or senator.

The uproar over the hidden-camera fiasco — like the wing-nuttery of death panels and the tea-baggers — does nothing more than divert our attention from what really matters. After all, if we’re talking about ACORN, we’re not talking about the nearly 50 million Americans without health coverage, the spiking unemployment rate, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, torture and all of the other things about which we should be talking.

The Eagle soars

I just wanted to post a quick note to offer kudos to John Parinello Jr., an SBHS graduate from Dayton, is looking to help children in Afghanistan by sending them sports equipment — a worthy cause, for sure.

Look, I was never a Boy Scout and I sometimes find the Boy Scouts to be — well, just leave it at that.

But I was taken by Parinello’s mission — and by the way it differs from some of the less necessary projects I’ve seen in other communities.

Parinello’s efforts could have a real — if small — impact, contributing to the breaking down of cultural barriers and making the lives of children just a little bit better.

”It’s important to send goods to children in Kabul because, I hope, it will tighten the bonds between the U.S. and Afghanistan,” Mr. Parinello said.

Mr. Parinello decided on his project after an assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 10, who is also a commander in the Navy and is stationed in Kabul, told him of the need for sporting equipment for schoolchildren in the region. Mr. Parinello said he hopes the children will reap the benefits of having an escape from the world that surrounds them.

”I hope that this project will promote good team leadership skills while keeping children off the streets in a war-stricken area,” he said.

So, as I said, kudos.