I know more about economics than AOC and my knowledge on economics is on a high school level. Its actually embarassing how little she knows about this shit. But hey, expecting a socialist to know about economics is like expecting a fish to know what a desert is.
Much of the ocean is a desert
You know what? Let’s use the allowance example again to make it even clearer.
Let’s pretend we have an allowance tax bracket with a 70% tax on money received after a certain point. To keep things simple, we’ll make the limit $90.
If a kid does chores and earns $10 in allowance, they get $10. They’re not going to be affected by the 70% tax.
If a kid does chores and earns $50, they get $50. They also aren’t in the 70% tax bracket, even though they make five times as much money as the kid making $10.
If a kid does chores and earns $100 in allowance, then they’re in the allowance tax bracket with the 70% tax.
$100 minus $90 is $10. This is the part that’s going to be taxed 70%.
70% of $10 is $7.
So the kid getting $100 in allowance will have $93 after the 70% tax takes its share.
Now, I’d never impose such a thing on actual kids. All of this is a thought exercise.
But if it were real, the kid making $10 and the kid making $50 would probably be kind of mad if the kid getting $93 was bitching about being short $7.
Also AOC majored in economics (actually one of her two majors) so step the FUCK off my congresswoman tyvm
Remember when those two cops pushed over that old man and then just kept walking as he lay on the sidewalk unconscious and bleeding? Well, they got suspended. But then, then, 57 members of their squad resigned from their Emergency Response Team posts “in disgust,“ not because of what those cops did, but explicitly because they faced consequences for doing it.
Technically they resigned because the police union said they would stop protecting them in court for war crimes brutality charges, not solidarity
not sure if that’s better tho
“I quit because I’m not going to be legally protected for murdering the people I’m supposed to serve” isn’t the win they think it is
Analyses of recent spikes of Covid-19 cases
in more than a dozen rural counties strongly suggest links to outbreaks
at meatpacking plants, yet North Carolina officials continue to ignore
requests from health and worker advocates to enforce safety regulations
at plants and disclose information about industry clusters to the
public. Such secrecy not only endangers workers at the plants but also
risks further community spread in rural areas.
From May 1 to June 11 cases in zip codes near meatpacking plants
jumped 600 percent, or more than twice the 262 percent rise in cases
statewide, The News & Observer reported. In mid-May, North Carolina led the nation for numbers of plant outbreaks, according to the Food and Environment Reporting Network
(FERN). As of June 26, at least 2,772 meatpacking workers had tested
positive for the virus in outbreaks at 28 plants, according to a
spokesperson for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services
(DHHS). But health officials will not report the locations of such
clusters.
The most notable surge of cases at plants was in April and May. Since
then plants have voluntarily cooperated with health officials, but most
will not reveal data to the public. They are effectively saying to the
community: “Don’t worry, trust us.” State health officials say they lack
regulatory authority over the industry and do not report plant outbreaks for fear of losing plant managers’ cooperation.
I did an interview study of Latino workers in meatpacking in the
early 2000s, which prompted me to drill down into the Covid-19 data. I
examined the rise in infection rates in key rural counties for the two
weeks ending June 25 (new cases adjusted for population) using data from
USAFacts.
The data show new or ongoing surges of infections in 14 rural
counties with significant meatpacking operations, including Sampson,
Wayne, Bladen, and Duplin Counties — the state leaders
for pork production, which together employ 19,000 workers. Twelve
counties with surges are also ranked among the highest in the nation for
Covid-19 cases. In addition to the four above, they include Burke,
Chatham, Randolph, Johnston, Robeson, Rowan, Sampson, and Union
Counties. Two others with smaller caseloads but new spikes are Surry and
Wilson Counties.
While cases are rising across the state due to reopening the economy,
such high levels of positive cases are typically found in urban
counties. Neither can the high rural numbers be explained by outbreaks
in nursing homes or prisons, which, unlike meatpacking, the state DHHS
routinely tracks. Also, while elderly, non-Hispanic people make up the
bulk of those who have died of the virus, DHHS data show that more than 75 percent of these positive cases are among people of working age, between 18 and 64.
A disproportionate number of those testing positive in these counties
are Hispanic — 31 to 73 percent of cases, which is consistent with the
high numbers of Latino workers in meat plants, although Latino farm
laborers, who often live in crowded housing, may explain some of those
cases. A third of those testing positive near a Mountaire poultry plant
with an outbreak in Chatham County this month were Hispanic, yet they
make up less than 10 percent of the state population.
Also, more than half of Covid-19 patients admitted to UNC hospitals
and at least two-thirds of those in ICU beds are now Hispanic, which
indicates a high burden of coronavirus in the Spanish-speaking
population, says David Wohl, a UNC infectious-disease physician.
Outbreaks are also ongoing at Pilgrim’s Pride in Lee County and Case
Farms in Burke County. An unidentified Latino worker from Case Farms
who spoke on a June 14 group call for workers and advocates reported
that 150 workers had tested positive and three had died, including one
Latino, one Black, and one white worker.
“I have diabetes, so I am super scared to go to work, but because of
needs I have, I have to go and risk my life,” she said in a voice that
quavered with anxiety.
In April and May, significant outbreaks were reported at the Tyson
Foods poultry plant in Wilkes County, the Butterball turkey plant in
Duplin County, the large Smithfield pork plant in Bladen County, and
several smaller plants.
In late May, a zip code survey by North Carolina Health News
found positive tests for Covid-19 were unusually high in the area of
the Mountaire plant (414 cases), a smaller Smithfield plant in Clinton
(254 cases), and the Butterball plant (204 cases). Many workers commute
to plants from other areas. This methodology, while inexact, suggests
the magnitude of the problem.
Nationwide, more than 24,000 Covid-19 cases are tied to meatpacking, resulting in 87 worker deaths so far, according to ProPublica. Industry giants Tyson Foods, JBS, and Smithfield account for more than half of all positive cases nationally, reports FERN.
To health and worker advocates in North Carolina, the state’s refusal to release data on outbreaks is suspicious.
“I believe they are just protecting the plants,” says Ilana Dubester,
executive director of Hispanic Liaison in Siler City, who reports that
workers at the Mountaire plant say family members are getting sick. “One
woman worker at Mountaire had a disabled husband who never left the
house. He got the virus first and had to be hospitalized, and then she
got it. Since he was housebound, he only could have gotten it from her.”
The plant receives data from the state but does not allow testing
onsite despite repeated requests by health advocates for permission to
set up testing in the parking lot, Dubester says. Hispanic Liaison
worked with Piedmont Health and the Gillings School of Public Health at
UNC to conduct tests of Mountaire workers and family members offsite.
They found an alarming 634 positive cases connected with the plant,
according to Dubester.
Meatpacking’s high risks arise from the frigid air inside plants and
crowded workstations on fast-moving lines. Immigrant workers often
commute in packed buses and live in crowded households. Punitive sick
leave and attendance policies raise risks for community spread. Many
plants were slow in providing masks and adopting safety protocols after
the spring outbreaks, worker advocates say. Due to incomplete test data,
health officials often first learn of outbreaks or safety lapses from
frightened workers.
Unfortunately, recently developed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines
for meat processors are weak, filled with suggestions rather than
requirements, and allowing asymptomatic workers who test positive to
return to work rapidly instead of adopting the widely accepted protocol
of a two-week quarantine.
One company that now shares data on cases is Tyson’s Wilkesboro
plant, where a quarter of 2,244 workers tested positive in April. But it
took the threat of a court order to prompt Tyson to report the data,
according to ProPublica,
which learned through a public-records request that Tyson went silent
after hiring a private testing company, leaving health officials
confused on how to track infected workers.
Nationwide, 22 plants closed temporarily in April, prompting Tyson to
place ads in newspapers claiming the “food supply chain is breaking.” A
day later President Trump ordered plants to remain open, a move that
union leaders say forces workers to choose between a paycheck and their
health. The New York Times found that even as Tyson and Smithfield lobbied for favors, they were exporting record amounts of pork to China.
Governor Roy Cooper’s recent executive order addressing racial health disparities is a start to addressing these problems. But a June 16 letter from NC Policy Watch asked the governor to do more to strengthen transparency and safety rules for meatpacking.
We risk “super-spreader” events when authorities collude with
corporations to hide data on viral spread. Family members and businesses
that serve plant workers deserve to be informed of risks. ProPublica
learned that during an outbreak at a Tyson plant in Iowa, owners of
local businesses that served plant workers or employed their relatives
complained to the health department about failing to alert them earlier
so they could adopt timely safety measures.
This virus crisis has laid bare our dependency on “essential”
minority and immigrant workers, and it is far past time to end the
shameful legacy of dumping risk on them. In a pandemic, festering
systematic injustices can rapidly evolve into higher risks for everyone.
The virus does not discriminate. Leaders who do can no longer claim the
public’s trust.
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
This blog is mostly so I can vent my feelings and share my interests. Other than that, I am nothing special.
If you don't like Left Wing political thought and philosophy, all things related to horror, the supernatural, the grotesque, guns or the strange, then get the fuck out. I just warned you.
