Category: economic justice
Rathke: Pulling CRA’s teeth when it needs to bite harder
New Orleans Dine’ Butler and I had just finished our presentation about the impact of predatory land installment contracts and hedge funds in the Memphis real estate market at the Hooks Institute event at the University…
Did you pay to use TurboTax? How to help hold the tax prep industry accountable.
Readers have helped us figure out exactly how TurboTax maker Intuit and other companies make money off taxpayers. We want to hear more. by Ariana Tobin, Justin Elliott, and Meg Marco May 14, 2:40 p.m. EDT…
Rathke: The predatory fight to keep workers temporary and “independent”
Little Rock Once upon a time we might have been able to look at the Department of Labor to lead the way in drawing the bright lines that establish whether a worker is an employee or…
Rathke: Consolidating the fight against housing displacement in Canada
Quebec City After a day of training and reports, the ACORN Canada organizing staff really got serious when the Year End / Year Begin meeting began no holds barred wrestling with campaigns. The discussion was particularly…
Hipsters of the world unite
by Wade Rathke Thursday, November 19, 2020 New Orleans Hipsters are absolutely not taking over the world, but it’s hard not to find them almost all over the world. MoveHub, an international shipping company got…
ACORN is 50
by Wade Rathke New Orleans Celebrating a 50th anniversary feels strange on a Zoom call, but that doesn’t make it feel any less of an accomplishment. As the clock passed midnight in India, the farthest extent…
Protests disrupt, no duh!
“Power concedes nothing without struggle and once the vigilance of struggle subsides, will seek to re-impose the comforts it once enjoyed.” The kumbaya of revision and co-optation later can’t alter the reality of disruption inherent in the…
The robots are coming and jobs are disappearing
Pearl River We all wonder what the world of life and work is going to look like at the end of this 2020 Great Depression under the helm of the modern-day Herbert Hoover. Just as an…
Trump moves to take Food Stamps from over a million people
“Really it’s a cruel rule, taking food out of the mouths of hungry individuals.” by Jake Johnson, staff writer, CommonDreams The Trump administration announced this week that it has no plans to scrap—or, at the very…
Jeff Bezos, Whole Foods wants workers to pay for colleagues’ sick leave during coronavirus pandemic
“Absolute bullshit. With the amount Jeff Bezos makes in one day, he could shut stores down and pay employees to stay safe.” by Jon Queally, staff writer When progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders say “now…
App delivery as part of the “Care” industry
New Orleans I’m scratching my head trying to figure out what kind of sand platform applications around food delivery are built on. The workers are hardly paid, precarious and unhappy. The restaurants are complaining and…
A broken promise to teachers and nonprofits workers
Trump wants to cancel student loan forgiveness for public servants. But what if you’ve already taken the loans? By Jill Richardson | February 19, 2020 Before sharing my opinions about Trump’s recent proposal to cut student…
Housing crisis forcing rich cities to get smaller
New Orleans A reporter, Jed Kolko, with the New York Times seems to be connecting the dots in an interesting and important way. In a recent article about some of the unintended consequences of geographic…
The Billionaire and Right-Wing’s racist lies about Redlining
New Orleans With the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency leading the way to gut the Community Reinvestment Act along with some other federal regulators, the last thing we should be doing is having to…
In Flagstaff minimum wage increased to $13 per hour. If you can get it, and keep it.
Flagstaff The beginning of 2020 was historic for workers in 47 states, cities, and counties, including Arizona and Flagstaff, as minimum wage inched upward. Across Arizona the Minimum wage increased to $12.00 per hour from…
How credit cards make us more unequal
Credit card companies fleece retailers to give high-end spenders cash back — a system the rest of us end up subsidizing. By Sam Pizzigati | February 10, 2020 What happens when we use our credit cards?…
The truth about corporate philanthropists
If they can “give back” so much, it’s probably because they’ve been taking too much. By Jim Hightower | February 5, 2020. Our society has coined expressions like “philanthropist” to encourage and hail people’s charitable spirit….
Raising the minimum wage in restaurants could be a win for everyone
Nicole Hallett, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York Critics would have you believe that upping the minimum wage in restaurants will lead to massive layoffs and closures. But since raising the minimum wage…
America’s rich refugee crisis
By Jim Hightower The prospect of a 2 percent tax on wealth over $50 million has rich Americans considering expatriating. This is a make or break year for many migrants seeking to improve their families’ financial…
Learning from King’s last campaign
Before he died, Martin Luther King, Jr. joined a campaign to unify working people of all races. Today, nothing could be more powerful. Before he died, Martin Luther King, Jr. joined a campaign to unify working…
New report offers blueprint for a ‘Clean Slate’ for workers to fight economic inequality and strengthen labor unions
“Democracy at work should be a right, not a fight.” To effectively combat economic inequality and even the playing field between corporations and the people they employ, a new report argues, the U.S. must entirely overhaul…
‘We Have so much more to do,’ youth climate activists declare as global elite close out Davos forum
“It is time to get out of our comfort zones.” by Andrea Germanos, staff writer Youth climate activists marched through the streets of Davos, Switzerland Friday as the World Economic Forum wrapped up in a Fridays…
Getting poorer while working harder: The ‘cliff effect’
Susan R. Crandall, University of Massachusetts Boston Forty percent of all working-age Americans sometimes struggle to pay their monthly bills. There is no place in the country where a family supported by one minimum-wage worker with…
‘He gave away the game’: doctors condemn Trump threat to slash Medicare funding
“We’ve long suspected he would try to gut Medicare in a second term.” by Jake Johnson, staff writer An advocacy group composed of doctors and medical professionals on Wednesday joined the chorus denouncing President Donald Trump…
