June 1, 2014

Professor Richard Wolff: Our economic recovery has been a "fiction"

Published on May 6, 2014

This week on the Campbell Conversations, economist Richard Wolff argues that our economic recovery has so far been a "fiction," unless you're in the top one percent, and he further claims that this problem reflects something much more fundamentally wrong with our modern system of capitalism. He finds a solution to the problem in a reconsideration of the way we govern the workplace. Wolff is the author of books such as Democracy at Work, and Capitalism Hits the Fan.

Every week Grant Reeher, Director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute at Syracuse University, leads a conversation with a notable guest. Guests include people from central New York - writers, politicians, activists, public officials, and business professionals whose work affects the public life of the community - as well as nationally-prominent figures visiting the region to talk about their work.

The Campbell Conversations are longer interviews which encourage the character of the interviewee to be exposed. This allows you to learn more about the person, how they got to where they are, and where they plan to go. Grant attempts to go beyond the usual press conference questions and sound bites, which usually accompany a discussion about his guests.

Professor Richard D. Wolff website: http://www.rdwolff.com/

June 1, 2014

Chris Hedges: "The many failures of US society and how change can occur"

Published on Apr 10, 2014
©2014 Leigha Cohen Video Productionhttp://www.leighacohenvideo.com/

It was between 10-11 PM on April 4, th. 2014. The film by Eugene Jarecki I live in this House had been shown to over 200 people at Princeton University. Both speakers briefly spoke which was proceeded by over 1 hour of Q&A.

June 1, 2014

Our Problem Is Civil Obedience (Matt Damon reads Howard Zinn)

June 1, 2014

‘Friends Without Benefits’: ‘Job Creators’ Accrue More Terrifying Power

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/friends_without_benefits_job_creators_accrue_more_terrifying_power_20140531


via truthdig:



Applying for a job you need but don’t really want is bad enough. But now “Zappos, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon, is going to occupy the unemployed for months with (mostly futile) attempts to become virtual ‘friends’ with the online shoe retailer,” Noah McCormack writes at The Baffler.

The Wall Street Journal reported May 26:

Zappos, based in Las Vegas, plans to hire at least 450 people this year, but candidates won’t find out about those jobs on LinkedIn.com, Monster.com or the company website. Instead, they will have to join a social network, called Zappos Insiders, where they will network with current employees and demonstrate their passion for the company—in some cases publicly—in hopes that recruiters will tap them when jobs come open.

McCormack comments:

Zappos has apparently decided it is no longer good enough to be a qualified hire who is interested in the job. An interested applicant must also spend unremunerated time pretending to engage in virtual social relationships with existing employees. The American economy has become so warped that it now appears reasonable to a subsidiary of a leading public company to require people who may never be hired to spent large amounts of time pretending to be friends with people with whom they may never work.

This represents the convergence of at least three disturbing trends in the current American economy: the long-term unemployment of large numbers of people and the consequent power given to any company which is hiring; the technology industry’s revival of old prejudices under catchy new names; and the way that technology increasingly erodes any sense that our work selves are merely a component of our lives, rather than the entirety of our existence.

As warped as this hiring system is, the Wall Street Journal could only find—or, more likely, only thought to seek—people who praised Zappos’s innovative spirit. Just one booster, the founder of a talent-acquisition consultancy that works with companies including Pepsi and Walmart, said that, while Zappos had made “a move in the right direction . . . it is unclear whether potential candidates will remain engaged with the company if months go by without job opportunities.”

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.