Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 62

A Comment on Blog Comments

The post below this is too long to read. Consider it a footnote, which need not be read. I am going to summarize it here.

Philip Pilkington suggested that federal money be funneled through local governments to NGOs and grassroots organizations, which would spend it hiring people at minimum wage to do work that needs to be done. This would be better than having Big Government meddle in people's lives by hiring them for a new CCC or WPA.

I said (a) this is already being done in Minnesota, (b) minimum wage in the US is too low -- people can't live on it, and (c) what are these newly hired people going to do? The average NGO does not need a horde of unskilled workers.

Two further comments: I was being concrete and specific rather than abstract, and no one responded to me, though the comments on the article are going on and on.

This happened to me in re my Crooked Timber post as well.

In a sense, you might argue that I was telling stories, rather than setting up a brick wall of theory. And to answer a story, you need to tell another story or give a comparable piece of concrete and specific information.

Re hiring unskilled workers:

"When I worked in an NGO, we hired unskilled workers to make community gardens and to insulate houses."

Re lack of class consciousness among US workers:

"When I worked in a factory down south, I got to know these guys... Let me tell you the kinds of things they said..."

I came from an educated, middle class family and got a good education. When I first began to work in offices in Detroit, I couldn't understand my co-workers, and they couldn't understand me, even though we were all native speakers of English, and we all understood the words we were using. It wasn't a dialect problem, or a knowledge problem. It was a cognition problem.

Then I began to understand them, and a lot of middle class talk began to sound like bullshit.

I am not saying that my language use is working class. I'm still a highly verbal, pretty well educated person from a middle class background. But something has changed. What Barb Jensen is writing about language really interests me.

This is a Footnote to the Post One Up - Don't Feel You Have to Read It

This is from an essay by Philip Pilkingon in Yves Smith's blog. I'm going to quote a large chunk, to be clear about what he is saying:

(Right wing libertarians) appeal to people at a very deep level. They appeal to a very real sense of longing for more substantial social relationships and less government meddling. They appeal to people who watch modern developments in Big Government with distrust and suspicion. Indeed, they appeal to many liberals.

It is to this that Big Government liberals have no answer. But there is an answer and it has been discussed on this site before. I refer to the Job Guarantee scheme as put forward by the Modern Monetary Theorists.

Much of the debate surrounding the Jobs Guarantee program – that is, the proposal for governments to hire everyone willing and able to work in a minimum wage job – has focused on its macroeconomic effects. The potential for such a program to generate inflation is, of course, the key focus. In actual fact the Jobs Guarantee program is devised in such a way that it puts a cap on inflation, but there has been much work done on this already and I see no need to repeat it here.

Instead we should focus on what the Jobs Guarantee program might be like as an institution. And it is here that we find it to be an antidote to the anomie and alienation that Lasch and the libertarians bemoan.

The Jobs Guarantee program is first and foremost a decentralised community-based institution. This is summed up well in a policy brief that I will soon be presenting to the Irish government:

The national government could set budget constraints for the local governments based on either a per capita basis or in relation to local unemployment rates. The local governments could then channel funds to already existing organisations – such as NGOs, grassroots community groups or charities – who could in turn use the funds to start up much needed projects and employ workers. If these organisations sought to expand their operations and required additional management staff they could then apply to the local government for an increase in funding. Local governments could also encourage the unemployed to form new organisations.

I commented:

Here in Minnesota, a lot of services are already provided by NGOs working under government contracts and with government grants. This includes a LOT of human services. If you are poor and facing hard times here, you are likely to be dealing with a case worker who works for a nonprofit, not the government — and who is not unionized and who makes lousy money. Well-known organizations such as the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities work under government contracts, which is why they have to obey government rules on fair treatment of employees and clients, including gay people, which is why they do so much screaming about their religous rights.

The system works reasonably well, though small and medium sized nonprofit organizations can be inefficient and unresponsive, and don't get me going about some of the religious NGOs.

I am not sure I would want NGOs to build bridges or maintain the state highway system. The current system, giving contracts to private, for-profit contractors who specialize in bridges and highways seems like a better idea. (I say this, in spite of the bridge that fell down. That was bad maintenance, because the State Department of Transportation is not adequately funded.)

The problem with the system right now is, the nonprofits are not getting enough money from the government or private donors. The MMT plan could deal with this.

However, minimum wage is not enough pay. After FICA, minimum wage is something like $1,150 amonth. A single bedroom apartment in the Twin Cities area is something like $750. That leaves $400 for food, clothing, utilities, transportation, health care and the cost of children or other dependents. I would say a more reasonable amount of pay would be double the minimum wage, which is $30,000 a year, about the amount of money a nonprofit human services case worker makes.

I guess I am saying that we have a system already in Minnesota where Federal money moves to the state and then to a wide variety of organizations, many of them private. A lot of government is about distributing money and supervising how it is spent, rather than spending it directly. So the face of big government is the for-profit contractor building a highway or your local community support program or shelter, run by a nonprofit.

The other question is what do the people who are hired do? The NGOs that have contracts with the government don't — at present — hire anyone off the street. They require certain skills and abilities. You may need licenses. You will have to pass a background check and a TB test, if you work with people.

This is leading us back to the CCC and the WPA, programs designed to give work to people who were unemployed. I, for one, am grateful for the trees planted, the park buildings built, the post office murals…

Barbara Jensen, Class and Language

I read one of Barb Jensen's essays online, after posting at Crooked Timber. Barb is a psychologist who writes about the different ways working class people and professional middle class people use language. This is from here essay, talking about the "condensed" way working people talk:

I think of the restricted code as an essential, condensed kind of communication, the kind that happens between intimates. It is the kind of speech where explaining things in a general and formal way would seem strange. A differentiated kind of speech creates a certain amount of distance between people. It is not that working class people do not like to talk, it is that when they do they produce narratives, they tell stories, rather than "download" information or produce abstract encapsulations of concepts. Again, the stories they tell are filled with implicit references to people and places in their lives ("localized meanings")

Elsewhere in the essay (I can't find the passage now) she describes middle class language as bricks, making a road or wall: everything is connected, an entire argument is built. Working people use words as buoys (a wonderful image) floating in a region of information that is shared, implicit, often conveyed non-verbally. I like "buoys" because they are tethered in important places. The buoys in the Mississippi tell you where the channel is. They are giving you information about what's going on below the surface of the water.

I also like the freedom in the image of buoys. Yes, they are tethered, but they have more motion than a brick in a wall. They are related to the other buoys, outlining the channel in the Mississippi, but they are not locked to the buoys, as bricks are locked to the other bricks (or words or ideas) around them.

The condensed remarks and the story telling seem right to me.

When I worked in the hat factory, and people were getting laid off, one guy said, "Even a horseshit union is better than no union at all." There was no further discussion. He had said it all; and his remark has stayed with me for 30 years.

Whenever I get pissed at unions, I remember Leo's line. It's like a buoy, tethered above a sandbar.

As for storytelling, if you hear something you don't agree with, you don't argue, you either remain silent or switch the topic or say, "Well, maybe, but let me tell you what happened to my brother Irv..."

A person who doesn't pick up on nonverbal messages can get in real trouble in a warehouse or many offices. (Like me in the office in my dream a few days ago. Part of the meaning of the dream was -- I wasn't picking up on nonverbal information.)

Finally, I'm going to quote myself. This is from A Woman of the Iron People, a member of my starship describing what messages from Earth are like after 200 years:

As far as I can tell, these people (on Earth) have no interest in any kind of system: political or economic or intellectual...Some of the factual material is okay. Such and such a star has gone nova. We have discovered a new kind of life on Titan.

But the theories! I told you these people have no interest in any kind of framework. That is problem number one. Number two is -- they don't seem to distinguish between fact and fiction -- or between material that is relevant and everything else. Some of the messages sound like poetry. Others are stories with no point that I can find. Others sound like gossip or a group a proverbs...

I hadn't read Barb when I wrote this, and I wasn't thinking about the people I'd met in Detroit and Minneapolis offices and Minneapolis warehouses. But in some ways I am describing condensed or restricted speech, from the point of view of someone who doesn't understand it.

I am certainly describing the way I operate -- with facts, poetry, stupid jokes, stories. A good piece of fiction can be the best way to tell the truth.

Blog Comment

I posted these on the Crooked Timber blog, in a discussion of whether the American working class was conservative.

I spent most of my working life (40+ years) as an office clerk or warehouse worker. My partner spent most of his working life as a med tech or a truckdriver. I figure we met a lot of members of the American working class. Some were conservative. Many were not. (My partner just said, "Talk to Denny and see how conservative he is." He is one of the maintenance guys in our building. He's a 75+ white guy, who is a Wellstone progressive. When we took off for Xmas, he said to us, "Are you going to Occupy or is this a vacation?")

One of the other people commenting said the police and firefighters in Wisconsin were okay with Walker attacking union rights, till they realized their union rights were being attacked. I wrote:

If I am remembering correctly, Walker was going to exempt police and firefighters from the "death to unions" law. The cops and firefighters came out in Madison, none the less. Yes, there is false consciousness. But people are actually quite complex. Having just spent a week with the upper middle classes, I'd say the working class is often more complex. Working people have all kinds of ideas, which come from the mass media, pop culture, their own local culture and traditions. Minnesota Iron Rangers tend to be pro-union, pro-gun and anti-abortion, due to a history of union struggle, a hunting culture and a lot of Catholic ethnic groups. I don't see this as consistent, but I am not a Ranger.

...The Iron Range is Democratic Farmer Labor. The local DFL politicians are pro-gun and anti-abortion, but Rangers stick with the state DFL, though the party is not pro-gun and anti-abortion. The lifestyle issues do not trump the class issues in this case. People are complex.

I posted these on the Crooked Timber blog, in a discussio...

I posted these on the Crooked Timber blog, in a discussion of whether the American working class was conservative.

I spent most of my working life (40+ years) as an office clerk or warehouse worker. My partner spent most of his working life as a med tech or a truckdriver. I figure we met a lot of members of the American working class. Some were conservative. Many were not. (My partner just said, "Talk to Denny and see how conservative he is." He is one of the maintenance guys in our building. He's a 75+ white guy, who is a Wellstone progressive. When we took off for Xmas, he said to us, "Are you going to Occupy or is this a vacation?")

One of the other people commenting said the police and firefighters in Wisconsin were okay with Walker attacking union rights, till they realized their union rights were being attacked. I wrote:

If I am remembering correctly, Walker was going to exempt police and firefighters from the "death to unions" law. The cops and firefighters came out in Madison, none the less. Yes, there is false consciousness. But people are actually quite complex. Having just spent a week with the upper middle classes, I'd say the working class is often more complex. Working people have all kinds of ideas, which come from the mass media, pop culture, their own local culture and traditions. Minnesota Iron Rangers tend to be pro-union, pro-gun and anti-abortion, due to a history of union struggle, a hunting culture and a lot of Catholic ethnic groups. I don't see this as consistent, but I am not a Ranger.

...The Iron Range is Democratic Farmer Labor. The local DFL politicians are pro-gun and anti-abortion, but Rangers stick with the state DFL, though the party is not pro-gun and anti-abortion. The lifestyle issues do not trump the class issues in this case. People are complex.

Dream

I woke from a dream this morning, in which I had a dreary office job in an office full of young women, and the supervisor was firing me. She was doing it very slowly, unable to come to the point. The reasons? I talked too much and made personal calls on my phone. I had never been cautioned about either, nor had I been told there was company policy about phone use.

The supervisor said other women had complained to her about my talking. A couple came into the room where the supervisor and I were and realized I was getting fired. One of them said, "Good." I told her to walk out the door and keep walking.

Patrick was in the room, trying to eavesdrop. He had a job at the same place, doing maintenance or something similar.

I finally said to the supervisor, "Okay. You want to fire me. Can you put it some way that won't hurt my chances of getting another job?"

"But you were talking too much, and using the phone, and what about that?" she asked, pointing at Patrick.

At that point, I woke, hurt by the fact that the entire office disliked me. I had clearly not fit in, and I had never understood this, or the other people.

I told Patrick the dream and he said, "It's time to let go of your feelings about working."

I said it was hard when I'd just woken from a dream about working.

Where is the Future We Were Promised?

You can see bits of future in Singapore and Shanghai, at CERN, maybe in Tokyo. But I grew up in the Midwest on the edge of the future, and while I am still in the Midwest, the future has receded. We are told we can't afford it.

I posted the NASA picture of the astronaut in space above the Earth on the Wyrdsmiths' blog, then added the above comment.

I've made my usual resolutions for the New Year: all the usual forms of self-improvement. Maybe I need to add another resolution: be absolute for a real future, a good future, work to promote and achieve it. This is very big, but why not try?

Why be content with a shoddy present, when the stars are available? Not to mention a decent society.

NASA APOD

At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured above, was floating free in space. McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk" during Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984. The MMU works by shooting jets of nitrogen and has since been used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.

NASA APOD

The monster at the center of our Galaxy is about to get fed. Recent observations by the Very Large Telescopes indicate that a cloud of gas will venture too close to the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center. The gas cloud is being disrupted, stretched out, heated up, and some of it is expected to fall into the black hole over the next two years. In this artist's illustration, what remains of the blob after a close pass to the black hole is shown in red and yellow, arching out from the gravitational death trap to its right. The cloud's orbit is shown in red, while the orbits of central stars are shown in blue. The infalling nebula is estimated to contain several times the mass of our Earth, while the central black hole, thought to correspond to the radio source Sagittariaus A*, contains about four million times the mass of our Sun. Once it falls in, nothing is expected to be heard from the doomed gas ever again.

NASA APOD

What's large and blue and can wrap itself around an entire galaxy? A gravitational lens mirage. Pictured above, the gravity of a luminous red galaxy (LRG) has gravitationally distorted the light from a much more distant blue galaxy. More typically, such light bending results in two discernible images of the distant galaxy, but here the lens alignment is so precise that the background galaxy is distorted into a horseshoe -- a nearly complete ring. Since such a lensing effect was generally predicted in some detail by Albert Einstein over 70 years ago, rings like this are now known as Einstein Rings. Although LRG 3-757 was discovered in 2007 in data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the image shown above is a follow-up observation taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3. Strong gravitational lenses like LRG 3-757 are more than oddities -- their multiple properties allow astronomers to determine the mass and dark matter content of the foreground galaxy lenses.