TED Community » Kris Rosvold

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Life and Joy and Learning. Making my action match my belief.

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• A comment on Conversation: A stepped minimum wage

  Mar 21 2013: Good, valid question but it needs MUCH more research...There is one minor fallacy in your opening statement....The implication that employers can not afford to pay a living wage...The problem is that over the past 35 years while we as a nation have seen incredible growth in worker productivity the wages and Bennes paid those workers have remained static or lost ground. If (for example) the MINIMUM wage of 1968 had kept pace with inflation and productivity it would now have to be over $22.00 per hour. The other hidden fallacy is that corporations can't afford to pay higher taxes.. The Corporations are lying..They absolutely CAN afford both a living wage and the higher taxes but it would cut their profit margins from double digits to the old (1980s) standard of 3% to 6%...THAT is what the wage fight is about from the corporate perspective...that is also why the past 6 administrations have allowed unfettered illegal immigration...it drives wages down...
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  A comment on Conversation: 24 hour/3-day work week with $30.00 minimum wage starting in 2013. Solve multiple social and individual problems with this.

  Feb 13 2013: Nice setup from a corporate apologist. The fact of the matter is that while employee productivity is up some 40% and corporate profits are up over 150% (and corporate taxes are down some 25%) in the last 40 years...real wages FELL 15%. In other words the people who are making all that $$$$ for the corporations are getting screwed out of the increases in pay the corporations implied (40 years ago) would be coming with the productivity increases that the corporations wanted.
  We are Not "broke" we are being ROBBED, with the collusion of Congress!

• A reply on Conversation: 24 hour/3-day work week with $30.00 minimum wage starting in 2013. Solve multiple social and individual problems with this.

  Feb 13 2013: People ARE getting active (finally). I've watched over 40 years of "Sigh....you just can't fight city Hall." I've also railed against it for 40 years. These "legislators" work for US, at OUR pleasure...If they don't they get fired... at least in theory....problem is they don't care because they have cushy jobs lined up and the best lifetime healthcare in the country. I fear that they are not going to stop pandering for corporate profits short of armed insurrection. If it goes there, and it may well (remember the adage about being careful not to take from the man who has nothing left to loose?) they will bring out the military to put it down, and welcome to 1984....
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  A reply on Conversation: 24 hour/3-day work week with $30.00 minimum wage starting in 2013. Solve multiple social and individual problems with this.

  Feb 12 2013: My apologies to both you and Fritzie, I did misunderstand. 3 day 24 hour week or, 4 day 32 hour week? It's great in theory. Stipulate that the Corporations are willing to provide a wage which can be lived upon, comfortably; and some sort of usable retirement and healthcare. Problem is that while per-worker productivity has increased dramatically, wages have dropped dramatically. For example in my case...I was earning $13 per hour in a hardware store in the early '90s. I am now as an equipment service technician able to get between $25 and $35 per hour...Yet my spending power is LESS than when I was making $12 per hour, and I haven't seen a raise in this rate for over 15 years. Due to inflation (intentionally created by the Government to lower the real cost of paying back it's debt) my per dollar purchasing power has decreased by well over 50%. It seems to me that these questions need to be answered before we take on trying to shorten the work week...I guess what I'm saying is that I would be OK with a shorter work-week but am not in a position to have the luxury of taking a reduction in salary for that shorter week.

• A reply on Conversation: 24 hour/3-day work week with $30.00 minimum wage starting in 2013. Solve multiple social and individual problems with this.

  Feb 10 2013: How about we go back to the era where a majority of the corporations in the country had SOME sense of noblesse oblige'? Also lets go back to when a $1 would buy a dozen eggs or a 1.25 gal of gas. Or we could go back to the 1940s when there was SOME sort of political outrage when corporations wrecked the economy. Good luck with that too. As to Unions, we need them. without unions, and with the illegal immigration that has been permitted by our government, we would be at (or below) slave wages for every job...With the Food service Union busted in the 1970s (with the collusion of congress) we ARE at slave wages for food service workers.. I've APPLIED for high end tech jobs. The employer would rather hire someone at 1/2 pay, and full time, Buy their visa (by claiming "there are no suitable candidates" which translates to "the locals won't or can't work for slave wages and still pay their bills") and then dump them here when the contract is over, than hire someone with direct experience and pay for that knowledge. If these mega-corporations had their way they would be paying below $20k a year for service engineers.
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  A comment on Conversation: 24 hour/3-day work week with $30.00 minimum wage starting in 2013. Solve multiple social and individual problems with this.

  Feb 10 2013: I've worked 3x24 in the Service...it takes two days just to recover after those shifts.

• A comment on Conversation: Can Money Buy Happiness?

  Feb 10 2013: More money can help make folks happier, up to a point... By reducing the stress of: "where in my next meal coming from?"...Once all you needs are met, more $$ doesn't mean better unless you happen to be psychopathic.
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  A comment on Conversation: Has the time come for the U.S Second Amendment to be repealed or amended?

  Jan 16 2013: You say: "The time has come to realise it is mainly our children who pay the ultimate price for lack of diligence in monitoring a problem that has been there for far too many years."
  
  As a former gun owner, US Navy Marksman, and student of the US Constitution, I agree with the words quoted above...just not the direction that you are trying to take that sentiment.
  The consideration from the Constitutional point of view is that the FIRST act of every single dictator in history has been to attempt to dis arm the citizens of the nation they are trying to take over.
  I've done a lot of research over the years and two very interesting facts stand out:
  1) Our gun laws (about purchasing weapons) as they exist today, WORK. The have prevented felons and psychos from being able to buy a weapon. They worked in this case and they have worked with VERY few exceptions in the cases of other school shootings.
  2) Virtually every single case of a psycho (yes, I KNOW it's not politically correct but if you shoot up a school or a mall, you are by definition a psycho!) shooting up a school was made possible by some legal gun owner NOT securing their weapons and said weapons were STOLEN by the psycho because they were prevented from buying them.
  Here's my suggestion: 1) REQUIRE legal gun owners to SECURE their weapons whenever the weapons are not on their person with a shrouded trigger lock and or gun SAFE (NOT a display cabinet)
  2) REQUIRE gun owners to take a use and safety class every 2 (two) years that is at least 40 hours.
  3)Require gun owners to have liability insurance.
  Every one of these school shootings, IMHO, has been a direct result of legal gun owners displaying gross negligence...
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  A comment on Conversation: Should employee loyalty be over ?

  Oct 2 2012: My mindset of the last 20 years has been mercenary...My boss knows that and does his best to keep me happy as I am fairly good at what I do and am consistent as well..
  With corporations ducking ALL responsibilities (including contractual (see the discharged pension debts for airline employees etc.) I don't see that we, as individuals, owe them ANYTHING that they haven't paid for (preferably in advance).
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  A reply on Conversation: Is Conventional Economics a Form of Brain Damage?

  Oct 2 2012: Sorry Pat, I disagree. In ANY mechanism or system (that actually functions) there are always 2 (two) feed-back cycles (or loops). One is a positive feed back and one is a negative feed-back. Our banking and stock systems have lost the negative feed-back loop (actually had it removed by Congress over the last 30 years). The result is the system we now have which is oscillating faster and faster until it self destructs, because there is only the positive feedback loop.....