Resources for Bait and Switch

Center for Economic and Policy Research, October 18, 2005

The facts on the U.S. economy and the jobs it generates:

• Over 500,000 Americans have dropped out of the labor market because they have given up on job searches
• 20% of currently unemployed people have been out of a job for over 6 months. This is double the historical average in periods with similar unemployment rates.
• Percentage of eligible workers participating in the labor force is at 66%. This is a fifteen year low.
• Median family income has declined since 2000. Median hourly wages are the same as they were in November 2001 when the recovery began.
• 60% of small businesses are forced to attempt to constrain health-care costs, most by raising co-payments. 14% offer incentives for employees to decline health care.
• 1.33 jobs are posted on-line for every 100 job seekers posting resumes on-line.
• In 2004, 3.6 million workers ran through all their unemployment benefits without finding a new job.
• Between 2001 and 2004, 44% of the unemployed were white collar workers.

The Corporate Welfare State

After lobbying by the pharmaceutical and high tech industries and with bipartisan support, Congress passed a corporate “tax holiday” under the heading of the American Jobs Creation Act that allows corporations to repatriate overseas profits kept in tax havens at a greatly reduced – up to 85% lower – tax rate.

• Hewlett Packard will save $4.2 billion in taxes under this holiday, well over the $1 billion in charges it is accruing to cover the cost of laying off 14,500 of its employees.
• Pfizer will repatriate $36.9 billion from overseas affiliates. Instead of investing in job creation, it will lay off up to 10,000 workers and buy back billions of dollars in its stock to increase the wealth of shareholders.
• PepsiCo is repatriating $7.5 billion in income and will also use a large chunk for stock buybacks.
• Eli Lilly announced it would repatriate $8 billion to boost R&D spending. Year to date, it has increased R&D spending by 10% - only $134 million.
• Ford Motor Company has announced that it will cut 8% of its white collar workforce in 2005

Through July of 2005, U.S. companies have announced 641,245 job cuts, nearly 100,000 more than the equivalent period in 2004. If the present trend continues, 2005 will be the fifth consecutive year that U.S. companies have trimmed more than a million jobs.

Additional reading:

• PFRM -- personal blog about poverty, economic inequality, and union decline

Resources for Nickel and Dimed

Reading and resources on wage and equality issues:

• Congressional Progressive Caucus Economic Stimulus Plan
  The Progressive Caucus introduces a stimulus package to jump-start the sluggish U.S. economy

• Executive Excess 2001: Layoffs, Tax Rebates and the Gender Gap from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy
  An annual look at how CEOs' compensation compares to that of their workers.

Additional reading:

• Berkeley's Betrayal: Wages and Working Conditions at Cal with a foreward by Barbara Ehrenreich. Introduction by the authors.
• How Wal-Mart is Remaking our World by Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown, as reprinted by alternet.org April 26, 2002

Nickel and Dimed Media Coverage

Online Interviews with Barbara:

• Barbara Ehrenreich on The Connection, WBUR radio. Listen to the full show or excerpts.
• Read a transcript of Barbara's interview with Alternativeradio.org
• The Atlantic's James Fallows exchanged letters with Barbara
• Society's Failure: A Conversation with Barbara Ehrenreich from On The Page Magazine
• Life on Minimum Wage audio from Radio Nation
• Low-Wage Trade, interview with Lauren Sandler in the Village Voice
• Interview with Robert Birnbaum at Identity Theory
• Audio interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air
• Society's Failure, an interview with Zoë Francesca with On the Page magazine
• Trapped by low wages, an interview with Elizabeth Lalasz of Socialist Worker.
• Interview with Noel Murray of The Onion
• Life on six bucks an hour, an interview with Rachel Cooke in The Observer

Online Reviews for Nickel and Dimed:

• Making Ends Meet, the New York Times review. Links to an audio interview with Barbara.
• Scraping By, the Salon.com review
• Prole Like Me, The Nation review

Other:

• The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill chose Nickel and Dimed as its suggested summer reading, sparking a controversy. See Barbara's column on the subject, and link to local news and opinion.
• Read the first chapter at the New York Times' site (free registration required)
• Study questions on the book from Furman professor Ken Peterson
• A long list of links to articles by Barbara Ehrenreich
• The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, which presented Joan Holden's play "Nickel and Dimed", has a great study guide on the book and play.
• TheatreWorks, in Mountain View, California, presented Joan Holden's play "Nickel and Dimed" from September 3 - 28, 2003. More info.

Accolades:

• Nickel and Dimed won a 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the "current interest" category