Wednesday, February 16, 2011

United Federation of Teachers President Mulgrew.

Michael Mulgrew, New York City's United Federation of Teachers' President, sounds like a socialist to me and that's good. In his recent editiorial article "An Economy for All" he makes the following points:
1. 8 million Americans have recently lost there jobs.
2. One in eight Americans must seek out free food from food pantries.
3. New York State has the biggest income disparity.
a) The majority of households make under 30,000 dollars a year and 10 percent of New Yorker's are in deep poverty.
b) One percent of New Yorkers average 3.7 million dollars a year or $10,137 dollars a day.

On point 3.a I note that few apartments in New York rent for under 12,000 dollars a years and most cost over 20,000 dollars a year. A salary of 30,000 dollars would not allow for any savings or vacations.

From another article he points to his distrust of New Yorks billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg. One title read "Bloomberg to City: Drop Dead".

Flexible Work Hours: The Netherlands

According to the New York Times (Dec. 30, 2010) a four day work week is quite normal for both men and woman in Holland/The Netherlands. Fathers with young children often take a Daddy Day/"Pappa Dag". One quarter of Dutch men worked reduced workloads when they have young children. This compares with only 10 percent in both the rest of the European Union and the in the United States.

Ninety five percent of Microsoft employees in Holland work one day from home.
Seventy-five percent of women work part-time in Holland, compared with 41 percent in other European Union countries and 23 percent in the United States.

The article says the Dutch are quite happy with their system.

Of the 81 doctors at Amsterdam's Jewish Hospital 31 are women. Two-thirds of the women work part-time.