Increasing Unemployment

Yes I hope the title makes you do a little head scratching. Now put on your thinking cap and think.

Union membership down slightly among federal employees

”The overall drop in federal union membership is tied primarily to the government's wider use of contract and temporary workers, according to J. David Cox, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees.”

We have a Democratic President and (until recently) a Democratic Congress and we’re still contracting out Federal employees? To what end? To increase unemployment?

What’s that? You say we’re not increasing unemployment, we’re just transferring jobs from the public sector to the private sector? First, do you really think that is smart? You know, considering what the private sector did to the world’s economy? Second, whose private sector are we transferring jobs to? Read it and think.

Only 47% Of Working Age Americans Have Full Time Jobs

”43.2 million Americans receive foodstamps. That's 18.1% of all working age Americans. If they all have on average 1.5 dependents, which is probably a reasonable estimate, a full one third of the US population receives at least part of their food through this system.”

Pay attention now, this isn’t going where you think it is going.

”Of course, these are not really stamps anymore, or any sort of paper, they’re now "food stamp debit cards". Michael Snyder at Economic Collapse dug up an ABC News article from April 2009, which deals with the fact that JPMorgan Chase is one of the main servicers of the "food stamp debit cards" (in 26 states). JPMorgan also services child support debit cards (in 15 states) and unemployment insurance cards (7 states).”

I can’t tell you how much money JPMorgan Chase got in the bailout because they bought Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual as part of the bailout. All I know is that is was worth billions and billions -- like $30 billion.

So what does JPMorgan Chase do with all this money and food stamp contract?

”Take Indiana. JP Morgan gets 62 to 64 cents for each food stamp case handled monthly there. With 296,245 cases right now, that means the state is paying JP Morgan $183,672 a month on top of any other fees it collects. Indiana eliminated 100 full-time employees when it hired JP Morgan to make the program cost-neutral [..].”

Well, technically, the State of Indiana “eliminated 100 full-time employees”. JPMorgan just enabled it. How?

”But the greatest statement the article makes, and the reason ABC looked into this in the first place, is that JPMorgan outsourced its call and service centers for the "food stamp debit cards" to India.”

Yes, I checked. Here’s the original ABC News story.

It’s hard to wrap your head around all this. We are “unemploying” people with good-paying, steady government jobs and giving the contracts to government-subsidized, government-bailed-out corporations that just caused the greatest economic calamity since The Great Depression. And they in turn take those jobs -- that entail dispensing government funds -- and ship them to India.

So now, 100 people that use to work for the government are possibly getting food stamps -- food stamp debit cards -- from one of the companies that just helped cost them much of the value of their home and 401k.

Make no mistake about it, JPMorgan Chase was in the thick of the financial crisis. It’s CEO -- Jamie Dimon -- is considered one of the better-behaved bankers. His company was in better shape than most. That’s the reason it survived when other didn’t. Let’s see what he has to say about contracting out work.

From Fortune in 2006

"When you're outsourcing it's almost impossible to do the integration, because people don't care that much," he says. "We want patriots, not mercenaries." And of course, he also hates paying the markup for having outsiders do the work."

From The New York Times in 2010

“Dimon inculcated a culture of risk-control by preaching accountability. His point in firing consultants was that employees, not outsiders, should be responsible for the bank.”

You can’t make this stuff up. Do you want “patriots” in charge of your government instead of “mercenaries”? Do you want “employees” doing the government’s work or “outsiders”? Do you like “paying the markup”?

Do you like increasing unemployment? Then stop listening to these fools that tell you government can’t do anything right and work to make your government better. There are literally millions of people that would love to get a government job right now. Some of them are brilliant. Some of them are unemployed bankers that would make great regulators. Tell your Congressmen to hire Americans to look after your interests. Tell them you want “employees” looking after your welfare -- not “mercenaries”.

Don Brown
February 1, 2011