Empathy is the best policy

The Atlantic Monthly chronicle of the long-term effects of unemployment demonstrates why empathy matters in policy.

Losing your job impacts more than just your income. Don Peck’s How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America lays this out in an expansive piece that looks at how joblessness wreaks havoc on people’s psyche, their relationships, and culture overall.

Defining and understanding a Depression requires more than economics; it requires empathy. Empathy is neither a progressive nor conservative trait. We all demonstrate it in different ways and in different circumstances. Empathy’s universality makes it something we can organize around and build upon.

Empathy is oft forgotten when policy remedies to crises are being considered. Policy is inherently mechanical and pedantic. But the way we frame policy debates does not have to be. Understanding the people impacted must be a the forefront of our politics.

Take, for example, today’s un[der]employment disaster. The debate on what to do about it has withered down to whether increasing the deficit is warranted. There is not a less human way to talk about this human catastrophe than that. Tell that to the recent college graduates that Peck writes about who will earn significantly less money over their careers because they were born in the wrong year and will be more likely to develop drinking, drug, and marital problems. They hear “deficit” and think “doesn’t matter.”

What matters is the broken promise made to them that if they worked hard and got a degree that they’d have a job. What matters is the lack of personal and collective responsibility that threw their professional trajectory off course. What matters is the steely feeling of student loan debt jammed into the back of their minds like a gun during a stickup. Using this, we should instead be debating how to get students the jobs they’ve been educated for and everyone the jobs they’ve trained for.

This principle should inform all of our work: enable people to build and pursue their talents and use them for the benefit of themselves and society. Applying this value to this and other debates sets the table for a progressive future on all fronts. Some examples:

• Health care: Fear of sickness or injury must not deter hopeful and ambitious people; give them the protection they deserve.
• Education: Properly equip public educational infrastructure with well-compensated teachers and staff, well-designed curricula and tools, and well-implemented + structures and practices.
• Job creation: Full employment is full dignity; everyone working means everyone bettering themselves, their families, and society.

People must be at the forefront of our organizing and our politics. People don’t want rhetoric or process, they want answers.

One Love. One II.

Photo credit: srqpix on Flickr

Racism has consequences

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made an unfortunate mistake when he said privately:

Obama, as a black candidate, could be successful thanks, in part, to his light-skinned appearance and speaking patterns with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one…He [Reid] was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a ‘light-skinned’ African American ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.

The comments and the response to the comments have been laughable, disconcerting and indicative of the broader race-related issues that our country continually kicks down the road.

I’m frustrated that the only tellers at the Bank of Apologizing to Black People are still Rev. Al Sharpton and/or Jesse Jackson. Many have used the fact that Rev. Sharpton accepted Reid’s apology as grounds for vindication. Rev. Sharpton is as much a proxy for Black America’s social consciousness as the CEO of Goldman Sachs is a proxy for the interests of community banks. Just like there’s a movement to move our money out of big banks, Black folks should be moving their representation away from Rev. Sharpton and to community voices.

It’s further frustrating to think about how the latent prejudice of our politics has contributed to structural inequity reinforced by public policy.

Take health care reform. Why is there disagreement between the House and Senate over the need for reform to narrow disparities in health care coverage? The House bill does this; the Senate bill does not.

Take unemployment. A community jobs program would work wonders for communities over-represented on unemployment roles: Black and Latino people. Yet the current debate on public job creation has shown little interest in this regard.

Perhaps there is more at work than the latent racism that leads to remarks that are at their best in poor taste and at their worst indicative of utter moral failure. The way to work through a controversy like today’s uproar is to put these incidents into a larger narrative about the consequences of entrenched racism and prejudice. Once that narrative is constructed, we can create a solution.

One Love. One II.

College-educated Blacks have less job security

I’d like to follow up on a post from Brandon from last week on the gender gap in Black students with undergraduate degrees.

Are we protected by our education?

In the midst of this economic downturn, it only makes sense that people take refuge in education. This is especially the thinking of minorities and disadvantaged people, and rightfully so. “Education,” they say, “is a great equalizer.”

This may indeed be the case for entering the workforce. However, some recent, alarming data seems to indicate that having that degree isn’t helping Black folks keep their jobs.

Unemployment of college educated workers, by race

What does this mean?

Make no mistake: you have more security being educated than you do being under-educated. That being said, we may need a little more nuance in our thinking about the whole “get educated to get employed” approach that most of us take to education. As my mentor & friend Calvin Mackie often says, “if it only makes dollars, then it doesn’t make sense.”

In this time where cornerstone companies like GM are entering bankruptcy and promising to come out “leaner” (read: they’re going to fire/lay off/buy out a lot of people), we have to protect ourselves. The harsh truth is that even good people are being let go.

What can we do?

Here are some things we can all do to survive & thrive in this economy:

1. Add as much value as you can.
   At your job, do what you can to over-achieve. This goes without saying typically, but it’s especially important now. This is good because a record of over-achievement will serve your career well.
2. Keep your resume up to date.
   Even if you’re not looking for work, re-visit your resume every 6 months. Have you had interesting projects or achievements on the job? Have you attended trainings or acquired some type of certification? Promotion? Adding these things as they happen ensures that you’re never unprepared. Consider creating a profile on LinkedIn. (For an example, look at my profile).
3. Build transferable skills outside of your day job.
   Try to read, practice, volunteer and/or consult in areas of interest or expertise you have outside of your primary work. If there are things that you enjoy or are good at or want to learn that could have monetary value, grow these skills. After you’ve done some work on them, add them to your resume.
4. Network to net work.
   The people you know can and will help you get the work you need and want. The old saying is “network or not work,” but I like this more positive, proactive version. We all know people that know people that are [at least] tangentially connected to whatever you want to pursue professionally. What we fail to realize is that they are often more than willing to talk with us, offer advice, and help us take our next step in our careers.

I’m sure many of you have tips we all can benefit from to help us find and keep jobs in this day and age. Please share them.

One Love. One II.

The Ruins of Detroit?

Is this photo eulogy of my home city of Detroit by two French photographers deeply depressing or a vision of opportunity?

Detroit’s Beautiful, Horrible Decline

Downtown Detroit

Brush Park

Lee Plaza Hotel

Farwell Building

One Love. One II.

The silver-lining in our economic crisis

I know times are hard for folks and not a week goes by where someone doesn’t tell me about how they heard about some new company giving people the pink slip. However, all of this gloom and doom that the media and we in turn regurgitate is bad for our mental and emotional health. For those of us that had the pleasure of going to school, you will recall the best times of your life was spent scrounging up change to order a small pizza to be split amongst five people, or going to every event that offered food, or any other but-gusting story you can reflect on. On one hand, you could suffer knowing that eventually, you would get a job where you could pay your bills.

I submit to you that our mental and emotional states should not ebb and flow with the economic outlook for the quarter. I was raised that God always provides a way of escape and we should look to the hills from which cometh our help. Moreover, I wrote a list of reasons we all should be looking for the silver lining in the midst of this economic crisis.

•    You are probably drinking more water now than you ever thought possible.
•    There is less pressure to keep up with the Joneses because most people you know are hurting.
•    The times you probably went out to eat you now spend cooking at home and actually to eat food you cook.
•    Count your blessings for not having a criminal record because with a record, it is difficult (not impossible) to work or even go to school. This means that once the economy recovers, you will be able to ride out while many people probably in your family will be left behind. Don’t forget about them and show love.
•    Hopefully, something miraculous has or will happen to you (got a job, someone paid a bill for you, etc.) and there is no other way for you to explain it other than a blessing from God.
•    You are cutting the things out of your life that satisfies your selfish desires and not your spirit.
•    You realize that you have a lot more hustle inside you than you thought possible.
•    You realize that your loved ones would much rather you tell them about a problem than have you suffer in silence.
•    You finally took the time to do that sometimes painful self-evaluation.
•    You either have or will find out who your real friends are when your enjoyment isn’t lubricated by what money can buy.

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

How to end the debate on the 'Stimulus Bill'

The current debating and posturing on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly referred to as the “Obama Stimulus Bill” is troubling and unproductive. All of the partisan rhetoric and time-wasting by Republicans, Democrats, and the President could have been avoided by framing this bill properly and sticking to that frame.

The bill is going to pass. No one, not even Conservative critics, dispute this inevitability. It would have passed with little opposition if one thing would have been done differently: if they would have called it from jump a Jobs Bill, not a Stimulus Bill.

What’s the difference between a Jobs Bill and a Stimulus Bill?

No Congressperson, no matter how much they hate it, can make a justifiable political argument against job creation. Politicians and pundits can, however, make arguments against stimulus. By the way, what exactly is stimulus? Is it spending? Is it tax cuts?

President Obama and I think it’s the former, but the problem is there is room for debate. There is room for conservatives to attempt [with some success] to recast this bill as a spending bill, which to hardcore conservatives make it the Devil’s bill.

Winning the War on Policy happens when you win the War of Words

The President in recent days has gone on the offensive to defend this legislation. This is the right thing to do. What would have been even better to do was not even talk about stimulus plans in the first place, even during the campaign. After all, saying stimulus plan conjures up images of the Bush “Stimulus Checks”, which barely evened registered on any scale of positive economic impact. When you describe your plans and policies with the same language as failed plans and policies, it gives people the wrong mental images. And it is those mental images that are crucial for achieving buy-in in politics.

I’ll be watching this administration and how it frames policy debates. The Obama team was pretty good during the campaign season at framing. They shouldn’t forget that going forward.

One Love. One II.

Elections have consequences, right?

I always get this weird sense that regardless of election outcomes, Republicans find a way to win. If you look at Obama’s charm offensive towards House Republicans regarding the stimulus package, it resulted in no Republican votes. I am sure there will be some Republican votes once the final bill comes out of conference. The larger point however, (with full complicity from MSM) is that Obama has somehow failed because no House Republicans voted for the bill.

Last I checked, the Democrats control the White House, Senate, and House so if the Democrats can pass bills without Republican support, why are we so committed to Republican ideas, especially now. To help illustrate, Bob Herbert said in a recent column,

The truth, of course, is that the country is hemorrhaging jobs and Americans are heading to the poorhouse by the millions. The stock markets and the value of the family home have collapsed, and there is virtual across-the-board agreement that the country is caught up in the worst economic disaster since at least World War II.

The Republican answer to this turmoil?

Tax cuts.

They need to go into rehab.

The question that I would like answered is why anyone listens to this crowd anymore. G.O.P. policies have been an absolute backbreaker for the middle class. (Forget the poor. Nobody talks about them anymore, not even the Democrats.) The G.O.P. has successfully engineered a wholesale redistribution of wealth to those already at the top of the income ladder and then, in a remarkable display of chutzpah, dared anyone to talk about class warfare. 

I applaud Obama’s efforts at bipartisanship but I hope that Obama’s bad cop is really, really good. In a normal world, Obama’s success won’t be determined by how many Republicans he can win over. I just hope that Obama and Democrats do not feel compelled  to have to trade away tax cuts for any legislation that they think requires broad bipartisan support. The problem is that tax cuts as an answer to everything is not good public policy. Elections do have consequences right?

Stay up fam,

Accountability and your money? Spare me

I am getting so upset with the vile being directed towards the auto industry’s request for $25 billion because after the 700 billion dollars doled out to Wall St. (and they are still not lending!), we find out that the Department of Treasury just gave Wall St. a tax deal worth up to $140 billion. See the excerpt below form the Washington Post.

The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration’s request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.

The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days, as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill. When they found out, some legislators were furious. Some congressional staff members have privately concluded that the notice was illegal. But they have worried that saying so publicly could unravel several recent bank mergers made possible by the change and send the economy into an even deeper tailspin.

“Did the Treasury Department have the authority to do this? I think almost every tax expert would agree that the answer is no,” said George K. Yin, the former chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the nonpartisan congressional authority on taxes. “They basically repealed a 22-year-old law that Congress passed as a backdoor way of providing aid to banks.”

It can not be said enough how much this financial bailout process mirrored the invasion of Iraq. Bush use fear tactics in asking demanding that Congress give him unchecked powers. Congress accepts this horrible framing and capitulates and then use Congressional hearings to explain why they voted the way they did while trying to lambast whoever they asked to appear before their committee. If it is so hard to be in Congress and do the right thing, don’t take the job!!!

If there is anything true about the Bush years is how Congress never debated saying no but they instead focused on trivial issues concerning oversight. It will be interesting to see how many on the hill will suddenly discover checks and balances under Obama.

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

For undecideds needing an excuse to vote for Barack

In case any of you undecideds can’t get over your mental block of voting for Senator Barack Obama, take a mental poll of where you stand financially and read this great piece from the New York Times,

Bulls, Bears, Donkeys and Elephants

By TOMMY McCALL

Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for nearly 40 years. So which party has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole? Well, here’s an experiment: imagine that during these years you had to invest exclusively under either Democratic or Republican administrations. How would you have fared?

As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.

The WRONG Way to Pass Legislation

The Senate broke my heart by passing the bailout Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (note the re-framing) overwhelmingly.

What’s really eating at me though is the way that it passed. In an attempt to make the bill more palatable to members of  Republicans in the House, they packed the bill with pork. Sure, this is how business gets done in Washington, but in this case it’s really, really, really sick. See some examples of the garbage in this bill here.

With all of the quasi-economic-populist rhetoric going on as this election draws nearer, why not throw in substantive measures to make this bill more palatable to homeowners, consumers, and everyday citizens? Isn’t that what economic populism is all about?

We need a change in Washington. Yes, I agree that we need a new President, and I think that new President should be Barack Obama. But what we really need is a change in how Washington works. This bill passed the way most bills pass in Washington: too quickly, without enough scrutiny, packed with “sweeteners” for politicians instead of people.

I wish my candidate & his VP (and, frankly, their opponent) hadn’t supported this. When a Democratic Senator who’s name is not on this list tells you they put regular people first, do a double-take.

Democratic Senators that Voted ‘No’ on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act

• Maria Cantwell (WA)
• Byron Dorgan (ND)
• Russ Feingold (WI)
• Tim Johnson (SD)
• Mary Landrieu (LA)
• Bill Nelson (FL)
• Bernie Sanders (VT)
• Debbie Stabenow (MI)
• John Tester (MT)
• Ron Wyden (OR)

One Love. One II.

P.S. When was the last time that opposing candidates voted the same way on a such controversial legislation this close to an election?

The Republican quad-fecta

Today, the Democrats managed a quad-fecta (I just made that word up) by creating a space for Republicans to vote against the bail out which allowed them to simultaneously be,

1. Anti-Bush and make it popular for Republicans to run against Bush economic policies
2. Appear on the side of the people and seem more populist than Democrats
3. Republicans can remain stalwarts of the free-market, less regulation ideology that got us in this mess in the first place
4. Republicans can run against Wall St. which is something I would never see in my lifetime.

I don’t like this bill and the lack of protections for homeowners but if Pelosi felt that she had to do it, why didn’t she tell Bush that she wouldn’t put it up for vote until she secured a certain number of votes from Republicans? And why in the world is the media not hounding McCain for claiming that his presence helped seal the deal when we don’t have a deal!! That is not the type of leadership America needs. Make sure you get out and vote.

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

Financial madness

First off I want to say Happy Birthday to my partner in crime…Mr. Garlin Gilchrist II.

This current crisis reminds me of something Bill Maher said, (I am paraphrasing) “Conservatives have the easiest job in the world because when they mess up doing things like governing, they can claim that government itself is the problem and whatever they planned to do wasn’t supposed to work anyways.” So now you have Democrats bending over backwards to make this deal work with House Republicans posturing against the bill.

And here is the problem, people keep saying that this bill is going to end up with a nice return for taxpayers right? If that was the case, then shouldn’t someone in the free market see this gem and buy it up so that taxpayers don’t have endure this socialism for the rich? What’s more is that if Obama said he wanted to invest $100 billion in education, conservatives would cry, “We already spent $700 billion on bailing out Wall Street and we can’t just throw away taxpayer money.” And a bold Democrat would respond by saying, “Wait, you just robbed taxpayers of a trillion dollars because businesses were too big to fail but we can definitely afford to let our children down in the form of disinvesting in education. And if money is not the cure all for whatever the issue, why does this logic apply to Wall St. and not education?”

Seriously, if there was ever anything that would prove a guaranteed return on investment, wouldn’t it be investing in education? Your money is where your heart is.

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

My thoughts on the financial meltdown

I need to speak my piece about the financial crisis facing America. This will be free form but take from it what you will.

Real people

Many families are in a situation where the only real safety net is that of other family members who are relatively well off. To be clear, we are not talking about McCain rich; rather I am defining well off by having good credit and being able to give “loans” to the family that rarely get paid back. These family anchors (including some in my own family) are being wiped out with this economic crisis. And I am tired of real people being categorized as “Main Street” and banks being characterized as “Wall Street.” This level of distance from real people in our media leaves everyone and no one responsible for our current crisis. In the end, the real victims are faceless and nameless.

What a weekend on Wall Street

What’s up fam,

So the mortgage crisis is steadily swimming upstream and reports show that Bank of America just bought out Merrill Lynch. After what appeared to be Treasury Secretary Paulson’s unwillingness to use taxpayer money to help bail out Lehman Brothers, Merrill saw the writing on the wall and took care of their investors before time ran out. In the interest of full disclosure, I interned for Merrill when I was in college when Stan O’Neal was there. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see writers talk about how difficult it is for banks in this economic turmoil. Trust me on this, people who lost their homes in a far worse situation than the top folks at Merrill. What worse is that for as bad as this situation is, what will prevent our economic system from riding the boom and bust of the bubble. In the 90’s it was the tech bubble. The first decade of the 21st century is witnessing the bust of the housing bubble. I say we use the 10s to ride a clean and renewable energy that only busts global warming, poverty, and a national security dependent on oil security.

Stay up fam

The myth of the Christian candidate

Good morning fam,

I hope all is well with you. A friend of mine just recently body sort of shut down due to the heat so be careful out there and stay hydrated. Speaking of heat, the cost of heating your home this fall and winter will more than likely be higher than last year so start considering putting money away now to deal with those bills.

However, I am here today to talk about the myth of the Christian candidate. Too often, the two wedge issues that conservatives use to determine if a candidate is moral or Christian enough are gay marriage and abortion. What I hate about this debate is that it forces God into a political framework that is too small and quite frankly, disrespectful.

Why is it that we never talk about tax policy in terms of Christian values? Are tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy really in line with this mistaken notion that God wants everyone to be rich? Man often defines as rich as monetary wealth, none of which we can take with us when we leave this earth. It is the love we give and receive from each other that makes one truly rich. Just think about it, anyone reading this column that went to college and stayed in the dorm remember how fun it was to be a broke college student, eating Ramen noodles, finding the most creative ways to eat and pay bills, always knowing that you had to laugh to keep from crying.

Having said that, what if we had a tax policy reflected in Proverbs 30:8-9 that reads,

8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say , ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonor the name of my God.

And let’s consider war and consider the fact that yes, sometimes war is justified but if we honest with ourselves, sending troops to fight a wars chiefly designed support our conspicuous consumption as opposed to ending genocide is crazy to me.

Our health care system is designed to make sure that when you need health care most, insurance companies profit margins grow to the extent that they find ways to deny payment for needed services. And we are talking about people with health care so you can imagine the fear of not having it. I am just trying to imagine Jesus charging payment before he healed the sick and I just can’t see it.

The problem is that we all need help because even bad things happen to good people. You may do everything right and may have to end up taking care of a sick parent or child or enduring a debilitating disease yourself. I don’t know about you but I want to elect candidates that realize that we can’t put God in a box or a political party, but we can apply Biblical principles to the full spectrum of issues facing our society.

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.