Steve Jobs Continues To Use Slave Labor To Make iPads

Bill Gates gets a lot of vilification on this blog for being an evil, slave-employing, egomaniacal monopolist - and rightfully so.

He's all of those things and more.

But you know, Apple's Steve Jobs isn't any better.

Last year seventeen workers committed suicide because the conditions in the Apple slave labor factory were so horrendous.

The owner of the factory in China promised to make conditions better and Jobs promised to hold them accountable for that.

Here is Think Progress on how bad that factory remains:

a new report from Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM), a Hong Kong-based advocacy and research group, finds that many of the practices that led more than a dozen workers committ suicide continue to live on. SACOM conducted a comprehensive study of practices at several Foxconn factories over the months of March and April and found that a number of shocking policies are in place. Here are some of the highlights of their study:

– Workers Are Being Asked To Work 80-100 Hours Of Overtime: Despite promises by Apple and Foxconn to limit overtime work to 36 hours a month, SACOM researchers found that in some factories, like in Chengdu, it is typical for workers to work 80-100 hours overtime instead. This is actually 2-3 times the legal limit of allowed overtime work.

– Workers Are Being Forced To Sign ‘No-Suicide’ Pacts: In the wake of a huge wave of suicides at Foxconn plants, the company began reforming its practices related to the suicides. Among these changes included installing anti-suicide nets to catch workers who attempted to leap out of company windows. Yet workers are also being forced to sign a non-suicide pact as a condition of employment. As part of the pact, the employees families have to promise “not sue the company, bring excessive demands, take drastic actions that would damage the company’s reputation or cause trouble that would hurt normal operations” in the case of a suicide.

– Employees Regularly Are Forced To Stand For 14 Hours A Day: SACOM found that workers in Chengdu “usually…have to stand for 14 hours a day.” “I don’t understand why we can’t sit. And we can’t bring our cell phone to the shop floor. Even the cell phone without camera is prohibited,” said one worker to the SACOM researchers.

– Employees Are Crammed Together In Dormitories With Squalid Living Conditions: In Chengdu, where almost all workers live in company-owned dormitories, the number of employees placed in a dormitory room range from 6 to 22. Employees’ living quarters are also under factory rules, and workers cannot even bring basic items such as hair dryers into their dorms. “Some of my roommates weep in the dormitory. I want to cry as well but my tears have not come out,” one 19 year-old employee told SACOM

Foxconn responded to the SACOM report with a statement given to the magazine PCWorld: “We have made tremendous progress over the past year as we work to lead our industry in meeting the needs of the new generation of workers in China and that has been confirmed by the many customer representatives, outside experts, and reporters who have visited our facilities and openly met with our employees and our management team.”

When Apple announced Jobs was stepping down to take care of his health, I read all over the Internets about what a spiritual guy Jobs is and how he really makes the world a better place by pursuing spiritual values as part of Apple's business model.

What kind of spiritual guy farms out his production to a factory like Foxxconn?

I only hope that after he's gone from this mortal coil, the Buddhist Jobs is reincarnated as a Foxxconn worker who makes iPads for 14 hours a day standing up and lives in a dormitory the size of an iPod nano with 10 other workers.

Really, that would be the karma Jobs deserves.

Where Did Bloomberg Get The Layoff Number?

Moneybags announced 4,666 layoffs of NYC public school teachers despite a billion dollar increase in tax revenue beyond what was expected for 2011.

Many people want to know where Bloomberg got that number from?

It is an odd one, after all - it's not 4,600 or even 4,660.

Uh, uh - it's 4,666.

Well, we here at Perdido Street School have figured out why he chose that EXACT figure.

Apparently when he looks in the mirror in the morning, Bloomberg sees the number 666 branded into his head with brimstone.

So that's where that number came from.

And the 4,000 figure?

That one he pulled out of his ass.

Along with is choice of Cathie Black as schools chancellor and his handling of the Bloomberg Blizzard of 2010.

Here is video of Bloomberg announcing the 4,666 layoffs:



I didn't realize Bloomberg wore so much leather.

What About This Dictator?

Fred Klonsky points out that this week hasn't been such a good week for dictators around the world, what with demonstrations breaking out across the Mideast against authoritarian regimes.

I cheer these, of course, but I would note that there is one dictator who hasn't been overthrown and who continues to impose his will upon millions without regard for democratic ideals or opposing viewpoints.

I bet you can guess who he is.

But I'll put a link to a google news search anyway.

Take a look at how many strings he pulls around the world.

It's time he goes to the same exiled island for authoritarian monsters and murderous thugs like Baby Doc, Kissinger, Mubarak, and Ben Ali.

And if you don't think he belongs in the same sentence with the above evil monsters, please take a look at this.

How many people will HE kill through policies like these?

Student Loan Lenders That Continue To Charge Payments Even After Death

I always tell my seniors to be mindful of what kinds of student loans they take out for college and how much money they take them out for.

"Remember," I say ominously, "there are only two ways to get rid of student loans once you take them out. You can either pay them off in full or you can die."

I mean to be blunt - getting into massive amounts of student loan debt can be a scary thing.

But loan debt is scarier than even I thought, because it turns out that for some loans, death doesn't actually discharge the obligation to pay them off anymore:

In July 2006, 25-year-old Christopher Bryski died.

His private student loans didn't. Mr. Bryski's family in Marlton, N.J., continues to make monthly payments on his loans—the result of a potentially costly loophole in the rules governing student lending.

As the college season nears, throngs of parents and students still are applying for private student loans, long used by students as an alternative to federal loans. But they may be unaware that in cases where the student dies, the co-signers often are obliged to pay off the balance of the loan themselves—a requirement typically not found in federal loans.

Many private student-loan lenders say they have a review process for cases involving disability or injury, and the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection will have an ombudsman in charge of private student loans. Yet neither the student-loan legislation passed in March as part of the health-care overhaul nor the financial-system overhaul passed in July requires lenders to discuss with the borrower and co-signer the consequences of a borrower's death or permanent disability, or require lenders to forgive private loans in those cases.

Sallie Mae, Citigroup and Wells Fargo all require co-signers to continue paying loans when the borrower has died or been reduced to a vegetative state.

Amazing - just another example of how this is the banksters' world and we just live in it.

Wall Street Criminals And Robber Barons Pledge "Transformative Change"

Take a look at this hit list of crooks, robber barons and employers of slave labor:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A total of 40 U.S. billionaires have pledged to give away at least 50 percent of their wealth as part of a campaign by investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Gates and Buffett launched "The Giving Pledge" in June to convince hundreds of U.S. billionaires to give away most of their fortune during their lifetimes or after their deaths and to publicly state their intention with a letter of explanation.

Here are some excerpts from letters written by billionaires taking the pledge:

* Laura and John Arnold, hedge fund manager: "We view our wealth in this light -- not as an end in itself, but as an instrument to effect positive and transformative change."

* New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: "If you want to do something for your children and show how much you love them, the single best thing -- by far -- is to support organizations that will create a better world for them and their children. And by giving, we inspire others to give of themselves, whether their money or their time."

* Philanthropist Eli and Edythe Broad: "Those who have been blessed with extraordinary wealth have an opportunity, some would say a responsibility -- we consider it a privilege -- to give back to their communities, be they local, national or global."

* Investor Warren Buffett: "Were we to use more than one percent of my claim checks (Berkshire Hathaway stock certificates) on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99 percent can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others."

* Microsoft founder Bill and Melinda Gates: "We have been blessed with good fortune beyond our wildest expectations, and we are profoundly grateful. But just as these gifts are great, so we feel a great responsibility to use them well. That is why we are so pleased to join in making an explicit commitment to the Giving Pledge."

* Hotel magnate Barron Hilton: "It is my hope that others are inspired by my father's story, and by our family's steadfast adherence to his charitable philosophy."

* Corporate executive Jon and Karen Huntsman: "It has been clear to me since my earliest childhood memories that my reason for being was to help others."

* Banker George Kaiser: "I had the advantage of both genetics (winning the 'ovarian lottery') and upbringing. As I looked around at those who did not have these advantages, it became clear to me that I had a moral obligation to direct my resources to help right that balance."

* Media entrepreneur Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest: "The ultimate achievement in life is how you feel about yourself. And giving your wealth away to have an impact for good does help with that feeling."

* Business Wire founder Lorry Lokey: "There's an old saying about farmers putting back in to the ground via fertilizer what they take out. So it is with money. The larger the estate, the more important it is to revitalize the soil."

* Moviemaker George Lucas: "My pledge is to the process; as long as I have the resources at my disposal, I will seek to raise the bar for future generations of students of all ages. I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education."

* Tashia and John Morgridge, former Cisco CEO: "The more personally involved we have become with the causes we support the more effective we seem to be."

* Peter Peterson, founder of Blackstone Group equity firm: "As I watched and learned from my father's example, I noticed how much pleasure his giving to others gave him. Indeed, today, I get much more pleasure giving money to what I consider worthwhile causes than making the money in the first place."

* David Rockefeller, patriarch of the Rockefeller family: "Our family continues to be united in the belief that those who have benefited the most from our nation's economic system have a special responsibility to give back to our society in meaningful ways."

* Jeff Skoll, former eBay executive: "The world is a vast and complicated place and it needs each of us doing all we can to ensure a brighter tomorrow for future generations."

* Asset manager Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor: "Surely the pleasure we derive from St. Francis' active verbs of consoling, understanding, loving, giving and pardoning far outweigh any selfish and passive pleasures of owning, having, or possessing."

* Media magnate Ted Turner: "I'm particularly thankful for my father's advice to set goals so high that they can't possibly be achieved during a lifetime and to give help where help is needed most. That inspiration keeps me energized and eager to keep working hard every day on giving back and making the world a better place for generations to come."

* Former Citigroup executive Sanford and Joan Weill: "Our Pledge is this: We will continue to give away all of the wealth we have been so fortunate to make except for a very small percentage allocated to our children and grandchildren between now and the time we pass because we are firm believers that shrouds don't have pockets."

Transformative change to these bastards means working people working longer and harder for less money, then getting laid off at forty and working in Walmart stocking shelves or 7/11 making coffee until Social Security retirement comes around - at age 72.

One name on the list I would like to take a closer look at is George Lucas.

Unlike Gates, Broad, Jobs, Bloomberg, et al., you don't see Lucas bashing teachers or talking data collation and test score accountability.

And he doesn't put anywhere near the kind of money the others put into education "reform."

But he does seem to fashion himself an education reformer.

So more on Lucas and his style of education reform in a future post.

Rhee Fires 5% of Teachers In D.C.

Nice job, Randi - you gave her the power to do this:

Michelle Rhee, the reform-minded chancellor who took over the District of Columbia public schools three years ago, on Friday fired 241 teachers, or 5 percent of the district’s total. All but a few of those dismissed had received the lowest rating under a new evaluation system that for the first time held them accountable for their students’ standardized test scores.

“Every child in a District of Columbia public school has a right to a highly effective teacher — in every classroom, of every school, of every neighborhood, of every ward, in this city,” the chancellor said in a statement. “That is our commitment.”

All told, the district terminated 302 employees — 226 for poor performance, and 76 for other problems like not having the licensing required by the No Child Left Behind act. Besides the 241 teachers, those dismissed were librarians, counselors, custodians and other employees.

An additional 737 employees were put on notice that they had been rated “minimally effective,” the second-lowest category, and would have one year to improve their performance or be fired.

In the years before Ms. Rhee took over the district, almost all the teachers had high performance ratings and almost none were fired, but students, on average, had low achievement levels.

George Parker, the president of the Washington Teachers’ Union, said the union would challenge the firings. The union has taken issue with the evaluation system Ms. Rhee used, saying that it was designed more for punishing teachers than helping them improve.

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, also criticized the evaluation system and what she called the chancellor’s “destructive cycle of hire, fire, repeat.”

“Evaluations should include a component of student learning, of course, but there also has to be teacher development and support,” Ms. Weingarten said. “It can’t just be a ‘gotcha’ system, like the one in D.C.”

Maybe if Randi spent more time with real working teachers and less time with Bill Gates, she would have realized that allowing test scores to be part of ANY of the evaluation gives the people running schools systems the incentive and ability to do mass firings like this.

You can be sure next year Rhee will fire the 737 teachers rated "minimally effective" this year and rate another 750 minimally effective, setting them up to be fired the year after.

If she's still around in five years (and god knows, I hope she's not), she'll have an entire new teaching corps in D.C.

EVERY teacher will get rated "ineffective" and fired.

And this will be done in state after state thanks to an anti-teacher Democratic administration pushing these kinds of policies and a union like the AFT and union leaders like Randi Weingarten NOT fighting them in the first place.

The next place this is going to happen is New York State.

With the Regents set to make tests "harder" and have thousands more students fail next spring, you can bet Klein and Bloomberg will be firing thousands of teachers here in NYC with Obama's blessing.

Unless the unions overturn test scores tied to evaluations, school systems are going to fire hundreds or thousands of teachers every year.

And you can bet most of them will be making top salary and be veterans.

It's a win-win for Rhee, Klein, Obama and company - turn over the teaching corps every five years so that you never have anybody making more than Step #5 on the salary chart.

And since it takes ten years to get vested for a pension, you'll never have anybody taking home a pension either.

It's genius and why Weingarten and Company didn't see this coming with the changes to school financing, the changes to teacher evals, and the preponderance of tying tests to every goddamned thing in school is beyond me.

My friend NYC Educator would say they did see it but just didn't give a shit so long as they get to go on convention trips and collect two pensions.

And I think he's right.

Back to Rhee, here's hoping that corrupt bagman Adrian Fenty goes down to defeat in the November election and Rhee has to go work out in California with her degenerate rapist fiance Kevin Johnson at Johnson's charter school.

That won't solve all the problems in D.C., of course, and Rhee, spawn of Satan that she is, will still be doing evil the world over.

But at least she'll won't be doing it on the public dime.

Let Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Mayor Moneybags or some other robber baron pay her for it instead.

FireDogLake: Why Does Arne Get To Run A Contest While Teachers Get Fired?

This is a month old, but it is as true today as it was back in early June. From Firedoglake:

So here’s the situation – state education budgets have collapsed, and school districts are staring down the barrel of around 300,000 layoffs. Some Democrats want to help – Tom Harkin has a proposal for $23 billion in funding to keep teachers working, but he failed to gather the necessary support for it in the Senate, and though he planned to attach it to a must-pass war supplemental bill, in the end he dropped it. By contrast, House Appropriations Committee Chair David Obey said he planned to include it in his version of that bill, but given the fact that the House had to take out a similar amount of state funding to fill a Medicaid shortfall, prospects are dim for getting the teacher funding (now called a “teacher bailout” by compassionate conservatives who apparently like their kids being taught in class sizes of 40 or 50) through Congress.

But wait! There’s already money appropriated for education through the Recovery Act. It isn’t as big as the $23 billion proposed by Harkin – right now you’re looking at more like $3.4 billion, but in an emergency, everything counts. Perhaps that money could save 40-50,000 teacher jobs, certainly a noble goal. So surely Arne Duncan, who termed the $23 billion in teacher funding a top priority, would re-route this already-appropriated $3.4 billion into saving teachers nationwide and not continue his blackmail “Race to the Top” scheme, forcing states into adopting unproven “reform” policies by dangling this money. Surely he would recognize the emergency we face and distribute that money more evenly to the states facing mass layoffs. Surely he would-

"Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia applied for the second phase of the Race to the Top federal education competition as the application deadline passed Tuesday night.

The states are hoping to win a piece of the $3.4 billion available under President Barack Obama’s signature education initiative.

Race to the Top aims to spur innovation by rewarding states that promote charter schools, tie teacher pay to student achievement and intervene in low-performing schools.

Forty states and D.C. applied in the first round, but only Delaware and Tennessee won. They received a total of $600 million."

I know this education reform divide places some of the Democratic coalition on opposite sides. Reasonable people can disagree about the propriety of Race to the Top policies like charter schools and merit pay – personally I think that charter schools are often giant corporate welfare scams, and merit pay tied to an unreliable barometer of teacher excellence. But can there be anything crazier than running a contest right now when 300,000 teacher jobs are threatened? The biggest “reform” for schools in 2010 would be “funding them so they don’t have to fire members of their staffs.” We don’t know everything about how students best learn, but we do know that having a teacher helps.

I cannot imagine any legitimate justification for Arne Duncan running a contest at this time at the expense of maybe 50,000 teacher jobs.

Neither can I.

But President Hopey/Changey can. In fact he will veto any bill that touches a cent of RttT money.

So can the Dark Chancellor.

I have said this before, I will say this again.

Not enough bad stuff can happen to these two men.

The start of the bad stuff should be both losing their jobs.

With the economy tanking, I suspect we will get to see Obama lose his.

What concerns me is Bloomberg dropping a $150 billion to buy the White House and make the Dark Chancellor Arne Duncan's successor.