Some links for Corporate Social Responsibilty (This stuff smells a lot like PR)

Once again, we can't believe how mis informed and uncaring the average US consumer is when making purchases.

And we also can't believe how disingenous big companies are when it come to corporate responsibility.  In fact they call the field "Reputation Management" not social responsibility.

One of our longer term ideas for an Apps that gives a social responsibility score for companies.



Here are some links in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility


Reputation Insititute

Article from NK Warikoo and C Fuhr: Legitimating status: Perceiptions of meritocracy .... at Oxford

Here is a very interesting article about how the elite view meritocracy and equality. The article, called "Legitimating Status: perceptions of meritocracy and inequality among undergraduates at an elite British university" appears in the British Educational Reseach Journal. Here is the link.

The researchers interviwed 46 students at Oxford University.

We got a tip from the BBC program "Thinking allowed" which intervied Ms. Warikoo who is an assistant professor at Harvard School of Education.  Here is the link to the thinking allowed program.

Here are some highlights:

80% believe admissions were based on merit alone.

40% believe there is some truth to inequlaity in schools which affects the admissions process.

Students ignored family background. They also had a general conservative view of the whole process.

Students were against postive discrimination in general.

The discussion on "Thinking Allowed" noted that 75% of US students fvor special help for working class students while only 33% of UK students thought such help was needed.

From the Washington Post. Low skilled immigrants: Economic burden or boom ?

Here's the link: Low skilled immigrants: Economic burden or boom ?

The Washington post published a story on the impact low-skilled immigrants on low skill US born citizens.

The article at least acknowledges a well known fact in the Black community: that immigrants take jobs from black people, depress wages for poor people and control businesses in black neighborhoods. final reports the impact immigrants are having on the Black community.

The issue we have is that WAPO and the press in general tries to cover an issue that really hurts poor people with fake objectivity.

Almost everyone agrees that some immigration in general is good for the country.  People will also admit, grudging, that poor immigration hurts the existing US poor. And a lot of poor people are black. A lot of us also benefit from immigration: we get cheap food, all night convienice stores, and low cost landscaping and construction labor.

Our solution:  We should switch our model to rich immigration: Doctors, lawyers, dentists and CEO should be allowed to immigrate freely.  Limits should be placed on poor immigration.

Center for American Progress: Polorization of Job Opportunities in the US Labor Market

We have all known about the lack of good paying jobs for more than 30 years.  But it is not official until an economist publishes a paper about it.  So here is that paper.

The Center for American Progress and the Hamilton Project have publish a study by David Autor of MIT called "The Polorization of Job Opportunities in the US Labor Market".

Oxfam America Survey: Low wage workers have it very difficult in the US

Oxfam America, part of the Oxfam International, anti-poverty group, published a survey called "Hard Work, Hard Lives", which details the experiences of 804 low-wage workers in the United States.

Workers in the survey made less than $14.00 per hour and most had a family income of less than $40,000 per year.

Here are some highlights:

Fifty nine percent (59%) of respondants said they "Barely meet" or "Don't have enough to meet" their basic living expenses.

Low wage workers worry most about saving for retirement and unaffordable health expenses. They use food stamps and financial support from friends and family to survive.

Yet, 62% of of low wage workers believe hard work will get them ahead and 94% blieve performing your job well is important or extremely important.

Sadly, 76% of low-payed workers think that people are falling out of the middle class while only 12% are rising into the middle class from the lower class.


The report of the survey is here: "Hard Work; Hard Lives".

Fast Food Workers Strike for Better Wages

The Assocaited Press as carried by  USA Today has the story of the fast food workers strike.

USA Today: Fast Food wrokers stage strikes



The workers are asking for $15 dollar wage. The strike was support by SEIU - the service wrokers union. The strike seemed to be a tool to general publicity and favorable news coverge.

NJ.COM: Wide support for raising NJ minimum wage in November ballot question

In my state, New Jersey, the minimum wage is only $7.25. In June of 2012, the NJ senate and house voted to increase the NJ minimum wage to $8.50. However, Gov. Christie vetoed the bill in January of 2013. Now  the legislature is proposing a constitutional amendment to raise the wage to $8.25 and index it to inflation. The amendment will appear on the November ballot.

A survey show that about 3/4 of the registered voters favored the initiative. NJ.COM has the story here.

Many states are planning initiaitve to raise the minimum wage. The department of labor has a map of the current minimum wage pay rates in the US. The DOL map is here. Some big Northeastern states like NY, NJ, PA and MD pay only the federal minimum wage rate.

Recent research has shown that minimum wage increases are employment neutral to employment positive because the people who receive the minimum wage spend almost 100% of their money. It also has less of an impact on small business since the majority of minimum wage employers are large companies.

Politically, the issue has gotten little attention and is expected to pass easily.  Christine, who has presidential ambitions, will mostly likely ignore the issue or make half-hearted arguments against it, to provide cover against the national Republicans.

The reason we noticed the issue was because of a group called  EPI -- The Employment Policies Institute has been running ads in New Jersey against the increase. NJ.COM has the ad for the group here. The Employment Policies Institue is a front for a convervative public relations company called Berman and Co. who's clients include companies in the low wage food and beverage industry.  You can read about Berman & Co. here and here.

EPI has two web sites opposed to raising the minimum wage.  One called EPI-Online is against raising the minimum wage and health insurance. The second called Minimumwage.com is purely against raising the minimum wage. Both sites have few facts or research based ideas and instead offer the standard convervative ideas on raising the minimum wage.

Gov. Christie refused to sign a bill during the summer of 2012 that would have raised the wage to $8.50. That led to the current ballot measure. It will interesting to see if he takes a stand on the popular issue. Opposing any minimum wage increase has become a test for republicans.

The ballot measure reads:

"Do you approve amending the State Constitution to set a State minimum wage rate of at least $8.25 per hour? The amendment also requires annual increases in that rate if there are annual increases in the cost of living. 
YES 
NO"