Jeb Bush: You're not working enough hours

Jeb Bush. (photo: Getty Images)

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

09 July 15

readersupportednews.org

 

And Scott Walker would like to tell us what to do with that time we used to call a weekend.

t has been three generations since any member of the extended Bush clan of Kennebunkport has done any actual physical labor so, if we're being charitable, we can assume that Jeb (!) wouldn't recognize real work if you handed him a shovel and pointed him toward a ditch. Nonetheless, he would like you to know that you are not working as hard as you should work if you want to be as successful as, well, him.

"My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That's the only way we're going to get out of this rut that we're in."

Holy Jesus H. Christ on a furlough, there's your "47 percent" moment for this cycle. What is it with this guy and with that other Florida Man, Marco Rubio? Is the sun so bright that neither of them sees the rakes until it's too late? Every legitimate survey demonstrates that Americans are working longer hours for wages that pretty much have remained flat for 30 years while most of the country's wealth was being shoved up to that level of the economy wherein reside Jeb (!) and his family of entitled layabouts. This is pure Romneyism in action. This one statement should kill his campaign. It should be hung around his neck like a dead raccoon until the last ballot of the 2016 election is cast. If it's not, it's only because some people will do anything to keep this guy viable because he allegedly is more "serious" than many of the other presidential candidates. Those people are wrong.

Meanwhile, Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, is preparing to announce his candidacy for president next week by signing a Superfund site of a state budget that includes a provision that—and I am not kidding here—does away with the concept of the weekend. 

Of course, this merely allows an "employee" to "opt out" of the requirement that he be given one day of rest every seven, and I am sure that the state's employers will do nothing to "encourage" their employees to take advantage of their newfound freedom to be worked to death. This is pure Lochnerism in action, of course. Nobody can say they don't have a jobs plan anyway.

 

Comments

+63 # CAMUS1111 2015-07-09 11:21

According to Jeb(!), Terry Schiavo was a slacker and a taker--just not pulling her weight.

+36 # pagrad 2015-07-09 18:37

Republican Political Party philosophy has been a failure for the last 100 years!
(Google it.)
Anyone voting for a Republican candidate is committing Treason.
Yes, intentionally creating an action for the demise of the American society.
All (3) American Economic Depressions [1873, 1929, 2007) were the result of the initiatives of Republican Administrations.

The patriot of the Bush family, Prescott Bush, supported and financed Adolf Hitler’s rise and the Nazi Party in the 1930s up to 1943, well into WW II. The embarrassment of the State Department made him stop.

Jeb Bush is no different.
 

+26 # wrknight 2015-07-09 19:37

Coming from someone who never worked an honest day in his life.

+99 # davidr 2015-07-09 12:04

"Productivity" doesn't seem to be well-understood . It refers to the value of something produced relative to the cost of producing it. So productivity improves when products stay the same and wages go down (relative to inflation or due to robotics, off-shoring, overtime ripoffs, etc.). Productivity also increases when wages remain stagnant & products cost more (inflation, anti-competitiv e business strategies, genuine improvement, etc.).

This horse crap notion that American productivity is a basic measure of our economic strength, let alone economic justice, is nauseating. Cotton farming in the ante bellum South was the productivity miracle of its day. Bush is describing a "solution" that is the very definition of the problem. How dishonest & cruel.

+35 # Billy Bob 2015-07-09 14:20

Beautiful comment.

+28 # economagic 2015-07-09 17:47

The technical definition is "value of output per HOUR of labor," (not per dollar's worth of labor), but that's really beside the point. Otherwise, as you say.

Believe it or not, mainstream economic "theory" says that the factors of production are inevitably paid in proportion to their productivity. Labor productivity in the US has roughly doubled since the early 1970s while real wages (adjusted for inflation) have been essentially stagnant. Therefore, the "theory" is simply R-O-N-G! But mainstream economics is religion, not science, and its pronouncements are dogma, not theory as the term is used in the sciences.

+20 # Vardoz 2015-07-09 20:31

I think the 99% has had enough of the elite Bush clan. Bush Sr. Recently said " if the American people knew what we've done they would lynch us."

+47 # Billy Bob 2015-07-09 14:19

Jeb just elected another Democrat to the White House. Now, it's up to Democrats to choose the Democrat who will actually REPRESENT US.

Clinton would easily beat Jeb.

So would Sanders.

The next president will be chosen by the Democratic Primaries, regardless what Rain17 says.

+17 # wrknight 2015-07-09 19:39

Quoting Billy Bob:

Jeb just elected another Democrat to the White House. Now, it's up to Democrats to choose the Democrat who will actually REPRESENT US.

Clinton would easily beat Jeb.

So would Sanders.

The next president will be chosen by the Democratic Primaries, regardless what Rain17 says.

Please, not Clinton. I really don't want another war.

+17 # Billy Bob 2015-07-09 20:37

The choice is up to Democrats to decide. I agree, and now's the time. I will bet 10,000 Romney-Bucks that the Democratic nominee will be the next president. I'm putting up $10,000 (of Twit Romney's money) stating that, for all intents and purposes, the Democratic Primary IS the national election.

For the record, I DO have one concern about Sanders - his age. Not that he's not up to the job. I plan to vote for him. But, I hope he WOWS us with his running mate pick. I want someone younger, and JUST AS LIBERAL. Liberals should NEVER choose a less liberal running mate. Just ask JFK.

-8 # Saberoff 2015-07-09 22:03

There's Elizabeth, if she'd come out of hiding.
I wonder if The Bern could convince Jill S. to join him as VP. God, I'd love that!
Then again, not a woman, (oh well) but there's Dennis!
We (Bernie) should be thinking about this: VP.