Xi Push to End Poverty Underpins Party Support in Rural China [feedly]

Xi Push to End Poverty Underpins Party Support in Rural China
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-21/xi-push-to-end-poverty-underpins-party-support-in-rural-china

Ending rural poverty is the key to ending rural idiocy, too, anywhere in the world. Bloomberg's interest in China, you may note, is fundamentally different from that off Bezos (The Washington  Post). -- a riddle in billionaire thinking that probably deserves more research and thought.

 Almost a year ago, 26-year-old Luoba Nijinmo moved her family into a brand-new housing estate called "Gratitude Community" in southwest China -- her last step to being officially lifted out of poverty.

The mother of two is among about 10 million people who have been resettled in government-built housing since 2016, part of President Xi Jinping's promise to eradicate extreme rural poverty -- those who earn less than 11 yuan ($1.63) per day -- by the end of this year. He's getting close: Official data show the number of extremely poor rural residents fell to 5.5 million last year from almost 56 million in 2015.

"It's so much better now," Luoba told a foreign reporter this month on a government-organized trip to showcase China's poverty alleviation efforts in Sichuan province. "Living on the mountains, it was inconvenient for the kids to go to school. On rainy days, it was scary because the houses were so old."

China is likely to announce the completion of Xi's goal soon, ahead of next year's 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party's founding. In March, he said the party made a "solemn promise" to end poverty and that "must be met as scheduled, without retreat and without flexibility."

Extreme Drop in Poverty

Source: National Bureau of Statistics

Success will help Xi show the public that the Communist Party is delivering concrete economic gains, which is crucial to maintaining the legitimacy of its one-party rule. It also marks a milestone for China's development after officials embraced market-oriented reforms in the wake of Mao Zedong's tumultuous rule marked by slow growth and famine, propelling its rise to become the world's second-biggest economy.

"Internationally, poverty eradication is one of the most frequently mentioned great achievements when people talk about the changes during China's post-Mao reforms," said Wenfang Tang, a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. "This is one of Xi's signature projects that will boost public support."

While China suppresses political dissent that could threaten the party's rule, surveys show that improving public services boosts support for the government, especially in rural regions. Groups from poorer, inland regions were comparably more likely to report increases in satisfaction in the government, according to a study by scholars at Harvard University's Ash Center, which tracked public support from 2003 to 2016.

Read more: China's Recovery Threatened by Surging Prices, Stagnant Wages

Still, Xi faces a more immediate problem after the pandemic left millions of migrant workers without a job. While the economy is now recovering, consumption is still well below where it was in 2019 and the rebound likely hasn't replaced lost income for many in rural poor areas.

Earlier this year, Premier Li Keqiang set off a nationwide debate on poverty alleviation when he reminded the public that two-fifths of China's population earned just 1,000 yuan a month on average. "It's not even enough to rent a room in a medium-sized Chinese city," he said during the annual national parliament meeting in May.

Those in urban slums aren't included in China's poverty statistics, and the government's focus on absolute poverty means it ignores a lot of people who are just relatively poor.

"It's the near poor who are affected more by the economic hits this year as a result of the coronavirus and the floods," said Gao Qin, a professor at Columbia University who wrote a book about poverty in China. "These are the people who I would worry more about because they face many similar challenges but don't get the same government support as those below the poverty line."

Aerial view of the poverty alleviation relocation sites in Sichuan province, on Aug. 29.

Photographer: Imaginechina via AP Photo

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development defines anyone with income less than half the median as being poor. Using that standard, people in rural areas would need to earn above 7,000 yuan a year in China to escape poverty, as the median rural per capita income was 14,389 yuan last year. China's rural poverty target, however, is still well above the absolute poverty line of the World Bank.

In addition to having sufficient income, China also doesn't consider people to be out of poverty until they have enough food and clothing, guaranteed basic healthcare, access to compulsory education and safe housing. To achieve that, China has mobilized more than 3 million party cadres and bureaucrats from across government and public institutions to help people meet those requirements.

In Sichuan, Liu Wansi is one of those officials who helps residents adjust to their new life. As deputy secretary of the local township party committee for overseeing residential projects such as Gratitude Community, he manages a meticulous log of each household's income and expenditures as well as their changing living standards.

Read more: Chinese Village Xi Transformed Still Angry Over Inequality

The compound, which cost 420 million yuan to build, houses more than 6,000 people from 38 different ethnic Yi villages. Banners remind residents to be thankful to the party, Xi quotes are plastered on the side of the apartment buildings, and his portrait hangs in each of the more than 1,400 apartments.

Each household owns the apartments after a contribution of 10,000 yuan -- usually accumulated through family and friends, savings or government subsidies. Local officials also run job-training programs and reward them for positive behavior: One of them gives points for picking up the trash, returning lost items or helping to resolve conflicts that can be redeemed for rice or laundry detergent.

Officials also work to root out what they consider to be outdated thinking and customs. "Red White Executive Councils," named after the colors worn at weddings and funerals, seek to control spending at major ceremonies. In Sichuan's Liangshan prefecture, betrothal gifts are capped at 60,000 yuan and no more than two cows should be killed to feed funeral banquets.

A woman looks at the photos showing rural poverty alleviation schemes across the Sichuan province, on Sept. 9.

Photographer: Andy Wong/AP Photo

There's been some problems with the program. In 2018, the last full year for which data are available, 177,000 people were punished in poverty alleviation-related corruption cases, according to the party's anti-graft watchdog. Villagers have also complained about an unequal distribution of funds, and relatively well-off residents gaming the system to gain some of the program's benefits.

Still, the program has been lauded by millions of people like Luoba. Her husband took a job last month harvesting potatoes about 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) away in Hebei province that nets him around 150 yuan a day, which over the course of a year would be about three times more than the official poverty line.

"Top-down mobilization propels the whole bureaucracy to meet Xi's mandate -- eradicating poverty -- at any cost," said Yuen Yuen Ang, associate professor of political science at the University of Michigan and author of How China Escaped the Poverty Trap. "Its strength is also its weakness. Results will look impressive because they must, but if extreme measures are used to achieve them, they bring unintended problems down the road."

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U.S. Is Falling Further Behind Rivals in Meat-Worker Safety [feedly]

U.S. Is Falling Further Behind Rivals in Meat-Worker Safety
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-21/america-is-lagging-behind-the-world-in-protecting-meat-workers

from Bloomberg -- meat prices Will continue to rise, a consequence of US style "unemployment-will-take-care-of-labor-shortage-from-worker-deaths", or, "the hungry, sick, dog works harder". --  ideas also popular with the Nazis ---  and numerous feudal regimes, til the Black Death wiped them out.

The U.S. government is falling behind global rivals when it comes to protecting meatpacking workers from Covid-19 infections, even though the nation's plants were among the first to confront rampant cases across factories.

In Germany, the government is ready to upend a labor contracting system that left poorly paid immigrant workers vulnerable. Australia's second-most populous state, Victoria, slashed slaughterhouse staffing capacity to enforce strict spacing requirements. In Brazil, the federal government has set safety rules, though unions have said they're not strong enough.

Employees remove internal organs from pigs at a meat processing facility in the U.S.

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Meanwhile, the U.S. has yet to impose any mandatory safety measures on meatpackers to contain infections, issuing just voluntary guidelines. And the only federal citations against major meat processors resulted in fines of less than $16,000, decried as paltry by worker advocates. At the same time, an executive order from Donald Trump has kept plants running at full tilt since late April.

The U.S. response "has been a mess," said James Ritchie, assistant general secretary of the Geneva-based International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations.

Trump's order has been "downright dangerous" since it didn't come with any U.S. federal agency issuing enforceable safety rules, Ritchie said.

World's Top Meat Suppliers

Nations including the U.S. and Brazil rank among the world's top shippers

Source: USDA forecasts for 2020 exports

Coronavirus infections spread rapidly among U.S. meat workers in March and April, prompting major facilities to shutter before Trump issued the order to keep them open. Since then, it's been unclear how widely the virus is still impacting workers because many companies aren't publicly disclosing new cases. A tabulation of local news reports by the Food & Environment Reporting Network totaled at least 42,606 confirmed Covid cases and 203 related deaths among meatpacking workers through Friday.

Evidence points to the virus spreading by air, with an initial study in Germany showing particles can jump more than 8 meters (26 feet) in slaughterhouses where cold temperatures and poor ventilation put workers at risk. To protect employees, Ritchie said there should be a universal slowing of production lines.

Virus Can Travel 26 Feet at Cold Meat Plants With Stale Air

While companies took their own safety measures, including installing plexiglass barriers and issuing protective equipment, the American federal government never stepped in to create enforceable protocols. This month, U.S. regulators issued their first sanctions against meatpackers in connection with outbreaks. Smithfield Foods Inc. was fined $13,494 and JBS SA was issued a penalty of $15,615, drawing outrage from two senators, a former safety official and a major national union as being inadequate.

The next litmus test for how well the virus is being controlled at American meat plants is likely to come over the next few months as the weather turns colder, which could help infections to spread more quickly and the period will also coincide with the annual flu epidemic that sweeps the northern hemisphere.

In contrast to the U.S., German and Australian regulators intervened with stronger measures for meat workers even though the nations were dealing with smaller outbreaks. Germany's Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner is even calling for higher food prices to ease cost pressures on producers.

"We are currently experiencing a momentum, an opportunity to readjust the meat industry," Kloeckner said in emailed comments to Bloomberg. "That is what we are tackling."

Here's a look at how global policies are taking shape:

U.S.

It's possible the U.S. may yet impose additional safety regulations as Congressional leaders haggle over a broad coronavirus relief package. A version the Democratic-controlled House passed in May would require an emergency temporary regulation requiring safety measures to reduce the spread of Covid in workplaces, including meat plants. Senate Republicans have resisted the step and GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is instead seeking to include a provision granting immunity to businesses for virus-related legal claims.

Meat and poultry companies have "voluntarily enacted government recommendations and more to protect employees," the North American Meat Institute said in an emailed statement.

Butchers place pork ribs on a conveyor belt at a meat processing facility in the U.S.

Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Labor unions' lobbying efforts to include mandatory Covid safety measures are "an uphill battle" said Rebecca Reindel, occupational safety and health director for the AFL-CIO.

U.S. Meat Plants Are Deadly as Ever, With No Incentive to Change

Efforts to win better safety regulations are hampered because the employees are often minorities and immigrants who, unlike other high-risk workers such as doctors and hospital staff, labor out of sight of consumers.

"They face a lot of barriers," Reindel said. "You have a lot of workers of color. You have a lot of immigrant workers. You have a lot that don't know their safety and health rights."

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that's part of the Department of Labor and has the power to regulate conditions in meat plants, is committed to protecting America's workers during the pandemic, a department spokesperson said in an emailed response, which cited the voluntary safety guidelines the agency has issued. The agency also continues to respond to and investigate complaints it receives.

Germany

In Germany, a Covid outbreak at a slaughterhouse infected 1,500 workers and shuttered the facility for a month from mid-June. That seized attention across the continent and accelerated a move by politicians to crack down on poor work conditions. The industry's production lines rely largely on subcontracted staff from eastern Europe, a practice the government is now moving to end, said Johannes Specht, head of collective bargaining at Germany's NGG union.

The German cabinet in late July approved a bill to ban temporary employees at meat plants.

Top Pork Exporters

The EU is forecast to account for a third of global trade this year

Source: USDA estimates

The new bill to end subcontract workers will give "clear responsibility instead of cascades of shadow companies," said Kloeckner, the ag minister.

She also wants to move from a system with a few, large centralized processors and promote smaller, regional slaughterhouses and butchers. Higher meat prices could allow for improved conditions in animal stables, shorten transport times to processors and allow for fair working conditions and sustainable farmer incomes, she said.

Australia

Australia's Victoria state has been hardest hit by a fresh wave of virus cases, leading to a strict months-long lockdown for its more than 5 million residents.

Meat plants have been the source of some of the state's biggest virus clusters and more than half a dozen facilities have been forced to shutter temporarily. The state government in August slashed slaughterhouses' and processors' staffing capacity and enforced strict spacing, hygiene and health check measures, as part of the broader restrictions to curb community transmission.

A worker moves cattle carcasses from the cold room to the boning room at a meat processing facility in Australia.

Photographer: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg

Meat giant JBS shuttered the state's biggest processing facility until community transmission is under control, saying it could not operate in the current environment.

The state government also provided payments to workers who had to miss shifts to isolate after a coronavirus test, and for those who had to take time off following a positive test, if they had no access to paid leave.

Brazil

In Brazil, the world´s largest chicken and beef exporter, the federal government set mandates for safety measures, including establishing a minimum distance of 1 meter (3.3 feet) between workers, or less if employees are provided with enough protective gear.

While that's still more strict than the U.S., which has only the voluntary guidlines, Brazilian labor leaders have said the country's measures are still insufficient to ensure employee safety. Unions in the nation have estimated, based on surveys with local members, that about 20% of Brazilian meat workers, or roughly 100,000 people, have been infected with Covid-19.

Some local governments, including chicken and pork production hubs such as Rio Grande do Sul and Parana states, have set their own guidelines for meat plants during the pandemic, with higher standards compared with the federal rules. But others states, including the top beef producer Mato Grosso, haven't published any resolution, which leave the national guidelines as the only protocols.

In many places, "slaughterhouses have the government's approval to work without prioritizing employee safety," said Artur Bueno, head of the national labor union CNTA, which represents workers from the food industry.

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Racial disparities in income and poverty remain largely unchanged amid strong income growth in 2019 [feedly]

Racial disparities in income and poverty remain largely unchanged amid strong income growth in 2019
https://www.epi.org/blog/racial-disparities-in-income-and-poverty-remain-largely-unchanged-amid-strong-income-growth-in-2019/

The Census Bureau report on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in 2019 reveals impressive growth in median household income relative to 2018 across all racial and ethnic groups, but income gaps persist. While the Census cautions that the 2019 income estimates may be overstated due to a decline in response rates for the survey administered in March of this year, real median household income increased 10.6% among Asian households (from $88,774 to $98,174), 8.5% among Black households (from $42,447 to $46,073), 7.1% among Hispanic households (from $52,382 to $56,113), and 5.7% among non-Hispanic white households (from $71,922 to $76,057), as seen in Figure A.

In 2019, the median Black household earned just 61 cents for every dollar of income the median white household earned (up from 59 cents in 2018), while the median Hispanic household earned 74 cents (unchanged from 2018).

Figure A

Based on EPI's imputed historical income values (see the note under Figure A for an explanation), African American households finally surpassed their pre-recession median income 12 years after the start of the Great Recession in 2007—the last racial group to do so. Compared with household incomes in 2007, median household incomes in 2019 were up 21.1% for Hispanic households, 11.3% for Asian households, 8.2% for non-Hispanic white households, and 6.3% for African American households. Unfortunately, this recovery of income has been cut short by massive job losses, particularly among Black and Hispanicworkers, during the current pandemic and recession.

The 2019 poverty rates also reflect the strong income growth between 2018 and 2019, though the Census also cautions that the poverty estimates may be understated due to a decline in response rates. As seen in Figure B, poverty rates for all groups were down, but remained highest among African Americans (18.7%, down 2.0 percentage points), followed by Hispanics (15.7%, down 1.9 percentage points), Asians (7.3%, down 2.8 percentage points), and whites (7.3%, down 0.8 percentage points). African American and Hispanic children continued to face the highest poverty rates—more than one-quarter (25.6%) of African Americans and more than one-fifth (20.9%) of Hispanics under age 18 lived below the poverty level in 2019. African American children were more than three times as likely to be in poverty as white children (8.3%).

Figure B

The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), an alternative to the long-running official poverty measure, provides an even more accurate measure of a household's economic vulnerability. While the official poverty rate captures only before-tax cash income, the SPM accounts for various noncash benefits and tax credits. The SPM also allows for geographic variability in what constitutes poverty based on differences in the cost of living. According to the 2019 SPM, the official poverty measure understates poverty among Hispanics (the 2019 SPM rate is 18.9% vs. 15.7% by the official poverty measure), Asians (11.7% vs. 7.3%), and non-Hispanic whites (8.2% vs. 7.3%), while the measures produce relatively similar rates for African Americans (18.3% vs. 18.7%).

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President Trump has attacked workers’ safety, wages, and rights since day one [feedly]

Behind the scoundrel, gaslighting, racist 'patriotism' (treason, truthfully) -- the rape of working class families laid bare.

President Trump has attacked workers' safety, wages, and rights since day one
https://www.epi.org/blog/president-trump-has-attacked-workers-safety-wages-and-rights-since-day-one/

From President Trump's first day on the job, his administration has systematically promoted the interests of corporate executives and shareholders over those of working people. The current administration has rolled back worker protections, proposed budgets that slash funding for agencies that safeguard workers' rights, wages, and safety, and consistently attacked workers' ability to organize and collectively bargain. The pandemic has provided the administration an opportunity to continue its attack on workers' rights. We recently published a report that looks at the 50 most egregious actions the Trump administration has taken against workers, but here we take a look at five of the worst actions:

The Trump administration failed to adequately address the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite the widespread reach of COVID-19 in the workplace, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has refused to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard to protect workers during the pandemic. OSHA is also failing to enforce the Occupational Safety and Health Act during the pandemic. Despite nearly 10,000 complaints from workers about unsafe working conditions from COVID-19, the agency has only issued a handful of citations for failure to protect workers. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control issued dangerous guidelines that allowed essential workers to continue to work even if they may have been exposed to the coronavirus—as long as they appear to be asymptomatic and the employer implements additional limited precautions. The lack of these basic protections has led to thousands of essential workers becoming infected with the coronavirus, and many have died as a result.

While Congress passed Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA) and the CARES Act to provide workers with temporary paid sick leave and unemployment insurance (UI) expansion, the Trump administration issued temporary guidance that weakened worker protections under these relief and recovery measures. For example, the Department of Labor (DOL) excluded millions of workers from paid leave provisions under the FFCRA, including 9 million health care workers and 4.4 million first responders, before revising the rule after a federal judge invalidated parts of the original rule in August. Further, the Trump administration has vehemently opposed the extension of the $600 increase of unemployment insurance benefits and additional aid to state and local governments. The lack of fiscal relief will cost millions of jobs, including 5.3 million jobs due to insufficient federal aid to state and local governments and 5.1 million jobs due to the expiration of the $600 boost in UI.

The Trump administration attacked workers' wages.

Since Trump took office, the Department of Labor (DOL) rolled back numerous regulations that protected the wages of working people. For starters, the Trump DOL prevented millions of workers from receiving overtime pay by not defending the Obama administration's 2016 overtime rule, but instead finalizing their own, weaker overtime rule in September 2019. Roughly 8.2 million workers who would have benefited from the 2016 rule have been left behind by the Trump administration's rule.

The Trump DOL also finalized a new joint-employer standard under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which narrowed the set of circumstances whereby a firm could be deemed a joint employer under the FLSA. The Trump DOL's final rule substantially limits shared liability for wage and hour violations, making it harder for workers to hold all parties who set their terms of employment accountable. EPI estimated the ruling will cost workers more than $1 billion annually. A federal court struck down most of this rule, holding that the Trump DOL failed to account for some of the rule's "important costs, including costs to workers."

One of the Trump DOL's most egregious rulemakings was the proposed "tip stealing" rule, which would allow employers to pocket the tips of their employees, so long as workers are paid the minimum wage. EPI's estimates showed that, if finalized, the rule would have resulted in $5.8 billion in lost wages of tipped workers each year. However, before the rule was finalized, reports found that the Secretary of Labor went to great lengths to hide DOL's economic analysis that showed the rule would have been costly to workers. In the wake of this news, Congress added a section to the Fair Labor Standards Act that prohibits employers from keeping tips received by employees, ultimately making the proposed rule invalid.

The Trump administration undermined workers' collective bargaining rights.

Under President Trump, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has systematically rolled back workers' rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which provides workers the fundamental right to organize and bargain collectively. The Trump NLRB has engaged in an unprecedented number of rulemakings aimed at overturning existing worker protections, including narrowing the joint-employer standard under the NLRA and obstructing workers' right to fair union elections. Further, the Trump NLRB has issued a series of significant decisions weakening worker protections such as hindering workers' ability to organize during non-work hours and allowing the misclassification of workers. As a result, the Trump NLRB has completed the wish list of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—the largest corporate lobbying firm in the U.S.

Table 1

However, the NLRB is not working alone in attacking workers' collective bargaining rights. President Trump has issued several executive orders that eroded the collective bargaining rights for federal workers, including limits on the use of official time for collective bargaining activities and weakening due process protections for federal workers subject to discipline. And when the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would significantly restore workers' right to organize and bargain collectively, the Office of Management and Budget issued a Statement of Administration Policy that recommended President Trump to veto the bill if it reached the president's desk.

The Trump administration repeatedly attempted to take away workers' health care.

Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), nearly 20 million people have gained health insurance coverage. The ACA, among other provisions, provides a number of protections for workers who receive health insurance through their employers. It requires large firms to provide health insurance to workers or pay a penalty. It requires that employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) have no caps on benefits paid for essential health services. It also requires caps on individual out-of-pocket spending in ESI plans. It allows children to stay on parents' ESI plans until the age of 26. Additionally, it mandates maternity coverage and free preventative care from ESI plans. And it limits waiting periods for when workers could qualify for ESI plans.

Over the last three years, Trump administration has sided with Congressional Republican allies in attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2017, asked the Supreme Court to rule the ACA unconstitutional in its entirety on a wafer-thin legal justification, and weakened the ACA greatly as part of the 2017 tax cut for corporations. Finally, even in the face of millions of workers losing their ESI due to the COVID-19 economic shock, the Trump administration not only persisted in its efforts to repeal the ACA (through its request to the Supreme Court), but it also did nothing to make it easier for workers losing ESI to slide into coverage under the ACA marketplace exchanges, even though an administrative fix was easily available at the time.

President Trump stacked agencies and the Supreme Court with anti-worker appointees

President Trump has put forth numerous anti-worker nominees for agencies in charge of protecting workers. Andrew Puzder, former CEO of a company with a record of labor law violations, withdrew his nomination for Labor Secretary less than a month after his nomination after strong opposition from worker advocates. President Trump's first confirmed Secretary of Labor, Alexander Acosta, advanced a pro-business agenda by delaying and rolling back many workplace protections the Obama administration implemented, most notably the 2016 overtime pay rule. Eugene Scalia, President Trump's current Secretary of Labor, built a career representing corporations, financial institutions, and other business organizations while fighting against worker protections like health and safety regulations, retirement security, and collective bargaining rights.

The Trump administration also stacked the National Labor Relations Board with corporate lawyers and a former Republican Hill staffer. In September 2017, William Emanuel, a former attorney at the Littler Mendelson law firm who regularly represented large employers, was confirmed as a member of the NLRB, along with Marvin Kaplan, a former Republican Hill staffer. Later in November 2017, Peter Robb, who spent much of his career as a management-side labor and employment lawyer, was confirmed as the NLRB's General Counsel, and John Ring, another corporate-side lawyer, was confirmed and made chairman in April 2018. These Trump appointees have systematically rolled back workers' rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Furthermore, President Trump stacked the Supreme Court with anti-worker justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both with records of ruling against workers and siding with corporate interests. Justice Gorsuch was the deciding vote in two Supreme Court cases that dramatically impacted workers' rights: Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, which stripped public-sector workers of their right of fair share agreements, and Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, which allows employers to require employees to waive their right to class or collective claims.

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