Tag: politics

Ted Cruz Comes to New York

New York GOP loves Senator Ted Cruz.  The Texas firebrand is scheduled to headline a big-bucks fundraiser in Manhattan later this month as a featured guest.  Special guests include State Senator Dean Skelos, the Republican Conference Leader.  Regular guests are expected to pay $1000 for dinner, with proceeds benefiting the state party organization (which, considering its successes these past several election cycles makes you wonder what exactly the money gets spent on).  By ponying up $5000 per person, however, you can get a picture taken with the senator.  This should be fun to watch.

Senator Cruz is a rising star of the national party.  He burst into office just a few months ago and has lost little time in irking just about everyone on both sides of the aisle.  And while his Tea Party fervor and Lone Star swagger may not sit so well with some, the consequences are more than just personal. Continue reading Ted Cruz Comes to New York

Much Ado About Going to the Office

I was interviewed in a piece on NPR today by Jennifer Ludden on Marisa Mayer’s now infamous “work from home memo,” available here.

Four  points on the backlash:

1- Attack on Flexibility:  This memo was perceived as taking something away that employees have gained in today’s workplace, something that innovation has enabled.  And it’s more than just working from home – flexibility and remote work policies often go hand in hand and people, working mothers in particular, conflate them.  They viewed this memo as an attack on flexibility as well.   Studies show that most working moms want to work flexibly, or part time.  That’s why the backlash was particularly harsh among female bloggers. Continue reading Much Ado About Going to the Office

Working More, Earning Less

This great collection of charts on Mother Jones shows how the United States stacks up to the rest of the world in terms of productivity, wages, income, and vacation, and how it stacks up against itself historically.  The charts show again the ever widening rift between the top 1% and the rest of us, and the impact our service and information based economy has on the number of jobs available.

And yes, the charts remind us that the U.S. is one of only tiny number of nations that offer no paid maternity leave (our company includes Swaziland and Papua New Guinea).   Not the kind of American exceptionalism we should be striving for.