The minimum wage would be $16.50 an hour — $33,000 a year — if it had kept up with the growth of productivity since 1968. To put the effect of this a different way, 40 percent of Americans now make less than the 1968 minimum wage, had the minimum wage kept pace with productivity gains.

To put this even another way, the average American’s living standard would be much, much higher today if wages had not decoupled from productivity gains – with the gains all going to the 1 percent instead of being shared by workers. If wages had kept pace we wouldn’t feel the terrible squeeze that everyone in the middle class is feeling.

South Korea will permit the launch of cooperatives starting next month, providing additional channels for people to start small businesses leaning toward democratic ownership and public interest, the finance ministry said Monday.

   A related law will go into effect on Dec. 1, and the central and municipal governments will immediately begin receiving applications and registrations for the launch of cooperatives, according to the ministry.

   Under the law, five people or more can start “general cooperatives” or “social cooperatives.” The former is similar to conventional enterprises, while the latter is focused on non-profit business activities.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Cabinet Secretary Francis Maude welcomed recommendations by government-appointed adviser Graeme Nuttall, a partner at London law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, to create a government-led working group to foster worker ownership. They also backed the creation of an independent body to support companies in transition to a new ownership model and the creation of legal templates for companies to speed up the process.

“Businesses that are owned by their employees produce more, grow faster, keep their workforce happier and pay staff more fairly,” Clegg said in an e-mailed statement in London today. “Our economy suffered a massive heart attack –- now we have to build our strength back up.”

The government will consult on changes to amend company law until Nov. 16 and on plans to give workers the right to request ownership. The U.K. has about 250 worker-owned companies with sales of about 30 billion pounds ($48 billion).

Seems like this applies only in arguments about statism but still interesting. Made me rethink my stance on government

I went to my first midwife appointment and sat in the waiting room looking at the wall of informational pamphlets. I never went to the doctor growing up, we didn’t have health insurance, and my parents preferred a conservative naturopathic doctor anyways. And the doctor I had used for my first 2 births was also a conservative Christian. So I had never seen information on birth control and STDs. One of the pamphlets read “Pregnant Unexpectedly?” so I picked it up, wondering what it would say. The pamphlet talked about adoption, parenthood, or abortion. It went through the basics of what each option would entail and ended by saying that these choices were up to you. I was horrified that they included abortion on the list of options, and the fact that the pamphlet was so balanced instead of “pro-life.” 

During my appointment that day, the midwife asked her initial round of questions including whether or not I had desired to become pregnant in the first place. Looking back I am not surprised she asked that, I was depressed at the time, (even though I did not list that on my medical chart) and very vocal about my views on birth control (it wasn’t OK, ever.) No wonder she felt like she should ask if I was happy to be having this baby. But I was angry about the whole thing. In my mind, freedom was being violated, my rights were being decided for me by the evils of Universal Health Care.

Fast forward a little past the Canadian births of my third and fourth babies. I had better prenatal care than I had ever had in the States. I came in regularly for appointments to check on my health and my babies’ health throughout my pregnancy, and I never had to worry about how much a test cost or how much the blood draw fee was. With my pregnancies in the States, I had limited my checkups to only a handful to keep costs down. When I went in to get the shot I needed because of my negative blood type, it was covered. In fact I got the recommended 2 doses instead of the more risky 1 dose because I didn’t have to worry about the expense. I had a wide array of options and flexibility when it came to my birth, and care providers that were more concerned with my health and the health of my baby than how much money they might make based on my birth, or what might impact their reputation best. When health care is universal, Drs are free to recommend and provide the best care for every patient instead of basing their care on what each patient can afford.

The push to make firing more difficult in France, where making layoffs is already tightly regulated and often costly for employers, contrasts with moves under way in other euro zone countries such as Italy and Spain to make job cuts easier.

With the economy stalling, Labour Minister Michel Sapin said urgent measures were needed against unemployment and that he aimed to put forward legislation after the summer break.