Dollars & Sense articles from September 2000

Dollars & Sense archives from September 2000

Correction.
September 1, 2000... In our July/August 2000 issue, the illustration on p. 24 should have been credited to Josh MacPhee. The illustration on p. 32 should have been credited to Peter Kuper.

Who's That Baby?(beauty supplies for babies)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Why spend $2 to make your baby's head gleam when you can spend dose to $20? A June 9 Wall Street Journal article reports a boom in the upscale infant cosmetics market. Now, discerning parents committed to getting the best for their children --...

I Scream.(Unilever acquires Ben & Jerry's and Slim-Fast)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... In mid-April, European conglomerate Unilever acquired both Ben & Jerry's and Slim-Fast, reported the Economist. While the combination of diet-aiding and diet-inducing products is ironic in itself, the greater conflict may lie in the...

Modern Times.(robot burger-flipper)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... A June article in Business Week reports that AccuTemp Products has developed a robot with the capacity to displace burger-flippers everywhere. While the price of the machine ($150,000) may seem daunting at first, calculations indicate that the...

Dependence Effect.(Indian beauties boost India's cosmetic industry)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Indian beauty queens such as Miss Universe 2000 Lara Dutta have been bringing more than the tiara, sash, and scepter back to their homeland. Business Week reported in mid-June that pageant tides awarded to Indian beauties have spawned dramatic...

Put Up or Shut Up.(teachers salaries)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... While politicians are busy posturing about the importance of education and the need for better qualified teachers, the American Federation of Teachers has cut through the hype with its annual report on teacher salaries, reports the July 4 New...

Air For Sale.(capitalizing on the Elian Gonzalez case)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Capitalizing (literally) on the Elian Gonzalez craze, entrepreneurs took to the internet auction site eBay to make their Gonzalez-related treasures available to the highest bidder, the Wall Street Journal reported May 2. The Elian fanatic...

Money Talks.(tracking the circulation of currency)(wheresgeorge.com)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Under capitalism, currency plays a pivotal role in the acquisition of goods and services. A single dollar bill is party to numerous transactions during its circulating lifetime. Short of a dramatic ink blot telling the tale of a foiled bank...

So Long, Partner.(Global Sustainable Development Facility no longer to go ahead)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The push by United Nations officials to establish "partnerships" with multinational corporations has drawn fire from human-rights and environmental groups (Danielle Knight, "United McNations," Dollars & Sense, July/August 2000). Activists fear...

Pouring Fuel on Colombia Fire.(outcry against military aid for Colombia)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Human-rights organizations have decried Clinton administration plans to send billions in military aid to Colombia, further equipping armed forces that have shown little or no opposition to right-wing death squads (Samia Montalvo,...

ACTIVE CULTURE CORPORATION BEHAVING BADLY.(Union members and supporters speak out)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... "If you're going to print two words," Alvin Freeman told me at the conclusion of our interview, "make them 'Boycott Crown.'" As the Crown Group Chairperson of Paper, Allied Chemical, and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) Local...

COMMENT TAKE OUR DAUGHTERS WHERE...?(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The Ms. Foundation developed "Take Our Daughters to Work Day" [TM] in an effort to boost girls' self-confidence by exposing them to career women in the workforce. In April 2000, the day included special events introducing girls to high...

MAKING SENSE THE STORY OF A GARMENT WORKER.(working without employee rights and benefits)(Brief Article)(Interview)
September 1, 2000... Lisa Liu is a garment worker in Oakland, California. She came to the U.S. from China over a decade ago, but found that while the U.S. had fewer restrictions on workers in some ways, life as a worker was much less secure than she had expected....

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DISABLEMENT.(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Society still perceives disability as a medical matter. That is, society associates disability with physiological, anatomical, or mental "defects," and holds these conditions responsible for the disabled person's lack of full participation in...

THEY SAY GIVE BACK, WE SAY FIGHT BACK: THE LEGACY OF THE HORMEL STRIKE, FIFTEEN YEARS LATER.
September 1, 2000... Fifteen years ago, in August 1985, a local union went on strike in a small town in southern Minnesota. Members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local P-9 at the Austin, Minnesota, Hormel meatpacking plant could not have known then...

THE WAL-MART TRAP.(low prices for unskilled workers)(Critical Essay)
September 1, 2000... For every woman shattering the glass ceiling, there are many more trapped in low wage jobs and working conditions that don't look very different from those at the start of the women's movement. Since 1973, the gender gap in wages has almost...

PROFITS AND PREJUDICE: THE UNDERVALUED WORK OF NURSING.(not just a nursing issue, but a women's issue)(Critical Essay)
September 1, 2000... On June 25, the New York Times published two special sections on women's and men's health which touched on many of the most important contemporary health issues. In all of these articles, physicians were the major sources of information,...

WHAT'S WRONG WITH WELFARE-TO-WORK.(reality check for legislators about mothers in the low and no wage workforce)(Critical Essay)
September 1, 2000... "Ending welfare as we know it" has rapidly become ending welfare. Time limits virtually assure that the majority of families who receive welfare will be cut off at least from federal funding. The current trend is to replace welfare with...

JOSEFINA FLORES: A VETERAN OF THE WAR IN THE FIELDS.(The United Farmworkers continue to campaign)(Brief Article)(Interview)
September 1, 2000... The death of Cesar Chavez in 1993 marked a low point for the United Farm Workers (UFW), and not only because of the loss of its best-known leader. After 16 years of Republican state administrations in California, the union was at its lowest...

KNOW-NOTHINGS AND KNOW-IT-ALLS: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE HYPE ABOUT GLOBALIZATION.(protesters and media consume and spread misinformation about globalization, but scholarly studies also are undermined by problematic assumptions)(Critical Essay)
September 1, 2000... Protesters against globalization have no idea what they are talking about. At least that is the verdict of the mainstream press. According to their coverage, the "protectionist" labor unions and the "privileged, cause-happy" college kids that...

FINANCING ENVIRONMENTAL MODERATION IN CHINA.
September 1, 2000... In 1995, Xi Zhinong, a nature photographer from rural Yunnan Province, started a campaign to save the old-growth forests along the Yunnan-Tibet border. Despite Xi's outspoken criticism of prevailing environmental policies and local logging...

IN REVIEW: HOW CAPITALISM (STILL) UNDERDEVELOPS BLACK AMERICA.(Review)
September 1, 2000... First published in 1983 against a Reagan-era backdrop of flag-waving conservatism, Manning Marable's How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America has now been rereleased and updated with a critical reassessment by the author. The title promises...

ASK DR. DOLLAR.
September 1, 2000... Dear Dr. Dollar In your May/June issue, there were two articles that illustrate the idea that the rich are getting richer -- "Economy Sets Records for Longevity and Inequality" and "A Rising Tide Fails to Lift All Boats." An alternate...

DOLLARS & SENSE IN TRANSITION.(Abby Scher)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... With this issue, Dollars & Sense bids "happy trials" to our co-editor for the last four years, Abby Scher. A New Yorker through-and-through (to our friends at Sunny's Deli, across from our old office, she'll always be known as "Yonkers"), Abby...

ECONOMY IN NUMBERS: COUNTING WOMEN'S HOMEBASED WORK.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... BY WOMEN IN INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT: GLOBALIZING AND ORGANIZING (WIEGO) INTRODUCTION Some observers who have worked closely with women in the informal sector argue that the informal sector is even larger than official statistics suggest....