Looking For Greener Cash-tures
March 11, 2022
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“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” – Lao Tzu
Looking For Greener Cash-tures
In 2015, market research firm Gallup found that 60% of workers thought their top job priority was being able to do what they do best. 41% of respondents said getting more money was their top priority, but that was fourth on the list overall. Seven years later, Gallup surveyed over 13,000 U.S. workers and found for 64%, getting a significant increase in pay or benefits was their No.1 priority. Similarly, a new study from the Pew Research Center shows that among American workers who resigned from their jobs last year, 63% said low paychecks and lack of advancement opportunities were the top factors behind their exits.
Pew found that those who left jobs in 2021 for greener pastures were generally more satisfied after doing so. Compared with their last job, 56% said they were earning more money, while more than half also said they had more opportunities for advancement and an easier time balancing work and family responsibilities. Those with at least a bachelor’s degree were especially likely to reap the rewards of job-switching, with 66% saying they were earning more money and 63% reporting more opportunities for advancement. Just over half of workers with less than a four-year degree reported earning more money, while 49% said they had more opportunity for advancement.
A senior economist at labor market analytics firm Emsi Burning Glass said that November generally sees a bump in the number of people quitting their jobs as they prepare to take new ones in January. But this year’s record-breaking numbers – 4.5 million workers quit in November, on the heels of the 4.4 million who quit in September – reflect a “magnitude we’ve never seen before.” The job market is really tight, with roughly 65 unemployed workers for every 100 job openings, and economists expect the war for talent to continue throughout 2022.
Stacey Staaterman, a New York City career coach, notes that while paycheck size has long influenced employees’ career choices, many people spent more time with their families during the Covid-19 era, leading some workers to place even more value on their time and want to be compensated accordingly. “People have realized more what they’re giving and what they’re getting” on the job, she says. (WSJ ($), CNBC)
Russian Invasion Plagues U.S. Adoptions
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine puts some American families in the middle of adopting Ukrainian children in a terrible bind. Wisconsinites Leo and Wendy Van Asten were about to finalize their adoption of two Ukrainian orphans – a 14-year-old girl and her 15-year-old brother – when war broke out. The Van Astens have hosted the siblings for holidays and summers in their U.S. home since 2018.
- The teenagers refer to them as mom and dad and keep in touch via phones the Van Astens purchased for them. Recently, the couple’s prospective son used that phone to text them he feared being killed in the war. The Van Astens haven’t been sleeping or eating much and are desperate to get the teens out of the country to safety.
- The couple hopes to temporarily host the children on B-2 visas, but they need permission from both Ukraine and the U.S. They’ve been frantically writing President Biden and members of Congress to beg for help for themselves and for other American families also trying to adopt Ukrainian children. (NBC)
Right On The Money
- Western allies have been punishing Russia with a myriad of sanctions and asset seizures, and President Putin is planning his own economic retaliation. This week, a string of global firms, including McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi, said they would suspend operations in Russia. That prompted Russia’s economic ministry to announce it could take temporary control of departing businesses where foreign ownership exceeds 25%.
- Putin said Thursday the Kremlin was working on ways to seize international firms and push to “introduce external management and then transfer those enterprises to those who actually want to work.” Following Wednesday’s vote in the House to drastically restrict imports of Russian oil, natural gas, and coal, Moscow announced an export ban on timber, electronic, and telecoms equipment.
- Russia has also passed laws to impound $10 billion worth of jets leased to Russian airlines by Western companies. Next Wednesday, Moscow has payments due of about $117 million on government borrowing denominated in U.S. dollars, but the World Bank’s chief economist said both Russia and Belarus were “square in default territory.” (Guardian, CNN)
Additional World News
- Guatemala increases punishment for abortions and bans same-sex marriage (Guardian)
- Hong Kong protests documentary breaks Taiwan box office record in opening weeks (Guardian)
- Korea’s president-elect wants tougher stance on N. Korea (AP)
- Russian airstrike hits maternity hospital; US warns of small Russian gains (WaPo, $)
- Modi’s ruling party ahead in crucial state polls in India (AP)
- Israel and Turkey hail new era in relations, but divisions remain (Al Jazeera)
- To protest machismo, women played soccer in Mexico City’s central square (LAT, $)
A Vote Of No Confidence
- Election fraud is exceedingly rare. The 2020 election in Florida ran smoothly according to Democrats and Republicans in the state, and last year, Governor Ron DeSantis said Florida passed its automatic post-election audits with “flying colors.” Regardless, on Wednesday night, the Republican-controlled Florida House passed a voting overhaul bill that creates a new security office to investigate election crimes and increases penalties for violating the state’s elections laws.
- $3.7 million in taxpayer dollars are budgeted to establish an Office of Election Crimes and Security, with a staff of 15 to conduct preliminary investigations of election fraud. Additionally, DeSantis will appoint up to 10 law enforcement officers to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to probe election crimes.
- The bill makes it a felony to collect and submit more than two vote-by-mail ballots on behalf of other voters; it’s currently a misdemeanor. It also increases the fine from $1,000 to $50,000 on organizations that violate election registration laws. The president of Florida’s League of Women Voters called the new $50,000 fine a “direct threat” to her organization. (CNN)
Guilty As Charged
- The first federal trial related to the January 6th Capitol attack lasted a week in a Washington D.C. courtroom. On Tuesday, the jury took just under four hours to find Guy Reffitt guilty on all five charges.
- Reffitt, a Texas Three Percenter and supporter of then-president Donald Trump, was armed when he went to the Capitol wanting to stop the certification of the 2020 election results. When he returned to Texas, he threatened his son and young daughter to stay quiet or be shot. Instead, his son Jackson turned his father into the FBI and afterward did several national TV interviews.
- Jackson testified last week that his father “snowballed into a far-right extremist” following Trump’s election in 2016. The maximum sentence for the most severe of Reffitt’s charges – obstruction of Congress and obstruction of justice – is 20 years in prison. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on June 8. (CNN)
Additional USA News
- Pandemic school lunch waivers: Millions of kids face risk of hunger if Congress doesn’t extend flexibilities (CNN)
- MAGA-world fails to flock to Truth Social (Politico)
- EPA restores California waiver on vehicle greenhouse gas emissions (Politico)
- Judge says Smartmatic can pursue election-rigging claims against Fox News, Giuliani (NBC)
- Colorado clerk is indicted for election tampering and misconduct (NPR)
- GOP Sens. Cruz and Johnson meet with ‘People’s Convoy’ truckers (ABC)
Ssssneaking Across The Border
- A 30-year-old U.S. citizen was driving back from Mexico in his truck last month when he tried slithering past Customs and Border Protection agents at California’s San Ysidro border crossing. One cold-blooded agent pulled the man out of the line of traffic and sent him over to the side for further inspection.
- According to an official’s statement, that’s when agents found 52 live reptiles tied up in small bags “which were concealed in the man’s jacket, pants pockets, and groin area.” Nine snakes and 43 horned lizards were seized, some of which are considered endangered species.
- “Smugglers will try every possible way to try and get their product, or in this case live reptiles, across the border,” the CBP’s director of field operations in San Diego noted, “without taking care for the health and safety of the animals.” The would-be reptile wrangler was arrested. (NBC News)
Additional Reads
- Oscars controversy: Open letter demands all awards shown live (LAT, $)
- ‘It’s astonishing’: endangered bat not seen in 40 years found in Rwanda (Guardian)
- Massive meteor crater discovered beneath Greenland’s ice much older than thought (CNN)
- Sleeping with fishes: Australian scientists discover some sharks do need their shut-eye (Guardian)
- First person to receive heart transplant from pig dies, says Maryland hospital (Guardian)
- Scientists think they could ‘de-extinct’ the Christmas Island rat. But should they? (NBC)