... the casual visitor to this blog might think that this post with its link has a political intent. But those more familiar with it will sense that there is something odd about it. And they would be right. I post this because I found this excerpt interesting:
It was in early 1999, my first year as director of our state labor department, the Employment Development Department (EDD). Governor Davis was concerned about the low wage workforce in California: the farm workers, the nurse assistants in long term care facilities, the non-union hospitality workers. At EDD, we decided to contact former labor officials to get their thoughts on job ladder/skills upgrading efforts.The EDD office called Mr. Reich. We did not speak with him—he did not take calls, at least at that time. Reich’s assistant, though, informed us that Mr. Reich would consider coming to California at some payment, I believe $5,000-$10,000. What I do recall clearly is that as part of any arrangement, Mr. Reich required a first class airline ticket. In other words, he might consider coming to California to discuss low wage workers if we gave him a large sum of money and a first class airline ticket.
What I found interesting about it is that it made me wonder -- and that is as far as it went, since I really wasn't that interested, not having been there and all -- but still, I found it interesting that this is from a guy who worked for Gray Davis, the recalled governor of California, and what it made me think was, "suppose Gray Davis was doing the best he could under the circumstances -- knowing full well the dimensions of the problem -- and not really knowing how to deal with them -- and he got replaced with a guy who thought he could do the job -- for reasons we won't go into -- and then saw what the job was and realized he had absolutely no clue. It must have been as much of a surprise to him as it was, I'm sure, to a goodly number of his fans.
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