The Social Credit Movement [Chicago To Try 1000x1000?]

[hand2handking]

"The Hidden Automation Agenda of the Davos Elite"

This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where business leaders’ public positions on automation’s impact on workers did not match the views they shared privately.

http://www.unz.com/isteve/the-hidden-automation-agenda-of-the-davos-elite/

From the New York Times:

DAVOS, Switzerland — They’ll never admit it in public, but many of your bosses want machines to replace you as soon as possible.

I know this because, for the past week, I’ve been mingling with corporate executives at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos. And I’ve noticed that their answers to questions about automation depend very much on who is listening.

In public, many executives wring their hands over the negative consequences that artificial intelligence and automation could have for workers. …

But in private settings, including meetings with the leaders of the many consulting and technology firms whose pop-up storefronts line the Davos Promenade, these executives tell a different story: They are racing to automate their own work forces to stay ahead of the competition, with little regard for the impact on workers.

… They crave the fat profit margins automation can deliver, and they see A.I. as a golden ticket to savings, perhaps by letting them whittle departments with thousands of workers down to just a few dozen.

… Now they’re saying, ‘Why can’t we do it with 1 percent of the people we have?’”

… Kai-Fu Lee, the author of “AI Superpowers” and a longtime technology executive, predicts that artificial intelligence will eliminate 40 percent of the world’s jobs within 15 years. …

But at a time of political unrest and anti-elite movements on the progressive left and the nationalist right, it’s probably not surprising that all of this automation is happening quietly, out of public view….

One common argument made by executives is that workers whose jobs are eliminated by automation can be “reskilled” to perform other jobs in an organization.

 

[sooperhooper]

The result of making people work that don't want to work is poor quality and poor service. Get them out the paint with just enough to survive off of and let people that want to work flourish and pay them more.

 

[hand2handking]

Ivanka’s Attack on AOC Reveals Ignorance About Universal Basic Income

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal was recently criticized by Ivanka Trump, who claimed Americans wouldn't want a universal basic income as proposed in the legislation.
CHERISS MAY / NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

https://truthout.org/articles/ivankas-attack-on-aoc-reveals-ignorance-about-universal-basic-income/

When Ivanka Trump recently went after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal by suggesting that the “idea of a guaranteed minimum is not something most people want” because “people want to work for what they get,” it was difficult not to gag. Here was the recipient of a fortune inherited from a tax-dodging father waxing on about the American work ethic as if she had any idea about what most Americans want. This level of ignorance and hypocrisy was, of course, hardly surprising coming from a member of the Trump family.

But instead of quickly dismissing her statement and moving on, it might be more productive to take this opportunity to open a wider public discussion on exactly what Ivanka Trump was referring to when she talked about a “guaranteed minimum.” It could be a reference to a minimum wage or job guarantee — but it feels a bit more general than that. What she seems to have been saying is that she doesn’t think Americans want guaranteed protections that will keep them from falling below a certain threshold of economic security.

One of the “guaranteed minimums” found in the Green New Deal is what’s referred to by the authors of the policy as “basic income programs.” Known to most as a universal basic income, the idea is quite simple: pay people just for being alive. As the reaction by Ivanka and a number of right-wing outlets suggest, it might sound a bit outrageous at first, but it’s actually one of those ideas that begins to seem more and more sensible once you really start thinking about it. So what is a universal basic income anyways, and why was it in, of all places, a climate change policy proposal?

The Rise of Unconditional Cash
Although the idea goes as far back as at least the 16th century when Thomas More argued for a guaranteed income in his sociopolitical satireUtopia, universal basic income really entered the realm of policy in the late 1960s. Of all people, Richard Nixon actually floated the idea of giving every family in the United States $1,600 a year — which would be the equivalent of $10,000 today. The proposal didn’t have a very long political life, but there were a series of smaller pilot programs implemented throughout North America around that time that did end up having a lasting impact.

Perhaps the most well-known example was the Mincome project that came out of Canada in the 1970s. Mincome was a form of universal basic income known as a negative income tax — which is basically a top-up if your income dips below a certain amount. The experiment occurred in a few towns in Manitoba, including the town of Dauphin, where lower-income households were guaranteed a minimum income regardless of whether the residents worked or not. The data from the experiment were actually lost for decades until Dr. Evelyn Forget of the University of Manitoba came across the data in a stack dusty boxes. At the time, Dr. Forget was conducting research on the area of health and poverty, and up until she stumbled across the data from Mincome, the results had only been published in a labor market analysis that did not gain much attention. Initially, the results weren’t all that surprising — Mincome was giving people the space to engage in necessary activities that most workplaces don’t provide.

“People used the Mincome stipend to buy themselves longer maternity leaves, longer parental leaves. Teenage boys also reduced the number of hours they worked,” Dr. Forget told Truthout. At the time, many adolescent boys from low-income families were under quite a bit of family pressure to enter the workforce so that they could earn money — taking the burden of support off of the rest of the family.

“When Mincome came along, some of those families decided that they could support their sons in high school a little bit longer,” Forget said. “So those boys were working fewer hours, because instead of leaving school at the age of 16 and taking a job, they were staying in high school and some of them were graduating during that period.”

Some of the results from the Mincome experiment served to contradict many of our societal assumptions about welfare and work, demonstrating that providing individuals with unconditional cash could actually lead them to work more, not less. Many low-income individuals and families used their stipend to provide themselves and their families with opportunities that would not have been available to them otherwise — opportunities that privileged individuals like Ivanka Trump often seem to take for granted.

Dr. Forget relayed the story of a single mother of two who decided to use her Mincome stipend to pay for job training at a local community college: “When I spoke to her, she had just retired after many years as a district librarian in the public system,” Forget said. “She was incredibly proud of having modeled a different kind of a life for her daughters, and she was very grateful to Mincome for giving her that opportunity.”

The Mincome project, along with many other experiments, dispels the myth that giving money to people results in laziness or a lack of motivation. In fact, it turns out the opposite is true — receiving some form of universal basic income actually frees people up to pursue opportunities that ultimately allow them to contribute to society in more effective ways.

The Mincome project ended somewhat abruptly after a new conservative administration took power in Canada and cut the funding, and universal basic income faded from the political conversation in North America in a more general way until relatively recently. But the looming threat of mass unemployment as a result of job automation has brought the topic back into the fray, and it’s being discussed prominently in the tech sector, where Silicon Valley billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have actually come out in support of some form of universal basic income.

Meanwhile, the activists and academics who have been pushing for the idea for years, such as Kathi Weeks and the late Erik Olin Wright, have made huge contributions in exploring how universal basic income could be a key component in advancing all sorts of movements, from Marxism to feminism. Organizations like Basic Income Earth Network have been working since the 1980s to offer education to the wider public about universal basic income by organizing public conferences and promoting research. So now that the public debate is beginning to take shape again in a major way, there’s a strong foundation already in place.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Although economists disagree on the severity of potential unemployment due to automation,

it is precisely around the issue of jobs that universal basic income and climate change overlap. One of the aspects of the Green New Deal that sets it apart from the more neoliberal brand of climate policy is its focus on a “just transition” – something glaringly absent from most climate change policies to date. For example, when French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a gas and diesel tax on French consumers last year, the result was an eruption of protests, demonstrations and riots which seized the city for months and ultimately forced the administration to reverse its policy. The response by the French public demonstrated that any policy aimed at reducing carbon emissions cannot put a disproportionate burden on the backs of the poor and working classes.

The Green New Deal, in contrast, has a whole set of proposals that are explicitly designed to benefit low-income and traditionally marginalized communities in the transition to a fully decarbonized economy — and a universal basic income is one of these progressive proposals.

Although it raised a lot of eyebrows when it was included as part of a comprehensive Green New Deal, a progressive universal basic income would make a whole lot of sense as part of a broader climate policy. As last year’s landmark report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned, “Limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” A transition of this scope must include specific policies that address the stability and security to those affected.

“What we’re aiming to undertake here is a radically ambitious transition of our entire economy,” Jim Pugh told Truthout. Pugh is co-founder and co-director of the Universal Income Project, an organization that works to raise awareness and support for universal basic income by, among other things, hosting “create-a-thons” that bring together artists and community members to create content and media around the theme of universal basic income. The group is putting together a create-a-thoncentered on the Green New Deal this month in Oakland, California. “It’s a necessary transition, but as with any systemic reform, it’s going to really disrupt a lot of people’s lives who are engaged in work that may not make sense anymore or that will look very different than it did before,” Pugh said.

This transition would include, of course, a complete dismantling of the fossil fuel economy — including all of the jobs that this sector currently provides. But it’s not just the fossil fuel sector — any transition this large is bound to have far-reaching effects that are difficult to understand this early on in the process.

“There are different ideas for what the best policy might be,” Pugh said. “But if we just try to pick and choose targets, we’re going to end up missing some groups — we’ve seen that again and again when we attempt to do these targeted approaches. A particularly simple option would be to provide a guaranteed income to everyone in the country, that way we can ensure that during this massive transition, we are keeping everyone up above a certain level — that we’re not letting people fall into poverty in the process.”

Universal basic income might make more sense than something like a federal jobs guarantee (which is also part of the Green New Deal proposal) because it would reduce the amount of unnecessary work that takes place in society — what anthropologist David Graeber has referred to as “bull**** jobs.” From getting people out of their cars during rush hour to reducing the incentive for individuals to engage in environmentally harmful work, a universal income could have a significant impact on carbon emissions by decoupling work from wages.

It’s important to note that there isn’t just one version of universal basic income. In fact, the idea can become vastly different — and even quite regressive — depending on how it is implemented. For example, if the amount given through a universal basic income is not high enough to survive on, it could end up serving as a subsidy for low-wage employers who could avoid paying a living wage because their employees would be receiving government cash transfers. Instead of reducing inequality, this form of universal basic income could actually lead to higher levels of inequality, especially if the funding for this unconditional cash is coming from a regressive form of taxation, like a sales tax, that would disproportionately put most of the burden of funding a universal basic income onto the backs of the already poor. In this kind of scenario, universal basic income might provide a floor under which individuals couldn’t fall, but it would do nothing to stem the vast accumulation of wealth and power that is concentrated at the top.

Depending on what form it takes, universal basic income also threatens to serve as a sort of Trojan horse for libertarians who have their sights set on dismantling public services entirely and replacing them with cash transfers that individuals would use to purchase services through private markets. Things like welfare programs, public housing, health care, and in some extreme cases, even public education spending would be cut entirely and replaced by a basic income.

As we’re already seeing, the further privatization of essential services such as health care and public education would have devastating consequences, and any form of universal basic income that replaces state programs is a non-starter for most on the left.

But if done correctly, a universal basic income could play a key role in not just facilitating a just transition to a carbon-free economy, but in providing real economic security for many marginalized communities in the United States.

“I think it’s important in this moment to really think boldly about where we’re going,” Pugh said. “Universal basic income, the Green New Deal and some of these other proposals that people are starting to float out there really get at some of the underlying systemic changes in a big way. There’s an alignment across a number of issues that recognizes the status quo is not doing what it needs to be doing, and so I think that it’s a very natural thing to be bringing these efforts together in solidarity.”

 

[hand2handking]

Free Money Didn’t Help People Find Jobs, Finland Says
Preliminary results show no major impact on employment levels
Full results of basic income trial not expected until 2020

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...finds-basic-income-failed-to-boost-employment

Distributing free money to the unemployed improves their well-being, but doesn’t appear to have any significant impact on their job prospects.

That’s according to the preliminary results of a landmark experiment in Finland, the first country in the world to trial a basic income at a national level.

The Nordic social welfare champion spent the last two years handing out 560 euros ($635) per month to a randomly selected group of 2,000 jobless people aged between 25 and 58. The basic aim was to explore new ways of distributing social security in a world where more workers are threatened by automation and fewer are likely to take on traditional nine-to-five jobs. The current system is seen as too bureaucratic and often dissuades people from taking on temporary or part-time work.

According to a preliminary assessment published on Friday by the social services agency Kela, the recipients of the monthly stipend spent on average about half a day more in employment per year than the control group.

“On the basis of an analysis of register data on an annual level, we can say that during the first year of the experiment the recipients of a basic income were no better or worse than the control group at finding employment in the open labor market,” said Ohto Kanninen, Research Coordinator at the Labour Institute for Economic Research.

The recipients did however report “less stress symptoms as well as less difficulties to concentrate and less health problems than the control group,” said Minna Ylikanno, lead researcher at Kela. “They were also more confident in their future and in their ability to influence societal issues.”

Old Debate
Kela’s results are set to add fodder to a debate that’s been intriguing political philosophers and economists for centuries: What happens when citizens are given money with no strings attached?

Against the background of a global discussion on how to deal with rising inequality, the pilot project has attracted international attention and is being closely watched by economists, sociologists and billionaires including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.

Other countries have taken different avenues, with the U.K. opting instead for a Universal Credit system that replaced six means-tested benefits and tax credits with a single monthly payment.

Finland’s experiment was implemented by the government of Juha Sipila, the country’s first millionaire prime minister, between 2017 and 2018.

Despite solid economic growth and falling unemployment, Finland suffers from an aging population. The country is seen as a trend-setter when it comes to social policy, with its education system and baby boxes (containers full of baby clothes and care products delivered to expectant mothers) admired around the world.

Useful Data
With its road-testing of a basic income, the government wanted to find out whether a basic income could simplify the social security system, eliminate excessive bureaucracy and remove incentive traps. Researchers at Kela also wanted to measure its impact on the participants’ physical and psychological well-being.

Olli Karkkainen, an economist at Nordea Bank Abp, found the results surprising.

“I had expected the basic income experiment to have a greater positive impact on employment because incentives for work were boosted so significantly,” he said in an interview.

Pirkko Mattila, Finland’s minister of social affairs and health, said that despite its success in providing useful data, “the basic income model developed for the experiment is not likely to be adopted as such for more extensive use.”

According to some estimates, a nationwide basic income would add around 5 percentage points to Finland’s public deficit relative to gross domestic product.

Friday’s preliminary results only looked at the first year and focused on statistical data, with a final report not due until 2020.

 

[hand2handking]

Y Combinator’s President Thinks Crypto Could Facilitate Universal Basic Income

https://qz.com/1562799/y-combinators-sam-altman-says-crypto-could-enable-universal-basic-income/

Sam Altman, president of startup accelerator Y Combinator, has long been fascinated by universal basic income, the idea of providing regular, unconditional cash payments to citizens to enable a baseline standard of living. In fact, he’s taken the idea seriously enough to pursue a large pilot study.

In a February episode of Conversations with Tyler—a podcast hosted by Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University—Altman discussed the importance of “providing fair financial infrastructure for poor people.” Although he immediately dismissed bitcoin as a viable banking solution, Altman suggested that cryptocurrency, in some form, could provide the foundation for a global, universal basic income:

I can imagine a crypto system where you see something that is more powerful than any government on Earth,” he said, “where you actually figure out a way to give every person on Earth a coin, and then you make this gigantic network that everyone believes in, and you can do redistribution outside the control of any government.

(For the segment on cryptocurrency, skip to 38:10.)

Altman is literally talking about a new economic order. It’s a powerful idea, but one that requires suspension of disbelief. Due to network limitations and security challenges, decentralized digital currency is not viable on a global scale today. Data structures, like blockchain, just can’t support it yet. But while crypto-based UBI might seem implausible, as Altman points out, it could eventually happen.

“That would be the most powerful network effect the world has ever seen economically, and I think that would be cool.”

 

[hand2handking]

Gap, JCPenney, Victoria's Secret, Foot Locker: 465 Store Closures in 48 Hours


http://www.fox5ny.com/news/gap-jcpenney-victoria-s-secret-foot-locker-465-store-closures-in-48-hours

FOX NEWS - The 'retail apocalypse' is alive and well this week with major chains such as Gap, JCPenney, Victoria's Secret and Foot Locker all announcing massive closures, totalling the death of more than 465 stores over the last 48 hours.

All four companies reported its fourth quarter results this week during the critical holiday period, with three of them (Gap, JCPenney and Victoria's Secret) reporting declining in same-store sales, while Foot Locker reported growth that more than doubled expectations.

Still, despite the good news. Foot Locker announced Friday that it plans to close around 165 stores across the country, during its investor call.


That comes less than 24 hours after Gap announced it would close 230 of its namesake stores over the course of the next two years after the brand's same-store sales fell 7 percent during the holiday quarter. It also announced that it will separate its sister company Old Navy into its own publicly-traded company and create a new firm to house its remaining brands.

To top that off, earlier that day on Thursday, JCPenney announced it too will shutter 18 of its department stores this year, including the three it already announced in January.

Additionally, it said it plans to close nine of its home and furnitiure stores to coincide with its previous announcement to discontinue selling major applicances and furniture at all of its stores by the end of February.

However, Bob Phibbs, CEO of New York-based consultancy the Retail Doctor thinks JCPenney will be forced to announce more closures down the road.

“It is mind boggling that JC Penney still thinks they have time when the clock has run out and there’s no real plan. Closing 18 stores is barely a drop in the bucket of JC Penney’s more than 850 stores. If this was a big, bold effort to reinvigorate the brand, they would have announced they were closing hundreds of stores and investing in an outstanding experience at their other locations," Phibbs told FOX Business.

He added that JCPenney "still desperately" needs an inspiring vision for its brand as more and more customers head to Target, Walmart and Amazon.

Lastly, late Wednesday, L Brands' Victoria's Secret also reported its same-store sales fell during the holidays, dropping 3 percent and it will have to close 53 stores this year.

According to a Business Insider report, these announcements will bring the number of planned stores closures this year to well over 4,500.

 

[hand2handking]

Entire Staffs at 3 Sonic Locations Quit After Wages Cut to '$4/Hour Plus Tips'

Spoiler: Signs on the Door

Entire staffs at 3 Sonic locations quit after wages cut to '$4/hour plus tips' (Photo:MGN)

https://kutv.com/news/offbeat/entir...tions-quit-after-wages-cut-to-4hour-plus-tips

(UPDATE 3/1/19 5: 46 p.m. MST) -- A representative from Sonic reached out to KUTV regarding this story.

We've published Sonic's entire statement at the bottom of this story in italics. We've left their original statement in the story for context.

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio (KUTV) - "Due to terrible management the whole store has quit" reads a letter posted on the window of a Sonic restaurant in Ohio.

The expletive-laden letter points the finger at new owners who "don't give a [expletive] about anyone but themselves" as the reason for the entire staff quitting, temporarily shutting down the store.

You can read the letter left by Circleville, Ohio employees below(WARNING: the letter contains some swear words):



According to The Scioto Post, the workers were angry over their pay being cut from Ohio's minimum wage of $8.55/hour to $4.00/hour plus tips.

Many pointed out fast food workers rarely get tipped.

Two other stores in Ohio, one in Lancaster and one in Grove City who are also under the same new ownership, also quit en masse,according to The Scioto Post.

Those stores also hung signs saying "Goodbye" and "Thank you next" on their windows.



Christi Woodworth, Vice President of Public Relations at Sonic issued a statement to The Scioto Post:

Effective Monday, February 25, eight SONIC Drive-Ins in the Columbus, Ohio market will be under new ownership and management. SRI Operating Company, an affiliate of the Sonic the SONIC franchisor and operator of SONIC Drive-ins across the nation, is in the process of purchasing these drive-ins from a franchisee.

Under new management, guests and the community can look forward to improved service and the famous food, beverages and treats for which SONIC is known. Employees working for the local drive-in can look forward to fun, fast-paced work on which they can build a career, if they choose. Most current employees will have the opportunity to continue to work at the drive-in under the new ownership.The Circleville SONIC Drive-In will re-open on Monday morning under new management. We recognize that changes like this can be difficult for employees to understand and most current employees will have the opportunity to continue working at the drive-in.We look forward to being a part of the community for decades to come and appreciate the opportunity to serve our guests every day.Thank you,Christi WoodworthVice President of Public Relations

Below is an updated statement emailed to 2News.

Sonic's UPDATED statement

Thank you for your inquiry about the about the eight Sonic Drive-Ins in the Columbus, Ohio market that have changed ownership from a franchisee to Sonic’s operating affiliate, SRI Holding Company (SRI) as of Monday, February 25.

We recognize that changes like this can be difficult for employees to understand, and most current employees will have the opportunity to continue working at the drive-in. Under new management, guests and the community can look forward to improved service and the famous food, beverages, and treats for which SONIC is known. Employees working for the local drive-in can look forward to fun, fast-paced work on which they can build a career, if they choose.

No wage rates at any level decreased as a result of this transition and Carhops may continue to receive tips above their hourly wages. Additionally, with the ownership change, employees may now have their paycheck direct deposited and general managers are now eligible for a new bonus program, among other benefits. Most employees are continuing their employment at the drive-in and SRI has increased the total number of employees at the eight drive-ins in the Columbus market by 50% and will continue to invest in employees, technology and infrastructure at these drive-ins in order to deliver outstanding guest service.

SRI began operating the following drive-ins beginning Monday, February 25:

1031 Gemini Place, Columbus OH

2846 Stelzer Rd., Columbus, OH

3250 Olentangy River Rd., Columbus, OH

6206 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH

Grove City, OH

Heath, OH

Lancaster, OH

Circleville, OH

Two drive-ins closed as a result of this transaction:

3911 S. Hamilton Rd, Columbus, OH

Whitehall, OH

We look forward to being a part of the community for decades to come and appreciate the opportunity to serve our guests every day.

 

[hand2handking]

More Than 4,300 Stores Are Closing in 2019 as the Retail Apocalypse Drags On — Here's the Full List

Retailers are closing thousands of stores.

• More than 4,300 stores are expected to close in 2019.
• Gap, JCPenney, and Victoria's Secret announced more than 300 store closures over the course of 24 hours this week.
• Payless has said it plans to close all of its 2,500 stores in what could be the largest retail liquidation in history.

https://www.businessinsider.com/stores-closing-in-2019-list-2019-3#nordstrom-3-stores-19

The staggering rate of store closures that has rocked the retail industry over the last couple of years is expected to continue in 2019, with roughly the same level of closures expected this year.

Retailers closed a record-breaking 102 million square feet of store space in 2017, then smashed that record in 2018 by closing another 155 million square feet of space, according to estimates by the commercial real estate firm CoStar Group.

"This year we are predicting more of the same in the retail space," said Drew Myers, a CoStar senior consultant.

Retailers have announced more than 4,300 store closures so far this year, according to an analysis by Business Insider.

Here's a list of all the stores closing this year.

Payless ShoeSource: 2,500 stores

A Payless ShoeSource store is pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York
Damian Dovarganes/AP

Payless filed for bankruptcy in February and said it planned to close all of its 2,500 stores in what could be the largest retail liquidation in history.

Gymboree: 805 stores

Wikimedia
Gymboree Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January and said it planned to close more than 800 stores under its Gymboree and Crazy 8 banners.

Gymboree previously filed for bankruptcy as recently as June 2017 and closed nearly 400 stores in the process.

Shopko: 251 stores

Shopko

Shopko filed for bankruptcy in January and has said it would close 251 stores.

Gap: 230 stores

Business Insider/Jessica Tyler

Gap said Thursday that it would close 230 namesake stores over the next two years as it reported that the brand's same-store sales fell 7% during the holiday quarter. The company also said it would spin off its Old Navy brand.

Performance Bicycle: 102 stores

Facebook/Performance Bicycle

Performance Bicycle's parent company, Advanced Sports Enterprises, filed for bankruptcy protection in November and later announced that it would close all 102 of its stores.

Charlotte Russe: 94 stores

Business Insider/Mary Hanbury

Charlotte Russe kicked off closing sales at 94 stores in February, after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Sears: 70 stores

Barry Brecheisen/Invision for Sears/AP Images

Sears Holdings, which owns Sears and Kmart stores, emerged from bankruptcy in February after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October.

Destination Maternity: 42-67 stores

Destination Maternity

Destination Maternity plans to close between 42 and 67 stores this year.

Victoria's Secret: 53 stores

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Victoria's Secret said it would close 53 stores this year, citing a "decline in performance."

Kmart: 50 stores

John Konstantaras/AP

Christopher & Banks: 30-40 stores

Facebook/Christopher & Banks

JCPenney: 27 stores

Business Insider/Hayley Peterson

JCPenney said it will close 27 stores in 2019, including 18 full-line department stores and 9 home and furniture stores. The department-store chain said same-store sales fell 4% during the fourth quarter.

Henri Bendel: 23 stores

Henri Bendel closed all its stores in January after 123 years in business.

Beauty Brands: 25

Facebook/Beauty Brands

Beauty Brands, a regional chain of salon and spa superstores, said in December that it planned to close 25 stores this year.

Lowe's: 20 stores

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Lowe's is closing 20 stores across 13 states this year.

Macy's: 9 stores

Macy's

Macy's is closing store s in Wyoming, Washington, California, New York, Indiana, Massachusetts, Virginia, and West Virginia.

J.Crew: 7 stores

Business Insider/Mary Hanbury

J.Crew is closing stores in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, California,and Canada.

Kohl's: 4 stores

Business Insider/Jessica Tyler

Kohl's is closing four stores this year. All the closing stores are located in or near a shopping mall.

Nordstrom: 3 stores

Nam Y. Huh/AP

Nordstrom is closing stores in Florida, Virginia, and Rhode Island.

 

[hand2handking]

Family Dollar Will Close Nearly 400 Stores


New York (CNN Business)

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/03/06/...yFMKo9fJRUcrex8q2DJhU_fYY7klFwq3dBgVCnoXqh9pA

Family Dollar will close 390 stores this year and make big changes to the stores it is keeping open as the discount chain seeks a turnaround.

Family Dollar sells a variety of items for under $10 at rural and urban locations. Dollar Tree bought the company in 2015. But Family Dollar has struggled, and Dollar Tree is under heavy pressure from an activist investor to sell or revitalize the ailing line.

Dollar Tree (DLTR), which sells everything for $1 and caters more to mid-income customers with suburban stores, has a plan for Family Dollar: Close stores, re-brand some locations as Dollar Tree, and renovate others with $1 Dollar Tree merchandise sections.

"We are confident we are taking the appropriate steps to reposition our Family Dollar brand," Dollar Tree CEO Gary Philbin said in a news release Wednesday.

This is a developing story.

 

[xbiker47]

wow at the dollar tree closing

 

[hand2handking]

 

[GTA 809]

Andrew Yang bought up some interesting points on the Joe Rogan podcast recently.
Check it out if you have some time to kill.

 

[nawghtyhare]

Andrew Yang bought up some interesting points on the Joe Rogan podcast recently.
Check it out if you have some time to kill.

cliffs
aint bout to watch

 

[hand2handking]

Andrew Yang bought up some interesting points on the Joe Rogan podcast recently.
Check it out if you have some time to kill.

 

[GTA 809]

cliffs
aint bout to watch

With automation, there are going to be a huge amount of layoffs (think no more trucking jobs after fully automated vehicles. No manufacturing jobs after automated robots are perfected).
He is running for president and wants UBI of 1k per month for every adult citizen. While it won't cover all of your bills, the goal is to give some breathing room so that youre not one unexpected car repair or ER visit away from homelessness.

 

[hand2handking]

Millenials Are A Trillion Dollars In Debt And Most Don't Even Own A Home

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/...in-debt-and-most-of-them-dont-even-own-a-home

When compared to a similar point in time, Millennials are deeper in debt than any other generation that has come before them. And the biggest reason why they are in so much debt may surprise you. We’ll get to that in a minute, but first let’s talk about the giant mountain of debt that Millennials have accumulated. According to the New York Fed, the total amount of debt that Millennials are carrying has risen by a whopping 22 percent in just the last five years…

New findings from the New York Federal Reserve reveal that millennials have now racked up over US$1 trillion of debt.

This troubling amount of debt, an increase of over 22% in just five years, is more than any other generation in history. This situation may leave you wondering how millennials ended up in such a sorry state.

Many young adults are absolutely drowning in debt, but the composition of that debt is quite different when compared to previous generations at a similar point in time.

Mortgage debt and credit card debt levels are far lower for Millennials, but the level of student loan debt is far, far higher…

While the debt levels accumulated by millennials eclipse those of the previous generation, Generation X, at a similar point in time, the complexion of the debt is very different.

According to a 2018 report from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, mortgage debt is about 15% lower for millennials and credit card debt among millennials was about two-thirds that of Gen X.

However, student loan debt was over 300% greater.

Over the last 10 years, the total amount of student loan debt in the United States has more than doubled.

It is an absolutely enormous financial problem, and there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution. Some politicians on the left are pledging to make college education “free” in the United States, but they never seem to explain who is going to pay for that.

But what everyone can agree on is that student loan debt levels are wildly out of control. The following statistics come from Forbes…

The latest student loan debt statistics for 2019 show how serious the student loan debt crisis has become for borrowers across all demographics and age groups. There are more than 44 million borrowers who collectively owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S. alone. Student loan debt is now the second highest consumer debt category – behind only mortgage debt – and higher than both credit cards and auto loans. Borrowers in the Class of 2017, on average, owe $28,650, according to the Institute for College Access and Success.

Due to the fact that so many of them are swamped by student loan debt, the homeownership rate for Millennials is much, much lower than the homeownership rate for the generations that immediately preceded them. The following comes from CNBC…

The homeownership rate for those under 35 was just 36.5 percent in the last quarter of 2018, compared with 61 percent for those aged 35 to 44, and 70 percent for those aged 45 to 54, according to the U.S. Census. The millennial homeownership rate actually dropped in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter, but was unchanged year over year.

This is one of the big reasons why “Housing Bubble 2” is beginning to burst. There are not enough Millennials buying homes, and it looks like things could be even worse for Generation Z.

 

[hand2handking]

26 Billionaires Hold the Same Amount of Wealth as Half the World's Population
Global wealth inequality is increasing, according to nonprofit Oxfam's new report.

A girl walks past a canal filled with rubbish as she carries a container with water on her head in Cite Soleil slum, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018. According to the World Bank, Haiti remains the poorest country of the Americas with over 6 million of Haiti’s population of 10.4 million living below the poverty line.
Dieu Nalio Chery/AP

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/oxfam-report-billionaires-inequality/?utm_source=facebook

Why Global Citizens Should Care
Oxfam’s latest report shows that global wealth inequality isn’t just bad, it’s getting worse. A small number of extremely rich individuals hold the same amount of wealth as the world’s 3.8 billion poorest — to end poverty, change is desperately needed. Take action here to call on world leaders to help tackle inequality and extreme poverty.

The rich became richer and the poor became poorer in 2018, according to a new report from nonprofit Oxfam International, released on Monday.

The annual report, which aims to take stock of the deepening global wealth divide, found that the 26 richest people on the planet held the same amount of wealth as the 3.8 billion poorest — about 50% of the world’s total population.

“Our economy is broken, with hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top,” the report says.

Take Action: Be the Generation to End Extreme Poverty

Take Action: Sign Petition
In partnership with: Move Humanity
The report, called Public Good or Private Wealth?, was released ahead of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Davos, an annual summit attended by world leaders and some of the world’s richest and most powerful individuals.

While Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos saw his wealth rise to $150 billion last year — making him not only the richest man in the world today, but in the last three decades — the bottom 50% of income earners globally grew approximately 11% poorer than the year before.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos watches a video presentation during an event in Seattle.
Image: Ted S. Warren/AP

The report calls attention to wealth inequality but also offers tangible economic and policy solutions that would help address global poverty.

“The size of your bank account should not dictate how many years your children spend in school, or how long you live,” Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, said in a press release.

“While corporations and the super-rich enjoy low tax bills, millions of girls are denied a decent education and women are dying for lack of maternity care,” she said.

The organization recommends increasing taxes on the world’s wealthiest 1% and highlights how a tiny increase — just 0.5% — would raise more than enough money to educate the 262 million children currently out of school or provide life-saving health care to 3.3 million people in need.

The report calls on governments and makes specific recommendations that would help deliver universal free health care for all, tackle gender inequality and increase women’s economic empowerment, and reduce poverty.

Oxfam bases its calculations on Forbes’ annual Billionaire List and Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report, the latter of which has been criticized for its methodology, Quartz reported.

But the point that Oxfam is making is well-established: Global wealth inequality is rising. And unless policy makers and world leaders come together to address poverty and inequality at its root causes, the global wealth disparity can only be expected to get worse.

A homeless person sleeps under blankets on a sidewalk, Jan. 5, 2017 in midtown New York.
Image: Mark Lennihan/AP

 

[ninjahood]

Entire Staffs at 3 Sonic Locations Quit After Wages Cut to '$4/Hour Plus Tips'

Spoiler: Signs on the Door

Entire staffs at 3 Sonic locations quit after wages cut to '$4/hour plus tips' (Photo:MGN)

https://kutv.com/news/offbeat/entir...tions-quit-after-wages-cut-to-4hour-plus-tips

should've made a thread.

 

[hand2handking]

Finland's Universal Basic Income Experiment Just Gave Lawmakers a Really Good Reason to Back the Idea

http://fortune.com/2019/04/04/finland-basic-income-societal-trust/

There’s more information out about the results of Finland’s much-watched basic income experiment, and it should prove particularly interesting to lawmakers around the world who are considering instituting such a system.

The idea of a basic income involves giving citizens a fixed amount of money for nothing, as an alternative to traditional social security systems, which can be rather complex and bureaucratic to navigate. Finland ran an experiment with a couple thousand unemployed people through 2017 and 2018, and its Labour Institute for Economic Research (Kela) started reporting on the results in February.

In its first report, Kela said the basic income didn’t much affect the amount of work that the subjects picked up during the experiment, but it did make them feel healthier and less stressed, and more confident about their ability to find work.

On Thursday, Kela released further results, noting that survey respondents felt less stressed about their finances and more in control of their lives—but also that the basic income appeared to change the way they felt about society.

Here’s where it gets interesting for lawmakers. According to Kela: “Respondents who received a basic income had more trust in other people and in societal institutions—politicians, political parties, police and the courts—than members of the control group.”

There wasn’t an enormous difference between the views of those who participated in the experiment and those in the survey’s control group, who did not, but it was noticeable and consistent.

On a scale of 0 to 10, where higher numbers denote more trust, basic income recipients gave an average score of 6.8 for trust in other people, versus 6.3 in the control group. Trust in politicians and political parties got an average 4.5 among basic income recipients and 4.0 in the control group, and trust in courts and cops was 7.2 versus 6.9, again with the control group providing a lower score.

These are preliminary observations that still need to be analyzed more deeply, but they certainly suggest that the basic income could be positive for societal cohesion.

The idea of basic income has gained attention in recent years, largely due to fears over automation’s effect on employment.

In the U.S., a universal basic income is one of the core proposals of 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who maintains that it would not make people lazier. The preliminary Finnish results seem to back him up on that. Kela’s survey, conducted just before the end of the two-year experiment, also showed that those who received the basic income were just as willing to use official job-finding services as those who did not.

In India, where national elections take place next week, the opposition Congress party is promising universal basic income for 250 million of India’s poorest people. The U.K.’s Labour Party is also warming to the idea, and plansto add a universal basic income to its next party manifesto.

 

[hand2handking]

Andrew Yang: Universal Basic Income Is "Capitalism Where Income Doesn't Start At Zero"

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/v...talism_where_income_doesnt_start_at_zero.html

MSNBC's Ali Velshi speaks with Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang about his idea to implement a $1,000 per month universal basic income, which he calls the "Freedom Dividend." Yang says the plan would be paid for by a Value Added Tax (VAT) on tech companies.

"If you imagine a household with two adults, $24,000 per year would be a game changer because right now 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, 50% can't afford an unexpected $500 bill. This financial insecurity has bred this financial insecurity that is turning us against each other and tearing us apart," Yang said about the plan.

 

[hennessy]

Are millennials really in that much debt?

 

[wayniac211]

Are millennials really in that much debt?

In regards to student loans, f yeah

 

[hand2handking]

Universal Basic Income 'Would Cost Less Than Value of Benefit Cuts Since 2010'
Economists’ report follows plan from New Economics Foundation in backing proposal

Following a reworking of the tax and benefit system, the net cost of the plan would be £28bn – less than the aggregate welfare cuts since 2010.. Photograph: Alamy

https://www.theguardian.com/society...vered-reversing-welfare-spending-cuts-plan-uk

Introducing a weekly universal basic income (UBI) for everyone in Britain would have a net cost worth less than the aggregate cuts to benefits since 2010, according to a report.

The government could make tax-free payments of £60 to every adult, £175 for those over 65 and £40 for each child under 18, regardless of other income, in a proposal designed to cut rising levels of poverty and inequality across the country.

The report by the economists Stewart Lansley and Howard Reed, and published by the leftwing thinktank Compass, said that the net cost of reworking the tax and benefits system would be £28bn, a figure less than the aggregate cuts to welfare since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.
The changes would return social security spending back to the level of a decade ago to help cover the costs of the UBI, alongside what the economists said would be some modest increases in income tax for higher-paid workers.

The report comes a week after the launch of a similar plan from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) thinktank was welcomed by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, in a signal of the growing interest in UBI, and as economists increasingly look at ways to finance a basic income proposal.

Under the NEF proposal, the tax-free personal allowance would be scrapped and the proceeds used to fund a flat payment of £48.08 a week for every adult.

There are concerns that UBI systems diminish work incentives, although supporters say they will become increasingly necessary as the rise of the automated economy will put greater numbers of workers’ jobs at risk.

UBI trials in Finland, the only advanced economy to launch such a widespread scheme, found that people receiving basic incomes were happier, but they were no better and no worse at finding employment than a control group.

Some economists on both the left and the right have argued for UBI as a source of personal empowerment, providing citizens with more choice over work, education, training, leisure and caring. Others argue that UBI would be too expensive and would be difficult to set at the right level, so higher spending on public services would work better.

Supporters of UBI include Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the RSA thinktank, who conducted a review of the gig economy for Theresa May and had previously led Tony Blair’s policy unit. The RSA has worked with the Scottish government to pilot UBI schemes in Scotland.

The Lansley and Reed plan would include the abolition of tax-free allowances to help finance the new UBI. However, it also calls for the introduction of a 15% income tax band for the lowest-paid workers, while existing income tax rates would rise by 3p in the pound.

Child benefit and the state pension would be scrapped, with the UBI rendering it redundant. However, most other elements of the benefits system would remain.

Overall, 75% of households would benefit from the changes, while the richest 25% would lose money. Other impacts would be for child poverty to be cut by more than a third and pensioner poverty by almost a third.

Lansley and Reed said the total cost of the UBI would be as high as £300bn, although this would be mostly covered by the tax and benefit changes, with the final £28bn covered by returning welfare spending to 2010 levels.

They said: “The basic income would update the British system of social security for the 21st century. All households would enjoy greater certainty about future income, directly tackling growing economic and social insecurity.”

•The first paragraph and headline of this article were amended on 18 March 2019 to clarify that the net cost of UBI would be less than the cost of benefit cuts, not that reversing benefit cuts would cover its cost

 

[hand2handking]

The results are in regarding the Republican Tax Scam, and average American citizens are the big losers. According to the IRS, they’ve sent out about $6 billion less in refunds this past year, which is a clear indication that most citizens actually DID end up paying more in taxes. Meanwhile, the largest banks in the country got an extra $28 billion last year from the Republican tax cuts, showing us who this was really for. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

According to the latest numbers from the IRS itself, tax refunds for average American citizens have so far fallen this year by $6 billion, that $6 billion that would have gone back to the average American consumer, the workers, the people that actually make this country run because we're the ones out here doing the stuff nobody else wants to do. Yeah, everybody wants to be a wealthy CEO, but nobody wants to get their hands dirty to keep the machinery running or to fix your car or to take care of your house and build things. Those were the people that needed these returns. But thanks to the Republican tax scam, we've been screwed out of $6 billion. Now admittedly, they have so far gotten in fewer tax filings than they had last year. Not a ton, but a few and certainly not enough to make up for that $6 billion difference. But the reason the $6 billion that was taken quite literally out of our pockets is so important is because we have to remember that under the GOP tax scam, the big bankers received an additional $28 billion in tax cuts last year.

Bankers alone got an extra $28 billion while we, the rest of the country lost $6 billion. The average refund so far this year is down $20 that may not seem like a lot to you, but if you take somebody who's making only 15 to $20,000 a year, guess what? $20 is a hell of a lot of money. $20 could be the difference between being able to afford a prescription or being able to afford a copay to go to a doctor versus not having that. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't matter how valuable $20 is to you or to anyone else. What matters is the fact that we were all promised by the Republicans by this administration, that all of us, we're going to get a tax break. We are going to get a tax cut and instead we're getting less money back and I know the Republican argument is because when, no, no, no, no, no, no wait.

It's because they're taking less out of your paychecks, which nearly everyone in this country says, yeah, that's not true. My paychecks didn't change. Then you can look at the polls on that. People like, no, my paycheck didn't change. Don't tell me that I'm the one ignoring reality. When I have the stubs, I have the receipts and I can prove that I didn't reduce the amount of money I paid in to the IRS this year. The only people who could have possibly seen a reduction in the amount of tax is taken out of their paychecks would be the people who actually took the time to go to their human resources department and refill out their paperwork to change how much money was being taken out of their checks. See, Republicans like to leave that part out. You the person actually has to physically go and do that in most instances, and we don't, we don't necessarily have the time.

 

[hand2handking]

In San Francisco, Making a Living From Your Billionaire Neighbor’s Trash

Jake Orta searched through a trash bin outside Mark Zuckerberg’s home in San Francisco. Credit: Jim Wilson/The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/...isco-zuckerberg.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab

SAN FRANCISCO — Three blocks from Mark Zuckerberg’s $10 million Tudor home in San Francisco, Jake Orta lives in a small, single-window studio apartment filled with trash.

There’s a child’s pink bicycle helmet that Mr. Orta dug out from the garbage bin across the street from Mr. Zuckerberg’s house. And a vacuum cleaner, a hair dryer, a coffee machine — all in working condition — and a pile of clothes that he carried home in a Whole Foods paper bag retrieved from Mr. Zuckerberg’s bin.

A military veteran who fell into homelessness and now lives in government subsidized housing, Mr. Orta is a full-time trash picker, part of an underground economy in San Francisco of people who work the sidewalks in front of multimillion-dollar homes, rummaging for things they can sell.

Trash picking is a profession more often associated with shantytowns and favelas than a city at the doorstep of Silicon Valley. The Global Alliance of Waste Pickers, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, counts more than 400 trash picking organizations across the globe, almost all of them in Latin America, Africa and southern Asia.

But trash scavengers exist in many United States cities and, like the rampant homelessness in San Francisco, are a signpost of the extremes of American capitalism. A snapshot from 2019: One of the world’s richest men and a trash picker, living a few minutes’ walk from each other.

Mr. Orta, 56, sees himself as more of a treasure hunter.

“It just amazes me what people throw away,” he said one night, as he found a pair of gently used designer jeans, a new black cotton jacket, gray Nike running sneakers and a bicycle pump. “You never know what you will find.”

Mr. Orta says his goal is to earn around $30 to $40 a day from his discoveries, a survival income of around $300 a week.

Mr. Orta is part of an underground economy of people who work the sidewalks in front of multimillion-dollar homes, rummaging for things they can sell. Credit: Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Trash picking is illegal in California — once a bin is rolled out onto the sidewalk the contents are considered the possession of the trash collection company, according to Robert Reed, a spokesman for Recology, the company contracted to collect San Francisco’s garbage. But the law is rarely enforced.

Mr. Orta was born in San Antonio, Tex., one of 12 children. He spent more than a dozen years in the Air Force, loading aircraft during the Persian Gulf war of 1991 and was dispatched to Germany, Korea and Saudi Arabia. By the time he returned to the United States, his wife had left him, and he struggled with alcoholism and homelessness. He moved to San Francisco, and five years ago qualified for a program assisting chronically homeless veterans.

At dusk he leaves his apartment building, which is wedged between a popular brunch spot for tech workers and a cannabis shop in the heart of the Mission neighborhood. The smell of marijuana fills the vestibule. Walking up a steep hill lined with mature trees, he passes homes that could pass for works of art: Victorians, some with stained glass and elaborate cornices and moldings painted in a soft palette of pastels, ocher, celadon and teal. A virtual tour of the neighborhood on the Zillow site shows that homes valued at $3 million and above are the norm.

But Mr. Orta doesn’t look at the architecture. He walks the streets, slightly stooped, his eyes on the ground and a flashlight in his back pocket. His friends call him the Finder.

On the six times Mr. Orta went out with a reporter, he followed a variety of circuits, but usually ended up exploring his favorite alleys and a dumpster that has been bountiful. (The first rule of dumpster scavenging, he said, is to make sure there’s no raccoon or possum in there.) In March, the dumpster yielded a box of silver goblets, dishes and plates, as if someone had yanked a tablecloth from underneath a feast in some European chateau.

“How do you say it?” William Washington, one of Mr. Orta’s trash-picking colleagues, remarked one night. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

Mr. Orta’s other recent discoveries: phones, iPads, three wristwatches and bags of marijuana. (“I smoked it,” he said when asked how much he got for the pot.) In late August or September, as participants return from the annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, Mr. Orta says he often finds abandoned bicycles covered in fine sand.

Mr. Orta, right, selling some of the items he found. His goal is to earn around $30 to $40 a day from his discoveries. Credit: Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Mr. Orta says he only takes what people have clearly thrown away, although 14 years ago he spent a few months in jail for breaking into someone’s garage in Sacramento and trying to steal a wrench for his bicycle. “It was a dumb mistake,” he said.

For years San Francisco has been a global beacon of recycling, attracting a stream of government ministers, journalists and students from across the globe to study the sorting facilities of Recology.

But the city is also full of young, affluent people preoccupied with demanding jobs and long commutes for whom the garbage can is a tempting way to get rid of that extra pair of jeans or old electronics cluttering their closet.

“We have a lot of trash of convenience,” said Mr. Reed, the spokesman for Recology. “You’ve got more and more tech people here and this city is moving faster and faster. These people have short attention spans. Some discard items that ought to be repurposed through a thrift shop.”

Trash pickers fall into several broad categories. For decades, elderly women and men have collected cardboard, paper, cans or bottles, lugging impossibly large bags around the city and bringing them to recycling centers for cash.

The city is most concerned about the battered pickup trucks, known as mosquito fleets, that buzz around San Francisco collecting recyclables on an industrial scale, depriving Recology, and ultimately the city, of income, said Bill Barnes, a spokesman for the city administrator’s office.

“That’s a significant challenge for residents because it results in higher garbage rates,” Mr. Barnes said.

“It just amazes me what people throw away,” Mr. Orta said. Credit:Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Trash pickers like Mr. Orta are in yet another category, targeting items in the black landfill garbage bins whose contents would otherwise go to what’s known as the pit — a hole in the ground on the outskirts of the city that resembles a giant swimming pool, where nonrecyclable trash is crushed and compacted by a huge bulldozer and then carried by a fleet of trucks to a dump an hour and a half away. The city exports about 50 large truckloads a day.

Nick Marzano, an Australian photographer who publishes a glossy magazine, Mission Gold, which documents the world of trash pickers in San Francisco, estimates there are several hundred garbage scavengers in the city.

“It’s a civic service as I see it,” Mr. Marzano said. “Rather than this stuff going to landfill the items are being reused.”

Mr. Marzano says there is overlap among trash picking and homelessness and public drug use — the street conditions that have ranked at the top of residents’ concerns for several years. But he sees trash picking, and the spontaneous sidewalk markets that pop up in neighborhoods like the Mission and Tenderloin, as a form of entrepreneurship.

“It’s the primary form of income for people who have no other income,” he said.

Mr. Orta sells what he retrieves at impromptu markets on Mission Street or at a more formal market on Saturdays on Julian Avenue. Children’s toys very rarely sell — parents don’t like the idea that they have come from the trash. Women’s clothing is iffy. But men don’t seem to care as much where the clothing came from, and jeans are easy to hawk for $5 or $10 a pair.

Mr. Orta’s favorite item retrieved from the trash is one that he will not sell: a collection of newspapers from around the world documenting the course of World War II. He wonders why anyone would have thrown that away.

On a recent Tuesday evening — the eve of trash collection in Mr. Zuckerberg’s neighborhood — Mr. Orta didn’t find anything worth keeping in the Facebook founder’s two garbage cans. Mr. Zuckerberg has at least one other home in the San Francisco Bay Area; this one he bought in November 2012 for $9,999,000 through a company he controls.

In the blue recycling bin marked with Mr. Zuckerberg’s address, there were A&W diet root beer cans, cardboard boxes and a junk mail credit card offer. In the black landfill bin were remnants of a chicken dinner, a stale baguette and Chinese takeout containers.

Mr. Orta pulled apart a garbage bag in the black bin.

“Just junk — nothing in there.”