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Short time work programs, paid leave, aid to small business for employee retention with the government paying a big percentage of wages, and unemployment benefits till companies rehire employees with government paying for this, are all different ways in which the U.S. and Europe are coping with the coronavirus crisis.  In the U.S. 22 million have applied for unemployment benefits with the U.S. government picking up a substantial part of the wages till companies rehire these employees. In the UK the government has launched a program that gives 2500 pounds or $3100 to each worker each month upto 80% of the worker's pay. The money is sent to businesses for retaining employees. This could cover estimated 8.3 million workers in the UK at a cost of $52 billion. The U.S. has a similar program with the first phase $377 billion already distributed to small businesses which requires retention of employees for government forgiveness of these loans. The basic idea is retain employees who could stay at home or be in short work programs or work from home. The French government is paying the wages of 9.6 million workers, almost half of workers in the private sector by sending the money to 785,000 small businesses. In Germany the Kurzarbeit program covers 725,000 companies which supports the wages of employees in a downturn and is financed from a special fund. The cost for Germany, France and Spain is about $147 billion or 135 billion euros for such programs. The European Union will step in with a 100 billion euros loan package. ...

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Why Mark Rutte is unpopular and disliked in most European Union countries but popular at home. The Dutch contribute $2.4 billion to the EU budget but says this report the Dutch have setup tax havens taking about $6.7 billion from the revenue that would otherwise go to the governments of Germany, France, Italy and Spain. This shows that the idea of the thrifty Dutch is only one side of the story. The clever Dutch may be more like it. This time France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and most other EU countries including Poland are critical of the Dutch and countries such as Sweden and Denmark for not showing solidarity with Europe during the pandemic. The real reason for Mark Rutte holding out in not supporting the European Recovery Fund of $500 billion of nonrepayable aid to EU's pandemic hardest hit countries is that after the tough election against the far right in 2017 he faces another challenge from right wing parties in Netherlands opposed to any aid or solidarity.  ...

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What did Biden mean when he said- "history is watching," about his call for Ukraine aid to Congress. After a swift course of events and British withdrawal from Greece and Turkey by March 1947 this is the address to the US Congress made by US president Harry Truman on March 12, 1947, for $351 million in aid to Greece and Turkey facing Soviet threat to the two democracies after German armies had destroyed most of the infrastructure in Greece, thousand villages burned, 85% of children tubercular, with no savings, tragic conditions and facing political chaos. Truman said in this address aid was one tenth of one percent of the $341 billion spent to fight threats to democracy in World War II. "One of the primary objectives of the foreign policy of the United States is the creation of conditions in which we and other nations will be able to work out a way of life free from coercion. This was a fundamental issue in the war with Germany and Japan. Our victory was won over countries which sought to impose their will, and their way of life, upon other nations." "At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms." "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way."   ...

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Teachers are packing up classrooms for the last time says this report in WSJ. Worn out by the covid pandemic, under staffed schools and political battles teachers are leaving in large numbers. About 300,000 public school teachers and other staff left the field during the 27 months of the pandemic, according to Bureau of labor Statistics data. More teachers are thinking of doing the same, A National Education Association poll conducted in 2022 found 55% of teachers saying they would leave earlier than planned. Teachers are finding better pay and working environment in other professions and in business. Teachers of younger students in the early grades say teaching should be about kids learning but that isn't true anymore.