Work Changed Forever February 23, 2022 But first . . . If “the Donbas” sounds familiar, it may be because you somehow remember this post from a year ago. (Boy, was I ever wrong about those 17 senators.) Will Russia reinstate those slave labor camps? Not only is Trump on record trusting Putin over the FBI . . . and not only does Volume 1 of the Mueller Report offer nearly 200 pages of Trump/Russia connections (despite all the indictable obstructions of justice detailed in Volume 2) . . . and not only was Ukraine the ONLY thing in the 2016 Republican platform Trump had changed . . . but now Tucker Carlson is on record siding with Russia as well. Wow. And now . . . In Medieval Europe A Pandemic Changed Work Forever. Can It Hapen Again? In the wake of a devastating pandemic, millions of people are dead and many more have had their lives upended. Many of those who survive, worn down by a sense of futility in their work and by the impassable gap between the wealthy and everyone else, refuse to return to their old jobs or quit en masse. Tired of being overworked and underpaid, they feel they deserve a better life. This could be a story about today, but it is also the pattern that emerged across Europe in the aftermath of one of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history, the Black Death. The struggles over wages and the value of labor that defined the post-plague years were in some ways as dramatic as the pandemic itself. Eventually, Europe erupted into violence. Given where we are right now, it’s worth paying attention to the chain of events that led, link by link, from pandemic to panic to bloody uprising. . . . . . . On one side, a newly emboldened work force demanded a living wage, a chance to flourish; on the other, kings and councils, lords and wealthy commons, were determined that nothing change. . . . Worth reading in full. SELF-INTERESTED BONUS Trint.com no longer requires a credit card to start your free trial. “Turn audio and video into searchable, editable and shareable content in up to 31 languages.” (If you like it and subscribe, my cushy retirement is assured.)