Home
Aviva Gabriel's Library tagged → View Popular
Bailout for the People || Basic Income Guarantees || Cancerous Monetary System in USA
Isn't it fiinally time to enact a "basic income guarantee"? The lack of individual and family income security in the midst of a highly-developed economy is a travesty under any circumstances. But the contradiction of “poverty in the midst of plenty” that has plagued the world since the start of the Industrial Revolution is becoming much more grave in the U.S. and abroad. The problem, of course, is one of distribution of earnings, and excess production capacity relative to available income...
Winston Churchill gave eloquent testimony to this conundrum of the modern age when delivering the Romanes Lecture at Oxford University on June 19, 1930. This was a few months after the crash of the U.S. stock market marked the start of the Great Depression. Churchill said:
“Who would have thought that it would be easier to produce by toil and skill all the most necessary or desirable commodities than it is to find consumers for them? Who would have thought that cheap and abundant supplies of all the basic commodities would find the science and civilization of the world unable to utilize them? Have all our triumphs of research and organization bequeathed us only a new punishment: the Curse of Plenty? Are we really to believe that no better adjustment can be made between supply and demand? Yet the fact remains that every attempt has failed. Many various attempts have been made, from the extremes of Communism in Russia to the extremes of Capitalism in the United States. They include every form of fiscal policy and currency policy. But all have failed, and we have advanced little further in this quest than in barbaric times. Surely it is this mysterious crack and fissure at the basis of all our arrangements and apparatus upon which the keenest minds throughout the world should be concentrated.
Michael Moore asks Senator Bernie Sanders: "What's wrong with American capitalism these days?"
t r u t h o u t | The Politics of Lying and the Culture of Deceit in Obama's America: The Rule of Damaged Politics
Lies and deceit cause the death of democratic politics, critical thought and civic agency. Contempt for 'truth' is evident in the wild West of FOX News. It's evident in Bush's 'Clear Skies Initiative,' enabling greater industrial air pollution. Language is neutered. Meanings are indeterminate. As Orwell said, "war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength."
Rethinking the American Dream | vanityfair.com
long with millions of jobs and 401(k)s, the concept of a shared national ideal is said to be dying. But is the American Dream really endangered, or has it simply been misplaced? Exploring the way our aspirations have changed; the rugged individualism of the Wild West, the social compact of F.D.R., the sitcom fantasy of 50s suburbia; the author shows how the American Dream came to mean fame and fortune, instead of the promise that shaped a nation.
Bank Bonuses vs Burger King Wages
-
Add Sticky NoteGoldman Sachs received $10B in bailout funds and paid $6.5B in bonuses in '08. Did you know Goldman has one of the largest ownership stakes in Burger King? BK employees working full-time earn an average of $14,000 annually. These employees "cost taxpayers an estimated $273 million a year because workers lack access to affordable employer health coverage, are paid sub-poverty wages, and must rely on publicly-funded healthcare, income support, and food stamp programs." Consider instead if the Goldman bonuses have been given to BK employees - it would have been a pay increase of $18,000 per employee, "contributing to a meaningful economic stimulus by putting discretionary income in the hands of hundreds of thousands of American families."
- Goldman Sachs received $10B in bailout funds and paid $6.5B in bonuses in '08. Did you know Goldman has one of the largest ownership stakes in Burger King? BK employees working full-time earn an average of $14,000 annually. These employees "cost taxpayers an estimated $273 million a year because workers lack access to affordable employer health coverage, are paid sub-poverty wages, and must rely on publicly-funded healthcare, income support, and food stamp programs." Consider instead if the Goldman bonuses have been given to BK employees - it would have been a pay increase of $18,000 per employee, "contributing to a meaningful economic stimulus by putting discretionary income in the hands of hundreds of thousands of American families." - on 2009-03-06
The Great Depression 2.0
Our society may simply disintegrate if the rich win the battle in Congress. The top 1% of the national income strata, having bought up just about all depreciating assets at bargain basement prices, will have increased its portion of total national marketable wealth from about half of it to all of it. This is not a desirable situation at all.
-
Add Sticky NoteIf nothing is done than by the time a recovery occurs our entire society may have disintegrated. By then the top 1% of the national income strata, having bought up just about all depreciating assets at bargain basement prices, will have increased its portion of total national marketable wealth from about half of it to all of it.
- The country is going to polarize increasingly into those who are trying to salvage the ability of the people to house, feed, clothe, transport, educate and heal ourselves and each other, and those who are trying to save the power and wealth of the ruling class. * If nothing is done than by the time a recovery occurs our entire society may have disintegrated. By then the top 1% of the national income strata, having bought up just about all depreciating assets at bargain basement prices, will have increased its portion of total national marketable wealth from about half of it to all of it. This is not a desirable situation at all. - on 2009-03-06
New Aristocracy Gets Unjust Desserts
A new aristocracy is reaping huge unearned gains from our collective intellectual wealth. Our celebrated entrepreneurs and money men are hoisting a cherry to the top of an already existing sundae-and then laying claim to the entire ice cream parlor. Knowledge is the primary source of our national wealth, with or without the elites at the top who claim the lion's share.
-
As people have solved numerous problems that bewildered and plagued those before us, we have accumulated an immense "stock of knowledge"
-
This "stock of knowledge" is a social inheritance, nurtured by governments, institutions, and culture, and created by many generations of people.
- 2 more annotations...
Rich Robber Barons Force 20% of American Kids into Poverty
300,000 Americans earn more money than bottom 150 million earners in 2005. Wealthiest 400 Americans worth 1.54 trillion. But 20% of kids live in poverty. 1 million qualified teens couldn't afford college in 2005. 47 million families had no health insuranc
Spreading the wealth? US already does it | Newsweek.com
Social Security levy does not apply to incomes above $102,000, a boon to the wealthy. Benefits go to rich and poor retirees alike; low-income workers' payroll taxes are partly shifted to wealthier people.
Spreading the wealth? US already does it | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008
McCain decries Obama's plan to spread the wealth, but US already does it under tax formula
Your Salary in 2016 -- The Big Difference Between a McCain or Obama Administration
Middle-class families will earn about $13,000 more in eight years if Obama wins and $5,000 if McCain wins.
Selected Tags
Related Tags
Sponsored Links
Top Contributors
Groups interested in wealth
Highlighter, Sticky notes, Tagging, Groups and Network: integrated suite dramatically boosting research productivity. Learn more »
Join Diigo