Page 1 of 1 pages
For the first time Fortune magazine listed 400 BILLIONAIRES this year. I see this as largely a result of globalization.
Some say this is not a zero sum game
Posted by whattheheck on Oct 14, 2006 at 1:33 PM
Above I wrote my views on some of what we have lost to Globalization. Here is a bit of what we got in return for the job losses…
————————————————-
Saturday,
Posted by whattheheck on Oct 15, 2006 at 5:54 AM
WTH—back to THE subject on which we mostly agree. Well, agree on the symptoms—still looking for some cures…
Posted by frog on Oct 16, 2006 at 12:42 PM
I am an RN. I have three daughters. Fortunately I taught them to be best friends and love each other because when the oldest was a freshmen in college, and the youngest 2 were in elementary school, their father and I divorced.
I was a new nurse in 1990 . My starting salary was $17@hr. I had to work 60 hrs a week to support us.
My girls spent a lot of time together. When I was in school we all studied together, ate dinner together, etc and they continued on while I worked.
It was hard but not not half as hard as the CNAs, (Certified Nursing Assistants). Most of them started between $7.50 and $9.00 @ hour. Most of them were single mom’s with 2-3 children and I don’t know how the hell they survived as most of them had to work 7 days a week, just for the basics.
When I hear that 400 people are billionaires, I know how hard I had to work for a middle class life and how hard these other women worked to live in the part of Philadelphia, PA which is comparable to a third world country.
I wonder how these embarassing wealthy can sleep at nights.
I know that I and my CNAs can’t !!!
Posted by gglodoe@msn.com on Oct 17, 2006 at 3:25 AM
Hi Frog,
Sorry about my last comments to you
Posted by whattheheck on Oct 17, 2006 at 1:19 PM
HECK
Good to see you ....
One serious suggestion to escape madness IS to ration ones’ intake of propaganda .( otherwise known as “news” programmes) .
The squeeze is on here too, of course, but slightly more mitigated by government interventions than stateside. As with your politicians, if they are all saying the same thing, repeated blabla by the Press, strong odds they are all wrong .
What is the use of “Economic Growth”, if associated with vastly increasing numbers of working (and nonworking) poor ?
Have you read Byron Dorgan yet, ? I meant to order, but got busy. with me gardens .
gglodoe—looks like it is all about distribution of incomes ? My friend is a single mum CNA, whose 2 are now adult but still studying, but she does make enough to live on without working 7days a week.
That would be illegal here.
Sun’s out—off to work.
Posted by frog on Oct 18, 2006 at 2:35 AM
Dear Frog et al,
Thanks for your support. Two things I did not mention is that I am now 55 and on disability (not much) due to contracting Hepatitia from a major blood spill.
I have been sick for awhile but am getting better every day. My plans are to complete college in a different field and start a new job in a new field as I am no longer employable as a nurse. I’m a survivor and will be okay. I vowed many years ago that I would never eat dog or cat food as I have found some of my homebound patients doing!
My concern is for the thousands of people who are unenployed but no longer counted as unemployed as they are no longer on unemployment . Those who see no future for themselves, have worked for many years, and gotten fired a few months before being eligable for a pension and now have no resources, are in their late 50’s & 60’s, considered unemployable except for minimum wage by fast food restaurants and are now hitting a brick wall. For those who never had a chance in the first place and the people who don’t have the support of a strong but disabled husband and an encouraging family.
What can we do too make the picture clear to them? How can we help them?
Any ideas?
gglodoe
Posted by gglodoe@msn.com on Oct 18, 2006 at 8:01 PM
Frog,
I haven
Posted by whattheheck on Oct 19, 2006 at 7:14 AM
gglodoe,
Yes, to me 55 is still young
Posted by whattheheck on Oct 19, 2006 at 7:22 AM
Hi Heck
With a reading-list like that i guess you will SOON be waiting for Wiley, gglodoe, Rabbit an’ me in the GWB- Halliburton Rehabililtation Facility.
What times we’ll have while they decide if we are really Terrists .
Here in frogland you can work for any number of employers for (i think 6mos) which then gives a good six mos ‘decreasing’ benefit starting from 56% of previous earnings.
At the end of benef, you move over to a RMI—- minimum income—- so you get SOMETHING, until somebody can prove you ain’t “trying”. .
Interesting you selected Ehrenreich as your favourite,———- ME TOO .
SHE went there, did it.
I know dozens of people here in my provincial backwater who have been “short-changed.”
Just back from the pub where the regional shortage of floor- tilers was refered to . “” Of course there is a shortage, who is going to do THAT (hard) job at the MINIMUM WAGE ? “
Immigrants would ! But then the usual probs….......................
As with your machinist, very skilled and somewhat less-skilled jobs have lost their differenttiation from the completely unskilled.
Sometimes exported, sometimes redefined, diluted or downgraded, the jobs in the middle have BEEN evaporated.
I notice how you repeatedly refer to how so many retired middleclass people you know are UNAWARE of what is happening. It is just so fast .
YOU are, one reason being that you have a son in there, affected. I also am quite aware, knowing the abrupt change from exec to worker.
Lexus and Olive Tree———————AAAAAAgHHHH !
I thought I read a third of it before giving up, but have forgotten it all, so maybe it was deservedly FORGETTABLE ?
Better to go back and read a very little HD Thoreau than waste life on TL Friedman.
One is a world classic, the other a potboiler.
Injustice an inequality call out for “adjustment”..................... both on the local NATIONAL level, and the INTERNATIONAL one,
and soonerorlater,
ITS GOTTA HAPPEN !
“
Posted by frog on Oct 19, 2006 at 3:05 PM
400 billionaires + 7,700,000 millionaires = leaving 292,000,000 heirs to the national debt - currently at $172,000 each. look at the numbers. globalization, military spending, a crumbling infrustructure, and crushing debt are good for the economy. how could one see it otherwise?
Posted by hourglass on Oct 19, 2006 at 10:23 PM
Frog, Hourglass…
Whoa! What do we have here
Posted by whattheheck on Oct 20, 2006 at 7:04 AM
Hello All.
Whattheheck, I had the opportunity to spend 2 yrs, many yrs ago, at U. of Pa. No one has given me a reading list as intense as yours since that time. I read Man’s Search For Meaning”, many years ago. I remember it had quite an impact on me at the time but I don’t recall the material.
As I mentioned earlier, I have 3 daughters. All in College. 1going for MS in Women’s Studies at Bryn Mawr,her goal is to work with impoverished women and help them have more fulfilling lives. The next one will graduate with honors from Temple in May, an economist with a heart, dedicated to getting the U.S. to forgive debt to 3rd world countries and my youngest is studying Physics. Her goal is to become part of a ‘think tank” as she believes Global Warming can be stopped/reversed to a small degree if people who want to survive apply themselves.
We used to read a children’s book, Miss Rumphius” when they were young. Miss Rumphius Uncle ‘admonished’ her that we each had to leave the world a better place.
I am looking forward to a new adult reading list.
Frog,
I was unable to find the Douglas book but an afternoon on line and I will probably find all the books. In one of your letters you mentioned that the political signs you saw did not declare a party. The same thing is happening here. I called both parties about a week ago and was told by both of them that this election is about getting the best senator, congressman, etc., for the people.However the mudslinging and lies continue to fly.
I have always felt that the only thing that will change things is the redistribution of wealth. Not Socialism, as that seems to only hurt the rich and not really help the poor.
People need to have tangible goals. They need to be able to profit from their work. To occasionally have enough money left, after paying their bills to do something special.
On the other end, I have often asked myself, how many million or bilions of dollars can a person spend in their lifetime?
ggldoe
Posted by gglodoe@msn.com on Oct 21, 2006 at 3:22 AM
ggldoe,
Your daughters are exceptional, intelligent, hard workers and with noble goals. As their parents, you must be very proud and should take a lot of credit as well.
It
Posted by whattheheck on Oct 21, 2006 at 9:40 AM
Dear Whattheheck,
I am enjoying corresponding with you and Frog very much. You remind me of a Civics teacher I idolized in high school. It wasn’t a physical thing but he was the first man I ever encountered who treated everyone as equals, and encouraged us to study the Declaration of independence and U S Constitution so that we could protect ourselves from our own gov’t. I was fortunate to have Mr. Kershaw as a teacher for 2 years He then retired at approximately age 75 and died several years later.
He never taught us that any particular economic or political system was right or wrong. He felt his job was to teach us how to think.
He was very adamant about one thing, the United States is NOT a Democracy, it is a Republic. A Democracy is mob rule, subject to the whims of the people at that moment, laws are made by politicians who’s main goal is to get re-elected and as such, is very unstable. A republic is supposedly governed by elected officials, who vote for what is best with the future in mind and get re-elected for their integrity because our country is balanced and has tangible, realistic goals.
As I put this in my own words, I don’t know what kind of government we have but having just reread the Constitution and Declaration of Independence I think I could be incarcerated and considered a terrorist if I were to repeat parts of them here!
I am sure of one thing, our founding fathers never intended for us to live under the quasi martial law that we presently have. We live under a reign of fear, not just from the terrorists but from our own leaders.
I am reminded of what Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Goodnight
Posted by gglodoe@msn.com on Oct 24, 2006 at 12:01 AM
gglodoe,
I also had some teachers who stand out in my memory. The toughest/best was Elizabeth McGuire (called
Posted by whattheheck on Oct 25, 2006 at 10:46 AM
Skeptically, I continue to listen to the rhetoric by the pro-globilisation pundits but I still can’t help thinking that the little guy will never benefit in all this. There may be some positive effects of globalisation but I fear I will never see them. Most people on this planet will probably never reap the benefits; according to some hard core capitalists, it has to filter down from the top first. To me, this is like the ignorant peasant listening to the priest’s advice in more primitive times; the unread are kept in the dark and fed lies so those in power stay in power.
The First Era of Globalization began after WWI and slowly but surely big business has made so many gains through global mergers and acquisitions that today it is finally affecting all of us – it has social effects causing debt burdens in developing nations and seems to do the opposite of encouraging competition and ensuring freedom of choice for individuals. Who is Free Trade for? It seems to be for the mega-corporations who are threatening competition and freedom of choice.
Corporations have always had an inclination, unless controlled, to run roughshod over the rights of individuals to determine their future. This increasing inequality has also led to increasing poverty. “Free trade” is great if you have the financial leverage (always at the expense of the poor). But is globalization only economic? I think not. There are darker implications for the individual (unless we don’t want to remain individuals anymore). There should be, at the same time, a “globalization of people” an injection of more humanity into capitalistic systems – or something in between - at least.
The financial clout of big corporations today seem now more than ever in a position to erode the regulatory powers of nations, as well as to determine who they influence (who gets elected as President), to the products consumers buy, and ultimately, how the individual perceives himself.
The impact on the US economy also effects the economies in Europe. We are all of us vulnerable to the agendas of powerful administrations, mega corporations, and institutions like the WTO. History, if it is to be believed, and not read as fiction, shows the lives of most humans as brutish and short, even in this age of high-tech.
Posted by da vinci on Oct 26, 2006 at 12:56 PM
da vinci,
You mentioned the clout of big corporations
Posted by whattheheck on Oct 27, 2006 at 11:20 AM
Hi Heck
good article on Lane Evans this issue—heck country.
“Wartime powers” become permanent loss of freedoms when war becomes the permanent state of affairs, as with the Bush Long War against ........... whatever it was ?
I’d also disagree strongly that the bushproblem is one of poor presentation—- to me lousy analysis and policies, which even a better “Presenter” like Tony Blair cannot win on for ever, are still——lousy .
Busy here, freezing nights, sunny days, so cutting those trees that shade my windows in winter—- gotta let the old Sun through, it makes a great difference .....................
Posted by frog on Nov 7, 2006 at 1:10 AM
HECK
good stuff from molly !
Did my bit this morning, out with my State Rep distributing leaflets for a meeting on friday AGAINST the privatisation of our national Gas Utility.
Some people in the street reacted by saying “No point in fighting them, they have the Power”, to which I replied ” The Bolivians kicked out SUEZ privatised Water” . ...............( a french company)
The City of Cherbourg took years of legal battles to take back their water supply from the Capitalist Mothers, and immediately reduced the price to consumers; there are many other examples of french municipalities doing the same.
Your point about economists (or Congressmen) acting from greed or IGNORANCE is a very good one. A good question.
From my own experience, I notice that State and Regional Reps here are SO taken up with commitee meetings etc that they have very little time to do what you and I do, which is to research and ‘think’ .
Never having been a party member myself, I see my job as educating those Reps, introducing them gently to Reality.
Most of them just have not invested the TIME in thinking through just about everything. Or anything !
buzzflash
I’m following your elections thru Buzzflash and informationclearinghouse.ICH
Posted by frog on Nov 7, 2006 at 4:24 PM
HECK
You (americans) have the same problem as the rest of us.
Arcane discussions about the difference between a ‘democracy’ and a ’ republic’ are all very well, but the facts on the ground are what count.
You and I could have walked the streets safely under Saddam, bought rare books in the souk, but now we could not even get into the country.
The bookshops in Baghdad are now dead. And now Condi and Co are applauding the death sentence on one of their oldest and most faithful allies.
As the MAFIA say - in the films—“”“” this is not personal, this is BUSINESS”.
Posted by frog on Nov 7, 2006 at 4:45 PM
I don’t think you have to go much further than last month’s newspaper, Business section. Article after article reporting on X-mas shopping - is it up or down? What does it mean? What does it say about the state of the economy? Etc, etc, ad naseaum. Every article mentions the contribution to retailers overall income for the year - I don’t remember, unfortunately, the statistic but I believe the holiday season accounts for any profits a retailer may have for the year. I guess they only break even plus or minus a small amount, if you take out holiday revenue.
Then they turn around and manage to sell us on “supply-side economics” ? ! It’s pretty simple - if you have millions, $100K more from a tax cut isn’t going to make much of a difference to you or the economy. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, even $25/check more can make a huge difference.
I would love to see some economics students do a study, comparing the current economy to what it may have been, had the bushtaxcuts for the rich instead been given to workers at the lower end of the economic scale. For that matter, I would love to see some modeling going back 30 years, looking at today had all the changes Reagan started (that go far beyond just tax cuts for the wealthy) not occured.
If one wants to see an example of government spending vs the “Market”, look at the steady reduction in government spending on affordable housing programs, as well as spending on direct housing assistance. Compare it to the rise in homelessness and then tell me there isn’t a direct link!
gglodoe - it isn’t a question of how many millions one can spend. I guarantee you, even you and I could easily spend that kind of money if we have more than one home, travel frequently, hire caretakers for ourselves, our children and our homes. Spending is easy. What can’t be justifed is paying anyone that much money! No one, let alone a CEO, is worth the kind of money that the billionaires and millionaires are getting. (I just read about some CEO who was paid $52M - this after a previous company had fired him!) How much is the CEO of GM getting every year? And they lost how much during his tenure? The only exceptions are actors and athletes - they actually generate revenue - although I feel they are also overcompensated.
Posted by lil bit on Jan 1, 2007 at 9:08 PM
Page 1 of 1 pages
Reader Comments
For the first time Fortune magazine listed 400 BILLIONAIRES this year. I see this as largely a result of globalization.
Some say this is not a zero sum game
Above I wrote my views on some of what we have lost to Globalization. Here is a bit of what we got in return for the job losses…
————————————————-
Saturday,
WTH—back to THE subject on which we mostly agree. Well, agree on the symptoms—still looking for some cures…
I am an RN. I have three daughters. Fortunately I taught them to be best friends and love each other because when the oldest was a freshmen in college, and the youngest 2 were in elementary school, their father and I divorced.
I was a new nurse in 1990 . My starting salary was $17@hr. I had to work 60 hrs a week to support us.
My girls spent a lot of time together. When I was in school we all studied together, ate dinner together, etc and they continued on while I worked.
It was hard but not not half as hard as the CNAs, (Certified Nursing Assistants). Most of them started between $7.50 and $9.00 @ hour. Most of them were single mom’s with 2-3 children and I don’t know how the hell they survived as most of them had to work 7 days a week, just for the basics.
When I hear that 400 people are billionaires, I know how hard I had to work for a middle class life and how hard these other women worked to live in the part of Philadelphia, PA which is comparable to a third world country.
I wonder how these embarassing wealthy can sleep at nights.
I know that I and my CNAs can’t !!!
Hi Frog,
Sorry about my last comments to you
HECK
Good to see you ....
One serious suggestion to escape madness IS to ration ones’ intake of propaganda .( otherwise known as “news” programmes) .
The squeeze is on here too, of course, but slightly more mitigated by government interventions than stateside. As with your politicians, if they are all saying the same thing, repeated blabla by the Press, strong odds they are all wrong .
What is the use of “Economic Growth”, if associated with vastly increasing numbers of working (and nonworking) poor ?
Have you read Byron Dorgan yet, ? I meant to order, but got busy. with me gardens .
gglodoe—looks like it is all about distribution of incomes ? My friend is a single mum CNA, whose 2 are now adult but still studying, but she does make enough to live on without working 7days a week.
That would be illegal here.
Sun’s out—off to work.
Dear Frog et al,
Thanks for your support. Two things I did not mention is that I am now 55 and on disability (not much) due to contracting Hepatitia from a major blood spill.
I have been sick for awhile but am getting better every day. My plans are to complete college in a different field and start a new job in a new field as I am no longer employable as a nurse. I’m a survivor and will be okay. I vowed many years ago that I would never eat dog or cat food as I have found some of my homebound patients doing!
My concern is for the thousands of people who are unenployed but no longer counted as unemployed as they are no longer on unemployment . Those who see no future for themselves, have worked for many years, and gotten fired a few months before being eligable for a pension and now have no resources, are in their late 50’s & 60’s, considered unemployable except for minimum wage by fast food restaurants and are now hitting a brick wall. For those who never had a chance in the first place and the people who don’t have the support of a strong but disabled husband and an encouraging family.
What can we do too make the picture clear to them? How can we help them?
Any ideas?
gglodoe
Frog,
I haven
gglodoe,
Yes, to me 55 is still young
Hi Heck
With a reading-list like that i guess you will SOON be waiting for Wiley, gglodoe, Rabbit an’ me in the GWB- Halliburton Rehabililtation Facility.
What times we’ll have while they decide if we are really Terrists .
Here in frogland you can work for any number of employers for (i think 6mos) which then gives a good six mos ‘decreasing’ benefit starting from 56% of previous earnings.
At the end of benef, you move over to a RMI—- minimum income—- so you get SOMETHING, until somebody can prove you ain’t “trying”. .
Interesting you selected Ehrenreich as your favourite,———- ME TOO .
SHE went there, did it.
I know dozens of people here in my provincial backwater who have been “short-changed.”
Just back from the pub where the regional shortage of floor- tilers was refered to . “” Of course there is a shortage, who is going to do THAT (hard) job at the MINIMUM WAGE ? “
Immigrants would ! But then the usual probs….......................
As with your machinist, very skilled and somewhat less-skilled jobs have lost their differenttiation from the completely unskilled.
Sometimes exported, sometimes redefined, diluted or downgraded, the jobs in the middle have BEEN evaporated.
I notice how you repeatedly refer to how so many retired middleclass people you know are UNAWARE of what is happening. It is just so fast .
YOU are, one reason being that you have a son in there, affected. I also am quite aware, knowing the abrupt change from exec to worker.
Lexus and Olive Tree———————AAAAAAgHHHH !
I thought I read a third of it before giving up, but have forgotten it all, so maybe it was deservedly FORGETTABLE ?
Better to go back and read a very little HD Thoreau than waste life on TL Friedman.
One is a world classic, the other a potboiler.
Injustice an inequality call out for “adjustment”..................... both on the local NATIONAL level, and the INTERNATIONAL one,
and soonerorlater,
ITS GOTTA HAPPEN !
“
400 billionaires + 7,700,000 millionaires = leaving 292,000,000 heirs to the national debt - currently at $172,000 each. look at the numbers. globalization, military spending, a crumbling infrustructure, and crushing debt are good for the economy. how could one see it otherwise?
Frog, Hourglass…
Whoa! What do we have here
Hello All.
Whattheheck, I had the opportunity to spend 2 yrs, many yrs ago, at U. of Pa. No one has given me a reading list as intense as yours since that time. I read Man’s Search For Meaning”, many years ago. I remember it had quite an impact on me at the time but I don’t recall the material.
As I mentioned earlier, I have 3 daughters. All in College. 1going for MS in Women’s Studies at Bryn Mawr,her goal is to work with impoverished women and help them have more fulfilling lives. The next one will graduate with honors from Temple in May, an economist with a heart, dedicated to getting the U.S. to forgive debt to 3rd world countries and my youngest is studying Physics. Her goal is to become part of a ‘think tank” as she believes Global Warming can be stopped/reversed to a small degree if people who want to survive apply themselves.
We used to read a children’s book, Miss Rumphius” when they were young. Miss Rumphius Uncle ‘admonished’ her that we each had to leave the world a better place.
I am looking forward to a new adult reading list.
Frog,
I was unable to find the Douglas book but an afternoon on line and I will probably find all the books. In one of your letters you mentioned that the political signs you saw did not declare a party. The same thing is happening here. I called both parties about a week ago and was told by both of them that this election is about getting the best senator, congressman, etc., for the people.However the mudslinging and lies continue to fly.
I have always felt that the only thing that will change things is the redistribution of wealth. Not Socialism, as that seems to only hurt the rich and not really help the poor.
People need to have tangible goals. They need to be able to profit from their work. To occasionally have enough money left, after paying their bills to do something special.
On the other end, I have often asked myself, how many million or bilions of dollars can a person spend in their lifetime?
ggldoe
ggldoe,
Your daughters are exceptional, intelligent, hard workers and with noble goals. As their parents, you must be very proud and should take a lot of credit as well.
It
Dear Whattheheck,
I am enjoying corresponding with you and Frog very much. You remind me of a Civics teacher I idolized in high school. It wasn’t a physical thing but he was the first man I ever encountered who treated everyone as equals, and encouraged us to study the Declaration of independence and U S Constitution so that we could protect ourselves from our own gov’t. I was fortunate to have Mr. Kershaw as a teacher for 2 years He then retired at approximately age 75 and died several years later.
He never taught us that any particular economic or political system was right or wrong. He felt his job was to teach us how to think.
He was very adamant about one thing, the United States is NOT a Democracy, it is a Republic. A Democracy is mob rule, subject to the whims of the people at that moment, laws are made by politicians who’s main goal is to get re-elected and as such, is very unstable. A republic is supposedly governed by elected officials, who vote for what is best with the future in mind and get re-elected for their integrity because our country is balanced and has tangible, realistic goals.
As I put this in my own words, I don’t know what kind of government we have but having just reread the Constitution and Declaration of Independence I think I could be incarcerated and considered a terrorist if I were to repeat parts of them here!
I am sure of one thing, our founding fathers never intended for us to live under the quasi martial law that we presently have. We live under a reign of fear, not just from the terrorists but from our own leaders.
I am reminded of what Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Goodnight
gglodoe,
I also had some teachers who stand out in my memory. The toughest/best was Elizabeth McGuire (called
Skeptically, I continue to listen to the rhetoric by the pro-globilisation pundits but I still can’t help thinking that the little guy will never benefit in all this. There may be some positive effects of globalisation but I fear I will never see them. Most people on this planet will probably never reap the benefits; according to some hard core capitalists, it has to filter down from the top first. To me, this is like the ignorant peasant listening to the priest’s advice in more primitive times; the unread are kept in the dark and fed lies so those in power stay in power.
The First Era of Globalization began after WWI and slowly but surely big business has made so many gains through global mergers and acquisitions that today it is finally affecting all of us – it has social effects causing debt burdens in developing nations and seems to do the opposite of encouraging competition and ensuring freedom of choice for individuals. Who is Free Trade for? It seems to be for the mega-corporations who are threatening competition and freedom of choice.
Corporations have always had an inclination, unless controlled, to run roughshod over the rights of individuals to determine their future. This increasing inequality has also led to increasing poverty. “Free trade” is great if you have the financial leverage (always at the expense of the poor). But is globalization only economic? I think not. There are darker implications for the individual (unless we don’t want to remain individuals anymore). There should be, at the same time, a “globalization of people” an injection of more humanity into capitalistic systems – or something in between - at least.
The financial clout of big corporations today seem now more than ever in a position to erode the regulatory powers of nations, as well as to determine who they influence (who gets elected as President), to the products consumers buy, and ultimately, how the individual perceives himself.
The impact on the US economy also effects the economies in Europe. We are all of us vulnerable to the agendas of powerful administrations, mega corporations, and institutions like the WTO. History, if it is to be believed, and not read as fiction, shows the lives of most humans as brutish and short, even in this age of high-tech.
da vinci,
You mentioned the clout of big corporations
Hi Heck
good article on Lane Evans this issue—heck country.
“Wartime powers” become permanent loss of freedoms when war becomes the permanent state of affairs, as with the Bush Long War against ........... whatever it was ?
I’d also disagree strongly that the bushproblem is one of poor presentation—- to me lousy analysis and policies, which even a better “Presenter” like Tony Blair cannot win on for ever, are still——lousy .
Busy here, freezing nights, sunny days, so cutting those trees that shade my windows in winter—- gotta let the old Sun through, it makes a great difference .....................
HECK
good stuff from molly !
Did my bit this morning, out with my State Rep distributing leaflets for a meeting on friday AGAINST the privatisation of our national Gas Utility.
Some people in the street reacted by saying “No point in fighting them, they have the Power”, to which I replied ” The Bolivians kicked out SUEZ privatised Water” . ...............( a french company)
The City of Cherbourg took years of legal battles to take back their water supply from the Capitalist Mothers, and immediately reduced the price to consumers; there are many other examples of french municipalities doing the same.
Your point about economists (or Congressmen) acting from greed or IGNORANCE is a very good one. A good question.
From my own experience, I notice that State and Regional Reps here are SO taken up with commitee meetings etc that they have very little time to do what you and I do, which is to research and ‘think’ .
Never having been a party member myself, I see my job as educating those Reps, introducing them gently to Reality.
Most of them just have not invested the TIME in thinking through just about everything. Or anything !
buzzflash
I’m following your elections thru Buzzflash and informationclearinghouse.ICH
HECK
You (americans) have the same problem as the rest of us.
Arcane discussions about the difference between a ‘democracy’ and a ’ republic’ are all very well, but the facts on the ground are what count.
You and I could have walked the streets safely under Saddam, bought rare books in the souk, but now we could not even get into the country.
The bookshops in Baghdad are now dead. And now Condi and Co are applauding the death sentence on one of their oldest and most faithful allies.
As the MAFIA say - in the films—“”“” this is not personal, this is BUSINESS”.
banana republic voting bordel (which is french for ‘brothel’)
I don’t think you have to go much further than last month’s newspaper, Business section. Article after article reporting on X-mas shopping - is it up or down? What does it mean? What does it say about the state of the economy? Etc, etc, ad naseaum. Every article mentions the contribution to retailers overall income for the year - I don’t remember, unfortunately, the statistic but I believe the holiday season accounts for any profits a retailer may have for the year. I guess they only break even plus or minus a small amount, if you take out holiday revenue.
Then they turn around and manage to sell us on “supply-side economics” ? ! It’s pretty simple - if you have millions, $100K more from a tax cut isn’t going to make much of a difference to you or the economy. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, even $25/check more can make a huge difference.
I would love to see some economics students do a study, comparing the current economy to what it may have been, had the bushtaxcuts for the rich instead been given to workers at the lower end of the economic scale. For that matter, I would love to see some modeling going back 30 years, looking at today had all the changes Reagan started (that go far beyond just tax cuts for the wealthy) not occured.
If one wants to see an example of government spending vs the “Market”, look at the steady reduction in government spending on affordable housing programs, as well as spending on direct housing assistance. Compare it to the rise in homelessness and then tell me there isn’t a direct link!
gglodoe - it isn’t a question of how many millions one can spend. I guarantee you, even you and I could easily spend that kind of money if we have more than one home, travel frequently, hire caretakers for ourselves, our children and our homes. Spending is easy. What can’t be justifed is paying anyone that much money! No one, let alone a CEO, is worth the kind of money that the billionaires and millionaires are getting. (I just read about some CEO who was paid $52M - this after a previous company had fired him!) How much is the CEO of GM getting every year? And they lost how much during his tenure? The only exceptions are actors and athletes - they actually generate revenue - although I feel they are also overcompensated.