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Whoa Ken,thanks for taking so much time to consider my post. I guess I missed the mark and hit your hot button on unions. I, like you, don't fully blame teachers as much as the boards and elected officials. Which is why I advocate for local level focus. You identify the big picture very well. I especially agree with your assesment of the parental envolvement, (another local level cultural issue). I appreciate your passion, I am not a military man, I did do a lot of work however, (volunteer with USO, Wounded Warriors, etc.). But that is of no importance, what is important that we appreciate the ability to converse, directly, with our thoughts and ideas. I think you and I are closer aligned than you think. I am not complaining about the teachers per se, yes, there are great teachers who are not respected or paid properly. What I did say is return the education model to the local level, like neighborhood. Imagine what could happen if the local elementary, middle and highschool were given the actual $ per student collected from the taxes paid? Now we are talking change.... Cut the fat. Create local school zones ($ controlled by the schools and staff - LOCAL)
Uniforms, good old RRR and PE, Arts, etc. Now we have a new generation of self driven and motivated children. My dream I guess.
Thanks again for your time, sorry I pissed you off so much, again, I think we are on much of the same thought lines however.
FG
We have never actually had an era of progress. The same people have been garnering it unto themselves, their heirs and assigns, since The Old World. What was once gained is lost, in family after family. Bank of America can turn your father's Will into a trust for Bank of America, not even giving you fair funds to fight back with in court for your own father's hard-earned living.
I think this estimate of 85 Big Fish is incorrect. They seem to have left out the 700 Princes of Liechtenstein. The 85 might be front men for a more extensive power grid, rooted underground, like fungi.
I had to adopt a second moniker 'cause the first one kept getting caught in the spam filter of blogs of certain daily topics and the moderators and webmaster didn't respond to my queries about it. I didn't think it was a real moderation because on some forum blogs I could post and others I couldn't so most likely it was a glitch. Also, I couldn't imagine why I would have that done to my username - unless it was because I told a certain right winger on the forum that he was "bereft of any logic" and he exercised his prerogative to flag my post - which wouldn't be legit anyway, I mean, attacking someone's logic is not ad hominem.
So anyway, I was all ready to tear Kend a new one when I got flagged as spam - but I know Kend didn't flag me 'cause he's an exceedingly good sport. I don't think anyone did, really, because sometimes I could post and other times I couldn't.
I would like to recommend to anyone on the forums that they volunteer as moderators, those on the site seem to be shorthanded. I would but I'm underemployed and am looking for a job, and so, don't have time now.
Alice I was just trying to make the point that what makes our countries so great is that we are not all the same. We can have anything we want if we work for it. I don't think anything is a privilege. I don't want your health care system any more than you do. but I know how much better ours could be. Everyone should have health care just as much as everyone should be working to pay for it. When people are down on there luck we should all pitch in to help them. I have a hard time with the concept that just because someone has more money than you that you believe it's your privilege to take it.
Please people you write on this blog like America is some third world country, if it's so bad why do so many people want to move there.
Alice you don't want me there. I am a self suffeint, hard working, job creating righty. My tax dollars maybe. But me. I don't think so.
The REAL problem, which is the cause of the accelerated growth of economic inequality, is that the system, as presently structured, empowers a narrow group of Americans to CONCENTRATE OWNERSHIP of wealth-creating, income-producing capital assets––the non-human factor of production (primarily productive structures, machines, tools, super-automation, robotics, digital computerized operations, etc.). Productive capital is non-human and is the result of technological progress, which never ceases to march forward as it makes jobs in every sector of the economy more scarce.
See "Economic Inequality: The Widening Gap Between Rich And Poor" at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/economic-inequality-the-w_b_462... and at http://www.nationofchange.org/economic-inequality-widening-gap-between-r....
ScottFromOz -- Your words are motivational. I do not want to distract from their motivation, but I can't help myself. Things were much worse in the late 1800's and the early 1930's than they are now. We overcame them.
The inequality and the capture of the political class by the 1% has already gone far beyond fixing by any civilised means. Those with the wealth (and power to sway the politicians) will NOT give up any part of that willingly. It will have to be taken by force.
Unless and until the people in this country realise that they are headed for living standards equivalent to those in Bangladesh, and stop voting against their own interests (yes, I'm looking at YOU Kend) we will just get more of the same.
STOP drinking the Kool-Aid people! Wake up and see how you've been defrauded by the rich and powerful. How you've been manipulated and used by the greedy politicians. Then get off your posteriors and start doing something about it.
Kend, you are a virtual fountain of dumb-ass posts. I won't even bother responding to the parts where you bemoan everyone in the "same size" house, "same" clothes, etc... but the part about health care really bugs me. You still think health care should be a privilege, don't you? Pathetic.
Since you apparently think our uniquely American for-profit healthcare aparteid is so great, how about switching citizenship? I'm sure Blue Cross Double Cross, ODS or United Health would love your patronage. - AIW
Just imagine a world were it was fair and just.
Now imagine what it would take to get there.
Any ideas?
There sure would have to be extreme rules for everyone. It wouldnt be the free for all it is now.
Imposed decipline as opposed to self dicipline to stop all the adults acting like children, everyone.
It will eventually I think be part of our evolution, but not by choice.
Yep! "Oh we like sheep...." and like ole Forrest Gump used to say: Stupid is as stupid does! Those blue-collar middle class sheeple got exactly what they deserve. Too bad the rest of us have to be stuck with what they deserve. - AIW
P.S. This is in response to Mark S's post #46, not #42.
"Heresies" are only so called because they are defined as such by the Holy See or supreme religious authority. Another name for them, if they could spit on the Holy Roman Empire and live to tell about it, might be "schism", "sect", "denomination", "Anglican Church", "Protestant Reformation", "Church of Latter Day Saints", etc..
-Mark S. (also, Anarchist Cop Out)
Actually, there is proof of the supernatural. I don't have time to get into it too much now but I suggest that, for starters, you look into the "near death experience". That was, in fact, a supernatural phenomenon studied by scientific method by the statistician, George Gallup, jr. - whose father invented the Gallup Poll.
This story on Democracy Now! describes the divisive racism and intolerance in the Republican message of the last 25 years that got the middle and working classes fighting amongst themselves rather than uniting against their masters http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/14/dog_whistle_politics_how_politicia... It includes previously unavailable audio of Lee Atwater, chairman of the Republican National Committee, quite openly instructing Republican operatives on how to use racism to further the Republican electoral campaigns.
In addition to that there is a phenomenon described by Saul Alinsky when he wrote about what happens when people start to ascend in status. When he first started organizing poor Stockyards' laborers they were all beat down, had low self esteem, were relatively powerless and poor as all hell. They crafted a manifesto in which they declared that all men are equals regardless of race, color, creed or economic class. Then what happened? They won. They gained power, got a better deal and started making money. They moved out of the Back of the Yards neighborhood into a nice little subdivision in Bridgeport. No sooner had that happened than they started to talk about how they didn't want any of "these people" or "those kinda people", any riff-raff or racial minorities coming into their nice, new neighborhood.
Pat Brown, former governor of California and the current governor's father, wrote in a book about Ronald Reagan that the Democratic Party was "a victim of its own success". It ended the Great Depression, moved the working classes out of poverty and into the middle class. What happens when people start making money? They start buying stock and voting Republican.
These two factors together, Republican divisiveness and Democratic success, caused the middle class, particularly the blue collar middle class to turn against its own vested interests.
Isn't "wealth equality" just a different way to say communism. Why stop at taxes. Here we have Hutterite Colonies everyone has the same size house, same meals, same clothes . They all get the same health care. All money and work is shared Equally. Sounds like a liberal utopia. If any one wants to sign up I can get you a contact.
On the other hand, what would the world's population be today if it wasn't for the reduction in the world's population then? We will never know, I suppose, how the preservation of those lives would have affected the world we currently live in. I certainly am very glad that my dad wasn't killed in WWII or I would not have been born. And just imagine how much better the world is now that I am here to rally against the capitalist pig selfish bullies.
Would the world be overpopulated by many magnitudes of what it is today? Could some of those people have ended up destroying the world in a nuclear holocaust? Or maybe, some of those people could have gone on to solve some of the world's biggest problems? And if not them... perhaps their now unborn children. I wonder if there aren't powerful groups of people currently planning the next depopulation scheme... and perhaps they may even believe they are doing the world a favor.
The world is running out of resources and when you are in a lifeboat stranded out in a vast ocean with limited resources the 20 people in a 20 man lifeboat may have to resort to cannibalism in order for some to survive. That would be really tough for the vegetarians..unless they had plenty of seaweed. And the strongest will have the greatest chance of survival. Sounds almost like what Hitler would have said, doesn't it? But, I've seen the movie "The Life of Pi" and I still don't know what the heck it was all about...so never mind!
Dwein --3 -- Since the 50's, 60's and 70's were the best economy the world has ever known, it is hard to understand what you mean by curtailing human progress. It seems the civil right's movement was borne out of the power the middle class that was provided by that economy.
A good question, did WWI and WW II curtail human progress? The casualties of both wars were 80 million people, 2 1/2% of the world's population. Did the loss of those people and what they could have provided curtail human progress?
And if it did, was it the activity of the wars or the loss of the people that curtailed human progress.
If war can curtail human progress, what do our leaders care about inequality?
Rising tides lifts all boats EQUALLY. When someone uses the phrase "A rising tide lifts all boats" they are thinking about all boats being lifted by the same amount. Of course a rising economy does not lift all boats by the same amount. Of course an incoming tide does not lift all beached boats equally. If your boat happens to be beached near the high tide line then you may feel a little water under your hull, or you may rise a few inches, but you are still stuck. Those lucky enough to be in pretty good water to start with will be thrilled to have enough lift so that they don't have to worry about underwater obstacles.
To be accurate the rising tide metaphor would have to be modified to include beached boats and cause boats to expand in size as they get in deeper water.
Tom Ardavany: I agree with you 100% and by the way you have an excellent bio...very impressed! actually... amazed!
pslebow- I clicked on that link and lasted twenty minutes into the lecture. Like I said earlier, economists put me to sleep. There's simply no way that I'm going to sit through a two-hour lecture about economics, unless that lecture touches upon what's in it for us and how it impacts our lives. Beyond that, money and economics bore me. Can't help it. Sorry... - AIW
pslebow -- Early this morning while in bed (2 hours of before getting up), it occurred to me that the word "primary" is actually an antithesis to the discussion of economics. One of the most fundamental concepts in economics is the law of supply and demand. Primary would mean is supply or demand more important. To acquire a good economy, IMO, one needs to balance supply and demand. Too much demand we have inflation, and too much supply we have unemployment. The federal reserve was created in the early 1900's with charter of balancing inflation and unemployment.
I do not want to watch any video of someone else. I want to discuss this topic with you.
Thanks for your comment. Primary in my opinion, is understanding the nature of the "machine" one is trying to fix, before applying one tool or another. The primary step is to understand that money used by a country that has sovereign currency is limitless - can print virutally as much as it wants. But how much is too much? This is a question rarely address.
So the notion that we must prevent foreign countries from "stealing" our jobs at home via tarrifs (Thom's theory) ignores an alternative and deeper question, how can we apply the resources we have at home to benefit our society and economy? So if China sells a cheap widget or article of clothing, does the US, its pride hurt, have to make those wigdets or shirts locally to survive? What about taking the workers who Thom wants to create these widgets and have them, instead, fix our infrastructure, care for the elderly, install windmills? So does US jingoism have to be the driving force. We can, at this point, easily afford to hire the unemployed to do these much more valuable and useful things rather than make widgets.
(I strongly suggest you view the video I linked in my original post)
When most of our elected officials representing us "on the Hill" are millionaires, they no longer can conceive of what the rest of us have to deal with on a daily basis. Sure... some of them really did grow up poor, or middle class - and now that they're far beyond having to live daily with the memories of what their meager lives used to be, they don't want to remember it by listening to stories from present-day the impoverished. Hearing about our pain makes them angry, not sentimental or humbled. They don't want to know about the vets who are suffering from physical and emotional injuries. They don't want to know about rising insurance rates that price so many of us out of the market. They don't want to hear that food banks are facing empty shelves because many who used to be able to give to them are now recipients of their generosity. They don't care about a neighborhood, a town, a polluted river, or some other catastrophe which could be helped tremendously by FEMA or other funding which is in Congress's make-or-break hands... UNLESS it's their District or their State, and an election is coming up soon for them. And if they do actually vote to grant funding for help - they want it offset by stripping other necessary programs, instead of a higher tax on the wealthiest who won't miss the tax.
When the people are hurting for jobs, the government should hire as many as they can, and help create private sector jobs for the others. Then, when the public is back to work, and more companies are hiring, people working on government payroll can move from government payroll to the newly created private jobs. But Republicans especially don't want to see that. Instead, they wasted 24 billion dollars by shutting down the government for 19 days. That money could have helped so many people in so many ways, but no... it has to be used to make up for their stupidity. And you & I pay for their carelessness.
Back in the 1960s it was the Republicans who made birth control and abortion available to the women and children who needed it. Now they are blathering in their sanctimonious pulpits, saying women should be home raising babies and cleaning house - without pay - so more men can have the well-paying jobs, along with Viagra.
Everything has been turned upside-down, and they want us to leave them and their wealth alone and we can just help each other. What a sorry lot we elected... But this can change in November.
Obama is not the "left", except by false pretense.
"chuck", I never took a course in critical thinking; in fact, I don't even have a college degree. Having spent some years in college, however, I'm hardly left with the impression that critical thinking is encouraged there. I doubt most of the critical thinkers I've encountered have learned critical thinking that way either. Back in the mid-'60s when I was in my teens, it was the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement that opened my eyes. As a young adult, I had it figured out that political ads are worthless, that most of the stuff on the boob tube is bogus; especially true since our media morphed into the fascist noise machine it is today. I don't have a lot of sympathy for middle classers who took Reagan seriously, who thought it was okay to dump on the poor. I remember the anger I felt towards these folks back in the 1980s, when Ray-gun was prez, since they were the ones who put that senile pig in the White House. I remember how smug they were, these white middle class and working class morons, and how self-righteous. Now some of them get a taste of what poverty is like; a belated thank-you gift from ole Ronnie Boy and the GOP! And if that ain't karma, honey, I don't know what is. People allow themselves to be manipulated. Nobody manipulates us without our permission. - Aliceinwonderland