Why Does a Cashed Strapped Mother Sell her Baby?

You need to know this about our nation’s grim labor market. In Florida – a cash strapped mother of a newborn tried to sell her baby for $30,000 to pay off legal bills and buy a new car. Luckily the person she tried to make the sale to was an undercover cop and she was arrested. This case highlights a disturbing situation in our country though. Welcome to America – the home of a desperate underclass with no hope of finding a job. According to a new study by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics – there were 2.9 million available jobs in September – unfortunately there were nearly 15 million people unemployed. That means there is only 1 job available for every 5 people looking. Yet Reuters is reporting that companies have plenty of money to start hiring – with over $1 trillion dollars in cash on hand – they just aren’t doing it. That’s because the Chamber of Commerce and their allies in the Republican Party continue to promote job outsourcing. Thanks to Republicans, if you want a good American job? Move to India.
Comments


Hey Thom,
The breakdown of debt (in millions) by administration:
PeriodAdministrationEnding DebtDebt/Admin% DebtBefore 1981Various 998,818 998,818 7%1982-1989Ronald Reagan 2,829,770 1,830,952 14%1990-1993George H W Bush 4,315,517 1,485,747 11%1994-2001Bill Clinton 5,732,802 1,417,285 10%2002-2009George W Bush 11,853,142 6,120,340 45%2010Barack Obama 13,510,840 1,657,698 12%
Source: US Treasury; debt level at the end of administration last budget, September 30.

Oh that didn't translate well.

And if you make your money collecting dividends, you pay nothing to SS.

The problem with SS is it typically brings in more than it pays out. The surplus buys treasury bonds to prop up the rest of the governments shortfall. At some point those t-bonds have to be paid back.

If the cap is removed, could you not reduce the rate to help small businesses and the middle-class.

Thom, it is my understanding that Limbaugh has an eight year contract worth $400. He receives $50 million per year.

Thom, I believe you need to mention the fact that banksters do not manufacture or produce anything and why should they receive a salary of $2 billion a year. This comment will in time have a huge impact upon Americans.
I would like to share some information with you.
Our country is shrinking.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/America-The-Incredible-Sh-by-Sherman-Yellen-101108-968.html
There is little doubt.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Amerika-Inc--by-Dave-Lefcourt-101109-217.html
Watchdogs travel the global to see if foreign elections are fair! But, in our country they are rigged.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/2010-Midterms-Footprints-by-Richard-Charnin-101109-359.html
I see before me the destruction of my idealism in the United States. If you wish, you can see a grown man cry.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Wars-Torture-and-Other-As-by-Kevin-Gosztola-101109-525.html
We face more and more screw jobs upon Americans.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Money-Party-Deficit-Re-by-Michael-Collins-101109-476.html
My behind is very sore from constantly bending over.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-Republicans-embrace-by-Patrick-Martin-101108-463.html
Here is another screw job for average Americans.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Here-s-How-Wealthy-Republi-by-Roger-Shuler-101109-208.html
Endless BOHICA Days will never leave the United States of Mortal Sin!!!

We HAVE to repeal NAFTA and every other similar treaty. You've said it many times on your daily radio broadcast, Thom. If a widget costs $5 to produce in America, and it costs $1 to produce in China or India and they want to sell it in America, there should be a $4 tariff on every widget that is imported! I know there will be a hew and cry from the right about protectionism ... but WHAT'S WRONG WITH A LITTLE PROTECTIONISM? Isn't the American way of life worth PROTECTING?

THREE THINGS
1) Protectionism. Please, stop swapping Chinese garbage for Christmas.
2) National Security is non negotiable. Demand the manufacture or our military equipment down to component level to be ONLY in the United States.
3) If the votes were counted we wouldn’t be having the conversation. Invest in R&D to have a flawless election; that could create jobs.

I cannot believe the stupidity of this blog entry or, even worse, the stupidity and ignorance that it assumes of its readers. The Republicans are somehow to blame because an exceptionally heartless woman attempts to sell her child for money; we are all supposed to forget that the Democrats were as strongly in support of NAFTA as anyone else. Every President from either party supported NAFTA from its inception to the present -- and the point is not just NAFTA, but the White House's support of Big Business and its willingness to ship jobs outside the country to cut costs.
How much money did Bill accept from the Chinese?
Some of us are old enough to remember this stuff.
I am sorry to read such idiocy in a public venue.

You can't have big government and a job to!!!

You can't have big government and a job to... because your boss can't pay for big government and your job to! You should try being an employer for a day!

Ya... and he donates to charity more per week than Thom will make in his life!!! And most of it goes to veterans who have given more then you will ever know, just so you can be a ditt's and keep Rush in business!!!

Bush had the right ideas when he promoted the ownership society. He just was confused about what ownership he was talking about. When workers own the companies and the banks then society thrives, and nobody gets laid off. Cause if you are the owner you are not going to vote to lay yourself off. This system has gone on successfully in Spain, known as the worker owned cooperatives of Mondragon, for about the last 60 years in the northern Basque region of Spain and is something to look at. When Bush told us to go shopping and told us to buy houses he was really thinking we would do so by going into debt, in which case we really do not own anything. I guess he thought we really are that stupid to not know that if you do not have a say at work and do not have control of the bank and do not actually own the roof over your head then somebody else really is in control.
So the actual ownership society that shares and requires investment from every participant but also shares decision making authority amongst all the investors is much more powerful and much more resilient. Study the worker ownership models of Mondragon and the member owned co-op credit unions and all the variations of true participatory democracy.....then take over the company or start new companies organized with power vested in the hands of the workers. Lots of information available at the US Federation of Worker Owned Cooperatives. BTW This aint socialism, it is real Democracy, one worker - one vote - everybody buys in either with cash or sweat equity over an entry level time period. The buy in price is about the equal of one year's salary over 3-5 years. There is no free lunch here. This is just an understanding that the workers know what is going on, are willing to fund the operation, and should have decision making authority. Check it out, it works! Over the time span the Mondragon Cooperatives have been running their unemployment rate has not gone above 1%. In the last 2 years in Spain, with 25% of the conventional businesses failing, the Mondragon Cooperative Companies lost one company with 35 employees out of 120 companies in their system. Those 35 went to work for other companies, so no one is out of work. Everyone voted to make a little less, but no one is kicked out. We need to stop asking capitalists to stop behaving like capitalists and instead ourselves start acting like cooperativists in the spirit of the Democracy we profess.

Louise, there is a saying that if a lie is told often enough, people will start to believe it. Maybe Thom can turn it into a positive. If Thom tells the truth often enough, people will start to believe that social security is solvable.

I hear this BS all the time. I know of know reason why it is not done today, so if it is such a good deal let it be done.

@antiutopia2, have you ever thought why woman abort their babies? It is stupid but a woman who feels hopelessness without health care, social programs, lack of work opportunities, inadequate funding for adoption services, foster care services, and day care centers will do stupid things in her life. As a conservative where are your buddies on family values? How many of your conservative buddies are complicit in acts of abortion because they would have to pay more in taxes but refuse to pay more in taxes. I can understand some stupidity from a mother but it is difficult to accept the hypocrisy from the conservatives with their greed and sefishness.

Infantacide is probably a viable alternative to a dysfunctional woman.

That should be $400 million.

All I've been hearing is an arguement about big government vs small government. How about good government vs bad government? If we had good government and solid employment with rising personal income your business would thrive and you would be able to pay for that kind of government. As one of the "rich" (I hate that term since my income is much closer to the $70,000 a year guy than the $35 million a year guy) I'd gladly give up my Bush tax cuts to go back to Clinton's better government. Yes, he didn't do everything right but most of his biggest mistakes NAFTA and repeal of Glass Steagal (which were huge) didn't positively or negatively have much impact during his term. Sure I paid higher taxes but I did much better and so did my business and almost everyone elses. And unemployment plummeted through most of Clinton's term.

"...there is only one job available for every 5 people looking." This might soon get much worse, as long as Americans remain so numbly apathetic. Would people please think a minute? For years, our budgets have been drained by massive corporate tax relief. Political careers depend on the rich, so the rich get what they demand. Taxpayer dollars have been used to build factories and offices around the world, shipping hundreds of thousands of US jobs to foreign countries. While the jobs were flowing out, Clinton repealed welfare, increasing the number of Americans in desperate need of a job. The jobs continue tio flow out. Wages continue to deteriorate, so tax revenues continue to fall while military expenditures -- which now take over 50% of the fed budget, far exceeding any other nation -- continue to grow.
We knew by America's yawns of indifference toward our poor that Social Security would be next on the hit list. Since it took a Dem president to shred the social safety net (there might have been protests if a Republican did that), we did fear that electing another Democrat to the White House would put Social Security in danger. Maybe we were right.
Americans will have to work until they drop dead. Slashing Social Security will massively increase the number of people desperate for jobs WHILE jobs continue to drain out of the country. Do the math: fewer jobs for more people in desperate need of work equals...what? Then there are the disabled and the elderly who are unemployable; what will we do about them? Should we legally require that families, struggling to provide for their children, now also somehow provide for their elderly and disabled? We can build institutions for those who have no families, but this will cost far more than Social Security, itself. So, are we heading for a "final solution" for our unemployable?
I'm on SSDI (Social Security/disabled workers). I've thought about the possibility of the fed govt stealing Social Security, into which my family has paid for generations. We knew the likelihood increased when govt began (again) lying about "Social Security going broke," etc. It's not.There was a massive Social Security surplus just a few years ago. Would Americans really let the elderly and disabled die simply to cover the costs of ongoing welfare for the richest? 30 years ago, the idea would have been ludicrous. But today, I just don't know. Will I have to die so some rich pig can get richer? Maybe.
Whoever you are, you really need to think about how this will impact you, your family, and your communities.

"This aint socialism, it is real Democracy" You make some good points. It appears that, step by step, we've been decaying into something that more resembles a feudal nation. Let me add that when we wiped out unions and social programs, we wiped out the power of ordinary people, and we are now all slaves to corporate America -- and we are far worse off as a result. The corporate/political powers very effectively used the Divide and Conquer strategy against us, effectively pitting segments of society against each other. We will no longer stand up for each other, out of terror that some undeserving person, somewhere, might get more than they deserve. As long as we are so paranoid that someone is being given an advantage, and as long as we continue to be so numbingly apathetic about the suffering of fellow citizens, I don't see any chance of Americans uniting to take the steps necessary to save this country.

cmoore68: The stats you provide bring up an interesting point. As Bush Jr. was running up unprecedented (45%) debts, Republicans did not consider this to be a critical issue. I recall reading that they agreed it was a problem, but one that could be worked out over time. After all, we were told throughout those years, this money would go into the creation of masses of "good, family supporting jobs". We saw how that worked out. Again. Debt abruptly became a critical issue to them ONLY when President Obama was elected. It feels like we're living in a rerun. Debts were "no big deal" when Bush Sr. was in office, running up huge debts, but instantly became a "critical issue" as soon as Clinton was elected. President Carter is still condemned for running up debts, yet they were a fraction of what our Republican presidents were able to accomplish. Up is down, hot is cold, and reality is irrelevant, I guess. I still can't figure out how the solution to the current deficit could include restoring the Bush tax cuts, draining billions of dollars from the budget during a time of war.
Thom,
The case of a desperate mother trying to sell her baby is outrageous, or course. But it is nothing new. Desperate mothers in desperate societies have been faced with such choices for millenia. Is anyone surprised that the United States, in the early 21st Century, after more than 30 years of Republican destruction, has devolved to this level of desperation?
Not me.
Jeff McKnight
Spring Hill, FL

I am going to share with you the first of three letters that I sent to the Pastor and his weekend assistant for the Masses.
Dear Father XXXXX,
I commence my letter that I am also sharing with Father XXX by offering a statement. I am pro-life and I believe that abortion is a dastardly act; yet, I oppose pro-life and right-to-life organizations because these organizations are money-grabbing hypocrites. My wife read in the Sunday newspaper (October 31, 2010) that pro-life and right-to-life organizations are donating money to politicians and political candidates. These organizations have the right to donate money but these same politicians and candidates vote for or favor immoral and wrong wars and continuously fund more money to have America at war through the Twenty-first Century. There is talk that America will be at war for one hundred years. These wars start for profits, huge profits for defense companies. These same politicians claim they are for family values. How can our country be for family values and still push for one hundred years wars for profits? How do endless wars enhance family values in America and in foreign lands? The United States is a country where hypocrisy flourishes. We also have politicians who are closet homosexuals and adulterers. These behaviors do not enhance family values.
Life begins from conception through natural death. Life is inside the mother’s womb and outside the mother’s womb. Life is also health care for mother and child, better and improved social programs and social services, and better and improved adoption services, foster care services, and day care services. Life is against the killing and maiming of God’s children in immoral and wrong wars. Life is practicing the Golden Rule and making the Eleventh Commandment a way of life. The Eleventh Commandment was given to us by Jesus at the Last Supper with His words, “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Talking about pro-life and the right-to-life is cheap. Pro-life and right-to-life are about sacramental moments in our life where we pursue good deeds for all our brothers and sisters on a daily basis. Life is precious but many politicians cheapen life with their ongoing hypocrisy.
Sincerely, a Parishioner

Here are letters two and three to the pastor and his weekend assistant for the Masses.
Dear Father XXX,
I am sending you a letter and a copy of the letter to Father XXXXX. Both Father XXXXX and you share with us informative homilies. The majority of the Parish is conservative or the Sadducees in Jesus’ time. The Sadducees in our parish are hard-core conservatives. They live in the past and they refuse to accept any changes in our Catholic Church and in our country. For example, once we are at war, we will always remain at war.
Jesus was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were concerned about the past and the present. His words were preparing us for the future and the Last Judgment. Jesus was a remarkable person as He walked among us. He did not ask to see a health insurance card before he healed us; He did not refuse helping people with a pre-existing medical condition; and He did not drop anyone from His health care plan. The Pharisees were an inclusive sect and the Sadducees were an exclusive sect. In our parish we have the Sadducees (a majority) and the Pharisees (a minority). I view the Sadducees as persons who will hoard their money and they seek more and more money. The Pharisees seem to be parishioners who are willing to share their money because in Basic Economics people need money to keep our economy going. If people are without money, how can they help to keep the economy alive? Greed and selfishness are destroying our country.
We are currently living in a country that is set on destroying the middle class and the focus of our government is to enslave ninety percent of the people. We are truly living in sad and dire times.
Sincerely, a Parishioner
Dear Father XXX,
I am sending you a letter and a copy for Father XXXXX. It is my guess that for every positive letter Father XXXXX receives for your homilies he will receive twenty negative letters from the Sadducees or conservatives in the Parish. Enclosed is some information. I cannot recall where I found these words.
CAN ONE BE A CHRISTIAN AND A CONSERVATIVE AT THE SAME TIME?
Two Thousand years ago in the midst of the Conservative, Militantly, Bellicose, Roman Empire and the parallel Rule of the Ultraconservative Conservative Herodian Kings and Priests, where the death penalty was a broadly used as it has been in Texas and Florida since the Bush advent therein, there came a man who opposed all of that for which they stood. He opposed the death penalty and much forgiving of sexual sins. (The woman caught in adultery John 8:1-11)
He despised greed/avarice which the Bushites Gekko say is Good!. Luke 16:19-31 The avaricious rich man
He opposed violence of any sort; he was by his own admission, "meek and mild." He advocated tolerance and acceptance of others. He offered free health care to any who approached him.
He also refused to condemn or judge others except for the rich who were avaricious and the hypocrites. He opposed judging others, a prime factor in the Bush administration IS judging others Luke 7: 37-42- judging others
He was dismissive of sexuality as a major judgmental concern. Luke 4:4-42 Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well
Jesus was, by the definitions, condemnation and attacks on Liberals by the Bushites and the "Christian" Right, a "bleeding Heart Liberal." They are indeed correct, because in his opposition to everything for which The Conservative Roman Empire and the Ultraconservative Conservative Herodian Kings and Priests, stood Jesus was and remains a Liberal. There is no way the Church can, without being hypocritical wriggle its way around the reality that one cannot be a Christian and a Conservative, any more than one can be a Christian and support the slaughter in Iraq (A nation 12 times smaller than the USA, and lacking air force and navy at the time of the invasion), and the planned slaughters in Iran, and Venezuela.
Therefore, begs the question, CAN A PERSON BE BOTH A CHRISTIAN AND A CONSERVATIVE? Sincerely, a Parishioner
Remember those commercials "Look for the union label, when you are buying a coat, hat or scarf..."
We NEED to bring back those commercials and make every member of congress watch the movie Norma Rae three times before they take their seat in a new congress. This is ridiculous. The country will go down the toilet if we let them SCARs (Stupid Corrupt Assanine Republicans) steal any more money and jobs from the people of our country.
Doesen't anyone remember President Obama saying "If you'll STAND WITH ME..." who did? We can't stop working after the election. That's when the work starts!!!!

It isn't that there is enough to go around it's more on the order of there isn't enough left over to go around. This is a big problem for the uber rich. Slow motion revolution is more like it ,and on a global scale. It isn't bloodless by any means shape or form.

antiutopia2: I cannot believe you do not understand it is not a Republican-T / Democratic issue. Presidents come and go, multinational corporations may never dissolve and are in solid conrtol of the elected officials and the direction our government is taking.
Louise, thank you for the comment! We are truly living in dire and sad times. Louise, since you are very close to Thom, please have him comment on a daily basis that the banksters do not manufacture and produce anything and why should they receive a salary of $2 billion a year. This is ludicrous.