Daily Topics - Tuesday January 15th, 2013
By shawnt56
Catch The Thom Hartmann Program LIVE 3-6pm ET M-F!
Hour One: Returning Vets get low wages and poor benefits...
Hour Two: Nevermind the fiscal cliff...the fiscal storm is about to hit! Emily Wismer, Independent Womens Forum
Hour Three: RNC election rigging...the ONLY way to win?
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
At Mondragon - both the mountain and the cooperative city - in Spain (written about in "Threshold" book)
From Cracking the Code:
"In Cracking the Code, Thom Hartmann, America’s most popular, informed, and articulate progressive talk show host and political analyst, tells us what makes humans vulnerable to unscrupulous propagandists and what we can do about it. It is essential reading for all Americans who are fed up with right-wing extremists manipulating our minds and politics to promote agendas contrary to our core values and interests."
From Screwed:
"Hartmann speaks with the straight talking clarity and brilliance of a modern day Tom Paine as he exposes the intentional and systematic destruction of America’s middle class by an alliance of political con artists and outlines a program to restore it. This is Hartmann at his best. Essential reading for those interested in restoring the institution that made America the envy of the world."
From Screwed:
"The powers that be are running roughshod over the powers that OUGHT to be. Hartmann tells us what went wrong — and what you and I can do to help set American right again."
Tom,
The economy, simply put, is nothing more or less than what we do with our human efforts and resources and how we devide up the results of that effort. It is therefore the biggest moral issue for our species. When talking about the economy we need to use appropriate language.
The two most important terms to use are "contributions" and "extractions". Contributions come from either physical or mental exertions that add to the real pool of goods or services valued by society. Extractions are what individuals take out of that pool for their own use. For example we might say, "The CEO extracted 1000 times what his contributions (managerial work) warranted." Or, "The hedge fund manager's extractions were huge despite his making no contribution." Or, "The school teacher's contributions are vital while her extractions are very small."
Once people start to understand that there is no correlation between contributions and extractions under unregulated capitalism, their support for things like progressive tax scales, fair trade, protection of our commons, etc. goes way up.
Love your show and your writings!