A great part of our society is, in fact, in a debt bondage of sorts. The rest are enslaved simply by their being underpaid or compensated just enough to surive until the next day to come and work some more and by being so disempowered as to have NO say whatever in the conditions of their employment.

Neither is there any much alternative opportunity for changing fortunes by switching jobs with the buyer's market for labor (indeed, if there was the worker would have some bargaining power just as an individual, without even uniting with their fellows) - and let alone for promotion. Naturally, the climate for entrepreneurship in such a situation, with such a low demand for goods and services, cannot be at all hospitable either.

Has anyone read any books by Valcav Smil? A friend of mine recommended Valcav, but since Bill Gates is a big fan of Valcav, I am suspicious.

BTW...If MLK were alive today...

Ask yourself, If MLK were alive today, how would he be covered in the media? History would remember him as a terrorist who's roots were in the 'occupy' movement...or would he have been thrown in jail before he got the chance to be remembered at all? Todays MLK, Dr. Cornel West, is largely unknown and his work largely ignored. How many people you see day to day on the street even know his name? Can you imagine a 'Cornel West Day' being made a federal hoiliday? ...the media...without control of it, we're finished.

Constitutional rights are being swept away too. If you blink you might miss it. Recently I attended a NFL game. The park had a new policy of only allowing clear plastic bags to be used to carry items. No purses. No shopping bags. And, people were made to walk through a metal detector. It is as though old fashioned illegal searches and seizures simply take too much time.

Of course, I had to ask myself how this was going to stop someone with C4, nitroglycerine, plastic explosives, nanothermite or for that matter old fashioned dynamite or gun powder. Do they really think a suspect terrorist is going to put the explosives into a clear plastic bag? I have to conclude that these measures have little to do with keeping anyone safe and have a lot more to do with conditioning the public for a police state. There is no other explanation. There are too many ways to get around these "security policies" for anyone intent to do harm. The only people really affected are honest people with nothing to hide.

George Orwell may have been off by 29 years, but his vision was very accurate. We are all living in a Serf's classroom entitled Fascism 101. Even the ticket readers to these events use barcodes. On those barcodes are your name, credit card information, bank account information, phone number, address, the seat you will be sitting at, the gate you entered, and the time of entry. Make no mistake, just because a soldier with a gun didn't ask you, "Your papers please," doesn't mean you didn't just get shaken down. The only difference is a card reader and a computer did the shaking and you never realized it happened.

If you think low-wage workers have it rough, consider all those pushed out of our shrinking job market. Think a minute. The US shipped out the bulk of our manufacturing and tech jobs in recent decades, thanks to massive annual corporate tax cuts, NAFTA, etc. As jobs were leaving, Clinton wiped out welfare and created a mandatory (super-cheap) workfare replacement workforce, actually creating more poverty (but protecting corporate profits). Fewer jobs, more people in desperate need of jobs. This generation of Democrats and liberals repsonded to the growing crisis by simply writing US poverty out of the discussion. Seriously. If you aren't employed, you become invisible. We know that not everyone can work, due to health or circumstances, and that there are simply not jobs for all who need one. So what is our respense to all those left behind? We simply pretend they don't exist. We don't see their suffering any more than we would notice the suffering of a sparrow as it dies from cold and lack of food. Low wage workers are still hanging on by a thread, and still have human status. Weirdly (or interestingly), the last society to conclude that human worth is based solely on employability/income was Nazi Germany.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is certainly a timeless sentiment that has been echoed by many, including Jesus Christ, who of course is one of the most famous human rights activists in recorded history, right on through to Pope Francis.

Todays Fascists consider such sentiment as Marxist. Don't ask me why, ask Beckerhead or Limpbaugh. What they're really afraid of is the threat of economic fairness created by legislation that would temper their financial gluttony.

Quote Mored:The words inherent dignity and equal and inailable triggers is very ambiguous. Can you please tell me specifically what you think those rights should be???

Mored ~ The words you claim to be ambiguous are actually quite plain and simple. "Inherent Dignity" means the respect any person deserves simply for being a human being. "Equal" means that no one is entitled to more or less human respect than anyone else. An "Inalienable Right" is one that cannot be taken away by anyone; or, that cannot be given away by anyone.

There is nothing ambiguous about any of these words or rights they describe, except to the few who wish to deny them to others. There is a growing effort of the very rich to oppress the very poor. The more oppression the more profit. The only thing standing in their way is the law. Reducing the "Inherent Dignity" that all people share "Equally" for the oppressed makes violation of their "Inalienable Rights" much easier and profitable. Nothing more and nothing less. The framers of these documents took great pain to keep the language as unambiguous as possible to be understood clearly by all people for all time.

The ability to legally treat people like cattle, or disposable cogs in a machine, is what this nonsense is really about. This is an effort that has been tried before. That is why this law was written in the first place.

Great discussion

Growing up in middle America in the 1960's, times were turbulent. In small town, Northern California, life was protected from the anti-war protests, the Watts Riots, the attack dogs of Alabama, and a decade of tragedy: John, Bobby, and Martin. The ideals of The Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, and having learned about the horror of WWII and The Holocaust. The students in the streets spoke to mr though they were a half-generation older than I.

Thinking back over the years an idealism that bound together a decade or two into one of hope, a belief in "equal and inalienable rights for all members of the human family." Some people along the path, seems the passion of an entire generation born out of the Kansas Dust Bowl; a society ripped apart by the Great Depression; young men by the millions thrown into WWII and after four, bloody years resolved to change the course of mankind. The toil of progress is painful and slow to achieve. Thomas Jefferson brought to to the world: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..." The struggles of the Great Depression have been lost to books and historians. The passion for justice sought in Berkeley have faded with the wind. Newscasters of a foregone era with their steadfast wisdom have been replaced by TV models with TelePrompters. While we discuss tax policies, trade agreements, and Citizens United, a seriously failed, unspoken common thread lurks its way through the chatter. Our discussions fail to recognize the person, the living, breathing soul. Having commoditized our lives into highly segregated divisions, it is difficult to find the dignity of a person. Our rights are steadily being stripped with our knowledge and consent. Voter rights are steadfastly being chipped away. Be it race or religion; gay or straight; whether you have healthcare or can't afford it; or obtain a quality education. (In some cities, 40% drop out if high school.). I invite you to a little exercise the next time you are stopped in traffic or sitting in a mall. Notice everyone who walks by. Imagine they have universal healthcare. Imagine they graduated from college without significant debt. Imagine they have decent paying jobs. Imagine companies compete in a reasonably regulated market system. Imagine elected officials respond to the voters and not lobbyists and their ATMs.

Funny, the people holding us back are those that we elect. That would indicate that the people that "we" are allowed to select from are themselves deficient. It would seem to me that somehow, those that we are allowed to select from are "plants".

Perhaps it is time to dissolve the corrupt form of government that has been created for us. Many questions have gone un answered or have been answered with out right lies such as the Kennedy assasinations, the King assasination, watergate, veitnam, the bush crime family and how anti-american republiCONs have managed to destroy this country.

Perhaps Prescott Bush should have been EXECUTED for treason instead of being allowed to continue to be a senator which he did until kennedy was assasinated.

What a coincidence.

I try so hard to be optimistic, but I see way too many parallels with the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Our government is so broken, I don't know how it can be fixed. Both parties act like squabbling children (albeit with unlimited money and loaded guns!).

I am rapidly becoming apolitical.

Jason N-G

Jason, I can't think of a worse time to be apolitical. You're right about both parties; "squabbling children" seems a fair characterization. The answer to society's ills - and ours, collectively - could well be lying somewhere beyond the fascist Rethugs and corporatist Democrats. Creativity, resourcefulness, solidarity and militancy are worth cultivating in times like these; not apathy. - Aliceinwonderland

Jason N-G --- To add to what Alice said. Just a few more people being more active politically in 2008, we could have had 61 democratic senators. With a filibuster proof senate, we would have passed card check, stopped granting waivers to the Buy America Act of 1936, and woudl have created a law to penalize China for currency manipulation. Each of these laws would have had tremendous effect on the improvement of the middle class and subtracted from the power of the 1%. I assume that is why every republican voted against them (acutally filibustered against them) in order for them to maintain the funding necessary for them to stay in office.

Also, things were much worse than now in 1900 and 1929. One great power we have now that the Roman citizen did not was Facebook etc.

chuckle8: "penalize China for currency manipulation"..you think the US has not been guilty of that as well? The US has much to be penalized for! We can hardly point fingers when we have been even more guilty than anyone else.

America's liberals/progressives reject the UDHR as well, not jusy the right wing. The UDHR does state that food and shelter are fundamental human rights, even for the jobless and unemployable. Todfay's generation agrees that if you are not of current use to an employer, in a coiuntry that has shipped out the bulk of our tech and manufacturing jobs, you have no human rights.