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kend -- Where did you come up with this free pass thing? Besides the millions who were killed during the war, many were tried and convicted after the war. A few human sacrifices in America should provide us a free pass.
Marc, I see a need for more clarification here. Sandlewould and I were toying with the idea of connecting off the blog, but that was actually a separate thing from what Loren and I are doing. She was suggesting we try corresponding via the private "chat room", which is something I haven't tried yet. (Thought I'd give that a shot this weekend.)
Meanwhile Loren and I have begun private e-mail exchanges, and I've asked him about including you in these. Initially I passed on your post for his feedback. Loren says he'd like a couple days to mull it over before he decides. I know that he's been enjoying our one-on-one correspondences a lot (as have I!). But regardless of what Loren decides, I'd like very much to exchange contact information with you. I've felt for a long time that it would be fun cultivating a friendship with you outside this blog. I've already explained to Loren that my initial idea with Sandlewould was for us to correspond one-on-one, like I've already begun with him, and that's probably what Sandles and I will be doing anyway. I'd briefly considered inviting Sandles into the conversation with Loren, but since Loren is enjoying these private exchanges as they are, I've narrowed it down to proposing he let you in on them while corresponding with Sandles separately. You and Loren have done a lot of interacting on this blog, as much as he has with me, so we'll see what he decides to do.
Anyway Marc, I'll keep you posted on this. I'd love us both to be in on the correspondence with Loren, but it's really up to Loren. If Loren wants our exchanges to remain one-on-one, then you and I can figure out how to swap contact info if you're still interested. I certainly am. - AIW
I love the prison analogy! :)
The 50's were are farce!
Just because the dollar was strong and wealth was spread out more does not mean there wasn't an economic problem. Yes the economy was strong in the 50's and there were an abundance of good paying factory jobs. Jobs that afforded people a robust way of living. But we also know that those factories - as you mentioned - caused a lot of enviromental and health issues. So we created policies to "try" and correct the problem. Unfortunatly this cost the owners more money, along with Unions becoming abusive with their power. So the owners moved overseas.
There will always be a problem when we put Money above all else.
We must change our way of thinking so that People and Planet can co-excist. What does it matter to be a multi-millionaire if the planet no longer is livable for humans.
You, KEND, always talk about you grand kids and how you want them to have a good life...What is your defintion of a "good life"? There are only 3 things that we humans MUST have in order to live a "good life"...Clean air, Clean water, Clean food, everything else is a farrrrrrrrrrrrr second!
The good news is that most people, these days, do have a different mind set when it comes to the issues you mentioned; They are concerned with the Enviroment and Jobs, and Wages that cover the basic cost of living + a dollar more, and are anti-war/anti paramillitary, but unfortunatly we are deeply embedded in this selfish Capitalist, Robber Barron, Single Party, Economic Cast system that encourages people to desert their values when it comes to "doing what is good and right" beyond their wallets. We, and I am speaking of mostly Americans, are encouraged to be not just competitive, but the best in EVERYTHING we do. What's wrong with that you ask? Well there really isn't anything wrong with "striving" towards creating a level of quality, but when you measure that quality on an economic level it creates a much different arena, one that forces people to lie, cheat, steal and kill. Which pathologically isn't natural unless put into a situation of survival. However no one verbally teaches their children to Lie, Cheat, Steal, and Kill...You can blame that on our Economic Cast System.
Oh the tangled web we weave!
Thom - - excellent parenthetical regarding inflation. This is what MMT proponents like Randy Wray and Stephanie Kelton would tell you. There are two types of inflation: demand-pull inflation (caused by too much spending (demand) vis-a-vis the goods and services available for sale, or which could be available given excess capacity in the economy) and cost-push inflation (the oil shock example you give). As MMT economist John Harvey (check out his regular columns in Forbes) puts it, if new demand in the economy can be satisfied by an increase in production rather than in prices (as is the case when there is underutilized capacity in the economy), there is no reason to expect inflation. Also, as MMT economist Bill Mitchell points out, demand-pull inflation is not a unique characteristic of public spending - - too much private spending, if it comes up against a supply constraint, would cause demand-pull inflation as well. But given the excess capacity in the economy right now and the low levels of private spending, there is currently plenty of room for more government spending without having to worry about inflation. As Warren Mosler states, the relevant question, when it comes to proposed additional government spending in the U.S., is not where will we get the money from or what will it do to the deficit, but rather, will such additional proposed spending cause an inflation? That's the only relevant question for a monetarily sovereign, currency issuing government like the U.S. But, as Warren notes, no one even bothers to ask that question or do any sort of inflation analysis at all when additional spending is proposed.
RFord, add the Rebublican meme that 47% don't pay federal income taxes. (Freeloaders) As the middle class works more and more in poor-pay jobs, that number will grow. Ironically, Texas has no state income tax so obviously everyone is a freeloader no matter how rich!
Jeffrey Dahmer was an American citizen too. Bon appetit. - AIW
Marc, I could not be more delighted by the interest you've expressed in joining our little outside group. Believe it or not, I was thinking about you a lot, hoping you weren't feeling excluded and wanting you to join. I've long considered you one of my main-squeeze blogger buddies, Marc; near the top of that list. Having you hobnob with us off the blog would be a blast. Loren & I have been e-mailing each other back and forth quite a bit, since we got the logistics worked out. I'll ask if he'd mind you joining via his blog site, the same way I did. He'll most likely be fine with it, but I just want to extend that courtesy. I'll keep you posted. - Aliceinwonderland
The following is my opinion only -- YMMV.
I believe we have long since passed the Point of No Return, that it is no longer -possible- to 'pull a rabbit out of a hat'. At this point, I literally believe there are only two questions to bother considering: 1) how much blood will flood the gutters before this finally 'comes to an end' .. to the extent that it does, and 2) how many countries (and which ones) will allow the uber-rich, both individual persons and corporate faux-persons, to hide in them to avoid responsibility/accountability for what they've deliberately caused.
To me, the Republican Party, and its members of Congress, have demonstrated beyond =any= doubt, by word and action (or lack thereof), that their hatred of President Obama and slavish toadying to the 0.1% of this country have caused them to willingly and gladly do everything in their power to destroy this country, the ideals it was founded upon, and the society it developed. This country means =so= little to them that they've gladly committed treason to get what they want, and they could care less who it harms on the way. (>Don't bother with semantic games -- I'm not interested in those games or any similar distractions/side-lining attempts.<) I also find it very sadly amusing (in a way) that many of the very people the Republicans are harming so much .. are the very same ones who've been so successfuly brainwashed - literally - that they =vehemently= aid and support the very things that are screwing them! Talk about willing Fools!! Sheeesh.
The Democrats, however, aren't much better, but for different reasons. There are many -individual- Democratic senators and representatives that I respect and some I even admire .. =BUT= .. as a political party, they can't find their ass with both hands while sitting on them! Even when they had the majority in Congress, they =allowed= the Republicans to dictate everything. They give every indication that jelly-fish have more spine than they do! They have no viable presence in the media, not even locally! The Republicans give more and more "tax breaks" to the uber-wealthy, both individuals and corporations, which is directly and deliberately screwing each and every single one of us, and the Democrats cannot or will not do or say anything about it! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Interrogative Bang Bang {WTF?!!}
I wonder whose "BIC" will touch things off, and where. It sure as hell won't be long, now.
UNC god bless America. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. Work hard and change it. in a lot of countries you can't.
In order to see MSNBC you need cable and some can't afford it. In order to hear Randi Rhodes or Thom Hartmann you have to have a smartphone with an iHeart radio app or a laptop again some can't afford it or the internet. But in order to hear misinformation all one needs to do to hear Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck or Hannity is possess an AM radio or eat at any Burger King and watch Fox news. Also something I have noticed with my local democratic party most of the committee is composed of the 70 and over crowd. Most don't have computers. Our local democratic facebook page has 34 members the republican page has over 700. And this county I live in has been democratic since the Civil War. If democratic parties nationwide doesn't work to recruit younger members the party will implode without younger members and social networking sites Which is why net neutrality is so important. If Thom can't afford to pay an ISP to have a fast loading page but Fox can again the oligarchs win.
As Thom says "Democracy starts with you, tag you're it!"
Kend ~ We agree on everything except that statement. President Obama might be ever so slightly left of center. However, even that statement is arguable. If you think he is left of left of left then either you just don't understand "left", or you are thinking cyclically and that if you go left enough you must eventually end up right.
However, regardless of how you look at it, the fact of the matter is that all these problems were the birth child of the Clintons. I don't blame our trade fiasco on right wingers or Reagan. This debacle is a bipartisan problem; and, perhaps for that reason it is a very big problem. Neither of these Corporate owned political perspectives have any motivation to do--or even acknowledge--what our real problem really is. That makes it a most difficult problem to solve, despite the solution being very, very simple.
Are you guy having a party and I am not invited? Was it something I said. LOL.
Aliceinwonderland, Loren Bliss, and Sandlewould ~ I'm very happy that you all have been able to connect with emails outside of this blog. So happy I could cry. I suppose no one is interested in my contact info. Oh well, what are you going to do? Of course, if I'm wrong, let me know and I'll post that comment in Loren Bliss's site so he can distribute it amongst you all. If not, that's OK too. I'll just sulk in my lowly corner. Boo Hoo!
Aliceinwonderland ~ You're more than welcome back!
SHF bang on taking a break from being the worlds police. it should be Europes problem for a while.
Ok DAnne. Honestly I agree. Why hasn't it been done. What am I missing. You have the farthest left of left of left leader in the history of American history in power for almost six years and still nothing. WTF. Why does America let China etc dump there goods into your Counrty over and over with no recourse? I don't understand. The same Chinese goods in Canada are at least 20% higher.
Kend ~ It's not so complicated. We are only in a "global economy" because we dropped our defenses. You know what that is like. It's like dropping your pants in a prison shower and bending over. Essentially we have to reinstate our tariffs. That is all it would take. It might not work overnight; but, our factories weren't offshored in a day either. The only plan and solution to this problem is with steep import tariffs. You see Kend, we have always been in a global economy. It is nothing new. The only thing that is new is that we changed our tariff policy. And the only way to solve that is to change it back.
If I may jump in: Our own modern history (past 100 yrs) shows what works and what doesn't. We can see how we got in this mess. To get out, we would need to restore the rules and regulations on corporate/financial powers that were eliminated via Reagan's deregulation agenda. We would also need to take a break from war and get back into investing in the American people. Instead of paying corporations the costs of moving our jobs out, use that money to create jobs right here (though not only jobs that are almost exclusively for men, like infrastructure). We would need to put money into poverty relief first, then job skills training and higher education. It's impossible to save (much less, rebuild) the middle class without legitimately addressing our poverty crisis.
What America did: We looked at the policies and programs that were in place from FDR until Reagan, which took the US to its height of wealth and productivity, and decided to reverse course, doing the direct opposite. The people whose eyes merely glaze over when they hear that an unprecedented (over 50%) chunk of the federal budget goes into the military to maintain war(s) are the same people who raged against our former welfare aid. AFDC, the primary welfare program, used a mere 6% of the fed. budget at its highest, back in the 1970s. While closing out our former poverty relief programs, several trillion taxpayer dollars were being redistributed upward (since rthe 1980s), largely to corporations. Corporations continue to use this money to build offices and factories outside the US, shutting down jobs here. The last I heard, there are 7 jobs for every 10 people who urgently need one. What do you think happens to the three who are left out?
Chi Matt -- I agree with Churchill in that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others. I should point out that individualism has been tried over and over and proves Churchill was correct.
Now I have one that everyone can disagree with me. The concept of any human right other than democratic determination is an abortion of democracy. SCOTUS has used the right of free speech to prove my point.
"We the People" applies to the nation not the individual states. Right to work is a prime example. It expedites the "race to the bottom" or death spiral.
The Koch brothers are American Citizens; unfortunately, so is there money. So is the money of the mormon church an american citizen. 8 times as much money was spent for prop 8 as against it. The ads had blatant lies that no one could afford to refute.
Our democracy, "We the People", is not when the dems had 1.5 million more people vote for them the repugs in the house.
Ditto what "Post hole Digger" Doug said.
The headline rate of unemployment is meaningless. It is riddled with measurement problems and so dilluted by official definitions and legalesse to have no more correlation with economic good times or bad times as the price of peanuts in Georgia!
The headline rate of unemployment is just a line of bullshit Washington uses to get People thinking about what it meant about the economy in the past.
Bob I have always enjoyed your comments. They are well thought out, unlike mine off the cuff. Respectively how do we get those "plants etc" back With all that cheap off shore labour. We are not in the fifties any more with a closed economy. This global economy is complicated. Plus most of the old plant jobs created pollution which are impossible to get started in these global warming times.
Good points, RFord. Those wedge issues will git'em every time, the dumb asses. - AIW
The Dow went up to 17068 (or close) today. Reason? The unemployment rate went to 6.1 and the fools think that means more spending. However,as Robert Rouch points out, BLS only cound those receiving pay checks without considering that many of those now employed are receiving fmaller play checks and fewer hour working so that the GNP is still falling. It will continue to fall until the money moguls begin to return productive capacity, plants, etc., back to the U.S.