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Bullshit studies?! Kend, you are a piece of work. For one in the habit of routinely pulling fictitious "facts" and "statistics" out of your ass, you've got a helluva nerve dismissing conclusions of real economists and real doctors as "bullshit". I need only consider the source.
A friend of mine nearly died in a car wreck a few years back. Miraculously, she survived without injury. But she was taken to a hospital where they took her temp, then left her sitting in a room with a hot water bottle. That's all the "treatment" she received. She didn't even spend the night there. And she got billed fifty thousand dollars. Yep! I'm not making this up. Fifty thousand dollars for a thermometer and a hot water bottle.
Sorry you don't like your healthcare system. I'm sure it isn't perfect. But don't be expecting much sympathy from the "pay-or-die" side of the border. At least you and your mom won't get stuck with an ugly-ass bill after the ordeal is over. If she had to wait nine hours, her problem wasn't life threatening. Oh well, life sucks then you die. (Excuse the pun.) - Aliceinwonderland
Before the potential voting population will mobilize to vote (or do anything) some major human organization involving WORK and RISK must be initiated...asap.
We've been spouting this for years but the necessary courage seems no where to be found.. or perhaps we are all too LAZY, scared, disorganized, bored, desperate, stupid etc..to get any momentum..ie.. (a reasonable # of people x at least a velocity of ideas).
Maybe there are populist type movements scattered across our country but where's the link(ing) to integrate them..ie..who in hell wants to or would like to be part of a movement and not fear being labeled an infidel?..I certainly would.
Rare birds like Thom Hartmann, Joe Pap, Bill Moyers, Bill Maher, Steven Colbert, Jon Stewart etc. are a luxury, but telling us the truth is a big enough responsability for them. We, as a country inhabited by the mediocre masses and run by mostly a poorly informed and selfish government, better get our asses, minds and bodies in gear pronto!
ChicagoMatt ~ So what? The price of war has gone up too. No one is arguing with your little formula. What we are insisting on is that the government cover at least 80%-90% of all educational expenses for anyone who academically qualifies for it--just like they used to before you were born. Obviously they have no problem raising taxes to cover their outrageous war campaigns. They should have no problem raising those taxes to cover education and healthcare as well. Certainly, education and healthcare expenditures trump war expenses. After all, if you can't afford to educate and care for the health of your own people, then what are you fighting to defend?
Not sure about the ratio. Canada has sent a small force to ukraine and we are just pulling out of Afganastan. So you know we lost more soldiers in Afanastan per capita then the US. With the exception of Vietnam we have been in pretty much every conflict with you. Mind you in Rwanada everyone ran off and left us there alone.
Our system works does it. You read too many of those bullshit studies like the one Alice put up there. Sorry Alice ith all due resPect I am living our wonderful Canadian system right now. For the third time in four months I had to go to emergency with my mom because we don't have enough specialist to look after everyone so we all end in emerge. That is if you don't die first. we did well this time though cause I paid extra to send here by ambulance this time so she went straight in. We only had to wait nine hours to see the doctor. Opps she is a senior I don't pay for the EMS ride. I am living your dream Alice. All bullshit aside we both need something in-between cause ours is no picnic either.
I just taught a lesson about the 60s counterculture, college students, and Nixon's "silent majority". Having not lived through it myself, I get practically all of my information about it from books and movies. I always try to include a few youtube documentaries about whatever we're learning about in class. Every video I found, and our textbook, was quick to point out that, while the protesters and counter-culture types got a lot of press, they were a small percentage of the population.
I only bring this up because my own personal theory is that, while there may have been some political forces at work driving up the price of college for spite from that era, I believe a much bigger factor of the cost is supply and demand. Two generations of people - mine and the one after me - have always been taught that college is the only path to success. That increases demand. More women going to college increases demand. Pro-diversity programs increased demand. Legal immigrants on student visas increases demand.
And increased demand means higher prices. Even if it's something that is part of the "commons" or a necessity, like food and water. Even there, the prices go up with demand.
Not going to college was never presented as an option at my high school in the 90s. It was always treated like the next, inevitable step for everyone. You can see this trend if you look up how many high schools still offer things like wood working or auto shop classes. Very few do, because the focus is solidly on college prep.
Interesting side-note: Many high schools still offer home-ec style classes. Nowadays that class doubles as a babysitting/preschool area for children of the students. That, in turn, serves as a warning to the other girls in the class to not get pregnant, once they see how much work a child can be.
If they avoid taxes by keeping their profits overseas, and at the same time their customer base is shifting overseas, what is the incentive to re-patriate that money? If anything, the incentive is to just go ahead and relocate the headquarters to China, live like kings over there, and have the U.S. as a secondary market.
Some of us actually like our jobs. Maybe we want to be there 40-50 hours per week.
Sick people don't have time for silly political debates, or denials of coverage, it needs to be said.
I think Ray-gun's hostility towards higher ed, and higher ed students, had much to do with all that student rebellion during the 1960s and '70s, which left Ray-gun with a huge bug up his ass. I guess that dismantling affordable higher ed was his petty revenge against college students. - Aliceinwonderland
Will your new broadcast time bring you back to Los Angeles? I really miss you.
ckrob -- What do mean "we" white man (LOL). Thom always refers to our education as the key component of our infrastructure.
Chi Matt -- It seems like tariffs would really crush that practice.
Another part of the scam you describe is they way they use tax credits. The tax they pay on the 99% to China they use as credit against the 1% that is taxed in the US. The reason they can do this is because they are an American company, and it is assumed they will bring those profits from the 99% home. When they do, they will pay tax in US on it. It would be appropriate at that time to allow them to use any tax paid in China as a credit. However, they take the credit before thay bring that money home. However, there is $3 trillion in profit sitting overseas waiting for a Republican president and a tax holiday (Romney specifically stated this as one of his policies).
Nancy Pelosi tried to get rid of this practice, She included it in the bill that was to give tax credits to companies that kept businnes in the US and no tax deductions for tearing down factories and moving them overseas.
We might do well to work on our limited concept of the "commons." An educated person, when produced by tax supported means, is more able to give additional value to the nation. A person, who is healthier, is both more productive and less costly to the nation that provides tax supported healthcare. That is, I think, just as much a part of the commons as our physical investments in roads, parks or fire departments. Remember, food stamps began with Truman when so many malnourished young men couldn't pass physical for the war effort.
Mark S -- I would like your input on "card check". It seems it would deal with all the problems you describe. We need to think about the 2 hour workday. We need to think about how Brazil has a tight labor market. We need to think about how Germany pays its autoworkers $54/hour.
I only have my usual statement. Austerity never works. Please support increasing the deficit. Invest in America and build an economic machine to eat our debt. The major component of this economic machine is an educated workforce. Please quit worrying about the unpaid wars and the debt.
They should make a law where loans will never exceed 1% interest (the banks and government will still make billions). For students who already have loans out, the 1% should be applied to their original principle and if the balance is less than what the borrower has paid the loan should be cleared. My loans are from 1996 at 9% interest.
I would say both answers are right on this, but the problem is are people going to get out and vote, that seems to be a real problem umungst progressives, and democrats.
The way Thom explained it once was like this:
Apple has two companies - the retail people who sell the stuff to Americans, and the Chinese side that makes their product. The Chinese company makes the products, then "sells" them to the American company at retail value. So the profit all stays in China, since that's where the actual transaction too place.
I wonder if I could get away with a similar thing. Each year, I take my students on a field trip to a place in Indiana. Indiana has much lower income taxes. So I wonder if I could talk my boss into paying me 99% of my salary that day, so I could say I made that money in Indiana, and then just pay me like $1 a day for the rest of my teaching days here in IL. Because isn't income tax based on where you actually make the money, not where you live?
It sounds silly for someone like me, I know. But think of a professional athelete. Imagine if someone playing for the Cubs could, technically, get paid for Spring training, which takes place in Arizona. Then, during the rest of the year, they could just make a few bucks per game. So most of their earnings would be taxed in Arizona. They could, potentially, save hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This also brings up another thing to consider: with the rise of the middle class in other countries, companies don't need a customer base here in the USA. Didn't Thom once say that there are more middle class Chinese citizens now than all Americans combined?
I guess I'm a pragmatic realist? It's fun to think about the way things could be in an ideal world, while at the same time finding success in the world in which we actually live.No one has yet mentioned what the caller said about dubya and the VA. The day dubya was standing on that aircraft carrier with the mission accomplished sign in the background, the repugs were cutting funding for the VA -- such wonderful optics. Why don't the dems ever use these optics?
With people even like Pat Sajak spreading the dangerous big oil propaganda what chance do we have ?
AIW -- You should visit the "community" some time. They have user blogs and message boards.
One of those message boards (it appears to be just like this blog; only the name is misleading), was nearing 500 messages when I left it about a year ago. It was a discussion of the min wage.
Chi Matt -- I think they shrink away from tariffs because it helps billionaires to have low tariffs. For example, Apple makes all their IPhones in China at foxconn(?) using their low cost labor. If they had to pay a tariff for those IPhones coming into the US they might stop making them altogether. The only reason I say they would stop making them is because that is what happened in Brazil (LA Times, July 4, 2013). Brazil being classified as an emerging nation can impose large tariffs which it did. Apple said okay we will build a foxconn factory in Brazil. They bought land to build the factory, but so far have never got around to doing anything else. Meanwhile, Samsung facing those huge import tariffs are producing their phones in Brazil. Due to Apple's reluctance to produce in Brazil, Samsung is selling them like crazy. This type of policy in Brazil has created a tight labor market. I like to call a tight labor market a reasonable balance between the capitalists and labor.
Chi Matt -- Thanks for the link on exports. Thom keeps saying refined petroleum is the US #1 export. I guess it is all about categorization. If you subdivide machines into military and other then it would probably drop out of the top 10. One could easily subdivide electronics (#2) which would make refined petroleum are #1 export.
Chi Matt are you sure you are part of the opposition?