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Mark, I am not speaking for all landlords in all of Canada, Its a very big country, I live in very conservative Alberta, things work a little different here. I am sure it is different in a lot of cities. the suspect part is, personally, I just needed enough to carry the buildings and INFLATION is where the money is made. Thats where most 95% of Cnadian wealth is acomplished. I am not a non profit organizantion Mark I had a family to feed, this is one way I make a living. My Dad told me to buy land, because they don't make it anymore. He was right it has worked out ok for me.
The fact is it was much better for everyone when the market took care of itself. If there was a need for rental units of any kind, investors or investment groups built them. They where great for 401 K's (i think thats want you call them) But now how can we compete with the bottomless pockets of my Government.The answer is we can't so we are out. Now you have these huge projects that are not fit for humans to live in. Like I said its a crying shame.
But don't get me wrong most landlords are ______________. I can't stand them either.
Ironically, minimum wage is at odds with innigration reform.If, by some miracle you stop illegal employment in the US, then farm work will have to pay minimum wage, and food prices will skyrocket. If you allow legal "guest workers" to work for less than minimum wage, to preserve food prices, then you will see guest workers in every industry from autos to hi tech and serious downward pressure on everyone's wages.
Christie is an idiot. If he really wanted to boost his career in politics, he would shift over to the D side. Fewer and fewer Republicans will get elected at the national level, again ironically, as a result of R footdragging on immigration reform.
Lest I sound like a conservative, I will say that it burns me that if the authorities want me, they know exactly where to look. If they want an undocumented, they are clueless as to where he is, for all they know he isn't even here.
This country has never built enough affordable housing, even when it promised it would. The Housing Acts that started in 1949 to allow funding to cities with the the goal of a "decent home and suitable living environment for every American family.”President Truman said that, and so did the law passed in 1949 abd 1954 and 1956 . . . .
Never happened. The cities built public housing--but not enough to replace the hundreds of thousands of housing units that were torn down. Truman urged builders to build more affordable housing and not as much upscale housing, but building affordable housing didn't have big enough profits.
It has ALWAYS been a big problem. The government had several programs to help poor people have housing. I don't know what they have now, but it was insufficient then.
The nprmal work week for lowest pard workers is about 20 hours per week so that the employer doesn't haver to pay state mandated unumployment amounts or other "secutity" benefits for the worker. He still has some taxes taken out of that pay, at least in some states. This is about 8,840.00 per year. No wonder there are so many homeless people in the US!
Palindromedary, DAnneMarc, AliceInWonderland, and everyone else on Thom's blog, I have to tell you: I would rather hang out with you guys than the most apologetic people in the whole world. You make me proud to be a patriotic American.
So, has anyone heard back from Ken Ware, as to whether he accepts our apologies?
Now, it has come to my attention that the conservatives want to limit the apologies a person can make. Mitch McConnel has introduced legislation to that effect. But what am I supposed to do when someone accuses me of doing more than ten things wrong? Just give him ten apologies? Yeah, right. I'll tell you something: I am an American patriot, and I will apologize as many times as I want to, whenever I feel like it. And if Ken Ware doesn't like it, well, I'm sorry.
In my efforts to fight that legislation, I went to the Library of Congress, and when I apologized to them, they gave me full access to the old archives on one of the sub-basement levels. And early this morning I found what I was hoping to find: a secret amendment to the constitution, that gives Americans the right to apologize. And let's just be real clear about one thing: that amendment doesn't say anything about one little apology, or a back-handed slap of an apology, or 8 apologies evenly-spaced over 74 years. It just says, "Congress shall not infringe on the right of American citizens to apologize."
So I will tell you something: I don't care how terrified the republicans are of apologies, no chicken-hearted republican is going to stop me from exercising my God-given right to apologize. In fact, I think I'll apologize to you right now, just because I can.
I'm sorry.
Oh Yes O-B-Juan! A most perfect society where there is TOTAL EQUALITY. Where there are no black and whites but only one drab shade of grey. How Utopian and Wonderful. We all live in the same houses with the one media channel. One big eye watching us and protecting us from uh uh uh oh yeah....there is no evil because we are all equal....we all wake up at 7 am and lights out at 10 pm. What a boring, drab and "Big Brother" world...Oh yeah, by the way, who is going to "police" this utopian society? King Obama?
We are Human Beings with a "Drive" to succeed.
I applaud the collective generosity of Canada's landlords that you describe, though, but I suspect there was something more to the story. I suspect there was something that made it more profitable for you to do that than to do otherwise and that something similar to what happened in the U.S. happened there to make it less profitable and create a need for government involvement.
The idea that society could rely on the voluntary generosity and ethical behaviour of capitalists to solve our social problems is a fantastical fiction that I used to believe in in my younger, more naive days..
The emotocons on this site don't seem to work, incidentally. The "wink" I put after the first sentence didn't show up on the post.
We'll send them up to you - after they pay their taxes to us. They're not taking their concentrated wealth, that working people of the U.S. created, out of here and up to there. You're going to have to create your own wealth which I'm not sure I believe you have problem doing.so. It's only because of the Bush, conservative, Republican recession of 2008 that your debt is so out of hand.. Before that it was steadily falling as a share of your GDP. Between 1960-1971 (through the infamous '60s) it went down from 33% to 20% of GDP. (Incidentally, there's a great article about how a religious conservative from the United Staes who moved to Canada came to embrace Canadian National Health Care after initially being hysterically opposed to it, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/permissiontolive/2012/07/how-i-lost-my-fear-of-universal-health-care.html).
So you say there was a movement amongst landlords in Canada to charitably donate housing to the poor? That sounds implausible, to say the least, but if you say so. Usually there is government subsidy if housing is being provided to the poor at lower cost. It was when Reagan ended those subsidies and deregulated the housing/real estate market that homelessness exploded in the United States and we've had masses of homeless people on our streets ever since. Another reason for that is something we can also, in large part, blame Reagan for and that is the deindustrialization of the United States. That caused, not only the loss of living wage jobs for the uneducated and unskilled but also was the main cause and accelerant of the gentrification of our cities since then. Industry was the tax base of the cities so when industry and manufacturing moved out of the cities in the '70s and out of the country thereafter they were replaced by property taxes in that function. Thus the colluding factors of loss of jobs, lowered wages and skyrocketing housing costs ensured that we would continue to have a massive problem of homelessness.
The minnimum wage should or shouldn't be a floor for the middle class, we could argue and debate that another time but it should do at least what it was intended to do, keep working people above the designated - albeit unrealistically low - "poverty line", i.e., level of income necessarry to procure and provide basic needs. There should be NO such thing as the "working poor". If the minnimum wage had kept up with the rate of inflation these last 45 years it would be well over $10 per hour. Instead it's at a paltry $7.50 and millions of people in the U.S. work their asses off for the priviledge of living in poverty.
Hey Thom.
Please don't let the story of Harry Reids capitulation to the Teapublicans die just because it's not in the current "news cycle" . This is a complete reversal of the election results. We can't get sixty votes on anything. Nothing will get done on anything, guns, background checks, assault weapons, immigration, global climate disruption, ANYTHING.
Please keep this story front and center. Harry Reid has absolutely betrayed the voice of the people.
First from yesterday. Aliceinwonderland and 2950-10k you want to get rid of all your billionaires please send them all up here to Canada we would love to have them. We could use all that tax revenue. Its a win win you get rid of them and we reduce our debt. You will get your wish though Obamas policies are driving them all out anyway.
As far as the government getting involved in the housing business. I can speak from my own experience. Here there where hundreds of small apartment owners that offered low cost housing for the low imcome families scattered all over the city, mixed in with families from all income groups. The government started getting involved about 20 years ago putting in rent controls, building government apartments (with extremly low rents) that competed with us , dictating what you could condo convert and when you could sell etc. So everyone but the government got out of the low income housing business. There hasn't been a PRIVATE low income housing project built here in 15 years as there is know money in it. Now we have created large comunities of low income or welfare populations in a small areas, with high crime rates, and horrible living conditions. Great intensions that went really went bad it is a shame. So I am will Christie stay out. The market will take care of it self.
Louise Hartman wrote, "he vetoed legislation to increase the minimum wage to $8.50 an hour. But, that’s not the only way Christie has denied help to the middle class" Are you saying minimum wage should be high enough to put you into the middle class? I thought it is was stepping stone to making more and getting to the middle class. I guess I am wrong again.
Halfonts Wrote: "From now on, the vast majority of any of my contributions will only be to Financial Reform or specific un-addressed issues."
Thanks Halfonts, Brilliant advice. Thought it deserved repeating.
Hi! This is a great point! Responsibility and freedom MUST always go hand-in-hand. When everyone are free to pursue their education goals without the restrictions of class/financial standing, they are always obligated to be responsible. Our society/s have expected each individual to be responsible and have forgotten the other half of the equation. Which is, that we all are responsible for each other as well as ourselves. A strong message that Thom Hartmann puts forth in "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" is that our highest indicator that we are a successful civilization should be the safety and security of all. I believe taking care of everyone's educational costs fits in well with this standard.
Good point Palindromedary! In fact, your reasoning again reminds me of the plot of Blazing Saddles, when Cleavon Little rides into the City of Rockridge for the first time and starts to officially declare himself Sharif, everyone in town takes out a revolver, or shot gun, and aims it at his head. Finally, he pulls out his own pistol and aims it at his own head too and threatens everyone else that he'll shoot himself if they don't put their guns away. Then he says, "Please, do what he say." Then the whole town drops their weapons and Little escapes. I'll never forget the last words of the town people, "Everybody listen, he's just crazy enough to do it.", and, "Oh, won't somebody help that poor man?" (If you haven't already, you simply must see Blazing Saddles.)
I often think about that movie every time I think about The Obama Administration. I can't help but wonder if there is the slightest chance that the bad guys are getting played. However, I can't help but feel that it is you and I who are getting the business. If you know what I mean?
"Mongo, is but pawn in game of life!"
A lot of folks these days are talking about rights, like the "right to bear arms." I believe free education, including university education, should be a universal right. Unfortunately, since universities became money-making institutions this has not been possible. A swift shift towards a non-monetary system or culture would take care of this problem.
I still think Obama's biggest mistake was not declaring a national emergency when he first took office in his first term and using that power to clean house, restore the Constitution, and prosecute the Bush Administration for it's plethora of war crimes and unconstitutional acts including the one he's forced to take advantage of to do so.
He would have been able to completely remove or eliminate all radical corporate influences from the government including those who pose as his biggest obstacles in the past 4 years.
If one were to draw a parallel between his Administration and the plot of the movie Blazing Saddles, this Sharif Bart is doing a poor job of ridding the City of Rockridge of the corporate influences and hired goons sponsored by the Office of the Governor.
Of course, even in the movie, Sharif Bart had insurmountable opposition, even from the citizenry he was sworn to protect. In the end however, through unorthodox means and pure intent, he managed to thwart the evil influences and save the town. I do hope that movie is a foreshadow of things to come.
I'm also in total agreement that billionaires should be outlawed. In my opinion the collection of additional revenue from those who gained it due to an absence of equitable tax policy is necessary to meet constitutional obligations. The promotion of the general welfare and securement of the blessings of liberty is sentiment far removed from half of the population being one financial shock away from complete ruin.
So how do we communicate without any question that extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of a few not only makes a farce out of democracy but also does not equate to rightful or in my opinion legal ownership of said wealth. I think the strategy of simple and powerful lies that characterize right wing talking points might be a good one for the way we should approach getting the word out. Of course a big difference being that our talking points would include powerful and simple truths.
I for example don't see a false equivalence in a statement like the following.... someone making over a billion per year is no different than a used car salesman selling vehicles for ten times more than they're worth to his own employees whom he's paying ten times less than their worth, who is the rightful owner of the wealth gained by the used car salesman....unregulated capitalism in a so called democracy.....that's what we get.
Taxation is one way to right the wrong!
I think that's a good tradition to increase the relationship between everyone. And they can do many conversations with it. degree in phlebotomy
I absolutely agree that billionaires should be outlawed. They are the real parasites. Imagine a society with no rich and no poor! If I had one wish...
I'm sorry, what was that you all just said? I just got out of the 'confessional' and I'm afraid I must have missed something. But I do feel so much better now that I've 'confessed' and said I'm sorry. Connie Frances where are you? ♬ ♩ I'm Sorry, so sorry...... ♪ ♫ ♥
Good question! Sometimes, it seems like he is playing all three parts. And if he didn't play at least one or the other how long would it be before someone from the grassy knoll gets an itchy trigger finger? Lots of money from a revolving door may seem better than a revolver pointed at his head.
Global, I want you to see my reply to your post of the day before yesterday that I don't think you saw because I posted it on that blog late last night. It follows
Labor, by far, isn't always justly compensated. As Woody Guthrie said, "The gambling man is rich, the working man is poor". What may be legal isn't always ethical, by any means. Everything shouldn't be organized to serve the investor class.
The masterminds who decide how much of your income you should keep or how much it should be subsidized are you and I - and everyone else - deciding collectively and democratically.
There is nothing handed down by God saying which or how much that has to be. We just gotta decide
You can blame Reagan for the decline of American values. The '80s was when greed became good and "how you play the game" ceased to matter. Only whether you won or lost did anymore. People' values became completely superficial and they only cared about wealth and status and had no sense of responsibility to the community. Crime and the cocaine trade exploded as poor kids saw what was really admired and respected in society and sought to make money any way they could without regard for law or ethics.
The welfare state is not socialism, the workers' state is. The welfare system is just a poor compromise with capitalism inadequately trying to make up for some of the injustices. What big business doesn't pay in wages it must pay in taxes, hence Walmart in California giving its employees formal instruction on how to go on food stamps. If business refuses to do either - as it is now - you have what is happening now - the destruction of the middle class and the pauperization of working people.
Marriage rates are irrelevant to any of this. The woman eager to bear children by any means so she can qualify for welfare is a fictional construct. Business has always run a public media campaign against welfare because welfare benefits compete with wages and force business to pay more living wages.
And I don't see slow growth and unemployment affecteing the socialist democracies of Western Europe. Their actual unemployment rates are not higher than ours, they just have a different, more realistic and truthful way of calculting their rates.
Global, you said, and I quote: "Blaming Reagan for today's Obama economy is ludicrous."
I responded by pointing out that if someone stole your money thirty years ago, arranging for you to be poor rather than middle class, I rather doubt that you would say, "Oh don't blame him."
Reagan favored wealthy Americans to the very clear detriment of the poor and the middle class. He put in motion many laws and executive actions that harmed America and harmed Americans. Well, except for the rich Americans- he didn't harm the rich Americans.
Until Reagan, it was free to go to college in California. Reagan decided that poor and middle class people should not get higher education. Reagan saw higher education as being a privilege that people should have to pay for.
I see it differently. I think that a highly-educated workforce is one of the most valuable assets a country can possibly have. It is one of the best protections for a country, to ensure that REAL job creators can create REAL jobs (as opposed to starve you slowly WalMart jobs), and we have a stable economy made up of people who can freely get out of poverty and contribute more to America, to make America a greater nation. Reagan didn't want poor people to contribute anything other than cheap labor, unless they were able to claw their way to the top of the dung heap that he created.
And at the other end of the spectrum, Progressives see poor people and say, "How can we, as a country, help these people to get ahead in life, so they make more money and therefore pay more taxes, and make other substantial contributions to America?"
I have no idea where you got your response about kicking in the teeth. And thanks for the offer of a job or money, if you were really offering and not trying to change the subject. But I was simply replying to your post with a "How would you feel if I did to you what Reagan did to millions of Americans" scenario, because you said don't blame Reagan. And then you changed the subject. Which is the across-the-board republican method of dealing with facts that they do not want to admit.
The debt trap our educational system has become is as "uniquely American" as our pay-or-die healthcare system. It is an outrageous injustice that young people graduate from college deeply in debt before their professional lives have even begun. In this country, NOTHING is a human right. It is an abusive, cruel system, shoving more & more of us down an economic black hole from which there is no escape. Upward mobility is now a thing of the past. - Aliceinwonderland
There usually is a message about this billionaire stuff that is elusive. That is most of us don’t know the reasons to build such wealth. From my view this whole concept was displayed in the last election. It is called transparency.
Or, many call it closed door meetings, backroom deals, voting for something you don’t need to read, because the political person already knows what is in the legislation and they or someone they know has their fingers in the stock market before and after it happens. President Obama knows this by now as soon as he signs legal stuff money flips like lighting.
If the American electorate did not know that Romney ditched such an amount of his money secretly in off shore bank accounts, or a Swiss bank accounts, where he made millions in just interest payments, besides the business deals, I think through thirty second advertisements America would have voted for him. Of course I am discounting that forty seven percent secret film that destroyed him and the party. Don’t you see how weird the whole thing is? This ant nothing like hoop basketball.
America, if the big insurance business can induce you to buy insurance from watching a lizard or a talking pig called Maxwell while riding in an airplane they are pretty sure they own this country. It is the media. The media has the responsibility to expose these imbalances.
The ideal between the concepts of the public not being told what the truth is to be able to give feedback for representatives to take action is the integral part of the America problem. Just simple and responsible communication with an understanding of where the noise comes from. Like political junk from FOX News. The electorate needs to be taught the difference more so today than ever. It is very obvious the university system fails this to the point of extreme poverty.