The United States are NOT a very Christian country -- we are Christianity fakers. Thanksgiving I wrote an article on this on my Purgatorial Libertarian: Jesus was NOT a family man! The familiy is NOT a central message of Jesus -- on the contrary....

Currently we are in NO HOLIDAYS at all: Christian Advent means waiting for the HOLY DAYS -- waiting for the Messiah. Our St. Claus doesn't look like a saint -- that's an Easterbunny, hiding its bunny ears under a hat. This is heathendom.

Our southern fundamentalists don't make us holier, since they're hating to love the neighbor and love their money. This is heathendom.

We progressive Christians should demonstrate to all those ignorants what Christianity really means. I have decided to practice this on my political blogs, as a liberal Catholic. This is what the Occupy Movement is doing anyway: educating people. Because education is pretty much the solution. Educated individuals hardly behave like those crowds on blackfriday (no, I write it lower case).

Black Friday should be renamed.

The consumption function (or "creed of greed" as one poster noted) continues to infect society. When our fellow citizens take great pride in participating in the "running of the credit cards" . . what hope do we have, actually? I'm pretty sure more of us stayed away than shopped . . .but the media doesn't report that "the majority of our population DID NOT SHOP today."

Sanity or a 60" TV for pennies? obviously sanity loses.

I really do agree with you enthusiastically. Sustainability of our economy should be the rule of the day. So much of what we call progress in industry is replacing skilled jobs with machines. We must come to a decision in this land between a standard of living or quality of life. I chose quality of life. That is not to discourage clearly meanigful progress which eliminates some needless misery

of labor or deter groundbreaking education and learning. But i think I can actually get through my life without a cell phone or I Pad.

Now about capitalism. Have you noticed how the desciples of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations determine that outside their persuasion is evil and non christian . Churches have not taken very many steps to refute that information. In fact Capitalism seems to do just fine in communist nations as well as democracies. Perhaps this Captialist philiosphy of unbridled greed is the real dictatorship over the entire world governemtns institutions and religeons.

Our family and extended relatives have cooperated in a White Elephant christmas gift and game in the last few years in order to avoid the holiday hassle. We buy gifts for the kids, but otherwise boycott the entire disgusting ritual of consumer orgy. We don't want it in our life any more than necessary. I grew up in a humble environment where folks just didn't get elborate at christmas. My father worked for a non union pulp mill for less than a living wage, and my mom was a stay at home mom. Christmas was a dpressing burdon for my Father and I never pressured my parents for frivolous toys. I usually got a few shirts or pajamas. I used to feel ashamed during the holidays knowing other kids at school would be returning after the holidays with new clothes and toys.

On one hand I would never wish for anyone to grow up with my experience of the holidays in 1950's Oregon economy, but on the other hand it has served me well to remember in the current economy.

I wonder how much of this consumerism is put on credit that will never get paid off. Are we in a deficit of human dignity as well as financial respocibility ? I think we have a long learning curve ahead of us and an extended financial depression to look forward to. I believe if republicans gain control we will suffer unspeakable financial chaos and war. Time will tell.

The U.S. is a mess. I cannot believe what people are buying, how they are buying it and the steps people will take to get what they want. I do very little shopping from Thanksgiving to Christmas. When I do shop, I look for and purchase, Made in the USA.

Big business and corrupt politicians have ruined this country. I would never have believed at my age that I would be experiencing a society so opposite of the country in which I grew to adulthood. People used to care about one another. We had a society of decent people. Now, all I see are human beings acting worse than wild animals.

There is no American Dream. We're all just living by hanging on and getting through one day at a time. I find it truly sad when I see the state of our once great nation and my new place in it (which is not, I can tell you, very appealing.)

The accepted American Dream was to work hard, gain an education, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Now the American Dream is to buy a lottery ticket and hope that you win. Or, scramble at the departmant store for their crumbs that the 1% gives us. To be a Republican today, one must be rich, cruel, or ingnorant, and they are not mutually exclusive.

Can tap water make you gay? Ask Karl Rove.

Fact that OWS is in corp news is great for the movement People power works Work ing in Ohio Kasich Kochs lost big- Wis Fla Kentucky even Mississippi where personhood lost effort to ban birth control ! Much More to come Walker will be recalled in Wis

This came in an e-mail today, but interestingly enough the part about large corporations buying back their stock to increase share price was a big writeup in our paper in Little Rock yesterday naming Pfizer as one who was laying off 1100 people , not due to lack of money but so they could increase the amount of share they bought back so that they could increase their personal worths. This is my own words, but you get the idea. Read on,

Ask David Dvorak, the CEO at medical device maker Zimmer Holdings, what explains his ample compensation and you may get a primer on “pay for performance.” Dvorak only “earns” bonus when his company “performs.” One measure of that performance: “earnings per share,” or company income divided by outstanding shares of stock. Execs like Dvorak have figured out they don't have to boost earnings to hit their per-share targets. They simply reduce the number of company shares — by having their companies “buy back” shares of their own stock off the open market. Zimmer last year plowed $500 million into buybacks, over double the firm's investment in R&D. U.S. corporations overall have so far this year authorized $445 billion worth of buybacks . . .

Former Presidents of the United States haven't exactly rushed to line up behind the Occupy Wall Street movement. Former Canadian prime ministers seem to be a different story. Paul Martin, a former corporate CEO and a former prime minister, believes the Occupiers “have touched a chord” on inequality. The top 1 percent? Says Martin: “That's not what built North America.” Adds the former Canadian leader: “For the last hundred years, certainly in North America, every generation has felt it’s going to have a better life than their parents. For the first time, that’s not there.”

Another surprise warrior for the world's 99 percent: Hassan Heikal, the CEO of EFG Hermes, the top investment bank in the Middle East. Last week, in a Financial Times commentary, Heikal called for a one-time “global wealth tax” of 10 to 20 percent on all individual net worth over $10 million. Proceeds from this “Tahrir Square tax” would go to the “country of citizenship” of each wealthy taxpayer. The levy, says Heikal, would raise $5 trillion. Sums up the global investment banker: “The super-rich have not paid their dues to society in recent years, and more and more of us now know it.”

Newt Gingrich, the top “idea” man among the 2012 GOP presidential candidates, has a new idea. Newt wants to bring back child labor. The former House speakertold a Harvard audience last week that “stupid” laws against child labor were preventing schools from replacing union janitors with student part-timers. This Gingrich pitch shocked America's leading advocates for kids. But America's greatest child advocate of the early 1900s, Columbia University philosopher Felix Adler, wouldn't have found Newt's remarks the least bit surprising. Adler chaired the national committee against child labor and saw a direct link between the concentration of America's wealth and the exploitation of America's kids. The chase after grand fortunes made grand miseries — “the evils of surplus wealth,” as Adler dubbed them — inevitable . . .

Just a few years ago the world's top public policy wonks considered economic growth the absolute be-all and end-all. All would be well if nations simply grew their economies. But global policy wonks today are executing an amazing about-face. Their latest advice? The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the developed world's wonk central, last week urged nations to drop any single-minded focus on growth and start worrying about inequality. Or else. Rising gaps between rich elites and the rest of society “can sow the seeds of future conflict and social unrest,” says the new OECD Social Cohesion in a Shifting World report. Both the poor and middle class, adds the study, feel “increasingly alienated from the richest.” This alienation, warns OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría, is fraying “social cohesion, the glue that holds societies together.”

Quote of the Week

“When pay for senior executives is set behind closed doors, does not reflect company success, and is fueling massive inequality, it represents a deep malaise at the very top of our society.”
Deborah Hargreaves, chair, UK High Pay Commission, November 22, 2011, upon the release of the executive pay panel's final report

Stat of the Week

The taxpayers in America's top 0.1 percent certainly do like those capital gains. They're together pulling in about half the nation's total income from the sale of stocks, bonds, real estate, and other assets, notesForbes, and the richest of the rich — the Forbes 400 — can currently credit these capital gains for 60 percent of their income.

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INEQUALITY BY THE NUMBER

Sorry, Tom, but I can't see this as good news or as a positive for anyone but American Express. They want consumers (not citizens: consumers) to go be their marketers in local businesses so Amex can charge them the highest fees per transaction of any major credit card company. They aren't suggesting that Americans do all our shopping locally, or that we reduce our consumption. They are marketing an extension of Black Friday. One day a year they want us to shop locally. That's supposed to help Mom and Pop? And to shop using credit, which is rarely paid off right away, simply means American pay more, eventually, for whatever we buy, hampering our ability to pay for the things we really need.

But you are right: shopping locally is something we "should all do, all the time." Not only on some holiday made up by someone with competing interests.

Capitalism is not in the Constitution. We need an economy that protects Americans first, not corporations. we need to stop supporting trans-nationals == if they are not HQ'd in the USA - then they cannot get subsidies and limited tax adjustments, minimum taxes - to prevent abuses of foreign companies removing assets (money, resources, etc).

We need to support a minimum level of life == so people can be artists, perpetual students, and support limits on families === write off for 2 kids or 3 == nothing above that. Make it mandatory that fathers sign up for supporting their children with money or time.

small families, small homes, small parks, and local foods should be supported and encouraged.

people should be encouraged to have a small business. small business should get better tax adjustments then big business. mandatory manufacturing should be supported to ensure self sufficiency by state, and for federal for other requirements. self sufficiency should be a motto of communities.

There are many ways to support Americans in America and make it work == the greed is not required.