Economic Inequality: It’s Far Worse Than You Think. In a candid conversation with Frank Rich last fall, Chris Rock said, "Oh, people don’t even know. If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets. " The findings of three studies, published over the last several years in Perspectives on Psychological Science, suggest that Rock is right. We have no idea how unequal our society has become. In their 2011 paper, Michael Norton and Dan Ariely analyzed beliefs about wealth inequality.
They asked more than 5,000 Americans to guess the percentage of wealth (i.e., savings, property, stocks, etc., minus debts) owned by each fifth of the population. Next, they asked people to construct their ideal distributions. The average American believes that the richest fifth own 59% of the wealth and that the bottom 40% own 9%. We don’t want to live like this. This all might ring a bell. In a study published last year, Norton and Sorapop Kiatpongsan used a similar approach to assess perceptions of income inequality. The Rise of the Working Poor and the Non-Working Rich | Robert Reich. Many believe that poor people deserve to be poor because they're lazy. As Speaker John Boehner has said, the poor have a notion that "I really don't have to work. I don't really want to do this.
I think I'd rather just sit around. " In reality, a large and growing share of the nation's poor work full time -- sometimes sixty or more hours a week -- yet still don't earn enough to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. It's also commonly believed, especially among Republicans, that the rich deserve their wealth because they work harder than others. In reality, a large and growing portion of the super-rich have never broken a sweat. The rise of these two groups -- the working poor and non-working rich -- is relatively new. Why are these two groups growing? The ranks of the working poor are growing because wages at the bottom have dropped, adjusted for inflation. At the same time, the real value of the federal minimum wage is lower today than it was a quarter century ago. ROBERT B. Money: An Abstraction Decoupled From Nature | Social Rebirth. Money is nothing more than a term that represents an abstract form of exchange of labour for purchasing power.
This article shall not investigate interest, loans, debt or the creation of money. For in reality money may be gold, silver, match sticks or pine nuts. Here, we shall concentrate on the direct result of defining a value to labour to use in exchange for purchasing power. While it can be offered that the abstraction (money) simply allows for delayed trade to take place, such as; Human x has some chocolate.Human y wants some chocolate and has a chicken farm but at the time has no eggs to trade.So human y offers an abstraction so that s/he may have some chocolate and when eggs are available human x may trade in the accepted abstraction in return for some eggs.
What we are actually seeing here is little more than what may be considered the natural progression from barter to a more refined system of economics. Human trafficking in Nike’s sweatshop factory in Malaysia Thrown away….? The Rise of the Robots by Robert Skidelsky. Exit from comment view mode. Click to hide this space LONDON – What impact will automation – the so-called “rise of the robots” – have on wages and employment over the coming decades? Nowadays, this question crops up whenever unemployment rises. In the early nineteenth century, David Ricardo considered the possibility that machines would replace labor; Karl Marx followed him. Around the same time, the Luddites smashed the textile machinery that they saw as taking their jobs. Then the fear of machines died away. New jobs – at higher wages, in easier conditions, and for more people – were soon created and readily found.
For some countries, this long-run prospect might be uncomfortably close. Recently, automation in manufacturing has expanded even to areas where labor has been relatively cheap. Now the substitution of capital for labor is moving beyond manufacturing. For those who dread the threat that automation poses to low-skilled labor, a ready answer is to train people for better jobs. The Root Problem is the Root Solution: How We Can Fix Our Democracy and Create a Sustainable Future. By Tim Hjersted So, I was trying to get my friend to read a recent issue of Adbusters magazine. "You've got to read this! " I said. "There's an article about how the media today is owned by only a handful of corporations, and corporate consolidation is leading to fewer voices getting on the air and stifling the range of debate, which is stifling the health of our democracy.
And corporations themselves are legally bound by law to seek a profit over any other competing interest. And because of a judge's ruling that unlawfully declared that corporations are to be deemed legal "persons" - giving rights to corporations that were originally intended for recently freed black slaves - these corporations (due to their vast wealth and influence) now have more rights than people. "Yikes," she said. "Yeah I know. And then there was a pause. I thought about what she said and I understand what she's saying - at some level. When you think about all the world problems... We fix the media. Join us! Hempcrete.com.au: The Australian Hempcrete Technologists. Hempcrete Could Change The Way We Build Everything. When it comes to new and sustainable housing ideas, it seems to always be about creating a more efficient home in terms of insulation, lighting, electricity, etc.
Mainstream belief on the subject would have you believe that top corporations and government projects are working with the best possible technology to bring forth solutions that work and are going to be great for the environment. If that was truly the case, I can guarantee you that the whole world would be using Hempcrete right now. Haven’t heard of it? I’m not too surprised.
First off, what is Hempcrete? Since lime is the binding material, builders do not have to heat up the lime as much as a supplier would need to in the industrial creation of concrete. Conservation when producing Hempcrete vs. concrete. Hempcrete is a much more superior building material due to the fact that it is a very strong, lightweight and breathable material. Petrify but is still incredibly strong. How Hunter-Gatherers Maintained Their Egalitarian Ways: Three Complementary Theories. As regular readers of this blog know, I have in previous posts commented on hunter-gatherers' playfulness; their playful religious practices; their playful approach toward productive work; their non-directive childrearing methods; and their children's playful ways of educating themselves. In all of those posts I emphasized the egalitarian, non-hierarchical nature of hunter-gatherer society. In today's post I present three theories as to how hunter-gatherers maintained the egalitarian ethos for which they are justly famous.
I think all three of the theories are correct. They are complementary theories, not competing ones; and they are all theories about culture, not about genes. First, before I get to the three theories, I must address this question: Is it true that hunter-gatherers were peaceful egalitarians? The answer is yes. We citizens of a modern democracy claim to believe in equality, but our sense of equality is not even close that of hunter-gatherers. Reference Notes [2] Lee, R. How do we redesign a new economic theory framed by ecological systems? | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional.
Economics as we know it today is broken. Unable to explain, to predict or to protect, it is need of root-and-branch replacement. Or, to borrow from Alan Greenspan, it is fundamentally "flawed". But where do we look for inspiration in facilitating what is the mother of all paradigm shifts? Interestingly, the most insightful and strikingly innovative ideas are coming from all directions other than the economics profession. Ecology offers the insight that the economy is best understood as a complex adaptive system, more a garden to be lovingly observed and tended than a machine to be regulated by mathematically calculable formulae. From anthropology we learn that economy and society are inseparable and that markets and money are relatively recent arrivals, a thin veneer layered onto a much older history of co-operation, gift and reciprocity.
At our college, the core hypothesis we work with is that nature is mentor. This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Eradicating Ecocide. ’Der er ikke job nok til folk’ Mens Danmark venter på et nyt udspil fra regeringen om kontanthjælpen, som ventes inden for de næste par uger, kom der i weekenden to udspil fra hver ende af det politiske spektrum om, hvordan man bør understøtte landets arbejdsløse. Lørdag udsendte Enhedslisten en liste med 10 bud på, hvad man i fremtiden bør stille op med ydelserne til de arbejdsløse.
Venstrefløjspartiets udspil kom dog ikke til at præge debatten længe. En undersøgelse fra Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening konstaterede i går via forsiden på Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, at gevinsten ved at have et arbejde i Danmark er mindre end i andre sammenlignelige lande, når man sammenligner lavindkomstlønninger med niveauet på offentlig forsørgelse. Et resultat, der hurtigt fik Venstre og andre borgerlige partier til at råbe vagt i gevær og kræve ændringer i den kommende kontanthjælpsreform. Grundlag for diskussion »Det vil selvfølgelig i nogle begrænsede tilfælde fører til beskæftigelse. The Power Principle – An Interview with Filmmaker Scott Noble | Soldiers for the Cause. Scott Noble is the director of several acclaimed and politically charged documentaries, including Psywar, Human Resources and Lifting the Veil.
His documentary on Occupy Wall Street, Rise Like Lions, took the #1 spot on Films for Action’s Top Ten Occupy films. His latest, The Power Principle, takes on the American empire, with emphasis on the Cold War period. We sent him a few questions. Here are his responses. Your film “Rise Like Lions” charts the history of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Well, I should probably begin by stressing that my opinions are likely to be more “radical” than much of your readership. Ken Knabb, author of “The Joy of Revolution”, has called Occupy “the most significant radical breakthrough in America since the 1960s.” The response by “authorities” has been telling. It is tempting to view the ruling class as simply sadistic. The next question is whether the fire will be one that illuminates or merely destroys. It’s not just a few bad apples at Goldman Sachs. The real invasion of Africa is not news and a licence to lie is Hollywood's gift. The real invasion of Africa is not news and a licence to lie is Hollywood's gift 31 January 2013 A full-scale invasion of Africa is under way. The United States is deploying troops in 35 African countries, beginning with Libya, Sudan, Algeria and Niger.
Reported by Associated Press on Christmas Day, this was missing from most Anglo-American media. The invasion has almost nothing to do with "Islamism", and almost everything to do with the acquisition of resources, notably minerals, and an accelerating rivalry with China. Unlike China, the US and its allies are prepared to use a degree of violence demonstrated in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Palestine. As in the cold war, a division of labour requires that western journalism and popular culture provide the cover of a holy war against a "menacing arc" of Islamic extremism, no different from the bogus "red menace" of a worldwide communist conspiracy.
This article originally appeared in the New Statesman, UK. The times they are a-changing « limpidusdotorg. 16/10/2011 (English translation 11/10/2012 by Josefien Bruijn) - In a world where the laws of the monetary-economic game brings us debt and the artificial necessity of profit, these laws leave us with real or perceived scarcity, harsh social inequality, segregation and ecological breakdown; each of which will have its own disastrous consequences. As a consequence there is great disaffection and the call for change can be heard clearly.
It is time to start co-operating in order to bring about real change. Where are we today and which direction could we take? The disaffection about our present system and search for change create a need for more profoundness, by which we do not just mean more profoundness of the present system. The rules of the monetary game Debt is a product of our monetary system, which is based on money, an invention that can be very effective and that can show us the value of products in a world where scarcity is rife. The rules of the economic game. We Are Not a Club. We are not a club.... we are not looking for club members. Or.... now you started your chapter.... what next? As this question has come up quite a bit I felt that I would try to address it. Actually, it is probably one of the most asked questions. This information is for the local town and city chapters. These are the only chapters where real “activity” and community involvement can take place.
Where people can actually show up on a weekend and stand by a table with other members and talk to people on the street. A Provincial or State chapter will have little to zero effect or “participation” activity in the massive amounts of community events that happen on an ongoing basis throughout these vast areas that make up a province or state. Also, a lot of organizing goes into setting up an event in any given town. So...... you have seen the movies and you want to be part of the solution - to make a real difference. So here is the question...... The short quick answer is.... you don’t. JSoc: Obama's secret assassins | Naomi Wolf. The film Dirty Wars, which premiered at Sundance, can be viewed, as Amy Goodman sees it, as an important narrative of excesses in the global "war on terror".
It is also a record of something scary for those of us at home – and uncovers the biggest story, I would say, in our nation's contemporary history. Though they wisely refrain from drawing inferences, Scahill and Rowley have uncovered the facts of a new unaccountable power in America and the world that has the potential to shape domestic and international events in an unprecedented way. The film tracks the Joint Special Operations Command (JSoc), a network of highly-trained, completely unaccountable US assassins, armed with ever-expanding "kill lists". It was JSoc that ran the operation behind the Navy Seal team six that killed bin Laden. Scahill and Rowley track this new model of US warfare that strikes at civilians and insurgents alike – in 70 countries. "JSoc operates with practically no accountability. "