The History Of Corporate Personhood Interference With US Democracy

"Have we reached the point where corporatism is triumphing over Democracy?"

Click on the link below for a summary of the issue:

Did Corporations Kill Democracy

A Fresh Look At The Luddite Movement

"'Luddite' should never have become the epithet that it is as the Luddites were never afraid of or opposed to technological advancement, they only opposed the exploitation of workers and the degradation to society that came with the unfair distribution of the benefits of the targeted technology."

Click on the link below for an enlightening podcast:

New Tech and the Luddite Movement

A Look At US Tax Policy History

"Tax policy shows what a society values.

"Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of Moore v. United States. The case illustrates today’s Supreme Court’s tendency to hear cases based on fictional stories to shape society to a right-wing ideology."

Click on the link for details. Ironically, the Republican Party today is against policies that many of them initially supported.

The lies of the Republicans to support economic inequality

Monopolies Are A Major Problem For The USA

"Besides their lawsuits against Google and Amazon, the FTC and the Justice Department have proposed new merger guidelines to keep monopolies in check. Not surprisingly, giant corporations are doing whatever they can to stop these new protections from taking effect.

"The optimist in me thinks that as the public becomes more aware of the close connections among corporate power, predation, inflation, wage suppression, and political corruption, the new antitrust movement will eventually succeed." 

~ Robert Reich (/former Sec of Labor under Pres Clinton)

Click on the link below for the details of why and how the USA has allowed this cancer on our economy and democracy:

Who's most responsible for the monopolization of America?

Litigation Funding: An Answer To Corporate Power?

"Litigation funding involves the agreement of a third party (with no prior connection to the litigation) to finance all or part of the legal costs of certain litigation, in return for a percentage of any damages recovered should the funded litigant be successful."

Click on the link below for a "60 minutes" segment presenting the pros and cons of this recent attempt to help the "small guy" in corporate legal disputes:

More investors fund lawsuits, as rules and transparency lag behind

Sorry To Be The One To Spoil Super Bowl Sunday

"With tomorrow’s Super Bowl demanding our attention, I thought it an appropriate time to point out another way billionaires have been siphoning off our tax dollars into their bank accounts: sports stadiums. And if we don’t play ball, they’ll take our favorite teams away.

"Ever notice how there never seems to be enough money to build public infrastructure like mass transit lines and better schools? And yet, when a multi-billion-dollar sports team demands a new stadium, our local governments are happy to oblige."

Click on the link below for one reason I have lost much of my enthusiasm for Big Time sports:

The Sports Stadium Scam

Another Negative Regarding Cryptocurrency

"Many people of color believe that cryptocurrency is going free them from financial slavery. But I'm not sure it's the next underground railroad."

Anyone who follows my posts knows of my general skepticism of Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency. In addition to what I have previously said, there is a particularly negative impact on the low-income and racial minority communities. Click on the link below for details:

Cryptocurrency is not the financial promised land

Do Democrats Walk The Talk?

"It’s easy to blame the other side. And for many Democrats, it’s obvious that Republicans are thwarting progress toward a more equal society. 

"But what happens when Republicans aren’t standing in the way? 

"In many states — including California, New York, and Illinois — Democrats control all the levers of power. They run the government. They write the laws. And as we explore in the video above, they often aren’t living up to their values. 

"In key respects, many blue states are actually doing worse than red states. It is in the blue states where affordable housing is often hardest to find, there are some of the most acute disparities in education funding and economic inequality is increasing most quickly. 

"Instead of asking, 'What’s the matter with Kansas?' Democrats need to spend more time pondering, 'What’s the matter with California?'”

Click on the link below for some humbling truth for Democrats:

Liberal Hypocrisy is Fueling American Inequality. Here’s How. | NYT Opinion

Economic Inequality And The Future Of The USA

"The wealthy now own more of the economy than at any time since the 1920s. Meanwhile, millions in this country are barely scraping by.

"Closing our staggering wealth gap isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s essential to save our economy from collapse."

Take 5 minutes to watch this video if you want to really understand the crisis:

The Real Reason The Economy May Collapse

Race, Wealth, And Taxes

"Racial hierarchy in America is deeply embedded in big structural institutions. From housing to criminal justice to education, there are decades of scholarly work and research dissecting the lasting legacies of policies that disproportionately disenfranchise people of color. Now, tax law scholar Dorothy A. Brown has a mind-blowing new book about race and tax, uncovering the ways the tax code is constructed to build white wealth while impoverishing black Americans. In a conversation that is engaging, enlightening, and even laugh out loud funny (seriously), Brown lays out the culmination of her life’s work and explains why now could be the time to fix the system."

Click on the link before for a podcast on the subject:

The Whiteness of Wealth

Inequality: Politics Over Science

Trump and the rest of the Republican party are tone-deaf regarding what is needed to improve the enormous gap between the rich and poor in the USA. The two articles below present the issue from a scientific/evidence perspective:

Click on the links below:

Tax Cuts for the Rich Will Exacerbate Inequality

The marginal propensity of consumption

10 Myths About The Racial Wealth Gap

"— evidenced by decades of reporting from the Federal Reserve System, U.S. Department of Labor, Department of Commerce and various academic and professional studies — is that the wealth gap is the product of centuries of inequality and racism that has grown too large to be impacted significantly by individual actions, achievements or choices."

Click on the link below:

Evidence over ideology regarding the racial wealth gap

Cutting Through Trump's Economic BS

"Those factors have contributed to the United States having a higher level of income inequality and a larger share of low-income residents than almost any other advanced nation. Only Spain and Greece, whose economies have been ravaged by the euro-zone crisis, have more households earning less than half the nation’s median income — an indicator that unusually large numbers of people either are poor or close to being poor."

Is it great to be a worker in the U.S.? Not compared with the rest of the developed world.

How the retired are really doing under Republican economics.

An answer to the failed "Trickle Down" economics 

(Anders Janmyr)

Addressing The Problems In Larger Cities

My adopted home town of Charlotte, NC has a good reputation in some areas but in other areas, not so much. Thus, I would say it is a typical growing community in the USA.  The following article is enlightening regarding how one larger community is dealing with its challenges.

The 'tragic gap' is where it's at

The Great Depression Gives Us Evidence Of What To Avoid

Economics is known as "The Dismal Science", however, experts can't even agree on what that means. In other words, it is a discipline with many more disagreements than agreements. That said, The Great Depression does have some lessons we should understand to avoid another one. For example:

• "1928 and 1929 were the times in the 20th century that the wealth gap reached such skewed extremes;^[185] half the unemployed had been out of work for over six months, something that was not repeated until the late-2000s recession. 2007 and 2008 eventually saw the world reach new levels of wealth gap inequality that rivaled the years of 1928 and 1929."

Open-minded folks who care about the welfare of people would benefit from reading this in detail:

Great Depression - Wikipedia

(Eagle Times Bulletin)

Affordable Housing CAN Be A Reality

Every city in the USA struggles with producing affordable housing.  After total failure in the past, this article presents some realistic steps that Charlotte can take in the future.

Two Solvable Problems

If all politicians were science-based thinkers, many problems in society would be solved.  Following are two examples of societal dysfunction and realistic solutions.

1) The Homeless

This article presents another viable "band-aid" for the problem. However, to solve the problem, affordable housing is a solution, along with adequate social services.

2) Ex-Convict Unemployment

This article and this article present ways to help former criminals return to gainful employment.  However, to solve the problem, improving economic mobility is a solution, along with economic equality of opportunity.

 

Thou Shalt Stop Blaming Poverty On The Poor

As you view this important video, keep in mind how the prejudice began: it was God who decided who would be rich or poor. Another example how religion poisons everything.

The Growing Economic Inequality in the USA

It is always best to understand a problem through the best evidence available.  Contrary to the Republican lies, this is a major problem and, somehow, it has to be resolved or the USA is doomed.

In stark graph form

Increased debt and inequality has lead to financial crises

Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger

For several decades, the USA has had a problem of growing economic inequality.  This scholarly book written in 2009 is the result of in-depth research into the subject.  It supports the claim that the more economic inequality within a nation, the less well-being experienced by its inhabitants.  It also presents advise on how to change the situation for the better.

The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger

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A Podcast on the progressive look at the history and future of work:

Leisure, Desperation or a Reorientation (The Future of Work)