Category: Social Issues
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Fourth Turning Seeds of Crisis and War / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Quinn
In Part One of this article I attempted to illuminate the concept of generational theory as articulated by Strauss and Howe in The Fourth Turning. In Part Two I provided proof this Crisis is far from over, with ever increasing debt, civic decay and global disorder propelling the world towards war.
Seeds of Crisis & War
“The seasons of time offer no guarantees. For modern societies, no less than for all forms of life, transformative change is discontinuous. For what seems an eternity, history goes nowhere – and then it suddenly flings us forward across some vast chaos that defies any mortal effort to plan our way there. The Fourth Turning will try our souls – and the saecular rhythm tells us that much will depend on how we face up to that trial. The saeculum does not reveal whether the story will have a happy ending, but it does tell us how and when our choices will make a difference.” – Strauss & Howe - The Fourth Turning
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Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Courage to Face True History / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
History is philosophy teaching by examples. ~Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War
Human consciousness and the ability to understand that which really occurred in the past, is a skill that many people have little experience with mastering. Scholarship and researching the yesteryear relies upon analyzing accounts of others and is usually based on chronicles written centuries ago. Most of the original evidence used in writing the accounts may be lost, based upon oral myths or accurate translations of vanished languages. Even when the original sources are impeccable in their authenticity or go unquestioned in the ivory towers of academic scrutiny, the crucial question still remains, Was It So? Attempts to provide definitive proof, when it comes to explaining political events, relies more often on the art of understanding the connection among factions, based within the context of their intended agendas than smoking gun documents.
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Tuesday, February 03, 2015
Greece - Is It Socialism or Just Failure? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
It’s all still about Greece, and that makes sense, if nothing else Syriza is a breath if not a tornado of fresh air. But those too pass. The question at the end remains: did anything really change? It’s quite possible, don’t get me wrong, but Tsipras and Vanoufakis are busy looking out for the people who voted for them, not the rest of the Europe, or the world for that matter. And neither should they.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Socialism Is Like a Nude Beach - Sounds Like a Great Idea Until You Get There / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
Jared Dillian writes: I’ve been following the activities of Syriza for a long time. They started putting up big numbers in the polls in Greece three or four years ago.
Syriza has a message that’s very popular with Greeks: Screw Germany. The word they use to describe what’s happened to Greece during the period of time since the debt crisis is “humiliation.”
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Thursday, January 29, 2015
Doomsday Clock. There is no safe place. No where to hide! / Politics / Social Issues
By: Michael_T_Bucci
If I criticize the U.S. government, I am put on a "watch list". If I quote an Israeli, I am attacked by anti-Zionists. If I defend the Palestinians, I am an anti-Semitic. If I defend the police, I am considered an apologist of police brutality. If I defend unarmed black kids shot by copes, I am an enemy of the police. If I defend the rights of Islamists, I am a promoter of "terrorism". If I quote the Pope, I am the target of anti-clerics in Europe. If I quote a "New Atheist", I am a spokesman for Satan. If I propose gun regulation, I will be threatened by NRA people. If I defend the right to own and carry guns, I will be labeled a "2nd Amen" fanatic by liberals. If I agree with Ron Paul, I am an anarchist. If I agree with Bernie Sanders, I am a communist. If I say Vladimir Putin is a tyrant, I am considered brainwashed by Western propaganda. If I claim Putin never invaded Ukraine, I am an anti-American. If I warn of a market collapse and Great Great Depression, I am a Cassandra. If I predict the DOW hitting 20,000 in four months, I am a paid agent for Wall Street. If I claim Charlie Hedbro promoted racism, I am an enemy of free speech. If I defend free speech, I am told to shut-up. If I decide to take to the North Woods until the wars spend themselves, I am an escapist. If I jump into the morass and voice one opinion about one topic...well...considering what I know and have just outlined...I would be a damn fool, wouldn't I!
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Davos Man Fears Social Instability Due to Inequality and Injustice / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jesse
"No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order."
September 30, 1934
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015
The Fed and ECB Take the West back to when the Rich Owned Everything / Politics / Social Issues
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
When the former Goldman Sachs executive who runs the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that he was going to print 720 billion euros annually with which to purchase bad debts from the politically connected big banks, the euro sank and the stock market and Swiss france shot up. As in the US, quantitative easing (QE) serves to enrich the already rich. It has no other purpose.
The well-heeled financial institutions that bought up the troubled sovereign debt of Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain at low prices will now sell the bonds to the ECB for high prices. And despite depression level unemployment in most of Europe and austerity imposed on citizens, the stock market rose in anticipation that much of the 60 billion new euros that will be created each month will find its way into equity prices. Liquidity fuels the stock market.
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Sunday, January 25, 2015
The World Misery Index: 108 Countries / Politics / Social Issues
By: Steve_H_Hanke
Every country aims to lower inflation, unemployment, and lending rates, while increasing gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Through a simple sum of the former three rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth, I constructed a misery index that comprehensively ranks 108 countries based on “misery.”
Below the jump are the index scores for 2014. Countries not included in the table did not report satisfactory data for 2014.
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Wednesday, January 21, 2015
The Only Road Out Of Davos / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
After 6+ (BIG +) years of deepening poverty and rising stock markets, of creative accounting, of QE and ultralow interest rates, of extend and pretend and outright propaganda and of what have you, all of which have led us to where we are today, facing yet more rounds of stumbling from crisis into multiple crises, it would seem clear that the model, if not the mold, is broken. In order to fix it, let alone replace it altogether, we need to understand to what extent it is broken. And to do that, we first need to know what exactly the model is.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Lady Fortune Spinning Her Wheels / Politics / Social Issues
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” - Thomas A Edison
I'm writing this after spending a few days with my son and a couple of friends. My wife and I are both health professionals by day. Our life and schedule often leaves one of us "in charge" on the weekends -- usually me. Now, at the advanced age of five years old, these fellows are just learning how to get along. They are learning how to work out differences, negotiate possessions, and deal with all of the emotions contained and expressed therein...
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Monday, January 12, 2015
Something’s Not Right: Major New Report On Insecure Britain / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
A major new report from the good society pressure group Compass analyses the precarious, insecure and anxious state of our country as we enter an election year.
The major findings of this in-depth report are:
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Friday, January 09, 2015
The Widening Wealth Gap / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
Antonius Aquinas writes: A recently released Pew Research Center study confirms what every thinking American has understood for quite some time: the wealth gap between rich and poor has widened considerably since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. The study’s statistics probably underestimate the plight of struggling families and individuals compared to upper-income groups as the median wealth of upper- income families totaled $639,000 in 2013, 6.6 times the median wealth of middle- income families of $96,000. This compares with 4.5 times the gap In 2007 between the two groups.
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Thursday, January 08, 2015
Savage Murder In Paris Shows Freedom, Western Societies and Economies Vulnerable / Politics / Social Issues
By: GoldCore
The savage attacks on the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, in Paris leaving 12 dead yesterday shows how vulnerable western societies and economies are to the twin threats of terrorism and war.
The attacks pose threats to our already under attack freedoms – freedom of the press, freedom of privacy, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, expression and thought.
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Wednesday, January 07, 2015
Politicians and the France Charlie Hebdo Attack / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
French magazine Charlie Hebdo’s website now shows the image above. In French, Je Suis Charlie doesn’t only translate as I Am Charlie, but also as I Follow Charlie. Let’s. And let’s not allow the US and all the other western governments to blemish the memories of those who were killed today by using their deaths to promote empty slogans about liberty. Because that’s not what Charlie Hebdo stood for, empty slogans.
There’s a long-running gag in the Anglo world that claims French people are not very courageous. We can now once and forever erase that claim. The people who were shot and killed today were exceptionally brave. Of course the comparison with the North Korea/Sony hack situation will be made, but it really shouldn’t. It would take away way too much from the staff at Charlie Hebdo, and add way too much undeserved praise to Seth Rogen, Sony and Obama.
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Monday, January 05, 2015
Transiting to the Next Paradigm. How do we do it, Tom Paine? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Michael_T_Bucci
It seemed to me as far back (or as recently) as 2003 when DSL first arrived in this rural area of Northern New England and two years after blanket dragnet surveillance by NSA became clandestine state policy, that the prospect for the development of a "technological totalitarianism" in American society seemed assured. Even the most savvy and intelligent winced at my words when they didn't openly condescend. Today, it is here and I estimate 90%+ of the American population know about it and 90%+ care little about it. Acquiescence by the "great silent majority" enables it and gives sanction to our ever-expanding political suppression, oppression and to the myriad forms of unConstitutional governance that have emanate from the "war on terror". Wince at my words, but don't blame oppressors entirely; also include the people.
Saturday, January 03, 2015
The Meaning of Your Life is Other People / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
In his 1944 play Huis Clos (loosely yet officially translated as No Exit, or Closed Door), French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre said: “L’enfer, c’est les autres.” Or: Hell is (the) other people. Which can be very true. And Sartre makes his point in a masterful way. He describes a group of people locked up together with no escape, and for eternity, who have a bitter go at each other. Something we all recognize. People can be a nuisance, and even drive one as far as suicide.
Monday, December 29, 2014
For Students To "Give Back," Add Real Value / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Peter St. Onge writes: A recent article in the left-leaning Independent argued that student volunteers are useless. In one project putting UK college students to work building a local school, the work was so awful that local Ugandan masons "dismantled the structurally unsound work [the students] had done — relaying bricks and resetting timbers whilst the students slept."
"Giving back" is big these days, but how can we know if we’re really making a contribution, or if we, like those students, are just tourists who need cleaning up after.
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Monday, December 29, 2014
What Went Wrong In 2015 / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
What Went Wrong in '14?
In some ways this could as easily be 1914 as 2014 War-fascination and phobia was so high in 2014 that in several countries, in Europe and also the USA, Canada, Australia and others the production of books, films, TV documentaries and panel discussions, leading press articles and political speeches relating to the 1914-1918 war were everywhere. But just as the Clash of Empires theme was found diificult or wanting to explain the war, even if the vidgame version of empires clashing is a moneyspinner. the economic causes of WWar I were also found wanting, despite all the effort trying to cobble them together and prove them. By the 1920s and above all the 1930s, J. M. Keynes had made the economic causes and consequences of the war one of his major writing projects. And in 2014 it was possible to find at least a few major similarities between the causes of the 1929 crash and its follow-on Great Depression, and the flyblown world since 2008.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Things To Do In 2015 When You’re Not Yet Dead / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
America has managed to construct an entirely one-dimensional political system. There’s no discernible difference left between left and right, other than in spin language pre-cooked for the sole purpose of faking the concept of elections. There’s very right and ultra right. America is living proof that once money is allowed into politics, the accumulation of it, and of the power it can buy, will and eventually must fully control a democratic system, which in the process, of necessity, suffocates and dies a painful death.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Peace On Earth And Goodwill To All Men / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
What Was His Crime?
I'm not talking about Jesus but the 6-year-old Palestinian child who got off a bus – and got shot in the face at close range with a 15.5gram high velocity rubber bullet. So his crime was 1)Being Palestinian and 2)Not being sufficiently armed to reply to a punk psychopath soldier of the Israeli defense force-IDF or its paid militias. Treat them how you should treat them if they aggress your child with no reason at all.