Category: Social Issues
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Soaring Corporate Profits As US Worker Pay for Productivity Hits Record Lows / Economics / Social Issues
By: Jesse
Two sets of charts tell the story.
The problem is that when workers are pressed to the wall on pay they lose the ability to consume without taking on debt. And at some point the debt leverage mechanism for consumption breaks down.
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Thursday, September 09, 2010
Socialism as a Reaction to State Corruption / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Anders Mikkelsen writes: Ambrose Bierce defined politics as a "strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage." In the past many famous thinkers have noticed contemporary and historical examples of state corruption matching this definition, and these examples in turn were the inspiration for many a socialist thought.
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
The Poor and Socialism vs Capitalism / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Kel Kelly writes: Socialists commonly cite the existence of the poor as a reason for socialism, and they claim that their concern for the poor shows compassion and morality. Since the topic of poverty is a key battleground in the war of socialism versus capitalism, it is relevant to examine what poverty is, how much of it exists in the United States, and how we can truly eliminate it.
Monday, September 06, 2010
Labour Day 2010, Economic Austerity, Public Services and the Labour Movement / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
Greg Albo and Bryan Evans write: This Labour Day, like the last two, is dominated by the ongoing global economic crisis. Since 2008 Canada's workers, working families, and the communities in which we make our lives, have endured a period of deep economic insecurity the likes of which we have not seen since the Great Depression. The crisis began in the financial sector, amongst bankers, brokers, lawyers, and financial engineers of all sorts when the credit bubbles supporting the casino economy of derivatives, collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps and other financial instruments began to deflate.
Monday, September 06, 2010
Dynamics of Poverty, the Destitute Index / Politics / Social Issues
By: Mike_Shedlock
In response to Reflections on the "Recovery" reader "Thomas" has an interesting question regarding U6 unemployment that I would like to share.
Thomas writes ...
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Third World America: 'Fast-Tracking to Anarchy' / Politics / Social Issues
By: Janet_Tavakoli
My last post about Arianna Huffington's new book, Third World America: How Our Politicians are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream talked about the Great Recession, the Great Bailout, and the Great Cover-Up of financial crimes.
Among the future consequences of not fixing our national problems will likely be an increase in social unrest and an increase in crime. A look at Chicago's problems may serve as a call to action for America's middle class. Chicago's city budget is in dire straits. That's also true of the state of Illinois, California, New York and other areas. In Chicago, the same mismanagement that deepened our fiscal crisis has caused a crisis in essential city services.
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Friday, August 13, 2010
Social Insecurity / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Paul Cwik writes: Oh joy, oh joy! It has finally arrived! You wouldn't believe how excited I was to receive a letter from the Social Security Administration. In the letter, they dutifully showed me how much taxable income I have ever made. (Is it me, or is there something really creepy about that?) They showed me how much I have paid in taxes and how much my employer also "paid." Then they showed me how much my payment would be if I retire at full retirement (67 years old — not 62 or 65 like you may have heard) and if I delay "collecting" until I turn 70.
Saturday, August 07, 2010
A Stinging Critique Of a Worker Bee / Politics / Social Issues
By: Graham_Summers
A little while back, a Fed Economist by the name of Kartik Athreya, wrote a piece urging the public to only listen to economists who have PhDs from top level universities when searching for economic insights. Regarding other sources of macro-economic analysis, specifically bloggers, Mr. Athreya writes, “it is exceedingly unlikely that these authors have anything interesting to say about economic policy.”
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
2010: Humanity’s Choice As Foreseen by Rudolf Steiner / Politics / Social Issues
By: Richard_C_Cook
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was an Austrian philosopher and esotericist and founder of one of the key modern spiritual movements in the West. He is best known for his books and lectures before and after World War I, when he founded the Anthroposophical Society with its present-day headquarters in Dornach, Switzerland. After World War I, Steiner and his work were criticized viciously by right-wing nationalists in Germany, which caused him to give up his residence in Berlin. Among the critics was Adolf Hitler, who attacked him in print as a traitor to Germany for his efforts to promote peace. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Money is the Root of All Evil / Politics / Social Issues
By: Viresh_Amin
I just recently over heard the one line solution to all our problems: "Money is the root of all evil".
The way this sort of person talks, we should get rid of money all together. If that person picked up a book or two and started to read a little more he would properly state, "government money is the root of all evil".
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Collapse in American Living Standards, More Poverty By Any Measure / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
Christine Vestal writes: More than 15 million Americans are unemployed, homelessness has increased by 50 percent in some cities, and 38 million people are receiving food stamps, more than at any time in the program’s almost 50-year history.
Evidence of rising economic hardship is ample. There’s one commonly used standard for measuring it: the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty rate. It guides much of federal and state spending aimed at helping those unable to make a decent living.
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Sunday, July 11, 2010
In a Free market, An Unemployed Man Has Always Chosen Unemployment Over Working / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
If a job seeker cannot obtain the position he prefers, he must look for another kind of job. If he cannot find an employer ready to pay him as much as he would like to earn, he must abate his pretensions. If he refuses, he will not get any job. He remains unemployed.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Striking Overpaid Workers, Public Unions Should be Banned / Politics / Social Issues
By: Mike_Shedlock
Illinois construction workers live in fantasy land of business-as-usual. They are demanding 15% pay hikes when everyone of them ought to be fired with their jobs outsourced to the cheapest non-union shop.
Monday, July 05, 2010
Coming Chaos: No Banks, No Public Facilities, No Food and Rampaging Gangs of Desperate People / Politics / Social Issues
By: Mac_Slavo
Bob Chapman, of The International Forecaster, says it’s time to prepare for the worst, comparing our impending economic crisis to that which was experienced at the onset of 1348 and the following century and a half.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Changing Attitudes on the Value of an Education / Politics / Social Issues
By: Mike_Shedlock
In response to Teenagers Scared Over Plight of their Parents; Attitudes - Bernanke's Biggest, Most Futile Fight which was based on a comment on my blog by someone using the name "Nancy Drew", please consider this response from "Projammer"
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Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Greek Plague, Sticky Wages / Politics / Social Issues
By: David_Howden
After the deaths of three bank employees, Greek president Karolos Papoulias lamented that the debt-ridden country had finally "reached the edge of the abyss." It should be so lucky. Abysses allow for falls into the deep unknown. If real wages would make the plunge, Greek workers would have a future with more options than striking and senseless destruction.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Brilliant but Confused Radicalism of George Orwell / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Riggenbach
Eric Arthur Blair, who is best known under his pseudonym, George Orwell, was born 107 years ago this month in India, where his father was a British civil servant. His father's job, according to Orwell biographer Gordon Bowker, "was to oversee the growing of opium, mainly for export to China." Though young Eric's mother had herself grown up in Burma, the daughter of yet another British civil servant, she had long since tired of Asia; and when her son was only a year old she successfully lobbied her husband to ship her and their two children — Eric and his older sister, Marjorie — back to England. Eric did not see his father again for eight years, until he was nine years old and had come home for Christmas vacation from his "prep school," St. Cyprian's.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Detroit is Dying, Impact of Globalization, Social Decay and Urban Destruction / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
A YouTube video titled "Dying Detroit" takes you on a tour of "neighborhoods literally falling apart"—through streets that look like "a hurricane has recently swept through, destroying nearly everything on its path." Thousands of houses have been abandoned—in many areas 50-60% of the houses are in foreclosure. Some blocks have only a few homes left standing. A thousand people a month are leaving what has been called " America ’s fastest dying city."
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Americans Worried Sick About Their Economic Future Are Barely Hanging on / Politics / Social Issues
By: Gary_North
The recession that began in December 2007 produced a change in Americans' perception of their economic future. They moved from the tradition of hope to one of just barely hanging on. I have never seen this before. Only someone born around 1910 can recall anything like it, assuming that he recalls anything at all.
Friday, June 18, 2010
The Western Way of Life is Collapsing / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Kozy
The Age of Enlightenment was born sometime around the beginning of the eighteenth century. A mere three-quarters of a century later, industrialization ushered in the Age of Endarkenment, and human life has grown more and more perilous ever since. The Golden Age of capitalism cannot be recreated merely by applying the right mixture of spending, subsidies, re-regulation, and international agreements. Because the economic advantages of industrialization rely on overproduction and profit, balanced trade is impossible if the advantage is to be preserved; it entails no economic profit. Industrialism is a Hegelian synthesis which embodies the forces for its own destruction. The greatest threat to the Western Way of Life is the Western Way of Life itself.