Category: Social Issues
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Poor People or Old People - Who Do We Want to Help? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Paul_L_Kasriel
Milton Friedman, may he rest in peace, used to talk about the "tyranny of the status quo." By that, he meant that it is difficult to change public policy because of entrenched interest groups allied with policies that have been in effect for decades. I would argue that opposition to changes in our current Social Security and Medicare programs is an example of tyranny of the status quo. The original intent of both programs was to provide an income support floor for our retired senior citizens.
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Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Soaring U.S. CEO Pay Whilst US Unemployment Remains Near Depression Levels / Politics / Social Issues
By: Barry_Grey
While US unemployment remains at near-Depression levels and health care, pensions and education are being slashed by all levels of the government, the pay of corporate CEOs is soaring.
The compensation of the 200 highest-paid chief executives at large corporations increased by 23 percent in 2010 over the previous year, according to a report in Sunday’s New York Times.
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Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Asia to Become One Huge Megacity / Politics / Social Issues
By: Pravda
By 2025, seven of ten largest metropolitan cities of the world will be located in Asia. China holds all chances to become one of the world leaders on the level of urbanization of the population. China is currently experiencing a peak of migration of the rural population in large cities. In general, by 2020, nine of the world's largest metropolitan cities will overcome the limit of 20 million residents.
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Saturday, June 18, 2011
The Elite Know Something Big Is Coming, But What Exactly Is It? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Chris_Kitze
Barracuda writes: There are so many theories on what the Earth and Humanity will or could be facing between now and through the next few years to 2025. Depending on who you talk with or what website you look at may say that we are about to experience some kind of cosmic shift of density and consciousness or they may lean towards the whole Doomsday theory based on such ancient predictions from civilizations like the Mayans, Egyptians and Sumerians as well as ancient text like the I Ching.
Friday, June 17, 2011
U.S. Life Expectancy Falling in Many Areas / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
Patrick Martin writes: Average life expectancy is falling in many parts of the United States and for many demographic groups, most notably women, according to a study being published Wednesday in the journal Population Health Metrics, and conducted by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Third World America 2011, We've Arrived / Politics / Social Issues
By: Janet_Tavakoli
Last summer I wrote about Arianna Huffington's latest book, Third World America: How Our Politicians are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream and talked about the Great Recession, the Great Bailout, and the Great Cover-Up of financial crimes.
Sunday, June 05, 2011
The Horrid Consequences of Business, Humanity at the Crossroads / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Kozy
What's known as the economy has not only had horrid consequences, it is ultimately unsustainable. In two centuries, it has turned human beings into beasts of burden and their rulers into mere teamsters, it has polluted the Earth, extinguished uncounted species and exterminated millions of people, it has denuded forests, melted glaciers, and is in the process of depleting un-renewable natural resources. Someday, no natural resources will be available for industrial processing, and this economy's assets will turn to dusted rust.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Transformation of the Entire World Into A Big Brother Prison Grid / Politics / Social Issues
By: Chris_Kitze
End of the American Dream writes: Do you want your children and grandchildren to live in a futuristic "big brother" control grid where everything they do is watched, recorded, tracked and tightly controlled? Well, that is exactly where things are headed. We witnessed some really bad totalitarian regimes during the 20th century, but what is coming is going to be far more restrictive than any of the despots of the past ever dreamed was possible. Today, nearly every government on earth is tightening their grip on their citizens. Paranoia has become standard operating procedure all over the planet and nobody is to be trusted. Global politicians will give speeches about liberty and freedom even as they undermine them at every turn.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
America's Homeless Middle Class / Politics / Social Issues
By: Videos
Simple luxuries like taking a family vacation or just taking the kids out to eat is nothing but a distant memory to many American families who once considered themselves middle class and are now just fighting to stay off the streets. After one of the worst economic downturns in our history, families who were breathing easy, just a couple of years ago, are now buried in a mountain of debt and being forced from their homes.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Religion Misusing the Word GOD / Politics / Social Issues
By: Richard_C_Cook
2011 is the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.
The most misused word in the English language may be the one spelled G-O-D. It is a word used freely and frequently by hundreds of millions of English-speaking people who belong to the Christian churches, and even as a curse word by many people.
Sunday, May 08, 2011
END OF THE CITY OF GODS: A Fictional Account of the Last Priest of Teotihuacan / Politics / Social Issues
By: Stephen_Merrill
The Teotihuacan Empire (100 B.C. to 700 A.D.) was in the southwest edge of North America, generally near modern day Mexico City stretching south to the northern portion of Central America at its largest. The City of Teotihuacan itself had as many as 200,000 inhabitants at its peak, one of the largest and one of the richest cities in the world at the time. In 500 A.D., as Teotihuacan prospered, Europe had squandered the technical and institutional progress made during the Western Roman Empire. For another hundreds of years Europe was trapped in a despotic cycle of repression and mysticism now known as the Dark Ages.
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
The Scariest Story Ever Told and False Flag Attacks / Politics / Social Issues
By: Ashvin_Pandurangi
"The last human freedom is to be able to choose one's attitude to a given set of circumstances." - Dr. Viktor Frankl
Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, recently gave a 20-minute lecture at a TED Conference about peak oil, climate change and the fundamental power of "stories". Institutional disciplines of all stripes, whether they are classified as religion, economics or "hard" sciences, constantly feed us tales about what we are and what we were meant to be. It is not necessary to know the specific details of her talk to follow along with this article, but I recommend readers take a look at it whenever they can find the time.
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Thursday, April 28, 2011
Are the Poor Breeding Like Rabbits? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Vi_Ransel
Even as the overall population of the world continues to increase, the increase in the number of poor people outstrips that growth. How is this possible? Are the poor simply breeding like rabbits, increasing their numbers geometrically in a suicidal, lemming-like production line of poverty-stricken people? Or are they getting some outside aid in their catastrophic endeavor?
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Profit Pathology and the Disposable Planet / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
Michael Parenti writes: Some years ago in New England, a group of environmentalists asked a corporate executive how his company (a paper mill) could justify dumping its raw industrial effluent into a nearby river. The river - which had taken Mother Nature centuries to create - was used for drinking water, fishing, boating and swimming. In just a few years, the paper mill had turned it into a highly toxic open sewer.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Central Banks and Politicians Confidence Game / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
This week's Outside the Box is a little different. It's a stroll down history lane and thoughts on confidence, from Grant Williams, in the form of an introduction to his letter Things that Make You Go Hmmm. Grant currently resides in Singapore, and I find him a very thoughtful read and a wonderful resource. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
And for those interested, I think I am scheduled to be on Marketplace on your local NPR Radio station on Tuesday, which is today for most readers. Good to be back home for a few days! And now, let's think about confidence in a little different way.
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Monday, March 28, 2011
U.S. Super-Rich the Greatest Living Parasites Flourish as Inequalities Deepen / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Petras
Billionaires Flourish, Inequalities Deepen as Economies "Recover" - According to the annual report of the business magazine Forbes there are 1,210 individuals – and in many cases family clans – with a net value of $1 billion dollars (or more). There total net worth is $4 trillion, 500 billion dollars, greater than the combined worth of 4 billion people in the world. The current concentration of wealth exceeds any previous period in history; from King Midas, the Maharajahs, and the Robber Barons to the recent Silicon Valley – Wall Street moguls of the present decade.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Free Trade Won't Help Global Poverty / Politics / Social Issues
By: Ian_Fletcher
The propaganda for free trade tells us that not only is it the master key to our own prosperity, but also the master key to lifting the world’s poor out of poverty. So if we don’t support free trade, we’re in for a guilt trip like the one that used to make us stick quarters into UNICEF boxes.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Japan Nuclear Crisis Illustrates Global Crisis in Leadership / Politics / Social Issues
By: Mike_Shedlock
Is there a crisis in leadership in Japan? That's what New York Times writers Hiroko Tabuchi, Ken Belson and Norimitsu Onishi say.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Quantifiable Problem With Private Sector Salaries / Politics / Social Issues
By: Richard_Daughty
I was particularly interested in this week's ubiquitous newspaper insert, Parade magazine, as its cover featured the interesting article "What People Earn. Our Annual Salary Survey."
Knowing that the average government worker makes an astounding twice as much in wages and benefits as the average private-sector worker, I was hoping that I could use something in the article to take to my boss, as part of my new Mogambo Income Enhancement Plan (MIEP), and say, "Hey! Look at all the money these people make! I deserve more money to work at this crappy job! And I deserve more because I am probably as good an employee as at least one of these guys! I want a raise! Big fat one!"
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Thursday, March 10, 2011
FREEDOM, Ideas Can Overthrow Regimes / Politics / Social Issues
By: Robert_Murphy
The political upheaval in the Middle East underscores one of the most profound aspects of Ludwig von Mises's worldview: all governments ultimately rely on the consent of the governed.