Economic Inequality. Greed, Competition, and Morals
Do socio-academic elites know what they're doing?
The Number One Issue in America, the Economy (its complicated)-Mental Warfare
For the record, Democrats, liberals, Nancy Pelosi, and President Barack Obama, DID NOT bankrupt our country. Understanding this will save you a lot of mental energy for the upcoming daunting task of "understanding" how the world, and global economy works.
Be advised, that a "one size fits all" mentality does not work. Please also be advised again, that liberals, in no way shape or form, are communists, or socialists, sadly; that is what I keep hearing from the "right".... Lets stop doing that ok? Wasted mental energy, mental energy is a precious resource. Please do your own thinking!
This is from 2006, who was President then? Rhetorical Question....
2006 Report on us heading for bankruptcy-Federal Reserve, St. Louis
Many people are feeling the anxiety that has come along with this extended downturn in the economy, for many of us, we have simply sat on the sidelines, continued to work harder, while playing armchair quarterback on politics, and the economy.
For the record, I admire Barack Obama I trust his agenda. I think most people know that I do not speak from a position of ignorance.
according to many conservatives, and by their definition of liberals, we are simply "uneducated" and "dumb".
Well, I will go out on a limb here and throw some neurology/science at you. But what to these poeple know...they're just some liberal hippy lettuce smokers.
"A
study published in
Nature Neuroscience measured brain activity on Liberals and Conservatives and “found” that “the anterior cingulate cortex (AAC) was twice as active in liberals than in conservatives.” AKA, Liberals were more mentally pliable than Conservatives.
I’d be wary of extrapolating this out too far. But, it certainly raises interesting questions about how brains develop, and what effects certain kinds of stimuli (of a Liberal bent?) have on ones cognitive abilities."
http://ecarson.wordpress.com/2007/09/17/%E2%80%9Cproof%E2%80%9D-that-liberals-are-smart-conservatives-are-dumb/
Dylan Ratigan, from Wall Street to liberal commentator....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMWIYHqfK-0
Let me also remind some people, and even politicians have gotten it wrong, George Bush was behind the Wall Street Bailout, and the Democrats voted yes, this saved the global financial system. That is a fact, it is no longer speculation.
Proof that you forget things. You idiots
The title of this article is: "Bush Signs Wall street Bailout.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/04/bush-signs-wall-street-bailout/
Jobs.
Truth
Who creates them? Rich corporations and individuals? Or the Government?
Truth Needle | Ad incorrect: Stimulus bills created jobs
A television ad by the National Republican Senatorial Committee accuses U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of voting for "a failed stimulus that didn't create jobs." At the same time, an ad by Republican challenger Dino Rossi's campaign attacks Murray for supporting "several stimulus bills which have done nothing other than run up the national debt."
click link below.....
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013196457_truthneedlestimulus19m.html
Right now there are lots of people without jobs, but companies are more productive and wealthier than they have ever been in the history of the world. So why are there no jobs? Like my brother pointed out, jobs aren't being taken by illegal immigrants, or even legal citizens. Jobs are being shipped over seas. If you want a job, go get one. Like we mentioned before, illegal immigrants, will NEVER be unemployed, they will find work.
“Productivity rose in 2009 in nearly 60 percent of the 50 detailed industries
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/prin1.nr0.htm Once again, do you really know what to make of all these numbers? Be honest.
The average American, unless involved with finance and banking, should not be trying to figure this stuff out. And you should not be trusting the information you get from "Certain" conservative media sources.
One thing to keep in mind, demand is absent from a lot of industries. We need to stop pretending that people buy American made goods, we don't. Look at the stuff you buy. I'm not a blame China for everything liberal, I am a blame the consumer liberal. I changed my spending habits dramatically. Find out how, here:
http://consumerist.com/
Other thoughts
It is imperative that the government take drastic action to create economic incentives for jobs in America, I think the oil industries should be mandated to give $1 billion dollars quarterly to schools, and hospitals.
They make so much money, they can afford it. That is not a “socialist” agenda, that's common sense. That is taking our country back. They should not be allowed to drill wherever they want, either.
To get new jobs going, long term ones, we need completely new industries, and we need the government and people to be on board. It will be in energy, and health care, education, and technology. We must get THOSE jobs back. No Child Left behind standardized the education system in our country, got kids dumber and fatter, and made teachers hate their lives. Nice work Republicans.
Here's some info that will put you to sleep:
Do you or the people on TV telling you how to think, have the ability to know what to do/say with all of this information? Once again, we let them have their turn. They failed. It's the Democrats turn, I wouldn't be so partisan, but the times call for it. I do not trust the agenda on the Right. I am not for spending, I am for less government. Less from the G.O.P that is.
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/pinewsrelease.htm
http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php
http://mortgage-x.com/trends.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_funds_rate
Should Obama and his supporters be labeled as “socialists?” I think socialism came out a long time ago, George Bush, the Patriot Act, etc. Why isn't anyone fighting to repeal the Patriot Act? That's because conservatives cannot admit they are wrong, they voted for a loser, and they still have an allegiance to a failed way of thinking. Time to call people out on their lazy thinking, and apathy.
The real reason the economy sucks.
President Obama is not taking away your freedoms, or pushing a socialized agenda on anyone. I've read your GOP conspiracy theories as well,
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/Blog/?p=332
OH no watch out for Socialism!!
http://obamaism.blogspot.com/ (this guy is a moron)
Look at what socialist Party Leaders say about Obama.
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-04-14/politics/Obama.socialist_1_socialist-agenda-democratic-socialists-health-care-bill?_s=PM:POLITICS
The GOP.
This is where you should be focusing your negative energy...I want to look forward, but until you start blaming the appropriate people, this will get brought up. The G.O.P, the Grand old Party. You failed.
"I dont like where Washington is heading...."
not really sure what this means....but it gets said on tv all the time...
So what should we do now? Here are some thoughts that might make you want to give more solutions, instead of complaints.
Education- No Child left behind make our children dumber, and fatter. Republicans had their chance, they ruined it. And, No Child left behind was actually never fully funded. Lets the Democrats and Mrs. Obama do it
http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=no++child+left+behind+never+funded&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
A brief primer in No Child Left Behind.
NCLB was the education plan on which Bush campaigned in 2000. It was based upon the success of a similar plan in Texas, affectionately known as the "Houston Miracle" - which by the way NEVER HAPPENED (for more information see
this article).
NCLB was the first piece of domestic legislation passed after 9/11, and it was passed with bipartisan support because it sounded so appealing.
Healthcare/ Insurance Companies- When you have McDonalds on every street, and an obesity problem, the government needs to step in.
"Unless you're a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you're one illness away from financial ruin in this country," says lead author, and M.D., of the Harvard Medical School, in Cambridge, Mass. "If an illness is long enough and expensive enough, private insurance offers very little protection against medical bankruptcy, and that's the major finding in our study."
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-06-05/health/bankruptcy.medical.bills_1_medical-bills-bankruptcies-health-insurance?_s=PM:HEALTH
Energy Policy- we live off of oil, we killed for it. How was $140 per barrel of oil and tax breaks to big oil not a transfer of wealth to George Bush, Texas, Alaska and Big oil? Apparently no one cares about the impact of the energy companies on our country, and we all refuse to remember, that big oil makes more money that countries combined. We depend on them for our food and transportation, in order to get to school you most likely will drive. You live in the suburbs and work in the city, good luck next time gas prices hit $4.00 a gallon, is that not a tax? . We cannot let them run loose. Wake up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGOM_9k-eg0
Information: Get the idiots off TV, information is paramount in a democracy. The government should not allow lies and emotional rhetoric infect the public.
Economic incentives
Many people accept inequality as a given, and argue that the prospect of greater material wealth provides incentives for competition and innovation within an economy.
Some modern economic theories, such as the neoclassical school, have suggested that a functioning economy entails a certain level of unemployment. These theories argue that unemployment benefits must be below the wage level to provide an incentive to work, thereby mandating inequality and that additionally, it is impossible to lower unemployment down to zero. Hypotheses such as socialism, dispute this positive role of unemployment.
Many economists believe that one of the main reasons that inequality might induce economic incentive is because material wellbeing and conspicuous consumption are related to status. In this view, high stratification of income (high inequality) creates high amounts of social stratification, leading to greater competition for status. One of the first writers to note this relationship was Adam Smith who recognized "regard" as one of the major driving forces behind economic activity. From The Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759:
[W]hat is the end of avarice and ambition, of the pursuit of wealth, of power, and pre-eminence? Is it to supply the necessities of nature? The wages of the meanest labourer can supply them... [W]hy should those who have been educated in the higher ranks of life, regard it as worse than death, to be reduced to live, even without labour, upon the same simple fare with him, to dwell under the same lowly roof, and to be clothed in the same humble attire? From whence, then, arises that emulation which runs through all the different ranks of men, and what are the advantages which we propose by that great purpose of human life which we call bettering our condition? To be observed, to be attended to, to be taken notice of with sympathy, complacency, and approbation, are all the advantages which we can propose to derive from it. It is the vanity, not the ease, or the pleasure, which interests us (Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part I, Section III, Chapter II).
Modern sociologists and economists such as Juliet Schor and Robert H. Frank have studied the extent to which economic activity is fueled by the ability of consumption to represent social status. Schor, in The Overspent American, argues that the increasing inequality during the 1980s and 1990s strongly accounts for increasing aspirations of income, increased consumption, decreased savings, and increased debt. In Luxury Fever Robert H. Frank argues that people's satisfaction with their income is much more strongly affected by how it compares with others than its absolute level.
Economic Theories-
The G.O.P Way
