NPR Commentator David Frum: Old assumptions equal a stagnant economy.
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Posted to capitalismplusplus.blogspot.com
Percentage of U.S. Adults at Work is Lower Now, Than Six Months Ago
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Attacking Social Security vs Adaptive Social Security
Attacking Social Security: "It’s a lot easier to imagine working until you’re 70 if you have a comfortable office job than if you’re engaged in manual labor. America is becoming an increasingly unequal society — and the growing disparities extend to matters of life and death. Life expectancy at age 65 has risen a lot at the top of the income distribution, but much less for lower-income workers. And remember, the retirement age is already scheduled to rise under current law.
So let’s beat back this unnecessary, unfair and — let’s not mince words — cruel attack on working Americans. Big cuts in Social Security should not be on the table." - Paul KrugmanAdaptive Social Security: When we implement the guaranteed U.S. Basic Income it will permanently fix all of this and make the costly means-tested and perpetually gamed welfare system obsolete, saving billions of dollars and improving both individual and institutional integrity of the entire system, because there is no longer any incentive to lie, cheat, or steal from a system which, as currently designed, encourages that kind of maladaptive behavior.
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We are Victims of our own Success
What does it actually mean to vote for or against extending unemployment benefits? In the context of seeking sustainable solutions, I'm afraid to say, almost absolutely nothing.
In practice, these stop-gap measures are indeed wasteful, as opponents cry, but only from the perspective of institutional denial of the fact that we are in the process of transitioning to the post Job Trance era.
Less than 65% of Americans (and dropping fast, due to ever accelerating increases in efficiency) current provide at least 100% of required goods and services for the entire economy. That means, 40% of Americans CAN'T BE IN THE WORKFORCE at all ... EVER.
We simply cannot, as bald pragmatic matter, let 40% or more of the population drift further and further into poverty and despair simply because of a deprecated, dysfunctional, nineteenth century industrial delusion about how the world used to work 100 years ago.
We suggest that it is time to open the floor to discussion and debate about economies as Circulatory Systems rather than distribution systems. Only hoarders and oligarchs amplify and defend the narrative of distribution, because it is their unsustainable resource skews that have gradually been the paramount unintended consequence of efficiency-addicted hyper-industrialization, thusly destroying the proper circulation of currency throughout the system as a whole.
In everyday practice, sustainable economies are like the body's circulatory system. We talk about how much currency is in circulation, not in distribution. It's time to open public solutions dialog on a subject that has been under careful study and analysis for decades: universal Basic Income, the most sustainable and adaptive means of maintaining a healthy Circulatory System, one that maintains the health of the capillaries of the economy first and foremost, where the transpiration of the real world economy takes place in everyday lives.
Without the exchange of oxygen, nutrients, and waste at the very fringes of our body's circulatory system, the heart can do no good whatsoever. To date, the measures taken to stimulate the economy have all focused on the wrong problem: shocking the heart to do more work. The moral problems and failures may be at the heart of the system, but the functional failures are at the edges and fringes of the system. Right here, in our everyday lives.
Let's be clear: nobody is demonizing free markets here; rather, we acknowledge that in the west, we are today a victim of our own particular brand of frenetic, neurotic success. As any alcoholic or drug addict who "made it to the top" will tell you, just because that dysfunction seemed to fuel success, doesn't mean that it actually helped. In sad fact, too often the very things that we thought were our best support structures can turn out to be the underlying cause of our greatest miseries.
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GOP: Decreasing Homelessness and Starvation Makes Economies Worse
Thankfully, it looks like we can still count on The Atlantic to provide a platform for intellectual honesty about such matters. Special thanks to Daniel Indiviglio for saying it plain:... the official reported unemployment rate should be reflective of labor market turmoil. In that sense, the unemployment rate as currently calculated more likely underestimates the struggle so many Americans face. The broader measure of unemployment was 16.5% for June. There are a lot of Americans who are so discouraged they have temporarily given up on finding work or can't get anything full time. The government doesn't consider them unemployed, even though they certainly are ... A Few Comment Excerpts: Timothy: All I have to say is what is wrong with these people ?! Do they think that what unemployment is giving us to barely survive on is great living to the point that one wouldnt want to look for work ? Are you kidding me ? I am not even getting by ! I have lost 2 homes 2 cars and demolished my credit and everything i have worked for my entire life ! So No I am not overjoyed about being on u/i. People are starving while [politicians] went on break and I find that very sad !
Jessica: The people that they are talking about, that left the work force, are those that have exhausted all their benefits. The real, live, unadjusted unemployment rate is well above 14-15%. They keep adjusting the numbers to see fit... but the people know differently. I think that it is great that all these people think that living on the unemployment benefits, are just living high on the hog.... wow the stupidity continues to amaze me...
KCSam: Now I've heard it all. Unemployment benefits boosting the unemployment rate? Aren't we blaming the victim here?
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Posted to michael.silverton.palo-alto.ca.us
The YouTube Apparently Wants it Known
Because it periodically resends the "Comedy is Truth" video -- just prior to this entry -- to the feed as if it were new.
On the one hand, this is annoying because that doesn't happen with any of my other YouTube videos.
On the other hand, maybe The YouTube wants to keeping getting the message out, however long it takes to motivate structural change? ;-)- Tags:
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- basic income
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Middle Class: Our Poor and Huddled Masses
“I pray for healing,” says Ms. Eisen, 57. “When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got to go with what you know.”
Yeah, that should fix it all up real quick.
"Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives — potentially for years to come."
Her counselor has a couple of possibilities — a cashier at a supermarket and a night desk job at a motel.
Welcome to the American Dream 2.0. Let's move on.
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Posted to michael.silverton.palo-alto.ca.us
40.6% Structural Unemployment? Somebody …
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/packets/~3/3017wqTeNOI/
40.6% Structural Unemployment? Somebody better check this math http://bit.ly/40point6
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You Don't Count - Is 2010 U.S. Structural Unemployment really 40.6% ?
Incarcerated?
You don't count. 1.5% (Incarceration in the U.S.)
Retired?
You don't count. 14.4% (Beneficiaries / U.S. Adult Population)
Differently Abled?
You don't count. 1.9% (SSI Recipients over 18 / U.S. Adult Population)
Discouraged, disillusioned, disenfranchised, day trading drop out?
You don't count in U3. Lowball total guesstimate of 0.5% in U4.
Working 14 hours a day raising your children?
You don't count. Mothers 2.2%. Fathers 0.001% (2009 Census Data / U.S. Adult Population) Fathers, you REALLY, REALLY don't count. Can it really be that low, or have you been shamed into never, never, ever reporting such a horrendously despicable, worthless status?
Self-employed, scrambling, and screwed?
You don't count. 4.3% (Ag + NonAg / U.S. Adult Population)
The rest of you do count, sort of. You're the currently "official" 17.3% unemployed.
In Sum: 1.5 + 14.4 + 1.9 + 0.5 + 2.2 + (nevermind those lazy dads) + 4.3 + 17.3 = 40.6%
News Flash: At best, that's going to remain steady for the foreseeable future.
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When One Plus One is Less than One
http://capitalismplusplus.blogspot.com/2009/09/when-one-plus-one-is-less-than-one.html
When One Plus One is Less than One, the fundamental postulates and theorems, the relationships that define the entire game, have long since changed in ways that might seem almost completely unbelievable, at first glance. However, when closer inspection, cross examination, and methodical testing each confirm the new relationships, then entirely new methods of operation must immediately begin to take shape as we work together to define a New Normal. We could call this willingness and ability to assess and integrate new information Adaptive Resilience.So with thanks to @johnrobb by way of @changeist via @urbanverse, 2 minutes and 35 seconds for your consideration:
[NICE, ORIGINAL EMBED NOT IMPORTED]
Elizabeth Warren, "With two people in the workforce, [today's families] actually have fewer dollars left over than their one income parents had a generation ago, to cover EVERYTHING. So what we have today is, TWO PEOPLE working full time, flat out, hard bore and they actually have less money to spend than one person working full time, just one generation ago.Harry Kreisler, "And the older system, had a built in backup, this system does not because both are already working. This is a very VULNERABLE family that we have today because of an uncertain job market, healthcare, [unexpected or catastrophic] illness, and so on."Remember the context here, friends. This is from MAY 2007! Long before the MULTIPLE MELTDOWNS of 2008. So families were already on the precipice of existence ALREADY ... LONG BEFORE THIS CRISIS STARTED.Just to clarify, however, let's further remind ourselves that every Econ 101 student knows to ask the fundamental question of economics, "Compared to what?" So, we ask dear reader, what do you suppose is the state of the American family TODAY, as compared to MAY 2007? Better? Worse? The same? We all know the unequivocal answer to that question, and that answer is VASTLY WORSE.But vastly worse COMPARED TO WHAT? American families are vastly worse compared to Teetering on the Very Precipice of Existence in the years just prior to the meltdowns. That can't possibly be a sustainable situation.By all means, I encourage you to keep digging for yourself by viewing the full May 2007 Interview with Elizabeth Warren, Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. -
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Capitalism 1.0's Dirty Little Secret
http://capitalismplusplus.blogspot.com/2009/07/capitalism-10s-dirty-little-secret.html
The Financial Times FT.com writes:Capitalism’s dirty little secret: excessive lending was the only way to maintain the living standards of the vast bulk of the population at a time when wealth was being concentrated in the hands of an elite.The amount by which the elite has benefited is startling, and illustrates the problem with lightly regulated free markets: the rich get much richer while the rest do not get richer at all.For much more detail and salient analysis, please read, repost, retweet, resend, and repeat P2P Foundation's Michel Bauwens's Updating our insights on the deepening meltdown. SOURCE: @stuarthenshall.
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Basic Income a right: Essential for economic recovery
http://capitalismplusplus.blogspot.com/2009/03/basic-income-right-essential-for.html
SooToday.com Staff. Sunday, March 01, 2009
NEWS RELEASE TONY MARTIN, MP, Sault Ste Marie
Basic income a right, essential for economic recovery
Martin speaks at international conference in New York
NEW YORK - (March 1) - A basic income guarantee for people living in poverty honors human dignity and will help countries recover from the recession, Sault MP Tony Martin told the closing plenary of an international conference here today.
“We are facing a challenge today different in nature and depth than anything any of us have experienced before,” Martin told delegates attending the 8th Congress of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network.
“It will require phenomenal common effort to get us through it in a way that leaves no one behind. We need to be able to influence the decision makers (politicians). Large numbers of people need to be sending the same message -- poverty is not acceptable for anybody.
“We need to be speaking to people of kindred spirit in faith groups, in labour organizations and other citizen groups rooted in a quest for fairness and justice. The economic system is failing, people are being affected. We have an unprecedented opportunity to affect positive change. It is in our collective self interest to do so. It is not only a moral imperative, it is necessary for economic recovery and redistributive justice. A basic income is part of the answer. Those who had privilege will fight this and are well funded and organized.”
While here, Martin met with Conservative Senator Hugh Segal, another conference presenter and long-time advocate for a guaranteed income, on plans to move the basic income initiative forward in Parliament.
Martin believes any economic stimulus package should include income security investments and critical social infrastructure for communities.
"We have a duty as a socieity and government to offer equal opportunity for everyone, to ensure people have enough money to pay for the basic necessities of life, including food, clothing, shelter, heat."
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