Maybe it was just me, but this brought a bit of a lump to my jaded throat.
Korporations Have Hijacked Our Schools
Here is a link to an article that details how our schools are being taken over by korporations for purpose of creating commodity style workers. It sounds like a conspiratorial type idea, but… I don’t know if we have a bunch of corporate types in a back room planning this, but the effect is the same. And I believe real. Korporations want compliant workers. Besides lower wages, I think part of the rush to H1-B workers and off-shoring was to get a more compliant workforce. My experience, having worked with a multitude of H1-Bs, is that they do not buck the system and accept whatever is dealt out. Korporations 1, workers 0.
The link: Our Public Schools Are Churning Out Drones for the Corporate State
For whatever reason there seems to be a head long rush to divide us into a classed society. A rush to divide us into a society of the educated and the poorly educated. Education does not seem to be valued any more for the sake of knowledge, but only for what it can do for you career-wise. Most of the Meta values I am aware of are not derived from the korporate workplace.
This two class society scares me in another way. For a democracy to really work well, it is better to have an educated population. To have a population that is not influenced by every Glenn Beck that comes along. A population devoted to the NFL and reality shows, is not going worry too much about state of the nation until it is too late.
Most of my adult life I have worked for large korporations that include several Fortune 500 companies. While I do not think I am exceptional or different, I have always chafed in these places. There is something about being stuck in a little gray cube 8 hours a day that is not conducive to the soul’s health. The folks that run these companies know that. So the question becomes how do we keep the work force under control, and with the illusion that this is what life is all about? They obviously think the answer is to hijack the educational system. With control of the education system the values and skills that benefit the korporations can be instilled early and often. They are well on the way to doing that. Continue reading “Korporations Have Hijacked Our Schools”
Illustration of Michael Moore’s Stat About Inequality
More conversation about the wealth gap in this country.
From the referenced article, “Michael Moore joined the demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin on March 6, and mentioned that the 400 richest Americans have more money than all of their 155,000,000 fellow citizens at the bottom of the pyramid combined.” As much as I dislike Michael Moore personally, I have to agree with his positions on many things.
Here is another way to think about this number. The current USA population is 311,000,000 more or less. Half of that is pretty close to 155,000,000. So 400 people have as much wealth as 1/2 of the total US population. Mind boggling.
400 = 155,000,000. I started to quip, “in what universe”. I then realized it is in our universe.
This is one of most dramatic demonstrations of that concept I have seen. You have to strain hard to see the white dot that represents the rich among the sea of “commoners”. Call me a socialist, but nobody needs or should be that rich. I’m back on the one pie analogy. In order to have an over sized piece of pie you have to take some from someone else’s piece of pie. Or in this case a bunch of someones.
Link was not longer valid….sorry
What really slays me is that our politicians seem to be on a tear to make these folks richer. Call me old school, but I firmly believe that to whom that more is given, more is expected.
The Tiny Island Nation of Mauritius
Mauritius is an island nation off the west coast of Africa. Up until 1968, it was a colony of Great Britain. Chaos and 
poverty were predicted for post independence, but that did not happen. Quite the opposite. It is a wonderful case study in what can happen if you forgo maintaining the gap between rich and poor, and stop wasting money on military.
Every time I think of the senseless, unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think of how that money could have been put to good social use in this country or other countries. I have no idea what we bought for our blood and treasure.
Below is the link to an article at Slate.com about this little country. Is is short, quick read and gives a little fodder for thought.
NRA – Arms Manufacturer Lobbying Arm
I looked and looked online trying to find the funding sources for the National Rifle Association (NRA). I did not have a lot of luck.
Here is an article from Mother Jones that sheds some light on that murky subject.
Who Does the NRA Advocate For?
To answer their question…it is not the average gun owner, but the corporations that funnel money to them.
It is past time for sensible gun regulation in this country.
No More Teddy Bears
No more candle light vigils. No more piles of teddy bears. No more stacks of flowers. No more fences covered with ribbons. No more platitudes or speeches of remembrance. We react compassionately to tragic events after the fact. They fade from memory and we fail to act to prevent the next one.
There were probably a multitude of factors that collided in the Tucson shooting that left 6 dead and many more wounded.
First, it is much, much too easy to get guns in this country. I read recently that there are 85 guns for every 100 people in the US. If they were evenly distributed that would be almost be a gun for every man, woman and child in the US.
Secondly, access to health care in this country is atrocious Continue reading “No More Teddy Bears”
Wealth Inequality = Social Problems
Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times Equality, a True Soul Food
He is summarizing a British report on the societal effects of wealth inequality.
Currently in America “the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans possess a greater collective net worth than the bottom 90 percent.” I do not understand why everyone, except the 1%, is not shocked and up in arms over this fact. But that is me.
The basic premise of the study, backed up by tons of data is this. With great wealth inequality you create a wide variety of personal and social stressors. There are increases in crime, Continue reading “Wealth Inequality = Social Problems”
Ace Hardware — Hip Hip Hooray
After about 3 weeks of casually looking when I was in a store anyway, I found a pair of gloves for yard work. “Big deal”, you say. Yes, because my primary criteron was to find a pair not made in China. I had checked all the usual suspects, China*Mart, the China*Mart want-to-be Lowe’s, etc. Every pair of gloves I picked had been manufactured in China.
I was close to an Ace Hardware store Sunday, so I decided to buzz in and see what they had in the work glove department. I picked up several pair, and they were identified as having been made in Pakistan. While this is not American made, I had decided that I would not be able to find a pair of American made work gloves and would settle for a pair made anywhere but China.
I am 100% sure that Pakistan needs the work much more than China. Having worked for a large retailer I know that they make a show of making sure their products are manufactured in factories with some modicum of humane treatment. I can only hope Ace Hardware does this too.
I bought them. Thanks Ace Hardware.
Divorcing Susan G. Komen
Susan G. Komen Foundation Elbows Out Charities Over Use Of The Word ‘Cure’
I’ve been donating to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for years. It is not large amounts of money, $100 to $200 a year. I rotate my charitable giving across several charities.
I first started giving to the Komen Foundation in honor of an ex-girlfriend that died of breast cancer. Continue reading “Divorcing Susan G. Komen”
I Want to Buy American
I was in Lowe’s the other day. The fact that it was Lowe’s is only incidental. It could have been any of the many big box store chains that dot Generica.
They provided to me a pretty clear snapshot of the some issues that are troubling me about American business. It all seems to boil down to corporations being willing to sell out this country because they are more concerned about the quarterly profit statement and executive pay than anything else.
My first observation is that Spanish is nearly as prominent in the store as English. The lettering was not quite as big as the English, but it was only a small percentage less so. Continue reading “I Want to Buy American”