Tag: US

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How Much Do You REALLY Love That New iPhone?

Another sad account of Foxconn and Apple and the high human cost of your iPhone: iEmpire: Apple’s Sordid Business Practices Are Even Worse Than You Think

Someone please tell what is right about unfettered capitalism be practiced globally with US in the lead.

Here is a link to a Forbes article listing the top 400 richest people in America. Number 400 has a net worth of $1 billion. Number 1 on the list, Bill Gates, has a worth of 59 billion. Six of the folks on this list made their wealth from Wal*Mart. Steve Jobs is number 39 with a paltry $7 billion. Michael Dell is number 18 with a worth of $15 billion.

Go to the top of the list and find the “source” heading. Click on Continue reading “How Much Do You REALLY Love That New iPhone?”

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Occupy Wal*Mart

6 Members of Walton Family Have More Money Than The Bottom 30% of Americans

From article at AlterNet.org

When you consider how these folks have gotten this obscenely rich it is past obscene.  They have built this wealth off exploiting their workers,  small businesses,  cheap foreign labor, attacking the middle class, and generally turning us into a LCD (lowest common denominator) society.  Have I mentioned that they hate puppies, apple pie, and the American way?

Just a few of things I can think of off the top of head:

Wal*Mart has consistently underpaid its workers.  This is especially troubling as they are the largest private employer in the United States, employing some 2.2 million souls as of the latest data.  To give some perspective, the Federal government employs 2,823,777 which include 296,628 part-timers.  If you total up the employment of all 50 state governments you come up with 4,283,597 FTEs.  The next closest private employer to Wal-Mart, IBM, employs 436,000.

See chart below for listing of the top 10 private employers in the U.S.A. Continue reading “Occupy Wal*Mart”

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Our Infrastructure in a Nutshell

There is a sidewalk in the area where I live and work.  It is well used if you consider that most folks will drive a ¼ mile rather than walk.  I frequently walk the 2/3 of a mile to work on this urban path. The sidewalk is in disrepair.  Some slabs have moved creating uneven surfaces between them.  Parts of the sidewalk are crumbling.  Generally it is in need of repair or replacement.

Instead of either option the city has sprayed areas that could be problematic to walkers with red paint.  This I suppose is to alert you to the potential danger.  It more or less works in the daylight hours.  Nighttime is another matter.  Of course, uneven sidewalks are the lesser of the dangers in this particular neighborhood.  I live where I live for the convenient nearness to my employment, but sometimes I wonder.  But I ramble.

The crumbling sidewalk is a good analogy for the general state of our infrastructure in the good old US of A.  We are not tending to basic maintenance.  We are pushing projects off to some future time.  We have this obsession with “No taxes”.  Well guess what, it takes money to run a society, to run a country.   As a single person making a better than average income, I pay a goodly amount in taxes.  The only tax that really galls me is sales tax, probably because it is so regressive.  I see high sales taxes as politicians failing to institute a fair tax system.

I for one would like to see some more taxes, but on those who have managed to avoid most of them thanks to our politicians.  It is time we taxed those who can really afford before our country totally degenerates into a third world nation covered with red paint.

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A Must Read

“If corporations and households taking in $1 million or more in income each year were now paying taxes at the same annual rates as they did back in 1961, the IPS researchers found, the federal treasury would be collecting an additional $716 billion a year… the federal debt to investors would almost totally vanish over the next decade.”

From an article by Sam Pizzigati — Plutocracy: If Corporations and the Rich Paid 1960s-Level Taxes, the Debt Would Vanish

When everyone has a piece of the pie, you may have seconds. To whom more is given, more is expected. American corporations need to remember that they need to dance with the one that brought them, the US of A.

Our current political/economic crisis is not that hard a problem to solve.  We as a collective group should not let greed rule the day.  We are all in this together, lets act like it.  The American dream should not, must not include la noblesse.  Keep your Marquis and Vicomte where they belong, to history.

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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”

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Fool’s Gold

Fox most trusted news channel in US, poll shows

This one headline summarizes for me why I feel hopeless about this country.  The rise of Fox News is one of the most pernicious events to happen in this country in quite some time.  It troubles me beyond description that there are multitudes of people that believe Fox News is “Fair and Balanced”. 

IQ test here…Fox is to news as pyrite is to _____.   If you said gold, you passed.

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Ideas for Liberal bumper stickers

You’ve all seen them. Various bumper stickers denigrating socialism, health care reform, anything supposedly Liberal.

There does not seem to be a whole lot of ones out there of the other ilk. How about coming up with a few?

I’ll start it off.

Capitalism: Where 10% of the people have 65% of the wealth.

Capitalism: Have you checked your 401k lately.

I love how Korporations  manage MY health care.

Canada could teach US about citizen centered government

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Links on H-1B Issue

As I find them I am going to add links about the H-1B / outsourcing issue that  is quickly eroding the life style of  middle class worker in this country.  All in the name of profit at any cost.

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An immigrant’s view on immigration

An Indian co-worker of mine who shall remain anonymous sent me the following which he titled a “rant”.  Whether you agree or not it makes interesting reading. 

An American colleague at work was telling me the other day that it would probably take ages for me to get a green card – if I do get it.  Coz there are so many Indians, Chinese, and other Asians in the queue. That it is causing a “jam” at the immigration department. He is right – of course. And I understand the problem.

And it bothers me a lot. Continue reading “An immigrant’s view on immigration”